How Social Media Platforms are Creating New Territory for the Publishing Industry

The publishing industry is perhaps one of the most difficult industries to work with. Whether you’re a publisher, an editor, or the marketing guy, everyone can agree that the hardest job is being the author. Yet, avoiding the “slush” pile and querying has become easier to navigate than ever with social media.

Bookstagram and booktube are outlets that have influenced and convinced readers to try reading books that they normally would never pick up for a long time. Not only has this created a sense of community for book lovers (who tend to stay to themselves for an endless amount of reading hours), it has also benefited emerging authors trying to build a following in the fast-paced world of publishing. Now with booktok, finding book recommendations and new authors follows the speed of the publishing industry. In modern times, the best way to launch your publishing career is to build a social media following.

Booktube and Bookstagram as the OG Community Builders

Booktube and Bookstagram have been circling the writing and book community for years. Finding recommendations was easier to navigate with specific videos and posts. Finding the “Best Fantasy Books This Year” required one youtube search and finding friends to gush about the new Jennifer L. Armentrout book with was easy in Instagram DMs. It was easy, fun, and enjoyable.

As a member of Gen Z, I grew up watching YouTubers like Sophiesseries and readbyzoe. I would absorb so much book content that I finally felt like I belonged in the community and later majored in English Literature in college. These content creators were the pioneers for readers and writers my age to tell us that every type of person could read, write, and study the written word. It was a revolution mirroring the oldest kind.

It was easy for book lovers to come together and now a new wave has hit these communities: A wave of writers.

Introducing: Booktok

Booktok made it incredibly easy for people to gain more book recommendations and to make short vlogs. Videos that catch the attention of readers, writers, and neither. It’s easy to watch a couple of 30-second videos instead of 15 minutes in a youtube video. These views feel like nothing to the viewer, but it's a gold mine for the authors. Every view creates more traction and it’s more than easy to go viral on TikTok algorithm. Youtube and Instagram are heavily impacted, filled with creator upon creator, but TikTok is more than easy to go viral on. Simply because the TikTok algorithm is just that good.

Authors and writers have realized that the people gaining traction on these social media outlets are gaining a huge following and finding huge success. These days if you’re not on social media, you’re not going to be successful. It’s sad but true. Rarely does an author without a following blow up in the publishing industry, simply because of the sheer amount of writers. Self-publishing with a huge media following is one of the easiest ways to become a full-time writer now.

A Success Story of the Writer Community in Social Media

The writing community itself has been on social media for a long time, however, they had not gained real traction until recently. We all knew about Booktube authors and their struggle to gain a real following for their books, but the game has entirely changed.

Self-publishing used to be what someone did when they wrote too much and were impatient in querying. To be fair, some authors query for over ten years before getting signed or giving up entirely. Now with self-publishing, and a huge social media following, you can become successful whenever you think the time is right.

Author Lancali amassed a huge following on social media which led to her self-published Amazon novel, I Fell In Love With Hope, selling out of signed copies multiple times. She is currently a college student and full-time author. She currently has:

• 128k followers on Instagram
• 791.3k followers on Tiktok
• 9.8k followers on Spotify
• 2.7k followers on Pinterest

Her book has taken the writing community by storm, becoming a favorite among the online book community. This has inspired many others to start their own journeys on social media and self-publish. Sometimes this gave them the push to really finish writing their novel and query an agent.

Novelists with an emphasis in . . . marketing?

Other success stories are ones with books that are yet to reach the hands of readers. Writers on social media are working hard to build their following and gain real traction online. If you’ve seen The Summer I Turned Pretty on Netflix, you know that even the mother made an Instagram account to promote her novels. That was not just a dramatic side plot for the mom’s character, it’s real.

If you go on social media and start a new writing account, there are a couple accounts you will find immediately. They’re fresh, motivated, and inspiring. These two novelists are actively working to increase their social media followings, while working on their writing simultaneously.

Author Nicole Platania is expecting her Adult Fantasy Romance, The Curse of Ophelia, to release February 7th, 2023. She has been crafting this novel with special care with the promotion. She even published a Spotify playlist based on her book that her Instagram followers could listen to. She has recently released the cover of the novel on Instagram.

Author Leilani Helen Aki is expecting her Adult high-fantasy romance series, Nectar of War: The Song of Verity and Serenity, to release on February 21st, 2023. Her writing is known for featuring beautiful prose and diverse characters. She already has written a majority of the second novel in this high-fantasy series and has started her next series with its first novel as a retelling. She has inspired many writers across the Instagram community and continues to inspire them with her “writing diaries” posts on Instagram and YouTube.

The Final Impact

The writing community on social media has obviously boomed in the last couple of years. Becoming something greater than anyone could have imagined. It has taken self-publishing to new distances where even a self-published author can be successful.

We are watching as novelists and poets alike are doing their own promotion and marketing in the best way they know how– social media. This has completely taken the publishing industry by storm in that it may continue to change the pipeline from querying for ten years before signing with an agent to self-publishing whenever you’re ready.

Watching the publishing community change online teases the next question in light of these events. Will traditional publishing change their approach of the “slush” pile and agents of glazing over candidates? Or will it remain the same while self-publishing takes off in the ever-changing age of social media?