Let’s be clear, authors aren’t just writing books anymore

Where do you get your new book recommendations from? Your favourite celebrity book club, one of the lesser-known Substack lists, Booktok/Bookstagram, Fable/Goodreads, or the book that photobombed your friends’ daily coffee update? Apart from those who belong to IRL book clubs or work in the hallowed publishing circles, for the rest of us, social media is how we decide why we read what we read. Word of mouth is now a primarily digital activity. So, in our hyper connected lives, how does a new writer capture a reader’s attention on social media?

It’s a question that plagued me for months leading up to the release of my debut novel All The Right People in November 2022. Even after working in the magazine world for over a decade, book publishing turned out to be a completely different beast. As a publishing veteran once told me, it wasn’t enough to write the book, the onus of marketing books and driving sales was now firmly on the writer. The author is now the publicist, the marketeer, the content creator, the sales director, the social media manager, and the face of their book!

Of course, it greatly helps if the author has a large social media following that she can galvanise. In the lead up to her latest cookbook, Baby Knows Best, Shilarna ‘Chinu’ Vaze used her 376k strong community to spread the message. “I felt I was reclaiming power for my generation of Indian mums by making dahi, sprouting ragi, whipping up a malt hot chocolate pre-mix, or family meals that ticked just the right boxes of nostalgia and nutrition,” she says. In 2016, Vaze’s content creator life started by sharing what she ate first as a pregnant chef, and then what she fed her baby. “My Instagram became one of the best places to promote my book because 80% of my followers are moms,” she explains. To further target her message, she launched her book at The Mommy Network Pop Up co-hosted by All Things Baby in Mumbai, guaranteeing a captive audience. 

But what can authors do when they do not have that reach? Spotify playlists, food hampers, book trailers, fun merchandise (tees/totes/mugs/hats), and building smart (and hopefully viral) social media campaigns, the list grows by the day. Even bestselling names aren’t spared today. For her debut book, Cleopatra & Frankenstein, author Coco Mellors hosted a pizza-themed launch in New York inspired by the pizza joint meet-cute of her rom-com leads. For Intermezzo, launch parties across the world featured chess-inspired merch and trivia nights where the sunny palette of Sally Rooney’s latest book cover became the moodboard for the evening. 

Both authors and publishing houses are constantly on the hunt for new and innovative ways to market books. The team at Penguin Random House believes in working with authors to target readers, and have opened up to brand-collaborations to help spread the word. Their most recent campaigns include ‘Moods of Monsoon’ which coupled a good book with a steaming cuppa in partnership with Chaayos. Here, curated gift hampers (alongside a lucky draw) were activated across the tea-chain and select bookshops. Then there was the #UberReads partnership, where the team equipped two Uber EV Shuttle Buses with 60-80 titles spanning genres, encouraging people to read during commutes. “For Birds on the Brain by Uma Krishnaswami, we partnered with the Green Panther Club in Bengaluru, where 17 enthusiastic children embarked on a guided bird walk, and at the end two winners were presented the book as a prize. For Akshat Gupta’s new series The Naga Warriors, we collaborated with Etihasik—a niche graphic T-shirt brand that aims to glorify early traditions, fables, and forgotten faces of ancient India—designed exclusive t-shirts for influencer and blogger outreach,” says Pallavi Narayan, Manager Corporate Communications at Penguin Random House. “It’s about creating a space where people are eager for your work and willing to support it.”

Narayan goes on to warn on the fine line between building a real connection versus publicity stunts. “My advice would be to stay genuine. While trying to stand out is important, being overly gimmicky risks creating something that’s easily forgettable and quickly replaceable. Instead, focus on being real, relatable and creative in ways that leave a lasting impression.”

For Sidharth Singh’s The Extraordinary Life of Max Bulandi, a novel about a forgotten rockstar, HarperCollins India attached a QR code with the book that linked to a Spotify-playlist that the author had created. For my debut novel, a story revolving around three friends, set in the privileged world of crazy rich Indians, I curated a care package that would stand out amongst the slush pile of daily package drop. Designed by Luxe Box’s Hina Oomer Ahmed, the box included a porcelain coffee cup by Sokka Tableware in the same navy hue as my book cover, a mini chocolate cake by Mama Z, a friendship bracelet designed by Studio Love Letter, and a copy of the book—each add-on item becoming a little easter egg to tease my novel.

But all this is usually pre-and during launch, what happens after the book has hit the shelves? US-based publishing house, 831 Stories, tackles the post-launch gap with a new disruptive publishing model. “When you finish one of our books there’s an extended universe to explore that’s made up of things like epilogues, fanfic, music, products, and so on. Think of them like ‘DVD extras’—the bit of content you’d turn to when you finished a good movie to try to juice a little more out of it,” says Claire Mazur, who co-founded the romantic fiction entertainment company with Erica Cerulo. Their first book Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff debuted last September, with a hot pink and red cover and a strong message to enjoy reading for pleasure. “The thing that inspired us to create 831 was this realisation that a lot of romance readers aren’t just readers—they’re true fans.” Inspired by how committed these fan bases are, 831 creates trope merchandise—such as baseball hats with phrases like ‘Enemies to Lovers’, or a hotel keychain that says ‘Only One Bed’, which have proved to be hot sellers. 

The big lesson learnt here is that building a community seems to be at the heart of real success for authors today. Even the best writing and books can fall under the radar, if you don’t have readers rallying for the cause. Just weeks before her debut, a young author, who wishes to be anonymous, told me that her publishing house insisted on her growing her social media presence, something she had been putting aside to focus on her writing. An industry veteran, on the other hand, tells me that her advice to all authors is to have a long-term plan even before the manuscript is completed.

So before you sit down to pen the next great Indian novel, maybe ask yourself: Can my book be supported by a website? A Substack? A video game? A playlist? An AI integration? But most importantly, introspect on the kind of content you want to put out there as the author and the marketeer of your book. In short, the stories you tell today must go beyond just the pages of your book.