Today's Interview Topic: Bookstagram as a Marketing Tool in the Literary Industry
About Elizabeth:
Elizabeth Sagan is a Bookstagram aficionado and reader extraordinaire! She’s spent several years building an outstanding following on her gorgeous Instagram platform and recently branched out to BookTube to share her vibrant shelves and review her favorite reads. In addition to being a standout in the Bookstagram community, she reads and reviews titles in multiple genres, and even delivered her own TedTalk on TEDxZorilorWomen, where she touches on growing to accept what makes you unique within the industry!
Hello Firebirds!
I’ve had the incredible opportunity to interview Elizabeth Sagan, professional Book Whisperer and owner of the lovely Instagram account by the same name, findable here! She’s generously joined us Firebirds here to discuss how authors and bookstagrammers are taking to Instagram to share their passions, so if you're intrigued by how authors and bookstagrammers collaborate for book promotion, looking for the inside scoop on crossing platforms, or curious how we bookstagrammers can help authors share their talent, check out the interview below!
Hi, Elizabeth! Thank you again for interviewing with me! Your Instagram feed is absolutely stunning. To get us started, what’s your absolute favorite thing about Bookstagram?
That it transcends borders.
I agree; it has been so wonderful to see our community come together in support of diversity in the industry! In that vein, I seem to recall you visit bookstores all over the place! How many languages do you read in?
Nowadays I mainly read in English, but Romanian is my mother tongue and I also know some German.
I imagine that opens up a lot of possibilities when it comes to content, not to mention new characters to meet! What does a day in the life of a bookstagrammer look like for you?
My life revolves 95% around books, so my days consist of either reading, creating content, writing, or doing work for my part-time job.
As someone just breaking in to the community, I’m always wondering how content creators find the time, but the hustle never stops when you care about what you do! Can you give us a brief look into your reading and review process?
I prefer certain genres and sub-genres, but I don’t want to read only in those genres, on one hand because I don’t want to limit myself and reject possible wonderful books, on the other hand because I’m afraid that if I consume only one type of content, I will eventually grow tired of it. Also, I want to keep in touch with what’s being published, so to some extent I want to follow the trends, especially since my preferences are very niche – dark dystopias and supervillains.
I used to be a big mood reader, but I noticed that doesn’t apply anymore and nowadays I can pick up anything.
When it comes to reviewing, that’s something I have to be more consistent with – sometimes the words come easily and I review a book right after I finish it, other times I leave a sad “Review coming soon” and I come back to it after months, if not years (I’m not proud of that). Also, the reviews themselves are rather short – I admire people who write two-page long reviews on Goodreads.
Exploring different genres can be very eye-opening. When you read one category for so long, branching out allows us all to discover a ‘whole new world’ of literature (cue Aladdin song), beyond only the ‘popular’ reads. What are your thoughts on how the opportunity to promote books on Instagram has impacted the publishing industry?
When it comes to the publishing industry, Instagram is just another marketing platform – a very lucrative one I should add. Everything I’ve read for the past 5 years I’ve picked because I saw it first on Instagram.
Right? I hear about nearly all new releases while I’m scrolling. Which leads to our next question: you’ve recently collaborated with publishers to promote new releases such as The Ship of Shadows by Maria Kuzniar. How often do people get in contact with you to share the word about their book babies?
It varies from month to month, so I can’t give a clear answer to that, but often enough to have a long, long TBR, as my focus is to read everything I receive.
As a painfully slow reader myself, I sympathize with the struggle of a long TBR. It’s wonderful you’re intent on making time to read all the stories you receive! I understand Indie authors also reach out to bookstagrammers to get readers hype about their new releases. What’s it like being on an author’s street team for a new book?
It’s a big responsibility, especially when it comes to indie authors who don’t have a publishing house behind them. I can only imagine how difficult it is to do all the work on your own. If they come to me, it’s because they see value in what I can provide. I want to do a good job, I want them to be satisfied with the collaboration. That’s why it makes my day every time someone tells me they read a book because of me. It shows me that I don’t talk into a void, which I think is an artist’[s] biggest fear, no matter how successful they look from the outside.
I’m doing my best to continue the relationship even after the collaboration ends and to continue to support the author by sharing their book every time it comes into my way.
By the way, two of the best books I’ve ever read are indie: Villains Never Die by Nick DeWolf and Generation Manifestation by Steven Bereznai.
It’s so meaningful when content creators truly take the time to consider the value of the collaboration, and both parties work hard to make sure each other has a great experience! What advice would you give to bookstagrammers who are looking to start helping authors promote their work?
Excitement is contagious and word of mouth is powerful. There are a lot of things someone can do to support an author that don’t even cost money: leave a review, recommend the book, include it in your content, praise it.
Those are all great options; reviews are invaluable to authors, regardless of how long they are. As a member of Bookstagram for about a year now (wow! I’m definitely still a newbie), I’ve seen recent releases light up my feed as many accounts post them almost simultaneously. How do you think marketing on Bookstagram affects readers?
As long as there’s a disclaimer of the relationship between the content creator and the brand, I can only celebrate that people in the community pay their bills through this. I myself pay special attention to these type of posts from the content creators I follow and do my best to interact with their content even more to show support. I think these types of collaborations have become more normalized in the recent years and it all comes down how trustworthy the content creator is when promoting a book. Everything I’ve read for the past 5 years I saw first on Bookstagram and I got a lot of messages from people telling me that they read books because of me, so I’d say it works.
I’d have to agree! Instagram is a very visual platform, and publishers have always worked to make covers eye-catching. As much as I adore the look of limited editions, how can we as a community make sure we promote quality works over pretty covers?
That falls on the shoulders of the agents and of the editors in the first place. It’s in their interest to put quality content out there and for the most part they do their job wonderfully. If the standard drops, the demand will also.
As for the readers’ responsibility, that comes down to just being honest about their views on each book.
Transparency is key when it comes to building reliability as a reviewer, especially when your reviews go up in multiple places such as a blog, Goodreads, or Amazon. Speaking of which, I understand you recently started your BookTube channel? That’s a huge accomplishment! What are some of your takeaways on crossing between platforms and communities?
Each platform has certain characteristics and works differently for different people. I am, of course, more comfortable on Instagram at the moment. I’m more used to creating static content that fits this platform as opposed to having to talk in front of a camera, which requires a different set of skills.
Crossing between platforms is a difficult task, but it all comes down to being consistent and making people used to the fact that you have a presence on the new platform as well.
Finding your voice on any sort of social media does require consistency and skill development. In your TEDxTalk in December of 2019 (Congratulations, by the way!!), you focus on choosing to love and accept yourself, enjoy where you’re at in life, and truly go for what makes you, you. As writers, readers, and reviewers, what can we do reverse the ‘stigma’ and encourage others to embrace their own unique gifts that bring value to this world?
To lead through example. The road to self-love is a difficult one, but once you’re there, it’s unlikely you’ll ever go back. Self-doubts are normal, especially at a young age when you’re trying to find your place and you compare yourself to everyone and they all seem to do better than you, but I’m a strong believer that if you lean into what makes you special, you can leverage it to make a name for yourself. But it takes time and some pain to learn these lessons.
Carving your place in the world is a difficult process, but as you said, the lessons we learn along the way teach us to lean into who we are and who we want to become, and that is what helps inspire others beyond our platforms. Before we close the interview, I thought we could shake it up a little bit! What has been your favorite read of this year, and why?
My favourite read this year is quite uncharacteristic, since it’s the first time that the first place is being held by a comic book series, namely The Boys (the source material of the Amazon show with the same title). I love dark takes on the superhero genre and this was a realistic, gritty vision of how our capitalist world would look like if superpowered beings were real.
I have three other books on my BEST list of this year:
I’ve seen The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue all over the place! I’ve actually never read a V.E. Schwab book, so perhaps it’s time for that to change? Finally, where can someone contact you regarding future marketing or review partnerships, and do you have any submission guidelines people should know about (preferred publishing platform [traditional, Indie, or both], do you accept ARCS, any genres or content you do not read, etc.)?
I’m open to literally anything, even books that might not be up my alley at first glance. While I have my preferences, I don’t want to be trapped in a single genre, so I’ll take into consideration anything as long as my schedule allows it (this is really the only issue – to have time to get to each and every single one).
I can be found at sagan_elizabeth@yahoo.com.
I look forward to checking out your new content! Each of your posts are always so creative. Thank you again for taking the time to interview with me, and for letting us know where we can connect with you!
*You can find Elizabeth’s TEDxTalk mentioned above here.
Connect with Elizabeth:
For those of you looking to follow a truly stunning bookstagram and dare getting lost in captivating new stories, you can follow Elizabeth on social media! Check her out at the links below:
Firebirds,
What steps are you taking to help promote authors and support content creators in our industry? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
*Disclosure: This interview is not sponsored, and neither party receives compensation for this post. As of the original date of posting, I am not earning income from any links or collaborations.