Susmita Sau

What are the top social media platforms available in India and the USA for book promotions?

Instagram is the one place from where I started my book reviewing journey and surely it is the most reachable platform today. Instagram is all about creativity, so readers can also showcase their creativity in terms of photo quality, captions, and reels. It also gives the author a big community to showcase their work and can reach major audiences. Other than that, Goodreads can also be a very good platform.

At what stage of my book publishing journey should I consider social media promotions? Pre publishing or post and how?

If the book is published by major publishing houses, promotions can be started as soon as the cover is revealed or even cover-reveal can be a part of promotional strategy. And if you are going for self-publishing company, you can start after the book is published. Then you can go for the promotional tour as well.

What are the 5 most effective ways to promote books on social media?

First of foremost, you yourself promote your book on every possible social media platforms, whether it’s a cover reveal or any interview.

• Approach the book reviewers to post and promote the book in their respective social media platforms once the book is out.
• Make sure you present your book and book related promotions like giveaways in every social media platforms like Insta, FB, Twitter etc.
• Ask your close ones like friends, family to share the news in their platforms to spread it among others.
• Ask the reviewers to make sure that they post their reviews on Goodreads and Amazon as well.

What are the common mistakes made by the first time authors while promoting the book on social media?

From what I see on social media is that, the first time authors tend to get impacted from negative reviews and when they approach the reviewers, they make demands like more star ratings or only positive reviews etc. which can result in bad influence or bad marketing which can ultimately affect the book.

What kind of post engagement is received on social media while promoting books? What is the percentage of clicks, likes and comments?

That totally depends on the platforms and the number of followers(especially for Instagram). A higher number of followers count results in higher numbers of likes or comments. But sometimes good profiles with a relatively low followers count can also get good percentage of likes or comments.

How much money should I spend on social media promotions for my book and some things to keep in mind.

Promoting books on social media in today’s time is very important and for that, you have to have a budget for ads and for paid reviews which is becoming very popular nowadays, you have to have a flexible mindset as the payment can be varied from reviewers to reviewers. While reviewers with a low follower count can be very within budget, reviewers with very high followers can charge bigger amounts.

How to find the perfect hashtags and time to post my book promotions on social media?

Hashtags in Instagram are very important as it is the picture and the caption. Try to use relevant hashtags and be careful not to use banned hashtags. Sometimes a hashtag can be saturated due to big number of users, so go for a little less used hashtags. Time is also another important factor, you can look at your post insights that what time your engagement is maximum and can post at that time. Also posting regularly is important too.

What are the things an author should be cautious about before finalizing a social media handle for promoting their book?

The page where they are promoting about their book should be easy to understand and easy to reach. Make sure there is relevant information given about the book. Share news, reviews, interviews on the page. You can share excerpts from the book. Also, make sure to reply to comments and messages and be present and engaged.

Should an author run paid ads on social media-based interests? Is it effective and what sales can I expect?

Ads on Instagram can be quite an effective tool for promoting books. It creates a buzz about the book and from there, readers can be interested in the book itself.

Please give me a bit of background about your social media handle, it’s vision and mission, Top management, the kind of books you promote, your biggest strength as a book influencer, popular authors promoted so far, years of experience, any testimonials etc.

I have started my book reviewing journey for more than 3 years ago and I have grown exponentially since then in terms of my reading knowledge as well as handling my social media (i.e. Instagram). The name that I chose for my handle(bonggirlinabookworld) solely came from my origin as I am a Bengali and from my love of reading.

Since childhood, I am very much fond of reading and being a Bengali, I mostly used to devour Bengali author’s books like Satyajit Ray, Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay, Suchitra Bhattacharya etc. But after joining Instagram or rather bookstagram, I have come across thousands of books and authors about whom I had no knowledge previously. So, bookstagram has been a life changing experience for me. Also, I came across many like-minded readers and communities with whom or where I can easily share my experience or can gain so much knowledge. It really has been an overwhelming experience for me.

I do read all kinds of books and even promote too, though I mostly prefer fiction and I believe as a book reviewer and influencer, you must read all kind of books and from there you can easily choose your preferred genre.

At Sharing Stories, we have an ongoing campaign ‘Let’s Empower Our Kids’. Please suggest some books that you think every child should read before the age of 15(mostly the character defining age), teaching them life lessons. Thing like empathy, sympathy, relationships etc.

Books definitely do empower and from a very young age, we should cultivate the habit of reading.

Some books that I will recommend are –

• Books by Ruskin Bond
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• Books by H.G. Wells
• The Lion, The  Witch and The Wardrobe  by C.S. Lewis
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
• Books by Roald Dahl
• The Jungle book by Rudyard Kipling
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
• Child’s regional language books 

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