The big book influencer. Or not?

On November 22 when Mumbai novelist Amrita Mahales debut title Milk Teeth Context Westland turned one the author took to Instagram to share an emotional appreciation post Milk Teeth came into the world quietly she wroteThere was no buzz or advance praise no book launch either It was over a month before the first review appeared in print But the book found its early champions many of them here on Instagram and people began talking about it and more and more readers took notice It astounds me that thousands of readers picked up a hardcover written by an unknown author even though it came with no endorsements or blurbs And many thousands more read the ebook Thats amazing isnt it Thank you to everyone who made it possibleVidhya Thakkarreader_viddh Followers 9647 including Pan Macmillan India and Asiatic Society MumbaiMahale whose book found mention in the longlists of JCB Prize for Literature and the First Book Award at Tata Literature Live and was last week shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award had openly acknowledged what authors otherwise shy away from mentioning How social medias big influencers are now becoming crucial to driving up book salesA recent Twitter thread on the best book covers from India in 2019 by Mumbaibased bookstagrammer and writer Resh Susan thebooksatchel was retweeted over 80 times A day later Twitter user Kinnari KinnariKudla tweeted how Susan was truly the only bookstagrammer whose recommendations Ive takenVivek Tejuja vivekisms Followers 7652 including Bloomsbury India Westland Books and Niyogi Books Susan who has over 68000 followers on Instagram is presently the most recognisable Indian influencer in the publishing space Publishers rely on her authors swear by her and readers especially those on social media consider hers the last word We managed to generate a lot of press publicity for a debut novel recently There were great reviews in leading news magazines and a lot of sites did interviews too But the kind of conversation that Resh helped generate for this particular novel right from its cover to content was incomparable says a Delhibased books publicist on condition of anonymitySusan started bookstgramming in December 2015 I was in a stressful period and badly needed a distraction to take my mind off things I wanted to learn something new as well Thats when the idea of a book blog came to me It was most time effective and I was already reading books anyway I wanted to make it more personal and thought clicking pictures of books was a good idea instead of a stock image Thats how I found Instagram she saysResh Susan thebooksatchel Followers 637K including Bloomsbury India Hachette India Westland Books Penguin India and Pan Macmillan IndiaHer gorgeous compositions of booksmdashshe usually plays with white green and pastels with a mug of black coffee being a staplemdashhas earned her quite a number of fans on the photosharing network But its her recommendations that are most sought after She read a mix of novelsmdashliterary dystopian and fantasy in particular I am also interested in translated books especially Asian languages and Spanish and short stories and picky with YA and crime reads she adds Susan says she was first approached by international publishers to recommend books on her page I think my first collaboration of a giveaway with an Indian publisher was after six monthsIn Susans line of work the monetary compensation comes from ad or sponsored posts and some of these are not necessarily for books I have worked with brands across sponsored posts and been fairly transparent about it I have also worked with some publishers in sponsored posts as part of their book marketing plans she says But the compensation she admits has never been for a positive review of a book Its only for content like a hardback now being available as a paperback or news of a new release The thing to take care is that you shouldnt accept every paid collaboration that comes you way You need to think if it is something that suits you your brand and your audience You need to maintain your credibility because thats the most important thing for your audienceVaranasibased Sudpita Sinha 30 is among a handful covering Hindi language booksVaranasibased Sudipta Sinha who runs Masala Chai a YouTube channel with over 6500 followers is arguably the only popular online reviewer for Hindi books making her the most sought after among regional publishing houses Sinha who previously worked with All India Radio Aakashvani decided to launch Masala Chai in 2018 because radio never promised space for conversations around books which she devoured by the dozen Within a year she was able to monetise the channel What started as a hobby became a fulltime job Sinha now has price points for every reviewmdashher charges begin from R300 onwards There is a huge production cost I handle everything from shooting and editing the video and if its helping the book get traction I think its only fair we get paid for it she says Not every book review comes at price If theres a book that I like and I feel deserves to be read I wont think twice before reviewing it for free A publicist on anonymity explained why she wouldnt mind paying for Sinhas reviews We have noticed a sales and popularity surge when Sudipta has promoted our book when compared with a Hindi national dailyFor many however bookstagramming is simply a passion enterprise A case in point being author and book blogger Vivek Tejuja who has been in the blogging space since 2009 making him a credible influencer Tejuja hasnt charged for his work till date he earns his bread and butter as culture editor of Verve magazineDespite being an avid bookstagrammer Tejuja who has 7650plus followers and prefers to call himself a reader who likes talking about books is also one of its harshest critic He feels that there is a lot of noise in the space today with everyone calling themselves an expert on books When my book So Now You Know A Memoir of Growing Up Gay in India with HarperCollins came out in September a lot of bookstagrammers got in touch with me either asking for free books or collaborations And what I told my publishers is do not send my books to them or send it to very few if you must Let the book grow organically he saysHe finds Instagram to be a tricky space to promote books Its done a service as well as disservice Disservice because I dont know whether bookstagrammers are actual readers or photographers posing to be readers When I read their reviews I dont get a sense of the book in question at all There are great plus points of course Space for a discussion around books in traditional media is shrinking Thanks to social media there is some discussion possibleMumbaibased Vidhya Thakkar who is another favourite among publishers and has managed to get over 9000 followers since she started reader_viddh says the problem is of plenty There are too many of us in Everyone is scrambling for free books Thats also made this fraternity of bookstagrammers critical of each other Though I dont charge for reviews I am often criticised by fellow Instagrammers for collaborating with publishers for giveaways of books What people dont see is that we are working for the greater good which is to encourage reading she says In January 2018 Thakkar also cofounded mumbaibookstagram which serves as a platform to repost work by other bookstagrammers from the city We also conduct book meetups author interviews and swap book events to help spread the word says Thakkar a professional digital marketerAnish Chandy literary agent and founder of Delhibased Labyrinth Literary Agency says his experience with influencers has been mixed I dont think the current practice of sending books to bloggers who put up free reviews has any effect on sales because it has been commodified everyones doing it So youll find a lot of obscure books that have tons of 4 or 5 star reviews but no real sales When someone with a track record in the subject for nonfiction says something nice about it on social media it leads to immediate sales Similarly for fiction if someone who has built a reputation of being an unbiased book expert on social media recommends a title it leads to sales The tone and text that they use also does matterHe recalls working with an author who knew an Alist Bollywood star personally At the authors request the star tweeted a buy the book link to over 10 million followers The next day the category manager of the ecommerce site got in touch saying that 15000 people clicked on the book link I asked him how many copies were sold since the link was tweeted His response 34Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates