How Many People Do You Influence?

 

Authors are seeking cost-efficient shortcuts to getting book sales, and one of their go-to ideas is to get an influencer to discuss their book. The only problem there is that you often have to pay such a person, should he or she agree to work with you. The other challenge is selecting the right influencer and finding a way to reach them.  

How do you know: 

* If their connection numbers are legit? Maybe these numbers were purchased or are fake.

Even if their numbers are legit, how current and active are they? People who followed them two years ago may not really follow anymore but they never disengaged from the connection. 

* If such numbers will yield enough sales of your book to justify their fee? One can have a lot of followers but how many will buy your book?   

* If they are a good brand match for you? Are their followers similar to the demographics of your readers?  

* What you want them to do for you? Determine how to best utilize the influencer. Will they share something that you created? Will they post multiple times on multiple platforms?  

Maybe what you need to do is build your own brand up and look to see how many people you can influence. Perhaps you are really capable of being the influencer that you hope to find and whom you feel will rescue you.  

Feed a hungry man a fish for the day, and you satiate his empty belly once. Teach him how to fish once, and he can feed himself forever. That is a paraphrase of a famous quote, but you get the sentiment. It is applicable to book marketing.  

If you invest in an influencer, it is a one-time event, but if you become the influencer, you can be in charge of your destiny. Before you look to someone else to make you a known entity, try to become one yourself.  

How?  

Do what these influencers did or do — create content that evokes a reaction. Say crazy stuff, do funny things, and be interesting. So many influencers got lucky because one of their posts or videos went viral. Then they feed of that and seek to appear to be an authority or expert, but really, they are just people who got lucky.  

Yes, some patterns emerge. The young and good-looking rule the Net. Being in beautiful places helps too. But at some point, you need good content that gives people a reason to pay attention and to keep returning. Are you motivational? Funny? Smart? What can you offer others by way of advice, entertainment, information, or inspiration?  

It is not easy, otherwise every writer would do it, but it is also not impossible and many more than you think can become influential. It requires nothing more than initiative, a smart phone, and an idea. You don’t have to buy anything, go anywhere, or hire anyone. No permission is needed and there are no requirements attached to this.   

Write, film, orate, photograph, or draw your way to fame. It is a blank canvas. How will you color it in? 

No boundaries. No limits. Only those that you put upon yourself.  You can start right now. 

You should.

 

“The relationships we have with these books can be complicated. For one thing, we don't read them out of choice. They are imposed upon us by a range of forces beyond our control, by the decisions that teachers and exam boards make on our behalf. They might not be books we'd have chosen to read independently; they might not even be books we like. We can't just curl up with these books and enjoy them: we have to answer questions on them, make notes and write essays, revise them for exams. They make other demands of us, as well. We encounter them at a crucial stage in our development, when our identities are being formed and the world is starting to seem more complex and various than it did before. They can spark arguments and frustration.

 

“They might be loathed from the bottom of our hearts, thrown in exasperation across our teenage bedrooms, but they might equally, at times, hold our hands and help us to feel less alone. On occasion, they might lead us to look at life in a completely different way.”

— Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter by Carol Atherton

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 8,200,000 page views. With nearly 5,700+ posts over the past 15 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 2026, 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) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). 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, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, 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