Home / Sunday-mid-day / / Article /
Is Bookstagram going to the dark side?
Updated On: 05 May, 2024 08:30 AM IST | Mumbai | Sanjeevni Iyer
Once a hashtag that promoted reading, #bookstagram, aka book reviewers online, may have taken on a transactional turn, especially for authors and publicists
Listen to this article :
Recipes for Life suthor Sudha Menon says that what surprises her is that teenagers are reaching out to her with paid packages to review her books; Book reviewer Vidhya Thakkar, who has 25,000 followers on Instagram, says that the Bookstagrammer community must become collaborative instead of being competitive; Koral Dasgupta has been at the receiving ends of threats of bad reviews by bookstagrammers
Books are being reviewed based on what’s written on the back cover, without taking the effort of actually going through the story,” says Recipes for Life’s author Sudha Menon. “There is a myth that the more reviews your book gets, the more sales you garner. But in the end, your book gets sold only because it’s a good book.”
In 2024, when authors have to do their own marketing, and publishers and publicists rely on the author’s clout online and social media “buzz”, the #bookstagram and #booktok trends have become the order of the day, and the reviewers, kings and queens. But there is a wave that’s saying that some bookstagrammers may have got too big for their boots. Many authors and publicists are now feeling that “reading and reviewing” has taken on a transactional turn, with books being recommended based on the money paid by the authors/publishers, or as Menon said, just the synopsis on the back. “Sometimes, influencers threaten us that they will put up a bad review on Goodreads or Amazon if we don’t comply and pay, or bombard us with multiple rates and packages,” says Koral Dasgupta, the author of Kunti, the second book in the Sati series, published by Pan Macmillan India. Menon adds that what surprises her is the age of these reviewers, with most of them being teenagers or young adults between the age of 13-25. “Most of these intrusive and threatening comments are from teenagers who get quite defensive if we refuse to purchase their packages,” says Menon.
Read Next Story
Trending Stories
Latest Photos
Latest Videos
Latest Web Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
Mid-Day Fast
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT