Influencer marketing is a relatively new strategy that authors can use to promote their books. An “influencer” is someone who posts about niche topics on a social media platform, and who has a large or highly engaged following. Their posts can influence the behavior of their audience. Their followers tend to be passionate about the niche subject and so they are likely to purchase items that influencer recommends. Influencers use four main social platforms to recommend, review or post about products: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Pinterest.
What’s a Bookstagrammer? Some terms and definitions
Just so there’s no confusion, here are some terms and definitions:
Book bloggers: Anyone with a blog or website who consistently reviews or writes about books #bookblogger 
BookPinners: People who post almost exclusively about books on Pinterest #books.
Bookstagrammers: People who post almost exclusively about books, authors and reading on Instagram #bookstagram.
Booktubers: Book bloggers who post videos about books on YouTube #booktube.
BookTweeter: Twitter handles that post almost exclusively about books on twitter #booklovers.
Engagement: The number of shares, comments, likes and clicks an influencer’s post generates.
Influencer Compensation: How and influencer gets paid reimbursed for their posts, time and expertise.
Reach: Influencer’s audience or follower size.
Resonance: How much activity, clicks or purchases can influencer generates by publishing content.
Relevance: How relevant an influencer is to a topic that is relevant to your book or genre. Are the fans of the influencer the kind of readers who would love your book?
Results from influencer marketing
Getting your book mentioned, posted or reviewed by a book influencer can drive an exceptional amount of awareness and sales, or it could have little impact. It all depends on the reach, relevance, and engagement of the influencer. Before you reach out to an influencer to ask them to promote your book, you want to do your homework:
- Make sure that your genre, your book and your book cover are similar to the types of books the influencer post
- Check their profile to see how many followers they have
- Follow them and engage with them to make sure they are a good fit.
- Lastly, check their recent post to see the average number of likes and comments each one gets lastly. You want to see that roughly 1% to 3% of their followers engage with their posts. For example, if they have 10,000 followers you want to see, at minimum close to 100 followers engage with an average post.
How to reach out to book influencers
Once you’ve determined that the bookstagrammer or influencer is a good fit, then you’ll want to reach out to influencer about your book. Consider one of these approaches:
- Leave genuine comments on their posts, and see if they will approach you.
- Follow the influencer and then direct message them with your pitch.
- Email them your pitch (sometimes you can find their email in their profile or on their website).
- If you know someone who knows them, have a friend make the introduction.
- Meet the influencer in person if they plan to be at the same event or conference that you will be at.
Ways that an influencer can promote authors or their books
Think about the specific outcome you would like to drive. Do you want more book sales, more book reviews, more readers signed up to your newsletter, or more followers for your author social channels? Your outcome will determine the kind of post or mention you want from the influencer.
Here are some ideas of what you can ask influencers to do:
- Promote a giveaway or contest -> drives newsletter sign-ups
- Tag your Instagram, Twitter of Facebook handle -> drives social follows
- Review your book -> drives sales
- Post your book cover -> drives sales
- Retweet or share your post -> drives awareness and social follows
Influencer compensation
For many industries, such as fashion and beauty, influencer marketing can be expensive. The average influencer charges between $1,000-$2,000 for every 100,000 followers they have. However, book influencers tend to charge significantly less than those rates. Once you establish a connection with the Bookstagramers or influencers you want to work with, they will let you know their price. You should get prices from 5-10 different influencers before going forward with any deal. Some book influencers will charge a lot, some will be reasonable, and some will be happy to do a post if you just send them a free copy of your novel.
Influencer marketplaces
Right now, there is not one large eBay-like marketplace where you can find influencer services to purchase. The market is fragmented into a number of small players who don’t always make their prices transparent. And because of this it’s hard to judge and compare price and value.
Some of the top marketplaces for finding influencers and purchasing their services are:
Many of the influencers on these sites will be in the fashion, beauty, fitness and tech niches. You will have to do some searching to find the few book influencers on these platforms.
Top book influencers
Book influencers post on all the major social media platforms, and many cover specific genres only. You should seek out an influencer who covers your specific genre and who has fans that are similar to yours. To start your search, we gathered 20 of the top book influencers below. Go to their social media pages to learn who their followers are, what books they specialize in, and how you can contact them.
- Rosie Amber. Rosie has over 17,000 followers on Twitter, where she consistently shares book reviews that she composes on her blog, photos of her current reads, and brief YouTube videos.
- Bethanne Patrick. The creator of the hashtag #FridayReads boasts over 214,000 Twitter followers and regularly writes book reviews for The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Time.
- Jo Robertson. Jo’s popular Twitter page and blog lead her to be named as an Amazon Top 500 Reviewer, specializing in reviewing crime novels, thrillers, and women’s fiction.
- Mairéad Hearne. Along with sharing her in-depth book reviews on her Twitter page, this influencer is also happy to offer blog tours, author guest posts, and author Q&As.
- Naomi Frisby. Frisby’s Twitter and blog are both dedicated to women authors, and she regularly does author interviews and book reviews.
- Lucy Richardson. Known as The Book Belle on YouTube, Lucy loves reviewing fantasy, historical fiction, and YA novels.
- Katharine Scrivener. Katharine has over 23,000 Instagram followers due to her lovely book photos and reviews, and she also assists with hosting an online book club called The Bookly Club.
- Maryse. This avid romance reader runs a website which gets over 1 million visitors per month, as well as a Facebook page that has over 43,000 likes and features book giveaways, deals, author interviews, reviews, and more.
- Jamie Miller. Along with her own fabulous website, Miller is active on Twitter and Instagram, where she shares book reviews and recommendations with thousands of followers.
- Maria. Under the Instagram handle of @Booksugar, this influencer has attracted over 70,000 followers due to her beautiful photos of books and excellent book descriptions.
- Esther. Combined with her insightful reviews, Esther’s Instagram page features photos of organized books, cute coffee shops, and other things that delight bookworms around the world.
- NO NAME. Posting under the account @thisgirlhasn0name, this mysterious influencer’s Instagram is primarily dedicated to fantasy and sci-fi novels, and she also has a website for posting book reviews.
- Ana. This 23-year-old is currently studying English literature, which definitely explains her passion for all types of books on her immensely popular Instagram page, @inquisitivebookworm.
- Abbie. A wide variety of books have been reviewed and showcased on this lovely Instagram page, and Abbie was recently named the Bookstagrammer of the Year at the London Book Fair 2019.
- Jesse. This influencer has over 300,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel where he regularly posts reviews of his favorite books, recommendations for his followers, and new book hauls.
- Regan. Her YouTube channel, PeruseProject, has gained over 200,000 subscribers for her book recommendations, reading vlogs, and ever-cheerful persona.
- Sasha Alsberg. As a New York Times bestselling author herself, Alsberg is a proud “bookaholic” and regularly shares her love of books with over 65,000 Twitter fans and 373,000 YouTube subscribers.
- Emma. This 22-year-old YouTuber posts plenty of book recommendations and is happy to do book reviews for authors on her channel, where it has the potential to be viewed by over 165,000 people.
- Jen Campbell. Campbell is an award-winning poet and short story author who also creates YouTube videos to review books, share writing tips, answer her followers’ questions, and more.
- Katie. This “booktuber” has gained over 41,000 subscribers for providing in-depth reviews of horror and thriller novels on her Youtube channel.
