A TikTok Influencer, A Cruise, and Some Books

What happens when a publisher sponsors a portion of an influencer's cruise?

Hi everyone,

I realize my paid and free editions are back-to-back this week. I’m working on a better editorial schedule for myself. The subject of today’s newsletter has been nagging at me, so I wanted to write about it and spark some discussion. As always, thank you for being a subscriber!

Let’s get into it.

The What:

Atria Books has paid for a TikTok influencer’s cruise. It’s not just any cruise but Royal Carribean’s “ultimate” 9-month world cruise. It spans 274 nights and visits 60 countries. The cost starts at $53,999 per person and can go up to $117,599, excluding taxes and fees, and passengers can join it for various legs. Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, covered the influencer’s costs for his 18-day leg of the cruise to promote a few of their titles. (There are conflicting messages about whether Atria paid for the entire 18 days)

The Who:

The influencer Atria is working with is Marc Sebastian. Here’s his profile on TikTok:

Obviously, 1.5M followers on TikTok is great, but curiosity got the best of me, so I went down the rabbit hole of his videos to get a sense of his vibe. The first one I saw that mentioned the cruise was posted on December 21, 2023, where he made a clear pitch for a brand to sponsor him for 18 nights for $7K. Five days ago, our friendly influencer disclosed that he is in a paid partnership with Atria Books and explained that he is not a reader (and therefore not on BookTok). He explains that his followers have to choose which book he should read because he is only reading one of them. Here are the books (sorry this is lo-fi…I am trying!):

The titles are You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi, Glossy by Marisa Meltzer (the only nonfiction choice), The Last One by Will Dean, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun, The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris, None of This is True by Lisa Jewell, and Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling.

It’s important to note that almost all the books were New York Times bestsellers, Editor’s Picks on Amazon, or selected for a morning show book club. The Other Black Girl ( a great read) was even made into a Hulu series. Most of the titles received good media coverage, and I had heard of all but one of them: The Last One by Will Dean.

The Book Chosen:

On Wednesday, our intrepid influencer announced to a group of penguins (The irony! Where is Penguin Random House?) that he’s hosting a book club tonight, Thursday, January 11, to discuss The Last One by Will Dean. Here’s a description of the book from Amazon (I emphasized the first sentence):

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.

Are we supposed to believe that TikTok followers conveniently chose a thriller that takes place on a cruise? Or that the only book that hasn’t received as robust coverage as the other titles were selected by coincidence? I wonder.

The Why:

I don’t begrudge Atria for collaborating with an influencer outside of BookTok for some branding and book promotion. I don’t understand why they chose to do it this way. What I mean by that is this: Many passengers on the same cruise are TikTok creators and are all competing for views. That means they are also chasing clout with their content. More than one media outlet has called the cruise “Social Media’s Newest Realty Show.” Here is one example. Several TikTok accounts post about the cruise, receiving hundreds of thousands of views.

Business Insider published a story about the influencer hired by Atria with the headline, A TikToker got hired to go on part of a 9-month-long cruise after he promised to find out all the 'hot goss' on board. Did you notice that the word “book” wasn’t mentioned in the headline? Me too. Nor was the title of the book he brought on the ship.

Media stories are starting to crop up about the “cast” of the 9-month cruise, which tells me that people are trying to be the Main Character. If you aren’t familiar with the Main Character, it is someone whose social media antics go viral for good or bad reasons. If you’d like to meet some of the “cast,” you can read about them in this Washington Post piece.

Okay, but really, why are you writing about this?:

I’m intrigued by Atria’s approach here. That said, I’m also a little uncomfortable with it. Sure, many comments mention how cool it is that a “brand” like Atria sponsored Marc Sebastian’s trip and stated they had no idea what Atria was until he spoke about it. I’d love to know how many copies of The Last One by Will Dean will sell during and after this campaign.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that what counts on TikTok are the views. If an influencer’s objective is to get a paid partnership to go on a leg of this cruise, there are usually terms in the influencer’s contract that specify how often they are required to post about the brand and where. For example, a brand could state that the influencer must produce three Instagram Reels, two TikToks, and five posts on an Instagram grid in exchange for payment. Having viewed several of Marc Sebastien’s TikToks, I can’t say I’m wowed by his ability to promote a book in a way that creates demand for it. He’s entertaining and funny, which is what people want on TikTok. Still, I noticed that his videos about the book had significantly fewer views than the ones where he showed viewers different aspects of the cruise and what was happening on board the ship.

What concerns me about this marketing campaign is that it was costly, the staff still doesn’t make a decent wage, and other authors who need a boost weren’t included in the pile of books Atria gave the influencer. Further, the content isn’t about the book. The content focuses on the influencer and his antics on the ship, as anyone would if they were trying to boost their engagement and views. Atria is being talked about, which is good from a branding perspective, but Will Dean is not being discussed (yet), and he’s the book's author at the center of this marketing campaign.

When beauty and fashion influencers promote products on social media, the brand they align with makes sense for their profile. Their followers want to buy the product because the influencer makes them feel like they have to have it. The content is aspirational. On BookTok, there are influencers whose enthusiasm for books oozes from every video. It is like playing connect the dots from brand and product to the consumer. That’s what Atria’s campaign with the influencer on the cruise is missing.

Hopefully, we’ll see more of Will Dean’s book on TikTok in the coming days. If not, this was an expensive experiment.

Leave your thoughts in the comments! Be respectful.

As always, topic suggestions go to publishingconfidential@gmail.com

Biz/interview inquiries go to kathleen@kmspr.com

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR ME:

I was on Brad Listi’s Otherppl podcast discussing my 2024 publishing predictions yesterday. You can listen here.

I also discussed book marketing and publicity on the Writers with Wrinkles podcast. You can listen here.

Don’t forget Book Therapy Fridays begin tomorrow for paid subscribers! An email will go out with the subject line: Book Therapy Thread. The idea is to create a community where paid subscribers can ask me questions about the publishing industry/process or anything related. I aim to make people feel at ease.