WHY INFLUENCER PUBLISHING IS HAVING A BIG MOMENT
but also content and sometimes, even quality. “People never equated social media creators or someone on the Internet as worthy of being able to write a book, because the belief always was that social media creators were a little frivolous,” says Agarwal. Resh Susan, who has run her blog and Instagram page titled ‘The Book Satchel’ since 2015, and has a following of 54,000 on Instagram, adds: “Some authors and readers look at book content creators and think they are not serious readers. That reviews should be long pieces, and not mere captions.”
But as with every good conversation, this one has been growing too, changing to adapt not just to external factors such as trends and tastes, but also to internal examinations and enquiries. And with this change, publishers have found a whole new pool to sh in, and have begun to turn to the Internet and social media to nd out what people, especially the younger demographics, want to read about. And who understands young people better than the in£uencers who have made it their business to capture the attention of millions of such people. “I think the sweet spot is having something interesting and compelling and thought-provoking to say, but to say it in the simplest way possible, so that you’re democratising your ideas instead of gatekeeping them. That is what works on social media,” says sexuality educator Leeza Mangaldas, who wrote The Sex Book (HarperCollins India) in 2022. For Mangaldas, the big question is: “how do you compete with a smartphone?”
Of course, publishing is a mixed bag, full of hits and misses. “If you actually look under the hood, a lot of social media in£uencer books, the second and third titles have
Sexuality educator and author of The Sex Book (2022)
◣ not worked as much as their rst. Which will indicate that you are fundamentally signing on someone who is a storyteller in a short form. When it comes to a book, it works in some cases, doesn’t work in others,” says Anish Chandy, literary agent and founder at Labyrinth Literary Agency. While the sales might be higher than usual in the case of an in£uencer’s book, it still doesn’t mean prot for the publisher. “Whether publishers are turning a prot on these books, that is going to be a function of what the publisher is paying to acquire the book, and eventually how much the book sells.” But Chandy adds that prot or loss, what denitely works is that “the publisher’s biggest headache” — having the book discovered by an audience — is taken care of. And for that “the publishers are willing to pay a premium”.
That social media stars come with a dedicated following is certainly a big part of things, including the book’s success. “The big advantage that a Minawala or a Warikoo enjoys is that they are not reliant on traditional media for publicity. They have a direct channel of communication. That is their power. And their power is in the millions,” says Juggernaut’s Mehrotra. Just the two biggest English-language publishers in the country, Penguin Random House India and HarperCollins India, publish 300 and 250 new titles, respectively, every year. Chandy says that with over 10,000 registered publishers, and a massive self-publishing machinery, it’s nearly impossible to arrive at a number when it comes to English language books published in India today. To stand out in this market, the ability to have a direct channel of communication with millions of potential readers is nothing short of priceless, not just for the authors, but for their publishers too.
And more and more, publishers are beginning to adapt to new ways of telling a story. They don’t just have to think outside of traditional ideas when it comes to books by in£uencers, but also traditional narratives and formats. “Sometimes, we use the format they have already been using on their social media pages and other places. Like in sexuality educator Leeza Mangaldas’ case, we used a Q&A format for her 2022 book, The Sex Book, which mimicked the format she uses in her content online,” says Chatterjee of HarperCollins India.
The impact in£uencers have made on the economy, on brands and on people’s minds is irrefutable. “When there’s no denying that someone has made a mark, then everything opens up for them,” Agarwal says, adding that by that logic, it’s not surprising that the doors of publishing have opened up for them too.
While Chandy says that social media might be more important when it comes to certain genres and categories, such as self-help, compared to, say, literary ction, one thing is certain. “The day of the author just writing a book and sending it out to the publisher, and having no presence or putting in no eort to market or publicise the book is over.”
A view from the other side
T.C.A. Raghavan, author and former diplomat, whose fourth book, Circles of Freedom ( Juggernaut Books), has just released, says that the proliferation of social media for book marketing has made a dierence because “the traditional ways of buying books are under stress. The number of bookshops is much less than it used to be. Space in newspapers about new books and reviews is also crunched. And so social media certainly creates an impact. If you’re not on it, and your publisher is not good at it, then it is a handicap”. Raghavan adds that for his books, approximately 70% of the promotion is still via traditional channels. That’s not to say that he doesn’t want to utilise social media. “I think everyone wants to have younger readers. Regardless of the platform, you get an opportunity, you make use of it.”
The larger landscape may not be as altered as it seems, he says. “My gut sense is that social media creates awareness about the book and the author, and more people come to know about your book releasing relatively quickly than they would have in the old days. But not all of that translates into sales,” he insists, adding, “I’d like to think that books are commodities which sell slowly. In the end, if you aggregate sales over a long term, everything evens out, even the enormous immediate impact of social media. I would like to think then that it depends on the quality of the book and not the prole of the author — o±ine or on social media.”
I think the sweet spot is having something interesting and compelling and thought-provoking to say, but to say it in the simplest way possible, so that you’re democratising your ideas instead of gatekeeping them. That’s what works on social media