Tag Archives: book influencer

The Book Influencer: How to Boost a Book to Bestseller Status

It’s been some time since I did a book influencer post. Today, I am going to share a technique that helps boost a book onto the bestseller list. All it takes is one post. This is how to influence people to buy books.

Now, I need to preface this by saying there is a difference between reviewers and influencers. Reviewers review books and post their reviews on various sites. Influencers review books, but they also influence people to buy them by subtly making suggestions. There are a lot of book influencers who are excellent at doing this. Jordy’s Book Club and Sadie Hartmann are excellent examples of people who influence others to buy books. Jordy makes a suggestion and his followers race to buy the book. Sadie uses genre horror themes and recommends books that way. I can’t tell you how long my TBR list has grown because of Sadie’s lists.

Today, I am going to share a marketing strategy I use based on what I see trending. I am known to not share book reviews often. Usually, I market a book for months, and then wait to drop the note that says, “Go buy this book.” I will hold off on giving a review until I see the right fit for an audience.

A Book for the Resistance

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This: El Akkad, Omar: 9780593804148: Amazon.com: Books

This year, one of the trendiest topics just happens to be resisting what is happening in America. I discovered two days post-election that the Trump administration planned to change our democracy into an authoritarian government. I started getting the news out and amassed over 2,000 followers on Threads overnight.

People wanted information on what to do next. I was supplying the information as I received it. This allowed me to be put into a position that people trusted.

During this time, Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This landed in my inbox.

I’m not sure why Knopf sent this book in particular. But the imprints at Penguin Random House are known for sending the right book to me at the right time. I never understand why, but when I start reading, it eventually makes sense. They watch my feeds, so they know what will fit into my narrative. They always send books that will help. [Although, when I can pluck the book out to read in my ever growing TBR pile is always a mystery.]

This book talks about Palestine. The author is pro-Palestine. [Please ignore reviews that suggest he is not. That reviewer only read 40 pages and is not in a position to review. They gave out a lot of erroneous information based on their assumptions.]

He makes a profound statement. If you ignore the genocide, it will one day show up at your door. He goes on to discuss American politics, warning us that the current system is failing. In this book, he teaches us how to walk away from this government. He wrote this before Kamala Harris entered the 2024 presidential race. He was a critic of the Biden administration. But at the same time, he was warning of what was to come.

He was not wrong.

It was the part about walking away that I latched onto. I took that teachable moment and told my followers: This is how we walk away from this government. I told my Threads followers to pre-order this book now. It was due to release two weeks later.

When the book debuted, it was on the bestseller list.

So let’s break down what happened.

  1. Who is the audience? The type of audience for this book are people looking for information on how to resist authoritarianism. People need help in understanding what we need to do next. They need hope. They need something that will tell them what to do. How to switch gears. In this case, I have an audience of people who are resisting. They will not only buy this book, but they will re-post my post, and spread the word.
  2. Are you answering a question that your audience has? In this case, it’s how do we deal with this? The answer is to walk away, and this is how we do it.
  3. Is this a trending topic? Fighting authoritarianism? Yep. I do believe that’s a trending topic.
  4. Are people passionate about this topic? If you know that they are, and you have a book to recommend, drop that book recommendation.

A Book for People Wanting to Know More About that Trending Movie They Just Watched

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter | Book by Stephen Graham Jones | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

At this juncture in 2025, I hope you have already seen Sinners. If you haven’t, get thee to a movie theater!

Sinners was trending everywhere during the first 2-3 weeks of its release. Everyone was talking about it. There was one cool aspect at the beginning of the film where the Choctaw Native Americans were hunting the vampire. They discovered the white woman had already let the vampire into her home. The sun was going down. They hightailed it out of there.

That was the last we saw of the Choctaw in this story.

Now, everyone has questions. What did the Choctaw know about the vampire?

Seeing this question trending, I felt like I may have something to contribute. One bookstagrammer suggested reading The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. So I jumped on that recommendation, especially after Ryan Coogler wrote a thank you note. Surprise! He thanked Stephen Graham Jones for being among the many who helped inspire Sinners.

I then merged all of these elements and created one post on Threads. This is how I recommended The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Let’s break down the key elements here.

  1. What is the trending topic? Sinners. By using the first word as Sinners, this puts the post into the trending algorithm.
  2. What is the question (or need) everyone has? The question is what did the Choctaw know about vampires? People have a need to know more about Native Americans and vampires.
  3. Who is the audience? Mainly BIPOC. Most have never heard of this author. This opens the author up to a whole new demographic of potential fans.
  4. Is there a trusted connection between Sinners and this book? In Ryan Coogler’s thank you, he acknowledged Stephen Graham Jones as helping to inspire this story. Ryan Coogler is the individual this audience trusts.
  5. Are people passionate about this subject? Ummm. Have you seen this movie? Yes. People are passionate about this movie and everything that happened in it.
  6. Bring it home. Add all of these elements together into one post. This includes the key terms: Sinners, Choctaw, Native American, vampire, and Ryan Coogler. These key terms will pick up in the various algorithms. Introduce the audience to the author and their book. Let them know that this is a trusted source. Point out the Coogler connection. Maybe this author has the answer on how the Choctaw knew about vampires. They had one of their own.
  7. Note the choice in photos. On Bookstagram (Instagram for Books), people focus on aesthetics and pretty photos. On Threads, I used a photo I took of Stephen. That face can sell books. There’s a reason why his main demographic is women between 18-35. I also chose a photo to make the book clearer for everyone to see. My purpose in choosing these two specific photos was to introduce the author and the book. That is what I’m selling here. I’m creating a new fan base for the author, while selling this particular title to the audience. Be intentional with your message.

I asked Saga Press to monitor sales of BHH after my post. Two weeks later, results showed the book received a bump in sales. This increase was enough to put Stephen Graham Jones back on the USA Today Bestseller List.

During this time, Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory was also linked to Sinners. The book received a significant spike in sales. People wanted more information on Sinners. They wanted more BIPOC horror stories. They wanted more horror stories from this time period.

When you see a viral trend, and you know a book you can recommend, drop that recommendation! It really helps boost the author’s sales and may open the author up to a whole new demographic of fans.

Etc.

It is important when you are latching onto a trend to take your ego and self out of the equation. Don’t post photos of yourself trying to market the book. You can leave that on Instagram or BookTok. When you use social media platforms like Threads or BlueSky for book recommendations, focus on the books. Take yourself out of the equation. Focus on the author and their book, especially if this is a new target audience.

Know who your audience is on every single platform. I review what people want to see from me according to the social media platform. Each space has a different audience. It is knowing who your audience is that you can best influence the information you are giving to them. I wear a lot of different hats as an influencer. I have a fashion crowd, Native American crowd, horror crowd, the resistance… That means I’m posting on a variety of different topics on many platforms.

The important thing is when you find something that works, stick to it and be true to your audience. They depend upon you for the information you are giving to them. You are building trust. They come to you for help and information.

Instagram is a very fickle book place. I’ve only seen a few Bookstagrammers influencing people to buy books. Marketing books is very different there because you are marketing to other book lovers. On Threads and BlueSky, I know that to sell a book, I must suggest it subtly. Most are not book enthusiasts. But with the right book suggestion, they will pick it up en masse.

Always study your audience. You can learn from them.

The Book Influencer: Is it OK to sell ARCs?

This is a topic every reviewer and book influencer has asked at some point. If you Google this question, you will find people doing a deep dive into the ‘legality’ of it, instead of just asking the publishers directly, “Is it OK to sell ARCs?” So I asked this question for you.

For those who do not know what an ARC is, it is an acronym for Advanced Reader Copy, or galley. These books are gifted by the publisher to reviewers, influencers, libraries, booksellers, etc. for early review. It is not the final copy of the book, and considered an uncorrected proof (i.e. draft). On the cover, there is a notice that says “NOT FOR SALE.” It is on every ARC.

I reached out to the Big 5 and two independent publishers and asked them two questions: 1) Is it OK to sell ARCs?, and 2) What should people do with the ARCs once they are finished with the book?

The responses I received (so far) are below. As more publishers respond to my request, this post will be updated.

What prompted this article was seeing someone with a lot of followers giving some very bad advice to new Bookstagrammers. Each publisher has their own rules regarding what you should do with an ARC after you finish it, but every single one of them had the same answer on whether it was OK to sell ARCs and every single one said NO. It is NEVER OK to sell ARCs.

As for what you can do with an ARC after you are finished with it, this is the part you should pay attention to, because there are a few extras you should be aware of (that I wasn’t even aware of).

HarperCollins Publishers

HarperCollins is one of the Big 5 publishers with numerous imprints under their name. Of all of the publishers, they are the most staunch about the “Not For Sale” policy, going so far as to sue people selling ARCs (and winning in court each time – one person had a $15,000 judgment against them for selling an ARC).

I reached out to their imprint, Harlequin, and this is their response, which is also what I have been told verbally by others from HarperCollins:

“Harlequin supplies ARCs on a “not for sale” basis and we trust recipients to honor this both before and after publication of the book. Should we become aware of a recipient selling or trading on ARCs received from the company, we reserve the right to no longer supply ARCs to such recipient.”

Of importance here is that they include trading as something that is not allowed. That means those of you who trade ARCs with each other should stop. It is not acceptable.

As for what to do with ARCs after you are done, you can donate them to Little Free Libraries, do giveaways, etc., so long as no buying, selling, or trading occurred.

Shadow Mountain Publishing

Shadow Mountain Publishing is a general trade publisher of both fiction and non-fiction titles. Their imprint Proper Romance focuses on clean romance stories (think Jane Austen). I was first introduced to Shadow Mountain years ago because they publish my favorite middle-grade series Fablehaven and Dragonwatch by Brandon Mull (huge, huge fan!).

I reached out to Callie Hansen, their Product Manager, and this is her response:

Shadow Mountain’s policy on the sale of ARCs is to not resell them. Ever. They are purely a marketing piece to generate early book reviews.

I would say readers are welcome to pass along physical ARCs before the book is released. My preferences are to donate to a Little Free Library (most libraries will not accept ARCs), keep the ARC for yourself, share with a young reader in the book’s demographic (especially if the book is a children’s or YA book), or simply recycle the book.

I know recycling the book may sound weird to a reader, but because it’s not a final copy, if you’re not going to keep the book, we prefer to recycle ARCs especially once the final book is released.

Shadow Mountain recently alerted their influencers that their books should be recycled after review, but they can also be passed along (as per above).

Simon & Schuster

I reached out to Saga Press, an imprint of Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster (one of the Big 5) for their take. This is what Joe Monti, Founder and Editorial Director, had to say:

Advanced Reading Copies, or ARC’s (“arcs”) are meant to simply get the word out with booksellers, influencers, critics, and traditional media. These are shared at great expense to simply generate word of mouth, hopefully amongst readers whom will love it. They have no commercial value and should never be sold as that would be the equivalent of stealing from the author as they get no return on that sale. 

 That’s it!

 You can give it to someone to read, for sure. But never for money. 

You can toss it. 

You can also hold on to it forever, like my ARC of GOOD OMENS signed by Neil and Terry. 😇😈

Ok. So I’m jealous. But I loved that response.

The Answer Is…

So the ongoing consensus from publishers is that you should NEVER, EVER, EVER sell ARCs. Each one has suggested donating to Little Free Libraries or destroying it after reading. That latter part is difficult for most bibliophiles, because the thought of destroying a book, even if it is not in final form, is sacrilegious.

You can also do giveaways.

For those who trade, you’ll have to stop. This is considered a form of payment for a book, which would mean the book was for sale, even though it wasn’t money that was used to barter for it.

The best way to explain what to do with an ARC after you are done…keep it, give it away, or recycle it.

The Book Influencer

The Book Influencer is not just a person who influences people to buy a certain book.  They influence people to read more books.

I am starting a new series on this site about being a Book Influencer.  This site has been around for about a decade now (maybe longer). Going through the audit pages to see what people read on this site, I noticed there are a lot of hits from people wanting to know how this all works.  How do we become book reviewers? How do we get advance copies of books?

So to help answer those questions, I am starting this series to help you become a better book reviewer, and eventually a book influencer.

How I Got Into This…

After leaving the hockey writing world, I switched to writing about books.  I knew absolutely nothing about this. All I knew was that post-hockey, I wanted to focus on two things I loved: books and film.

I started off by attending the Book Expo. This was an annual event where publishers met with librarians, book sellers, and the media to talk books. The first conference I attended allowed book bloggers in. I attended several panels where I learned what publishers wanted from us in order to market their books. I memorized all of the rules, picked up my advance copies, and got to it.

The following year, I noticed I was the only blogger at the Expo. I went around to all of the publishers and asked if they had seen any bloggers there. Nope. I was the only one. Someone from Penguin Random House explained that the Big Five had a meeting about who they would allow to attend, and they decided to only allow five bloggers/book influencers. Apparently, there was an issue with the bloggers from the previous Expo. They had depleted their stores, wrote a tiny blurb (if they wrote anything at all), and that was it. It wasn’t enough to satisfy gifting these ARCs (advance reader copies) to them.

So how did I beat out everyone else? I found out from an old colleague that now works for HarperCollins that he saw my name on the list and he greenlighted me for all of the publishers. He told them he had known me for years, I was a former hockey writer, he knew I would do everything by the book and already had a history of doing so. So that’s how I became one of the five allowed to attend the Book Expo. I was actually doing the marketing that was requested of me.

Now, to save you some time Googling, the Book Expo is no more. The event did not survive past the pandemic. There are book festivals throughout the United States that you should definitely attend in order to meet with publishers and authors to learn more about being a book reviewer, and possibly pick up a few ARCs.

How Do I Become a Book Influencer vs. a Book Reviewer?

For me, moving from being a book reviewer to a book influencer was a little different than most. And yes, there is somewhat of a difference between the two (but not much). A book reviewer reviews books, posts their reviews on multiple platforms in a timely fashion (or at least, we try to get the reviews out by the week the book is released).

Depending on your social media platform, you’ll need to have some sort of post about the book on your Instagram, blog, TikTok, etc. You are basically doing the marketing and sharing your review of every title you receive.

Now, this is how the Book Influencer is a little different. I receive somewhere between 30-50 books each month. 75% of those books are not books I requested. Oftentimes, these books are just dropped into the mail or into my inbox or Netgalley/Edelweiss queue.

Now, I don’t read 30-50 books a month. I wish I could. I do read over 100 books a year, though. The question is which of these hundreds of titles will I choose to be among the 100 books I will actually read. Of those 100 titles, which ones are the ones I will actually post a review for? Which ones will I promote? Which ones will get a spot on my blog or Instagram?

As a Book Influencer, I can be a little pickier about which books I choose to feature. When I told publishers that I am only going to feature the books that are good enough to share to the masses, they actually got on board with this. This method is a very different kind of marketing. That means if your book is shared, that means it was a damn good book, and I will be promoting it on several different platforms. I will be pushing the sale of the book. This is like getting a feature in a magazine or in a newspaper. The space on this blog does not just go to every single book I read. It goes to the ones that I recommend people should read.

Now, since finding those gems takes some time, I still share the books I receive from all publishers. For Instagram posting, I do a monthly round-up featuring titles I received that are releasing that month. During each pub week, I will post a graphic of that week’s releases. For physical copies I receive, I try to do a weekly or bi-weekly bookstack. For book tours I sign up for, those books are always featured. There are certain publishing houses that get an automatic post of whatever they send (think Berkley – IYKYK), as well as Penguin Random House Audio.

I do not write a review for every single book I read. I sift through all of these titles looking for books that are the diamonds in the rough. I am curating books for people who love to read that don’t want to read a mediocre or bad book.

Trust me, I know how it feels to pick up a book and think you wasted your time on it. One year, I received so many horrible books from publishers, I literally sent a message to them going WTF. Every single title from your publishing house this season was horrible. That year, it took going through 35 different books (reading them from cover to cover) to find one book that was actually worth recommending to people. So I learned how to be more selective with the books I chose to spend my time on.

In the beginning, you will find that may be the case with you. You’ll read several bad books in a row. Being a good reviewer means learning which books to stay away from because it is not going to strike a chord with you. It takes some time to master this. It will also teach you how and when to DNF (not finish) a book.

The purpose of the book influencer is not just to influence people to read whatever book you are recommending, it is to encourage them to read more books. Recommending a bunch of bad books does not influence people to read more. But if you recommend a good book, or get excited about something you read, it gets your followers excited. It makes them want to go out and read that book. And when they read one good book, they want to read more.

As a book influencer, you are not pushing the books the publishers want you to push. You are trying to establish a reputation where you are trustworthy with the books you recommend. You want to encourage people to read more books. The way to do that is to provide them direction to which books they may love. These books are the ones you vet and then decide whether to promote them or not.

This is What Happens When You are an Influencer

Over the years, as I wrote reviews and shared books, I never really looked up from what I was doing to see if any of this was having any impact. But then I started noticing that I was making an impact on people.

People that followed me during my hockey writing career followed me into the book world.  One person (shoutout to Kim) went from reading five books a year to reading a bunch of books every year.  She even joined Bookstagram and became a book influencer.

People I went to high school with that followed me started their own book club because they were inspired by all of the books I was sharing.  The hockey community started reading and sharing their books more.  Even the friends I made in the media started their own book clubs and book talks.

I do have a lot of friends and followers that are celebrities (this comes from many years of attending film festivals, writing about hockey, doing interviews, etc.). They started prioritizing reading every single day. Imagine my surprise when they started posting about books! I swear I almost fainted.

Since I do not always do book reviews or suggest books, when I do, I see within the next day a bunch of followers run to purchase that book. I think they know the difference between a book recommendation vs. all of the other other posts I do. It’s the actual book that makes the blog review that is purchased.

This is what being a book influencer is all about.  It’s not just about marketing.  It’s about getting people to read more books.  The only way to really do that is to recommend good books.

If you think this is just about writing or posting content, you should see me in person. If I know you like to read and I know your genre, I’ll curate a bookstack for you that will have you reading more and more books. I love talking about books, but I also love helping people discover their next great read.

I hope this series will help the book reviewer community. Feel free to ping me (Instagram/Threads: @michellekennethpw) or leave a comment on any of the articles in this series if you have questions and I’ll do a post on it. For those seasoned reviewers and influencers, leave comments with advice that will help others in the book community. After all, if it wasn’t for the book community, I never would have figured all of this stuff out. Plus, there’s something new every single day to talk about.

Fall Horror Books: Malus Domestica series

The Malus Domestica series from S. A. Hunt is one of my favorite scary series. It starts with Burn the Dark, followed by I Come With Knives, and The Hellion. This series is perfect for those who love their scary books to be on the extreme side, as in explosive action featuring witches, demons, and lots and lots of scary stuff. I don’t think I will ever get that cat scene out of my head.

This is also perfect for those looking for a trans author to read and follow.

What I loved about this series was all of the explosive action, followed by everything super evil you can think of. I may end up going back to read this series again.

This series is one you need to share with everyone who loves horror. It is really, really good.

Synopsis

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Stranger Things in award-winning author S. A. Hunt’s Burn the Dark, first in the Malus Domestica horror action-adventure series about a punk YouTuber on a mission to bring down witches, one vid at a time.

Robin is a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction.

Her ultimate goal is to seek revenge against the coven of witches who wronged her mother long ago. Returning home to the rural town of Blackfield, Robin meets friends new and old on her quest for justice. But then, a mysterious threat known as the Red Lord interferes with her plans…

[DISCLOSURE: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]