Author: Corrine Pritchett

Seven LGBTQIA+ Booktokers to follow for Pride Month, and books they recommend

Posted on | by Corrine Pritchett


June is a time to be proud of who you were born to be, and to increase the visibility of LGBTQIA+ people in the world! We reached out to Booktokers to recommend books that represent the LGBTQIA+ community. Get your TBR lists out, these are perfect to read in honor of Pride month, and beyond!

Read By Fin: “My recommendation is Once & Future by Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta! It is a young adult sci-fi retelling of Arthurian legend! I loved the unique gender-bent world with casual LGBTQ+ representation! Filled with non-binary, lesbian, and queer characters, Once & Future tackles topics of climate change and what it means to be family. It is one of my favorite books that had me laughing out loud from the hilarious banter! With Black characters, queer characters, and more, Once & Future sets the bar for the inclusion and diversity we need to see in books today.”

Kevin T Norman: “My most recent favorite 5 star gay read was Less by Andrew Sean Greer. I even made this unique storytime TikTok convincing others to read it!”

Cityveinlights: “I would recommend More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera. I recommend this because it was one of, if not the first, book I read that had a gay main character. Aaron’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance is one that speaks true to many people. It holds a special place in my heart, and is one I try to read every year. The writing is gorgeous and the different representations, specifically the Latinx representation, is enough to grab anyone’s attention.”

Shania Chante1215: “I recommend A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth. It is a fantasy book consisting of furies, fae and faeries. It is about 4 queer teens: Vehan (a fae prince) who is bisexual, Aurelian (a guardian of the prince) who is gay, Arlo (half fae and half human outcast) who is queer, Nausicaä (a fury set on revenge) who is a lesbian. Who have to come together to solve a series of murders that risks the exposure of the faerie world to humans. This books includes a Titan who identifies as non-binary and uses gender neutral terms (they/them), and consists gender-neutral pronouns such as “Xe/Xis/xemself”. Vehan has strong feelings for his guardian (Aurelian), which are mutual, but Aurelian tries his hardest to keep his feelings a secret (from Vehan’s mother as well as Vehan) to protect Vehan from the control of his mother. Nausicaä has sworn off emotions after the death of her sister, but eventually learns to accept her emotions and be more open, whilst unexpectedly falling in love with the Arlo (the only one who is not afraid of Nausicaä‘s bad reputation).

The book is set in the 21st century, where the fae world co-exists with the human world (in secret), which allows the fae kind to take part in protests for LGBTQ+ rights and women’s rights etc.

There is a wide variety of LGBTQ+ representation within the book, which was greatly accepted within the society in the book. Which I loved because the main focus was not on the characters sexuality or sexual relationships being seen as taboo, but instead about the characters dealing with their feelings for each other (whilst trying to stop a serial killer). The story line of this book was so engaging that I couldn’t put the book down!!! I would definitely recommend this book, and I hope to see a sequel written (due to the cliffhanger).This books also covers issues of mental health such as depression, suicide and suicidal ideation.”

The Sequel Nobody Wanted: “My recommendations would definitely be The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. It’s a gorgeous graphic novel that follows a gay boy named Tién whose struggling to find the words to come out to his parents, because while they speak Vietnamese and struggle with English, he speaks English and struggles with Vietnamese. They end up communicating and spending time through fairy tales. It’s a story about how stories evolve to be what people need them to be. A language, a way to show acceptance or a way to learn things. It’s so brilliantly written, the art is gorgeous, and it quickly became one of my favourite books of all time after I finished it.”

The Laynie Rose: “My rec is gonna be Malice by Heather Walter! Reading this book felt like queering the narrative of my life and my childhood favorite fairytale: Sleeping Beauty. This sapphic retelling of the classic tale is magical and dark, perfect for those who love a good villain origin story. If you like seeing fairytales twisted on their head, queer retellings, and rooting for the villain, this book is for you!”

Emmm Reads: “My book recommendation: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. It is a gorgeously written book set in 1954 San Francisco, following a young Chinese girl as she discovers the lesbian bar scene, deals with the impacts of the Red Scare on her and her family, and falls in love with another girl.”

Eight BookToker Summer Reading Recommendations

Posted on | by Corrine Pritchett

Summer is fast approaching, and the warm weather has me wishing I permanently lived on a beach with a book in my hand. This list of summer reading recommendations from some of our favorite BookTokers is perfect to kickstart your summer reading list, so get ready!

  1. Nicole (@nicoleandbooks) starts our list off with: “A YA book I recently read called Melt My Heart by Bethany Rutter! This book is a perfect summer read as it takes place the summer before university, with the holidays vibes of the seaside, ice cream, friendship and romance! While being funny and cute it also has a great message of body positivity, loving yourself and figuring out who you actually love! Great fat rep and bisexual rep!
  2. Victoria (@thebasicbookworm) says: “My pick is my all-time favorite romance The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. This story follows Stella as she navigates dating, while also being on the autism spectrum. This book has the most lovable characters, a steamy romance, and great neurodiversity representation. Helen Hoang will make you cry, laugh, and swoon all at the same time, so The Kiss Quotient should be at the top of your TBR this summer!”
  3. Faith (@yabooktok) recommends: “Legendborn by Tracy Deonn! Legendborn is an own-voices YA fantasy based on Arthurian legends, with a hint of dark academia. I read this book last summer and it was phenomenal! It has mystery, magic, and it also explores important themes such as grief and racism, by highlighting many of the struggles faced by people of colour. It also features an amazing and diverse cast of characters, led by the badass Bree, who is very strong-willed and feels her emotions deeply. Plus, the love interests in this book, golden boy Nick, along with dark and mysterious Sel, are to die for! This is one of my favourite books of all time and I think you’ll love it too!”
  4. Fatima (@wanderbooks) highly recommends: “The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: “It’s a captivating, witty adult historical fiction with memorable characters and a WILD, mystery plotline that will have you on the edge of your seat. If you’re looking for a beautiful, melancholy ‘story within a story’ filled with drama, mystery and romance & just gorgeous, evocative writing all-round, try it out!!”
  5. Anny (@messermoony) says the perfect summer read is: “Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. It is an easy quick read and will immediately fill you with joy. It’s perfect to read out in the sun when you want a quick break and a comforting book. With Netflix adapting the books for screen soon, now is the perfect time to pick them up!”
  6. Lexi (@lexislibrary) says: “An awesome summer read is Sophie Gonzales’ newest novel Perfect on Paper. It’s a heartwarming Young Adult Contemporary packed full of lovable LGBTQ+ characters, witty banter, and adorable romance. It will make you laugh, it will make you smile, and it’s the “perfect” book to pick up this summer. Thank you so much for reaching out to me.”
  7. Erin (@erinreads) recommends a favorite series called: “The Mirror Visitor quartet, which was originally written in French! It takes place in a fantasy universe and follows the main character, Ophelia, who has the power to read objects’ histories by touching them and can travel through mirrors. She has to leave her family to be with her fiance, Thorne, who she was arranged to marry, and is faced with several dangers as a result. The magical plot is incredibly captivating, and the slow-burn romance between Thorne and Ophelia made my heart melt.”
  8. And lastly, as if the above recommendations weren’t enough, my recommendation is Summer Club by Katherine Dean Mazerov. The title hints that this novel is perfect for summer reading, and the story lives up to it. This hysterical, relaxed read has an ideal amount of excitement that keeps you constantly intrigued in the swim and tennis club antics at Meadow Glen. But apparently, dealing with club high jinks wasn’t enough for club president, Lydia. She also has to deal with a car following the club manager, a break-in at her home, and wait… a body in the river? Luckily as a former journalist, she’s perfect for the job!

Three Tips for Authors to Make the Most Out of “BookTok”

Posted on | by Corrine Pritchett

TikTok, or “BookTok”, as readers on the app call it, has had a massive effect on the reading community, to the point where even Barnes and Noble locations have BookTok stands in their stores for books that are trending on the app. BookTok has endless videos about all things books. You can find videos about favorite current reads, bookish trends that are going viral on the app, videos of towering TBR stacks, food and book pairings, or maybe even a feature about YOUR book!

No matter what the video is, lots of book lovers are flocking to BookTok, and Books Forward has 3 tips to help authors make the most out of it!

Post Consistently, Utilizing Trends and Saved Sounds

Posting everyday can get tedious–how do people come up with new ideas everyday? Well, a great feature on TikTok is the “saved sounds.” This means you save the audio from other people’s videos and use that audio file in your own video; that’s what our team at Books Forward did for this video. This helps with content ideas when you feel uncreative, and also gets you in on the action of trending sounds on TikTok. A lot of the time, trends on TikTok originate from saved sounds, meaning people all over the app are using the same sound and making similar videos with their own twist.

You do not have to post on TikTok everyday, because quality is still better than quantity. But TikTok does tend to reward accounts that are very active on the app, so if you have a bunch of video ideas, do not hesitate to post them!

Take Advantage of Hashtags

First of all, hashtags on TikTok are super convenient for helping people find exactly what they are looking for on the app. You can go to the search bar to find specific hashtags that interest you. A fan of romance books? Search #romancebooks and tons of videos with that hashtag will pop up for you to scroll through and interact with. So, if you are a romance author posting about your book, hashtag it with #romancebooks, or #romancebooktok in the description of your video, so that the video pops up in those hashtag sections for others to see. In fact, you can utilize any genre or hashtag that relates to your book (#yabooks #lovestory #historicalfiction, etc). Some other general hashtags you can use are #booktok, #bookish, #foryoupage, #fyp or #foryou. “For You” hashtags do not guarantee you a spot on the For You Page ( where basically all trending videos live), but it increases your chances!

Engage With Your Audience and Followers

BookTok is an active community of people who are genuinely interested in learning about new books to read. All. The. Time. They want to talk about books, look at books, post about books, cry over books, the list goes on and on! This is literally the IDEAL place for an author to be: interacting with people who love their genre. So what should you do? Talk to them! Play around in the #romancebooks (or whatever your genre may be) section of TikTok and find new people to follow! Comment on their videos, recommend books to them, engage with them! Not only does this help you build a genuine relationship with people in your fanbase, but it shows them that you are a real person who cares about your readership. If you build those relationships, chances are you will get follow backs and honest interest in the stories you write.

Do not get discouraged if your following does not grow overnight, because chances are it probably will not! Just remember to have fun talking about something all of us in the BookTok community are passionate about, the passion that started all of this: #books.

influencers

Influencer Marketing Tips and Tricks for Authors

Posted on | by Corrine Pritchett

The term “social media influencer” comes up often these days, though it is vague and meaningless to some people. Books Forward is here to help you find out who these people are, and how you both can work together!

Who are influencers?

Influencers are people who have a decent following on social media, full of an audience of people who are specifically interested in the influencer’s opinions on whatever topics or items it is they discuss. Some influencers are “fitness gurus” who post videos of workout plans, their healthy eating habits and fitness clothing brands they prefer. Other influencers post makeup tutorials and makeup brand preferences. In the book world, there is an entire community of influencers who make posts that center around books they love, books they are reading, books they are planning to read, books they bought six months ago but still haven’t had a chance to pick up, books with beautiful covers, books with sad endings. . . do you see the theme here? There is an entire social media world out there that focuses specifically on books. As an author searching for an audience, it is crucial and beneficial to tap into that!

What do influencers do?

All of the posts that influencers make on social media build their reputation on their platform. Twitter’s #BookTwitter, TikTok’s #Booktok, Youtube’s “Booktube” and Instagram’s “Bookstagram” accounts are popular platforms for booklovers to unite and discuss everything that is books. Twitter is a place where people typically discuss in-depth themes of books, while TikTok features aesthetically pleasing videos of bookshelves with books arranged by color, or book challengers for people to complete together. Youtube is a great place to find people talking through book reviews, and Bookstagram has beautiful, artsy pictures of books with thoughtful captions about the books featured.

Influencers with a large following are often sent book after book from many different publishers, so the books they decide are good enough to read, or have an attractive enough cover to post, hold significant value in the book world. However, large accounts can also be deceiving. Sometimes, sending your book to an account with a smaller following will garner just as many audience members because of engagement of posts and thoughtfulness in posts. People like to get an opinion on a book from somebody they trust, and when a well-respected influencer gives a raving review about a book on their account, it immediately gains leverage.

What Does This Mean for Authors?

This is the most important question, right? Why does this entire “book world” on social media matter? It just sounds like an outlet for people who are obsessed with reading, right? Well, that is right, and that is also why it is important for authors. Just like us, a lot of these influencers have their specific preferences. Maybe there’s one who LOVES historical fiction novels, or YA romance novels. If you are releasing your debut YA romance novel and manage to get an influencer to read and review your book positively, you now have a significant following of people listening. About YOUR book. Even if you only get the influencer to post a picture of your book, saying they are excited to read it, it gets your book in front of people who are potentially interested. You are tapping into a niche audience that was basically formulated for books like yours!

A lot of the time, influencers will be perfectly happy with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. A lot of bookstagrammers don’t post negative reviews so it depends on who you reach out to, but you basically send them the book for a post on their story, or a picture on their feed. Also they aren’t sent as many books as the bigger accounts and can be more thoughtful with posts.

Common Misconceptions

It is not always about the number of followers that a bookstagrammer has. If you get an influencer who has 100k followers to read your post your book, but your book is YA and the influencer prefers mystery books, the audience receiving the message is targeted to people who might not be interested in your book. It is best to find an influencer who’s brand lines up with yours, because the people representing your book are a reflection of it. You want people who support and appreciate your work as an author and your book’s genre. Accounts with smaller followings should not be cast aside because of their size; these accounts may look smaller but could have a high engagement level! This is something you should always consider when picking influencers to work with. Smaller accounts also don’t have as many books coming their way, and the chance of getting a review or post from them is higher. Reach out to a variety of followings, and focus on the branding of the individual influencer.

If you’re an author interested in using influencer marketing to promote your book, it’s important to have a solid understanding of how to work with publicists and other industry professionals. To help you navigate this complex landscape, check out our blog post on best practices for influencers working with publicists. You’ll learn valuable tips and tricks for building relationships, communicating effectively, and maximizing the impact of your influencer marketing campaigns. Whether you’re a seasoned author or just starting out, this post is a must-read for anyone looking to succeed in the competitive world of book publishing.