Influencers and “Bookstagrammers” in the online community can be some of the most vocal and passionate advocates for your books. Read on for ways to engage with these influencers and give your book some extra visibility!
There’s nothing like the excitement that a great review of your book builds among fellow readers. If you’ve wondered how to better engage with influencers who post about your book, this is the piece for you.
How to engage with influencer reviews
If you’re tagged by an influencer in a post that’s a positive review of your book, feel free to engage by replying, sharing, or simply liking the post. You don’t need to share every post you’re tagged in, of course, but boosting these reviewers gets more eyes on their posts while you get to share the good feedback directly with your followers. It’s a win-win situation!
On the flip side, you should not reply to negative reviews. It can be tempting to respond with a justification, especially if you’re tagged, but (depending on the platform) it is always better to mute the post, remove the tag, or, in cases of harassment, block the user.
Find your niche
Make sure you home in on the audience you want to target. Who do you imagine as the ideal early champion for your book? Do some research on which Bookstagrammers and other influencers are creating content in line with your target audience, and engage with their posts regularly.
Liking, sharing, and commenting on posts that include your book is always great, but it helps to also engage with posts that mention books you’ve read and loved or books within your genre. Also, it never hurts to boost other authors or share your own (positive) reviews of their works. You could be a key influencer to another author!
Work with your team at PRH
It’s incredibly important to keep your marketing and publicity team in the loop on any requests to collaborate with influencers, especially on social media. Your team will know what opportunities are worth jumping on and which ones you should pass up. We want any collaborations to be beneficial to both you and the influencer, and your team will be the best line of defense for assessing that information.
Let the influencers do their thing
When working with an influencer on a review or other type of post, leave the creative direction to them. Influencers have their own platforms and audiences to cater to, so they may not post about your book exactly the way you imagined—but it can still be extremely valuable to have their support and exposure.
Find influencers on new platforms
If you’re looking for influencers to collaborate with, remember that Twitter and Instagram aren’t the only places they live! Consider leaning in to platforms like Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.
Specifically for TikTok, download the app to explore BookTok and see what opportunities might exist there for you. (Check out #alittlelife on TikTok for a perfect example of organic attention that was really successful for us.) If you’d like a crash course in TikTok and how it might be useful for you, take a look at this recent piece on the emerging platform.
However you decide to engage with influencers, always do so in a sincere and authentic way. The more you participate in influencer content, the more likely you are to attract readers to your profile, where they might just learn—and get excited—about your book!
Neda Dallal is Senior Associate, Author Development at Penguin Random House.