Traditional Marketing

• Annoying hyperlinks/banners on websites
• Print ads in your favorite magazines (you’re reading for the articles, not even glancing at the ads!)

Marketing has advanced past conventional advertising strategies like printed advertisements in newspapers or literary magazines like The New Yorker. The emergence of social media platforms and influencers has changed the game for non-traditional marketing in the publishing sector. BookTok is one such recent phenomenon that has swept the market.

Since non-traditional marketing reaches a larger audience, especially a younger demographic, it has been proven to be a successful method of promoting books. Publishers now depend heavily on social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to promote their books. Particularly, TikTok has emerged as the newest craze in book promotion. In the BookTok trend, users produce brief videos in which they recommend their favorite books to their followers. BookTok has become a powerful platform for publishers to reach a younger audience, as TikTok is primarily used by Gen Z and Millennial users. Book recommendations from BookTok influencers have become so influential that publishers have started to partner with these influencers for book promotion. The impact of BookTok on book sales has been incredible, with books such as “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid becoming bestsellers after going viral on the platform.

Non-Traditional Marketing:

• Engaging TikToks that feel like your best friend is personally recommending a book
• You can easily save book recommendations. by sharing/resharing social media posts

Beyond the BookTok craze, other non-traditional marketing strategies such as literary podcasts and author interviews have also gained popularity in the publishing industry. Among readers, podcasts like “The New York Times Book Review” and “Book Riot” have grown in popularity where authors talk about their work and the writing process. Author interviews have also gained popularity on TV programs and online platforms. The promotion of books now includes a significant amount of social media activity. To generate interest in a book release or an author’s upcoming project, publishers design social media campaigns. For instance, Penguin Random House started the “Read to Sleep” social media campaign to encourage kids to read before bed. The “Read to Sleep” campaign was a success, where parents uploaded pictures of their children reading at bedtime to their personal social media accounts–promoting Penguin’s brand and the importance of children’s literature to family life.

Non-traditional marketing has become a crucial part of the publishing industry, where platforms like BookTok and social media campaigns becoming increasingly popular, adapting to an increasingly digital age. Though traditional marketing and ads still continue to run, non-traditional marketing will continue to shape the publishing industry for years to come.