In the fiction publishing landscape, social media influencers are readers who promote books and authors to their followers (sometimes—but not always—receiving payment from advertisers to support their platforms). Their large followings imbue them with some authority within the social media sphere, as their followers generally trust their reviews and recommendations. Because these influencers can convince their followers to buy particular books, it may benefit authors to directly collaborate with influencers to develop a promotional strategy for their own books, thereby using targeted advertising to increase sales. But where can you find influencers? And once you find them, how can you convince influencers to promote your books? Let us explore potential strategies for collaborating with influencers, as well as best practices for communicating with them.
How to Find the Right Influencer to Promote Your Book
If you are lucky, an influencer will review your book unprompted, then tag you in a social media post of this review. In this case, you may Like, Share, or Reply to the post to show your appreciation and increase the review’s visibility on your own social media platform—if the review is positive. Obviously, you would not want to share negative reviews, because these could harm your book’s sales (in such cases you may want to mute the post, remove your tagged name, and block the influencer, if the post appears to be harassment).
However, it is more likely that you will need to seek out influencers that seem best positioned to promote your book, based on the types of books they review, their follower count, how they interact with followers, the tone and frequency of their posts, on which sites and platforms they post (depending on your preferences), and other deciding factors. You should research influencers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, blogs, and other platforms to find the best options. Then, engage with those influencers’ posts by liking, sharing, and positively commenting not only on posts about your own books, but also on posts about other books that you have read and enjoyed (in or outside of your genre). Once you have begun to cultivate a relationship with one or more influencers, you may contact them through direct messages or emails to discuss their promotion of your book.
How to Best Collaborate with Influencers
Because influencers are likely more experienced in promoting books, you should allow them to largely guide the marketing strategy. They know how best to serve their platforms’ specific audiences, so their marketing must satisfy those audiences’ expectations. However, you must also satisfy your audience’s expectations, so you may also propose a marketing strategy that works for both parties. With that in mind, you should negotiate all terms of your upcoming agreement up front, including types of posts, delivery deadlines, and your financial compensation to the influencer. Also, give the influencer and yourself enough time to work out all the details to ensure each of you is happy with the plan, so neither of you is disappointed down the line. Aside from the aforementioned basics, these details include compliance with FTC guidelines, so you do not receive fines or other penalties that will cost you time and money. So, you need to ensure that you and the influencer share similar codes of ethics. Once the collaboration is underway, each of you can make minor changes that benefit either or both of you, but it is vital to create a sturdy foundation so that the promotion runs smoothly. And it is wise to gift them a copy of your book, to further show you appreciate their hard work (and perhaps even gift signed hardcovers the influencer can give away to their followers).
During the course of the influencer’s promotion of your work, be sure to promote their content to your followers and engage with their audience (through comments on their platforms), so they can benefit from the promotion as much as you will. You will expand your online presence by potentially attracting some of the influencer’s followers to your platforms, and those followers will respect the influencer for cultivating a business relationship with an author. More importantly, the influencer will realize that you want to truly collaborate with them, rather than solely benefit from their work.
Types of Collaborations
Book Review: This can be either a TikTok Reel, Instagram Reel, or full YouTube review, and can either be a non-spoiler review or a deep, spoiler-filled analysis of a book.
Live Events: You may wish to co-host an Instagram live event (or a YouTube or TikTok panel) with the influencer, in which you and the influencer promote your book (discussing such topics as plot summary, characters, genre, tropes, and release date). You may also wish to discuss your past books (if you have any), to familiarize readers with your body of work. This event allows you to engage with audiences in real-time, allowing for a more immediate connection than most types of posts.
Takeover: This collaboration strategy allows the influencer to take over your social media platforms for a day or more. Naturally, this would mean that you would have no control over the content, so this is an instance where you really want to ensure that the influencer is a good match with your author brand (as discussed in the next section).
Interview/Guest Posts: You may wish to allow the influencer to interview you about the book, in either text or video format, and the influencer will post the interview on their blog or one or more of their social media platforms (or both). A guest post can also entail you discussing whatever you would like about the book or an aspect of your author brand.
Cover Reveals/Unboxing: These types of videos or posts use the elements of anticipation and surprise to generate excitement for your book’s release. The visual context of the posts may also add a unique flair to your promotional campaign.
Best Practices for Communicating with Influencers
First, correspond with the influencer to ensure that the influencer’s content style and audience match with your advertising campaign’s objectives. The alignment does not need to be a perfect match but should generally reflect your author brand. It is also important that you can easily contact the influencer with any questions or concerns about how the influencer is promoting your book. They might not be aware that their posts do not reflect your intentions, so you need to provide constructive feedback in a timely manner. In return, you should be easily accessible to the influencer and responsive to their questions, particularly in regard to how you can best promote your book in a way that aligns with their brand’s goals. When corresponding with an influencer, create short, personalized messages that are authentic to your voice and your collaborative intentions with that particular influencer, rather than generic messages intended to reach a wide range of influencers. This will show the influencer that you have researched their brand and are attuned to their needs as well as your own. Therefore, they will feel that you view them as a person rather than simply a promotional method. For example, during your initial pitch, you could mention why their communication style and audience are a great fit for your book, as well has how their collaborations with previous authors align with your author brand. Short messages (that still convey all the information you think they need) show that you are respectful of their time. Also, be sure to contact them only through their preferred methods (agent, email, social media platforms), even if other methods are available. This will demonstrate that you respect their boundaries. Thus, you can build a relationship with the influencer that lasts not only through one particular promotion, but through future collaborations as well.
By Matthew Wade
