What was Dracula really like? 550-year-old clue to life of Vlad the Impaler emerges

Scientists are hoping ‘historical biomolecules’ on a 15th-century missive written by Vlad Dracula, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s vampire count, will reveal more about him

TikTok to sell books directly to users via marketplace

To further capitalise on the popularity of BookTok the social media giant will let users purchase titles through partnerships with publishers and retailers

Inspirational passion or paid-for promotion: can BookTok be taken on face value?

TikTok’s book reviewing community is here to stay, having even received publishing awards for innovation, but issues of authenticity and safety abound

France sets minimum book delivery fee in anti-Amazon struggle

€3 charge aims to gives independent booksellers a chance against e-commerce firms that use free delivery loophole

‘Video games open us to the whole spectrum of human emotions’: novelist Gabrielle Zevin on Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

The writer who learned her craft playing 90s adventure games on her love letter to a lifelong passion, the problematic aspects of the industry and the transformative power of play

The Storm is Upon Us review: indispensable QAnon history, updated

Donald Trump welcomed the conspiracy at the White House. Its followers stormed Congress. Big Tech still seems not to care. Mike Rothschild’s book should sound the alarm for us all

‘More zeros than I’ve seen in my life’: the author who got a six-figure deal via ‘BookTok’

After she was dropped by her agent, Alex Aster turned to a books-obsessed corner of TikTok to gauge interest in her YA novel … and now it’s one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the year

Tinder for booklovers: the new app matching like-minded readers

Klerb is like Tinder, but for finding friends who share your taste in books, its developer says. Early signs are it will be a bestseller

How to get your own book published: a step by step guide

Allow a budget of £4,000 to do-it-yourself, from the editing and design through to marketing

‘Magic bookmark’ revealed as key to augmented reality books

Scientists have revealed their latest work on hardware that can supply the kind of background information, familiar with ebooks, for paper volumes

The big idea: are we living in a simulation?

Could the universe be an elaborate game constructed by bored aliens?

Florence Given: ‘People don’t want you to break the mould… I needed to’

The feminist writer and podcaster on rejecting shame and embracing messiness, and why her generation is more progressive – Love Island notwithstanding

Proving Ground review: the women who made American computing great

Kathy Kleiman’s offers a valuable boost to our understanding of modern computers and their beginnings in wartime

Top 10 books about cybercrime

From the real story of a virus that took out Iran’s urianium centrifuges to a surprisingly good Dan Brown novel, these are some of the best stories of our new era of ill online deeds

Why are people on TikTok obsessed with Little Miss quizzes? And are they harvesting my data?

The children’s book characters had a makeover and now TikTok users really want to know which one they are. Alyx Gorman explains it to Josh Taylor