In my publicity era
A few months ago, I dipped my toes into TikTok and got involved in a small group of new accounts. This was by follow trains mainly, the joining of which consisted of posting a video with a voiceover that went hey Booktok Pals! Let’s support each other! If you have under 500 followers, tell me your favourite book and follow everyone who likes your post! I enjoyed it initially before I realised it was an ineffective way of making “booktok pals” as after a while, they would all start reviewing the same books as if they were following some Booktok canon reading list. These were mainly ones written by white American authors and were already extremely popular. I got a bit disenchanted trying to find more diverse, obscure, and unique book recommendations.
After a few weeks, I understood that my virtual pals were simply trying to grow their accounts by featuring the books that the algorithm favoured. These books made for good content: they were being delivered to all the massive reviewers in huge, custom-designed boxes, crammed with collectors’ items and merch. If I was a book influencer, I’d immediately know that such a book is a Big Deal for the publisher, likely billed to be a “book of the year”, or a “book everyone’s talking about”, so of course, I’d prioritise it and start hyping it up from early. Receiving custom boxes and invites to the exclusive publishing events is what the smaller accounts aspire to. They need to follow the grain to achieve it.
These experiences inspired me to write this article for The Bookseller. The ideas had been ruminating in my head for a little while, and I didn’t know what to do with them initially, but I’ve always wanted to write for the Bookseller and my attempts over the years had been unsuccessful. I’m glad I finally made it in there! And I’m glad for the conversation it’s generated.
In other news, I received an email from my publicist Aoifke this week. I’m going to have my first magazine interview, and it’s a magazine I used to read a lot when I was a teen while browsing the grunge and rock section at WH Smith. She also mentioned a few other publications that would be equally amazing to be featured in. It’s all very exciting!
I’ve started to look around different venues for a book launch party. I have a few places on the shortlist, mainly the places that appear in the book itself as I think it’d be fitting. Other than that, I’m happy to see the reviews have started trickling in again for the book. Although I still don’t read any of them, I have to highlight this lovely post from Samantha Shannon. The Bone Season is one of the comps I used for The Reaper, and I’m so glad she enjoyed it!
And if you would like an art print of this “courteous man in gloves” along with your copy of The Reaper, preorder from Dryad Books!