What Is Author Influencer Marketing?

In the modern online literary scene, author influencer marketing and book blogger partnerships are key ways to build your following in the digital space.

Let’s look at why influencer collaboration works and how to develop author-influencer relationships.

Author Influencer Marketing: What & Why?

So much of the marketing and commercial parts of the literary scene takes place in the digital world nowadays. But what exactly is author influencer marketing?

Basically, an influencer, in online terms, is someone with a large social media following. As the name suggests, they have a lot of influence over the following.

And so influencers are often paid to promote certain products or brands. Because the influencer’s followers trust what the influencer has to say, they will likely purchase or use the product.

How this relates to authors is that book influencers have a brand that revolves around books. They may promote books that they like through social media (especially TikTok) or do so on their book blog.

Authors can leverage book bloggers and social media influencers in order to reach a new audience and expand their readership base.

Influencer Collaboration: Do It Right

It’s important to go about author influencer marketing the correct way. Whether you are building a social media influencer or book blogger partnership, you should:

• Find someone who has followers in your target audience.
• Ensure the influencer has a good connection with their fanbase.
• Work with an influencer who is good at promoting content.

Having a really large following doesn’t necessarily mean that an influencer connects well with their audience. It’s important to look into how a social media influencer or book blogger interacts with their following and what they promote.

Your First Point Of Contact

When reaching out to a book influencer, it’s important to do it in the right way. So when making first contact:

• Be polite and respectful.
• Mention you are a fan of their work.
• Bring up the possibility of cross-promotion.
• Mention that you will share their brand too.

And remember to be above board with everything you do. If you have paid for a social media post or bought a guest post, you have to ensure this is clearly said in the post itself. You may see little notes on posts saying sponsored content; this is what you will need to be included.

Leveraging Book Bloggers

In terms of author influencer marketing, building a book blogger partnership is really effective. Book bloggers are trusted by their audience. They also have a good understanding of SEO and how to promote work. It’s worth looking into book bloggers within your genre who would be willing to work with you.

How To Build A Book Blogger Partnership

Just like an author-influencer relationship, a book blogger partnership should be equally beneficial to the creator and the author. What you want to do is provide them with quality content to share with their blog readers. In turn, you can leverage book bloggers by ensuring the content reflects positively on your book.

Here are three ways you can develop an author-influencer collaboration with a book blogger:

Interview

This is one of the most straightforward ways you can work with a book blogger. Basically, they interview you about your book and the author’s lifestyle. This interview will be recorded for the blogger (who is conducting the interview) to transcribe later.

The blogger can then make a blog post based on this interview. It could be a simple Q&A format with the question listed followed by the answer, or it could be a more fleshed-out article with quotes from you, the interviewee, inter-spliced with the blogger’s own writings about what the two of you talked about.

You could also conduct a Q&A-type podcast and share the material with the blogger.

Review

It’s common to ask book bloggers and influencers to review your book. A good book review will tell potential readers why they might enjoy your book and who it is for. A good book review will also give the gist and summary of the plot without giving away any Easter Eggs or golden nuggets!

It’s important if you’re looking for a book review to give the author enough notice, as they will have to read the whole book and write the review. As a courtesy, you should offer them an advanced copy of your book.

Guest Post

A way of providing the blogger with good content ready-made is to offer a guest post. In doing this, you should establish with them what they would like your post to focus on. You benefit from getting to promote your work and establish an author brand, and the blogger gets high-quality content.

These are just three ways you could develop a relationship with some of the best book bloggers, but the crucial thing is that both parties are benefiting.

Developing an Author-Influencer Relationship

Author influencer marketing has become a new way of giving your work and author brand a boost in an increasingly digital society. Developing a book blogger partnership or a relationship with a social media influencer can be of long-term benefit to you as an author.

Crucially, once you have begun an influencer collaboration, you can allow the relationship to blossom and grow further. Influencers are trusted by their followers, so if they consistently promote your work, then their followers will become your readers.

In order to really build and develop the relationship, you have to:

• Communicate effectively
• Promote their brand too
• Provide high-quality content

Simply sharing a blog or video made by an influencer in a post while saying something like “thanks for the shoutout“ or “Love your work” goes a long way to showing the content creator that you are equally interested in helping their brand grow and eager to reciprocate the attention they are giving your book.

Work with your influencer to develop a content calendar that tells you what content to post and when.

An author-influencer relationship goes both ways, so it’s important that you give as much as you take.

Conclusion

The right partnership in author influencer marketing can catapult your book and brand to new heights, creating lasting benefits for both you and the influencer. By working together, you can expand your reach, grow your audiences, and build a thriving community around your work.

Take the next step—join our affiliate program today and unlock the power of strategic influencer collaborations to drive your success!