Mercedes Ron Wins Frankfurt Book Fair’s TikTok Book Award
The author of “Culpa Mía” (“My Fault”), a hit on “BookTok” and streaming platforms, is published by Penguin Random House.
Mercedes Ron’s “Culpables” trilogy has captivated young readers worldwide – first as an e-book on Wattpad, then as a printed novel, and soon after as an on-screen adaptation. The Argentine-born author has become an international phenomenon, whose books are published by Penguin Random House imprints in Spanish-speaking countries, North America, and Germany.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Ron received another major distinction: “Culpa Mía” (“My Fault”), the first volume in her trilogy, won the TikTok Book Award in the category “BookTok Bestseller of the Year.” More than 1,000 book fans celebrated the award ceremony on Saturday evening together with international guests. The TikTok Book Awards were presented for the third time this year, each carrying prize money of €2,500.
‘Award honors the passion of the BookTok community’
Accepting the prize in person, Ron said: “I’m overwhelmed to receive this award for ‘Culpa Mía.’ This award honors the passion of the ‘BookTok’ community. Without all of you who shared and loved Noah and Nick’s story and turned it into a worldwide phenomenon, none of this would have been possible. To all my Culpables fans in Germany: thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
The “BookTok” community has become a driving force in the publishing world. Globally, the hashtag now features around 67 million posts on TikTok. In Germany alone, 25 million copies of books recommended under “BookTok” were sold last year – a new record. Winners of the TikTok Book Awards are selected through a multi-stage process involving a longlist, a juried shortlist, and a community vote. Only the “BookTok Bestseller of the Year” category is based on Media Control sales data and internal TikTok analytics.
Film adaptations for Amazon Prime Video
Born in Buenos Aires, Ron achieved global fame with her debut “Culpa Mía” (“My Fault”), which went viral on TikTok, has since been published in 23 countries, and broke viewing records worldwide with Amazon Prime Video adaptations. The first film ranked among the Top 10 on Prime Video in more than 190 countries. In February this year, Prime Video released a new adaptation set in London. The trilogy first appeared on Wattpad, where it was read millions of times. In Spain alone, more than three million copies of the “Culpa Mía” series have been sold. Ron has also topped both the “New York Times” and “Spiegel” bestseller lists. She has since written more New Adult novels, which are also being adapted for Prime Video.
Ron found her publishing home in March 2017 at Montena, an imprint of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, which brought her previously online-only novel to Spanish-language bookstores. In June and September 2023, and again in February 2024, the majority-owned U.S. publisher Sourcebooks released the trilogy in English through its Bloom Books imprint, where it instantly became a bestseller. In Germany, youth publisher Cbj – part of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe – also published the three novels in 2024, with limited deluxe editions now available.
The story of “Culpa Mía” follows Noah, who moves to California after her mother’s remarriage and must start over in a new and unfamiliar world. She hates everything there – the flashy villa, her filthy-rich stepfather, and especially her new stepbrother, Nicholas. Arrogant and impossibly good-looking, he seems determined to make her life miserable. Then Noah discovers that Nicholas leads a secret double life his father knows nothing about – gangs, illegal street races, and wild parties. Determined to keep her distance, she soon finds that doing so is harder than she ever imagined.
