Literary influencers have rapidly taken over the internet, and as a result, the way the book publishing industry works, their marketing and their genuine reviewing and recommendation content being increasingly desirable for publishing houses when it comes to promoting a new release or author. Bookstagram is a community within the social media app built by users and creators and is accessed and spread using the hashtag ‘#Bookstagram’. Creators and fans can connect and post content into the community by using this hashtag below their posts or by clicking on the hashtag and accessing a feed full of a diverse range of literary content.

It has become a huge platform on Instagram that’s used by the book-loving community as well as publishers to market their releases, either through the hashtag ‘#Bookstagram’ or through literary influencers or bloggers with a large following; this platform allows them to promote their books to a wide audience with a huge reach that stretches all around the globe. It is a community within the social media app built by users and creators and is accessed and spread by the use of the hashtag

Introduction to Literary Influencers on Instagram:

With over 461,000 followers and 1,510 posts on the social media platform, @excusemyreading – also known as Ova Ceren – is currently among some of the most well-known Bookstagram influencers on the app and one of the best Bookstagram accounts to follow. Her ‘cottage core’ themed content documents the books she reads as well fostering a relaxing and calming platform for her followers to delve into.

She has since inspired many other Instagram users to join her on her Bookstagram journey, engaging with her and creating a tight-knit, close community, acting as a source of comfort for not only the audience but also the creators themselves, inspiring them to keep creating content. This connection and relationship with fans and the Bookstagram community is what acts as a brilliant platform for marketing, the trust built between fans and creators meaning their influence can be huge on book sales and recommendations.

This style of content tends to feature relaxing background music, soft speaking commentary over the top by the creator,  aesthetic and visually satisfying footage of, for example, a carefully organised bookshelf, a relaxing reading space (such as Ova Ceren’s garden library) and decorating content of these reading/book spaces.

These typical features commonly used in Bookstagram content allow an engaging, comforting and almost homely feeling for the audience as well as being a source of design and organisation inspiration for their book collections. This is a theme that is carried through the majority of the Bookstagram community, not adhering to the typical ‘influencer’ culture and building their own welcoming and inclusive community as well as an honest space for reviewing and recommending books.

With an increase in authors discussing more societal and relatable themes and topics in their books such as LGBTQ+ topics, prejudice and inclusivity, this establishes and strengthens comforting content for literary influencers and book-lovers, enabling inclusivity and a platform where they can be their real, authentic selves without judgment.

Romantasy is one of the fastest-growing genres in the publishing industry and many Bookstagram influencers promote these books, including Ova Ceren and romantasy-specific influencer @tata.lifepages – also known as Thais Lopez G. Lopez is a reputable romance and fantasy literary influencer within the Bookstagram community, blogging her latest reads and her genuine opinions about them.

Image: https://tatalifepages.home.blog/

Her establishment within the community is due to her love for romantasy novels, which is the fastest-growing genre within the publishing industry currently. Her relatable, often humorous and trusting content allows her audience to not only be engaged with her content and relate to it but also enjoy her authenticity as an individual, breaking the popular calm and relaxing mould that has been set for Bookstagram creators to usually fit into.

These are just two among a large number of book bloggers and literary influencers on Instagram, using the platform to not only build a career and community, but also to review, recommend, and promote books that they believe are worthwhile to support authors and publications, causing a chain reaction amongst their followers into purchasing the books featured into their appealing and aesthetic posts.

The Rise of Bookstagram:

Bookstagram began to grow rapidly at the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during the beginning of the lockdown, following the popularity of the TikTok community, ‘BookTok’, which acted as a catalyst for other social media platforms from communities of book lovers. When people were stuck indoors and looking for a comforting space in challenging times, these communities on social media were many people’s outlets all over the world. Book content increased by 31% on Instagram during this period, with a poll by Publishers Association showing that 59% of 16-25-year-olds say that book influencers have helped them discover a passion for reading, encouraging the technology-driven younger generation to pick up a book.

With TikTok being the fastest-growing social media platform, the BookTok community is huge, being larger and more established than the bookstagram community. However, many of the BookTok creators have moved on to creating content on their Instagram as well, being part of both communities and providing content for both platforms, aiding the growth of Instagram’s literary influence and community.

Literary creators such as @amyjordjennings use both platforms for their content, appealing to users of both BookTok and Bookstagram, having a large following on both, recommending, and promoting books, providing plenty of comforting literary content for their followers. Most book influencers have both TikTok and Instagram, growing their reach and audience as well as providing multiple platforms for promotion.

Since 2020, both Bookstagram and BookTok have plateaued and are now becoming platforms used by publishers and authors to promote new releases, targeting these communities specifically by using their hashtags when posting advertising content so it reaches the most ideal audience that aligns with the book’s genre, themes and topics.

With the predominant age demographic of the Bookstagram community being between 20-35 years old, new adult fiction (a transitional genre after young adult for 18-25-year-olds), romance and fantasy are the trendiest genres. This new adult age demographic as well as the demographic for romantasy directly adhere to the average ages of the Bookstagram platform, therefore explaining its rapid growth.

How Literary Influencers Promote Books

Simply showing a book in a photo or video is a form of marketing for the ease of this free promotion being ideal and desirable for publishers and authors. Authors such as Colleen Hoover – It Ends With Us –  and Taylor Jenkins Reid – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – gained enormous amounts of attention due to the reviews and recommendations of their books, and very little of this was actually paid promotion and instead acted as a free endorsement of their work.

That said, both authors and publishing houses can pay influencers a fee for a partnership to make an advertisement on their platform to promote their latest release in a video or picture. The most common is paying influencers to read, review and recommend it to their followers, a literary creator’s influence can be huge, being found to increase book sales by 70% according to Wright Book Associates,  its impact on authors and publishers being groundbreaking. For example, Penguin Random House partnered with the creator of @curlupclub, Jenn Im, to create an ad for a Christmas book giveaway while also recommending her favourite books published by Penguin Random House.

Many publishers have moved away from traditional advertising and towards literary influencers as an effective form of advertising to promote their books, especially post-lockdown after the huge rise of BookTok and Bookstagram, seeing their potential and vast audience and therefore pursuing this as a form of marketing.

Another growing method of promotion are book giveaways and contests hosted by the literary influencers themselves. Publishing houses or authors will provide the influencer with the products and the creator will host, usually, an Instagram Live of TikTok live, a live broadcast with your followers, to not only connect to their audience and answer any questions as well as give away free books. Normally the conditions for entering a chance to win a free book or be considered in the giveaway is to follow the author, influencer and publishing house of a particular book to increase their reach, the tangible reward of a free book being an influential incentive for the audience to do this.

Impact of Instagram on Book Sales & Popularity

With over 105 million posts under the ‘#bookstagram’ hashtag, the vast audience and impact that this Instagram community can have on an author’s work or publisher’s new release is significant. This domino effect of influence has proven to be game-changing for the book publishing industry and for authors to establish their names, build reputation and grow their fanbase, therefore increasing the likelihood of their future releases doing well and expanding their profitability. Going back to Colleen Hoover for example, when the now massively popular title It Ends With Us went viral on Bookstagram and BookTok, it skyrocketed on the bestselling list despite being a backlist book.

This novel discusses topics such as empowerment, abuse, and the strength to break free from toxic relationships as well as being a heart-wrenching romance, being relatable and inspiring for so many, gripping a wide audience and therefore being a topic of much conversation on social media worldwide. This popularity has been so significant and globalised that it is now being made into a highly anticipated movie for Netflix with a star-studded cast.

This is one of several examples of how Instagram and the Bookstagram community of literary creators and fans can market a book so much, boosting its exposure, popularity and therefore sales all over the planet as well as establishing an author’s name to popularise them too.

Case Studies: Successful Instagram Book Campaigns

Australian literary influencer @charssreadss is a popular influencer whose content is all over the #Bookstagram hashtag on the platform. She has campaigned with some of the biggest publishing houses on numerous occasions, such as Penguin Random House, Hachette and Simon & Schuster.

These publishers are amongst many who have or are beginning to reshape their business models, aiming their products and promotion to a younger age demographic, influencers increasing the number of younger readers and this therefore being the most desirable market to reach. They do this by embracing communities such as Bookstagram and BookTok into their promotion strategies, endorsing influencers such as @charssreadss to not only market their releases but also influence more and more on the younger generation to pick up a book and start reading.

@charssreadss creates detailed and extensive reviews of books with a star rating and in-depth breakdowns, making sure her followers can establish if they are interested in purchasing them or not. Her comment sections are full of fellow fans of the books she has promoted expressing their love for the books featured in her posts or book lovers who are interested in exploring these books, creating an engaging campaign.

The aesthetic posts, the carefully placed books and the decorations also attract her audience and the Bookstagram community to not only click and view the post but also investigate the books featured and potentially make a purchase. Her campaigns are subtle and no obvious adverts that could be seen as a cash grab, they seem genuine and honest which is likely why she has become such a reputable source of many book lovers and publishing houses for marketing opportunities.

Another successful cash-endorsed Instagram book campaign is the paid partnership between literary influencer @kevintnorman and Amazon, promoting both Amazon Kindle and Amazon Books in this campaign. Kevin T. Norman is a very popular LGBTQIA+ Bookstagram creator on the platform, with over 137,000 followers.

With his popularity and engagement within the community, there is no doubt why Amazon chose Norman to advertise their products and services. In addition to this,  his followers as well as the Bookstagram community are most likely very interested in the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Books, being products they will possibly find interesting and useful for their book-based hobbies and careers.

These two products also are relevant to the creator and community, unlike many brand deals and campaigns where it is an obvious cash grab or completely irrelevant to the content the influencers produce. This campaign was successful due to the numerous positive comments from people interested in Amazon Books and Kindle as well as others recommending the product and service too, highlighting the power of this literary creator’s influence on his fanbase and the effectiveness of this campaign for Amazon.

 Tips for Authors: Leveraging Instagram for Promotion

The most important tip for authors in today’s technological society where social media promotion is one of the most effective ways to reach a target audience, is to have an active online presence.

More than just having a dedicated Bookstagram account, Interacting with your readers on Instagram – whether that be in the comment section, DM’s, giveaways, or specific posts for fans – creates a closer and more personal relationship with readers, showing appreciation while also acting as a level of marketing to show other Bookstagram users that you interact with fans, influencing them to also collaborate and explore your work and join your fanbase too. Building a good, friendly and professional reputation on Instagram improves your credibility as an author as well as acting as exposure within the community, becoming a topic of conversation on the platform that spreads to other users.

Paying literary influencers on Instagram with a large following to endorse your book is also a highly effective promotion technique for authors to use on Instagram to promote their book. This means a guaranteed positive review and recommendation to an audience of potentially thousands of fans of the influencer who will follow suit and explore the book. This method of promotion on Instagram will help an author’s exposure and reach as well as aid the formation of business relationships for future projects.

Promoting on Instagram initially will be much more effective in increasing your fanbase and wider reach, especially with young adult and/or romantasy books, compared to in bookshops or book festivals when many people shop for books online and look for recommendations and reviews through social media.

Future of Book Promotion on Social Media:

Social media is steadfastly on its way to being the biggest promotion strategy used by publishers and authors for the foreseeable future, the reach and exposure platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can give to authors and their work can be life-changing, Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins-Reid and Sally Rooney being three prime examples of this, going onto create movies and TV shows based on their books and new releases being highly anticipated by their now huge fanbase.

With the digital society we live in, social media users are only increasing, with more platforms evolving how advertising is most effective and changing how people shop, users only must go to one place to discover a book, watch reviews and recommendations, and purchase. There is no doubt that social media will continue to evolve to make the company-to-customer experience much more personal as well as more accessible when it comes to promoting products and the purchasing process.

Social media marketing for books also allows authors to discover and engage with fans or people newly introduced to them and their work, creating more personal relationships these interactions not only add to the promotional potential of these interactions but also help establish an author name within such a growing and influential community such as Bookstagram and BookTok, creating a positive reputation for the author, building a brand for themselves and their product.

Marketing on social media platforms is currently the biggest promotion strategy used by publishers and authors already, the exposure it can give to titles as well as establishing new and upcoming authors is career-defining and undoubtedly the best possible marketing strategy to use in today’s technological and influential world.

The power of communities such as Bookstagram and BookTok and how they can cause an influx of sales and popularity for books is incredible, and often for no price at all, just simply by a literary influencer showing a book in their content. Especially with an increasing number of younger adults reading again since the global pandemic, social media marketing is at its highest demand and success rate when it comes to influencing and generating sales. This level of influence is being increasingly put to good use by publishers, bookstores, authors and fans, therefore being a no-brainer when it comes to book promotion in today’s society and the future.

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