Social media beyond memes: 5 writers who would not be where they are without them
Thanks to platforms like Instagram and YouTube, these writers have reached from world fame to contracts with the most recognized publishers
Leer en español: Las redes sociales más allá de los memes: 5 escritores que no serían lo que son sin ellas
In 2017, Mediakix, a marketing agency for influencers, estimated that the average social media user spends 40 minutes a day on YouTube and 15 minutes on Instagram, which in the span of a lifetime becomes 1 year and 10 months watching YouTube, and 8 months scrolling down on Instagram. While most of us use that time to distract ourselves, even to avoid doing things we should be doing, some people learn to use these platforms, and end up with thousands of followers and contracts with publishers. These are 5 of them:
John Green – United States
Green is one of the best-known authors of fiction for young people, in part for his book "The Fault in our Stars", which in 2014 was adapted to film. In that same year, Green appeared on Forbes as one of the world's top-earning authors. "The Fault in our Stars" came out in 2012, and Green did not publish any more books until "Turtles All the Way Down", which came out in October of 2017, and which according to Publishers Weekly helped that the sales of the publishing industry raise 8% in the week it was released.
However, Green is also one of the YouTubers that has been on the platform the longest. With their brother Hank, they started making a daily video in 2007. Today they only do two a week, one each. They are comedy videos, discussions about topics that concern them, or even educational videos. Currently, they exceed 3 million subscribers. In addition to eleven years actively publishing on the platform, Hank and John Green created VidCon, the convention that is like YouTube's Comic-Con.
John Green does not usually talk about the link between his followers on YouTube and his editorial contract, but certainly for Penguin Random House, the publisher that carries his books, having 3 million potential sales with a high percentage of those 3 million insured is an advantage impossible to ignore.
Amalia Andrade – Colombia
Andrade is a Colombian writer and illustrator who published her first book, "Uno siempre cambia al amor de su vida [por otro amor o por otra vida]" (which translates to "One always changes the love of her life [for another love or for another life]") in 2015. Since then she has published two others, and has been picked up by Penguin Random House, so her work will be translated IGNORE INTO English; the first book translated is expected to be out by 2019.
Before having 3 books published on Planeta, the largest publisher that publishes books in Spanish, Andrade published drawings and stories on Instagram. She herself has said on several occasions that if it were not for her followers in this social network, the publisher probably would never have contacted her. Currently, Andrade has more than 96 thousand followers on Instagram.
May R Ayamonte – Spain
Ayamonte is a 22 year old Spanish woman and has published 6 novels. She started with self-publications and nowadays she has a contract with Planeta, who published her last 2 novels. In 2017 he published the novel "De Nadie" and "Besos entre líneas", which is a collaboration with Esmeralda Verdú. The other 4 are no longer available.
Ayamonte began her career on YouTube as BookTuber, a genre of the platform for people who do reviews and basically talk about books with their followers. Currently her channel exceeds 115 thousand subscribers. She talks about books for young people, and also writes for the same target audience.
Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs – United States
These writers, both responsible for different best sellers for young people and children, are a power couple of Instagram. Mafi is an Iranian-American who wrote the series "Shatter Me", a trilogy of dystopian romance, a very popular genre in young adult literature. Riggs is responsible for "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", a book that was adapted to the cinema in 2016.
Mafi has more than 98 thousand followers on Instagram and Riggs exceeds 88 thousand. They married in 2013 and upload many photos of their domestic life and their one-year-old daughter, which tend to be favorites for followers.
Latin American Post | Laura Rocha Rueda
Translated from "Las redes sociales más allá de los memes: 5 escritores que no serían lo que son sin ellas"
