How to find book influencers starts with your reader, not the creator. Write down who your book is for and which books they already love, then search BookTok, Bookstagram and BookTube for creators who rave about those titles. Check that their audience is real and in the right country, send a short personal pitch offering a free copy with no obligation to post, and make sure any post is disclosed the way US or UK rules require. This guide covers outreach: finding, vetting, pitching, gifting, paid deals and disclosure. For making your own videos, see our BookTok marketing guide.
It is for self-published and traditionally published authors running their own outreach. On 3 November 2026 we checked the disclosure rules on the FTC’s own pages and in the ASA/CAP/CMA influencers’ guide published on 23 October 2026, and the sales figures against the named data owners. TikTok’s and Instagram’s help pages would not load fully for our checker, so we describe their rules only as far as their published summaries go. We give no creator rates, because no creator publishes a price list we could verify. Instead we explain how to agree a fee.
Does BookTok still sell books in 2026?
Yes, and the evidence is better than it used to be, though most of it comes from Europe. TikTok reported on 19 March 2026 that books recommended on #BookTok sold more than 50 million copies across Europe in 2025, worth about €800 million, citing analysis by NielsenIQ BookData and Media Control. Secondary reports of the NielsenIQ data put UK BookTok-linked sales at 11 million, about 6% of the market (Books+Publishing, April 2026). Those are company-supplied figures, so read them as a strong signal rather than an audit.
The European and UK figures come from TikTok's announcements of its data partners' analysis. We found no verified US BookTok-only figure for 2025.
The US picture is cooler. Publishers Weekly, citing Circana BookScan, reported about 59 million print sales tied to BookTok in 2024. In 2025, US adult fiction print units grew just 1%, and fantasy fell 8.7% (Publishers Weekly, 9 January 2026). We found no verified US BookTok-only figure for 2025.
TikTok’s US future is settled for now. The TikTok USDS Joint Venture closed on 22 January 2026, with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX as the largest investors (Variety), and the recommendation system is being retrained on US data. Our inference, not a reported fact: the US feed may drift from the global one, so pitch US creators for US readers and UK creators for UK readers.
Define the reader before you look for a creator
Creators read their own audience better than anyone. If you can’t say who your book is for, they can’t either. Before you search, write four things down: your genre and age band (adult, YA or middle grade), two or three comparison titles, two or three tropes, and the country where most of your sales will happen.
Then write one “reader promise” sentence. Take a made-up example, a cosy mystery debut set in Bath: “For readers who loved The Thursday Murder Club: a retired cake-shop owner, a suspicious death at a Bath tea room, and a village full of people who think they can solve it first.” That sentence becomes your search terms, your pitch and your one-page sheet.
Find book influencers on BookTok, Bookstagram and YouTube
Searching #booktok gets you the biggest accounts, who are the least likely to reply and often the wrong fit. The better answer to how to find book influencers is to search for your comps and tropes instead. On TikTok and Instagram, search “Thursday Murder Club” or “cosy mystery recommendations” and note who made the videos with real comments. On YouTube, search the same terms plus “review” or “wrap-up”. Look at who the creators you like follow, stitch and duet: book communities cluster.
- 1Define
Reader promise and three comp titles
- 2Find
Search comps and tropes; check who those creators follow
- 3Vet
Median views, real comments, country, disclosure habits
- 4Pitch
Short, personal, no obligation to post
- 5Send
Their preferred format, with a one-page sheet
- 6Measure
Unique link, post-day sales, newsletter sign-ups
- Comp authors’ tagged posts. Open the tagged posts on your comp authors’ Instagram accounts. Those are readers who already post about books like yours.
- Reading lists and “if you liked” videos. These creators think in comps, which makes your pitch easy for them.
- Beyond video. Book podcasters, newsletter reviewers and book bloggers count too, and often reply more.
- Platform tools. TikTok replaced its Creator Marketplace with TikTok One in 2025 (TechCrunch, 27 February 2025). YouTube launched Creator Partnerships in YouTube Studio in March 2026, using Google’s Gemini AI to help advertisers find creators (YouTube Official Blog). Meta runs a creator marketplace through Meta Business Suite in some countries. These are built for paid campaigns. For gifted copies, manual search works better.
Keep a simple tracker: name, platform, link, follower count, median views, country, the specific post you’ll mention, date pitched, reply, date sent, date posted. Twenty well-chosen names beat two hundred scraped ones.
Vet the creator (ten-minute check)
Ten minutes per creator saves you sending books into the void. Look at the last ten posts, not the one that went viral. Median views tell you more than followers. Read the comments: are people talking about books, or is it emojis and “nice post”? Check the creator reads your age band, and that their audience is mostly in the country where your book sells.
Fit
Real audience
Professional signals
Your tracker
Then look for professional signals. Do they have a review policy or a contact route in their bio? Do they already disclose gifted and paid posts? That shows they’ll handle yours properly. Red flags include sudden follower jumps with flat views, and anything that looks like AI-generated “reader reaction” content. Instagram announced on 31 August 2026 that it will limit the reach of undisclosed AI-generated profiles (TechCrunch), and an AI “reader” can’t give you a genuine opinion anyway.
Write a pitch they’ll actually read
Keep it under about 150 words. Use their name and mention one specific video or post. Give your reader promise, offer formats with no obligation to post, and make it easy to say no. Don’t send attachments in a first message, and use the contact route the creator asks for: email, a form, or DMs.
- Right channel
Use the contact route in their bio: email, form or DMs only if they say so.
- Subject line
[Title]: for fans of [their recent pick]. Specific beats clever.
- Proof you watch them
Name one video or post and what they said about it.
- Reader promise
One sentence: genre, trope, comp, and what the reader feels.
- The offer and an easy no
Print, ebook or audio; no obligation to post; please mark it #ad; 'if it's not for you, no reply needed'.
- Sign-off
Your name and one link. No attachments in a first email. Follow up once, then stop.
Here is a weak pitch: “Hi! I’m an indie author and my book is a great read for anyone who loves mysteries. Can you review it on your channel? It’s on Amazon now. Thanks!” It could go to anyone, it asks for a review, and it gives no reason to care.
And a better one:
Subject: The Crescent Tea Room: for fans of your Thursday Murder Club video
“Hi Priya, your video ranking cosy mysteries by how much tea gets drunk made me laugh, and you were right about the vicar. I’ve written a cosy mystery set in Bath, out 12 February: for readers who loved The Thursday Murder Club, with a retired cake-shop owner and a suspicious death at a tea room. Would you like a free copy? I can send print, ebook or an audio code. There’s no obligation to post. If you do, please mark it as an ad, as the book was free. And if it’s not for you, no reply needed. Best, Anna.”
It shows she watched, says what the book is in one line, offers choice, sets out the disclosure, and lowers the pressure.
Send the book, then follow up once
Knowing how to find book influencers is half the job; the other half is what arrives in their post. Send the format they asked for. If you’re sending ebook review copies, a delivery service with secure ARC links and watermarking cuts the risk of piracy. BookFunnel offers both, starting on its Mid-List plan rather than its cheapest one (BookFunnel pricing; check the current price). With the book, include a one-page sheet: cover, reader promise, release date, buy links, content notes and your contact details.
Our suggestion, a common practice rather than a rule: follow up once, two to three weeks after sending, with a short friendly note. Then stop. Many creators won’t post, and silence is normal. If someone posts a bad review, thank them or say nothing. Never argue in public, and never ask them to take it down.
Paid partnerships, affiliates and TikTok Shop
Most guides on how to find book influencers stop at the gifted copy. Pay when you want a guaranteed post, a set date or the right to reuse the content, which a gifted copy can’t promise. Ask for a rate card and compare like with like. Check the deliverables (one video or three, Stories included?), the dates, usage rights, whether you can boost it as a partnership ad, exclusivity, and whether a link is included. For what other parts of a campaign cost, see our guide to how much book marketing costs.
Put the deal in writing. A short brief should cover: deliverables and dates; the disclosure you need and the platform toggle; your right to see the post before it goes live; usage rights and how long they last; payment terms; and a line saying the creator’s opinion is their own. You pay for the post, never for the verdict. Making a fee or a free copy depend on a positive review breaks the FTC’s review rule and UK law.
Affiliate links let a creator earn a share of sales instead of, or as well as, a fee. TikTok Shop is now a real channel for books in the UK: ChannelX reported in July 2026 that the UK books category grew more than 250% year on year, with the biggest UK publishers selling there (ChannelX, 8 July 2026), though those figures were supplied by TikTok. We could not confirm a dedicated US books category or US affiliate thresholds, so check TikTok Shop Seller Center for your country.
If you’d rather not run outreach yourself, The Bookish Elf sells marketing services to authors, so we have an interest to declare: see our book marketing services.
Disclosure rules for authors in the US and UK
In both countries, a free book is a form of payment, and the author counts as the brand. The FTC puts it plainly: “Your company is ultimately responsible for what others do on your behalf.” So the disclosure belongs in your pitch and your brief, not left to chance.
United States (FTC)
- Does a free book count?
- Yes: it's a material connection
- Free copy only
- 'Gifted by [Author]' can be enough; a bare 'gifted' is too vague
- Paid post
- 'Ad' or 'Advertisement', said and shown in video, plus the platform's paid-partnership label
- Who is responsible
- The creator and the author, as advertiser
- Asking for a positive review
- Banned: no reward conditioned on sentiment (FTC rule, 2024)
United Kingdom (ASA / CMA)
- Does a free book count?
- Yes: it counts as payment, even unsolicited and with no obligation
- Free copy only
- Label it '#ad' upfront; the ASA advises against 'gifted' alone
- Paid post
- '#ad' upfront, plus the platform label; avoid 'sponsored'
- Who is responsible
- The creator, the author as brand, and any agent
- Asking for a positive review
- Banned: fake or concealed incentivised reviews (DMCC Act, 2025)
Which fits you If your readers are in both countries, ask for '#ad' upfront: it satisfies both.
- US. The FTC’s Disclosures 101 says to put the disclosure in the post itself, where people can’t miss it, not in the bio or lost in hashtags. In video, it should be said and shown. “Ad”, “advertisement” and “sponsored” work. For a free copy only, “Gifted by” plus your name should be enough; a bare “gifted” is likely too vague.
- UK. The ASA/CAP/CMA influencers’ guide (23 October 2026) treats a free product as payment even if unsolicited, with no obligation to post. Label it upfront with #ad or similar. The guide advises against “gifted”, “collab”, “PR” and “sponsored” as labels. The CMA can now fine directly under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.
- TikTok. TikTok asks creators to switch on its content disclosure setting for brand-paid content, which adds a “Paid partnership” label, and says the label doesn’t affect how TikTok recommends the post (TikTok Ads Help).
- Instagram. Instagram asks creators to use its paid partnership label to tag the brand in branded content (Instagram Help Center). The FTC says a platform tool alone may not be enough, so the creator should also write the label.
- Never buy reach. Don’t buy followers or views for yourself or for a creator. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials (16 CFR Part 465, in force since 21 October 2024) bans buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence, such as bot followers or views (FTC, 14 August 2024).
How to measure what a creator post did
Attribution for books is fuzzy, so use several rough signals rather than hunting for one perfect number. Give each creator a unique link with a UTM tag, or a creator-specific discount code if you sell direct. Note the post date and watch your sales rank and ebook sales over the following days. Count newsletter sign-ups from the link. Amazon also offers an Attribution tool to its advertisers for tracking clicks from outside Amazon.
Judge creators over a launch, not a single post. The one who sends twenty real readers to your newsletter may be worth more than the one with the most views. For where creator outreach fits in a full launch, see how to promote a self-published book, and for Instagram specifically, our guide to Bookstagram for authors.
What changes in 2027
Here is what is announced and where we think it leads. Speculation is labelled.
- A retrained US TikTok (announced). The joint venture is retraining the recommendation system on US data. Our speculation: US and non-US BookTok may diverge, so matching creators to your sales country matters more.
- AI-assisted creator search (announced). YouTube’s Creator Partnerships uses Gemini to help brands find creators, with automatic creator suggestions promised for later, and TikTok One is built for brands to find creators. More of how to find book influencers will happen inside these tools, and creators who opt in become easier to find.
- Social commerce for books spreads (watch). TikTok Shop’s UK books category is growing fast. A US books category isn’t confirmed, so don’t plan a US launch around it yet.
- Tougher UK enforcement (announced). With direct CMA fines and the October 2026 guide naming “gifted” as a weak label, expect authors, as the brand, to be held to account alongside creators.
- Vetting for real readers (our inference). As AI-made “reader” accounts spread and platforms label them, checking that a creator is a real person who reads becomes a core step.
FAQ about how to find book influencers
How do I contact BookTok influencers?
Use the contact route in their bio, usually an email address or a form, and only DM if they say DMs are fine. Mention a specific video, keep it under about 150 words, and offer a free copy with no obligation to post.
How do I get my book reviewed on BookTok?
Find creators who already post about your comp titles and tropes, vet them, and pitch them a free copy with no strings. Expect many not to post, so pitch a well-chosen list rather than one or two big names.
Do I have to pay book influencers?
No. Most author outreach is gifted copies with no obligation. Pay only when you want a guaranteed post, a fixed date or reuse rights, and put the deal in writing.
Can I ask for a positive review in exchange for a free copy?
No. Making a free copy or a fee depend on a positive review breaks the FTC’s 2024 review rule and UK law. Offer the book with no obligation and accept whatever the creator thinks.
What should a book influencer write when I send a free copy?
In the UK, #ad upfront, because the ASA advises against “gifted” alone. In the US, “Gifted by [your name]” can be enough, so if readers are in both countries, ask for #ad.
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