Should Authors Really Pursue Influencers?

 

 

Authors ask me all of the time about getting their books to online influencers. I tell them that most influencers get paid — and are not worth it when it comes to marketing books. But they still romance about the notion of having someone with supposedly tons of followers saying something positive about their book.

I never liked the word “influencer.” It implies something or someone to be powerful, but not necessarily with merit or justification. It sounds like a power grab: “He has influence.” To do what? Lie? Persuade? Get others to do something they don’t need or should not otherwise want to do?

Influence is merely a perception online, based on a numbers game that could be rigged and riddled with fakery and paid-for popularity.

Anyone famous — celebrities, major CEOs, actors, award-winning musicians, best-selling authors, politicians — has influence. They have fans, voters, subscribers, and customers who will listen to them because something about who they are, what they have accomplished, or what they say actually resonates with others and rings true. They are actually influencers.

Then you have the influencers out there who have manipulated the online world to not only bestow a title upon themselves, regardless of worthiness, and who then commoditize their alleged following into a business of “influencing” others.

Influencers are pay-to-say marketing escorts — these are commercials. They tell people what you want them to say, just like a guy would pay a prostitute to say he is a great lover while he does what he wants to her with no regard for how it makes her feel.

These endorsements are just commercials passed off as something real and pure. And to keep their brand secure, they will present any number of messages and images to desperately keep you hooked. It is little more than a staged persona.

Influencers are little more than whores who will screw the public for the highest bidder. They are the modern-day Big Tobacco Capitol Hill lobbyists and the pretty models who would traffic any product or service no matter how unproven or harmful it is to the public.

Why not just call online influencers lobbyists or muscle? Or escorts or hoaxers? All would be true.

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,800,000 page views. With 5,500+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum