Argentina’s well-read influencers | 博览群书的阿根廷社交媒体红人

文摘   文化   2024-06-25 19:21   法国  


文学界的社交媒体红人受到成千上万青年读者的热情追捧,他们在社交媒体上分享自己喜爱的读物,成为青少年图书出版业的重要人物。

纳塔利娅·派斯
Natalia Páez

阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯记者



2014年畅销书《移动迷宫》(Labyrinth)三部曲的作者詹姆斯·达什纳(James Dashner)抵达著名的布宜诺斯艾利斯国际图书博览会时,受到了摇滚明星般的热烈欢迎。数百名年轻粉丝手里拿着书,在现场等待作家莅临,险些引发一场骚乱。


通常用来举办图书签售会的空间很快就变得不够用了,等待作者签名的队伍一直排到了大街上,最后一批人直到凌晨两点才离开。据博览会组织者回忆说,自从美国科幻小说作家雷·布莱伯利(Ray Bradbury)1997年造访博览会之后,就再也没有见过如此盛况了。但与上次不同的是,这次引起轰动的是一位儿童文学作家。

 ©  Boris Séméniako   



宠儿

十年过去了,在社交媒体的助力下,人们对青少年小说的热情丝毫没有消退,反而日趋高涨。阿根廷出版协会的数据显示,2022年上半年,青少年文学作品的销量增加了近50%。取得这一成绩在很大程度上要归功于文学界的社交媒体红人在最受欢迎的平台上分享自己喜爱的图书。阿根廷有大约4000名“图书网红”,他们大多是年轻人,拥有大量粉丝。

以维多利亚·雷斯科(Victoria Resco)为例。年仅21岁的维多利亚在抖音(TikTok)上拥有不下140万粉丝,她发的帖子可以获得多达5840万个“赞”。2020年7月,世界尚处在疫情期间,维多利亚发布了第一个帖子,当时她只有17岁。此后,维多利亚凭借自身努力,成了一名成功的作家,出版了《纸王国》(Reino de papel),这本书自然也在她自己的社交媒体账户上进行了宣传造势。维多利亚说:“如今每个作家都必须在社交媒体上露面。”

出版商适时认识到了这批新锐批评家——还有他们那些庞大得吓人的粉丝群——的价值。维多利亚·雷斯科向我们证实:“出版商推出新书的时候,往往会要求我们帮忙宣传推广。”就连出版商自己也承认,社交媒体改变了游戏规则。美国出版社企鹅兰登书屋的市场营销主管萨拉·德安吉洛(Sara D’Angelo)是这样解释的:“话题标签#booktok的浏览量超过500亿次,它彻底颠覆了出版界。在企鹅兰登书屋,我们与一些社交媒体红人合作,他们发表的书评能够迅速爆红。”


从虚拟到现实

文学界社交媒体红人的崛起还促使布宜诺斯艾利斯国际图书博览会设立了青年活动委员会,成员包括出版商和“图书社交媒体红人”的代表。2015年,博览会下设的青年项目“青年运动”(Movida Juvenil)举办了第一届Youtube图书博主(Booktubers)国际会议。

布宜诺斯艾利斯国际图书博览会负责人埃塞基耶尔·马丁内斯(Ezequiel Martínez)说:“这种现象始于社交媒体,现在已经从虚拟世界跨入了图书博览会和出版社,后者开始雇用这些年轻人,并与他们合作。这不仅说明图书没有消亡,也表明了年轻人是让图书保持活力的原动力。” 

“图书没有消亡,年轻人是让图书保持活力的原动力”

从最初的一群博主,到现在发展成为日渐庞大的数字内容创作者群体,许多社交媒体红人都与青少年图书出版社有过接触,他们当中的一些人现在负责向年轻读者推广图书。

人称“梅丽”的梅丽萨·科贝托(Melisa Corbetto)从16岁起就在网络上宣传自己喜欢的作家,后来又转战照片墙(Instagram),用图片做宣传推广。此后,她又转到屏幕前工作,入职了一家出版社。现年33岁的梅丽萨是阿根廷最受欢迎的出版社V&RYA(V&R出版社旗下的青年读物分社)的编辑主任,负责发掘青年才俊。梅丽萨说:“我们出版了一些新人作家的作品,他们的写作风格与社交媒体上的年轻人如出一辙,这些书在商业上大获成功。”


创纪录的签售会

31岁的利奥·泰蒂(Leo Teti)也是一位早期文学社交媒体红人。他住在巴塞罗那,现任天王星国际(Urano World)集团的国际编辑总监。这家出版社推出过美国作家谢尔比·马胡林(Shelby Mahurin)的作品,她至今还保持着一项纪录——在布宜诺斯艾利斯国际图书博览会上连续72小时签名售书!不过,今天的粉丝真的会成为明天的读者吗?利奥·泰蒂认为是这样的:“我很高兴看到社交媒体红人现在开始关注成人小说甚至更多的文学作品了,他们的书评能够迅速走红,都是因为这些年轻人也同样爱看书。” 

诚然,社交媒体通常关注功成名就的作家,而且往往是英语作家。不过,年轻人对图书的热情也让西班牙语作家受益,只是程度稍逊。利奥·泰蒂说:“我在西班牙生活快三年了,可以看到本土青年文学作家拥有大批读者。”

墨西哥瓜达拉哈拉图书博览会是率先针对青少年读者开展活动的文学盛会。在上一届博览会上,抖音设立了自己的展台。这项著名展会的传播总监马里诺·冈萨雷斯(Mariño González) 解释说:“建立这种合作关系是很有帮助的。我们在2023年发放了2113张媒体采访证,其中20%都给了内容创作者。”

内容创作者对销售情况起到决定性影响,他们在博览会上风光无限也就不足为奇了。阿根廷行星出版社(Grupo Planeta)营销和传播总监玛丽亚·埃斯托姆巴(María Estomba)说:“西班牙作家爱丽丝·卡伦(Alice Kellen)在2022年创造了奇迹,她在商业上的成功离不开文学界社交媒体红人的鼎力支持。”不过,这些“图书网红们”依然保有编辑自由,谁也无法保证一定能得到他们的支持。玛丽亚·埃斯托姆巴警告说:“他们同样有能力毁掉自己不喜欢的书和作者。” 

年轻一代出生在一个充斥着各色屏幕的世界里,但他们并没有像一些人预想的那样放弃阅读。他们其实还是挺喜欢纸质书的。曾经担任过四年V&R出版社负责人的马塞拉·卢扎(Marcela Luza)说:“年轻人喜欢带有地图、护封、书签的图书……你可能会认为他们喜欢利用电子媒介来阅读,但其实他们通常更喜欢读纸质书上的故事。”

布宜诺斯艾利斯国际图书博览会“青年运动”负责人克里斯·阿勒曼尼(Cris Alemany)认为青年人的阅读习惯呈现出混搭风格:“在走进图书博览会的近百万参观者当中,一半以上都是年轻人,他们为青少年图书行业的未来前景带来了荣耀和希望。”





Argentina’s well-read influencers


Followed by thousands of young readers, literary influencers have become key players in teen publishing, sharing their favourite reads on social media.

Natalia Páez

Journalist in Buenos Aires, Argentina




In 2014, when James Dashner, author of the popular Labyrinth trilogy, arrived at the celebrated Buenos Aires International Book Fair (FIL), he was greeted like a rock star. Books in hand, hundreds of young fans were waiting for him, causing a near riot. 


The space usually set aside for book signings quickly turned out to be too small, with queues stretching into the street – the last people left at 2 a.m. As far as the book fair’s organizers could recall, nothing like this had been seen since the American science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, visited in 1997. The difference was that, this time, it was a children’s author causing the stir. 


Favourites


Ten years on, boosted by social media, the passion for teenage fiction shows no sign of fading. On the contrary, in fact. This success owes much to the literary influencers who share their favourite books on the most popular platforms. There are almost 4,000 of these “bookfluencers” in Argentina, often young themselves, and with a very large following.  


Take Victoria Resco for example. Aged just 21, she has no fewer than 1.4 million followers on her TikTok account, while her posts can receive as many as 58.4 million “likes”. Her first post dates back to the pandemic, in July 2020, when she was just 17. Since then, she has become a successful author in her own right, with the publication of Reino de papel (Paper Kingdom), a book that, of course, she promoted on her account. “These days, every author has to have a social media presence,” she says.


Publishers have not failed to understand the value of these budding critics, with their vertiginous lists of followers. “When they publish a new book, they regularly ask us to promote it,” confirms Victoria Resco. The publishers themselves admit that social media has been a game-changer. “The hashtag #booktok, which has over fifty billion views, has revolutionized the publishing world. At Penguin Random House, we work with influencers whose reviews go viral”, explains Sara D’Angelo, head of marketing at this American publisher.


From virtual to real


The rise of literary influencers has also prompted the Buenos Aires Book Fair to set up a commission for youth activities, which includes representatives from publishers and bookfluencers. In 2015, Movida Juvenil (the Fair's youth programme) organized its first International Booktubers’ Meeting.


“The phenomenon started on social media and has now moved from the virtual world to the book fair and to publishers, who have started to employ these young people and to work with them. This not only shows that the book is not dead, but that young people are the ones keeping it alive,” says Ezequiel Martínez, director of FIL in Buenos Aires.


“Not only is the book not dead, but young people are the ones keeping it alive”


What started as a group of bloggers is now a growing string of digital content creators. Many of the influencers have been approached by youth book publishers, and some are now heading up collections for young readers.


Melisa Corbetto, known as “Meli”, is one of those enthusiasts who, from the age of 16, promoted her favourite authors online and then on camera on Instagram. She then moved to the other side of the screen and joined a publishing house. Now, at the age of 33, she is Editorial Director of V&RYA (the youth collection at V&R), one of the most popular in Argentina, where she seeks out young talent. “We have published emerging authors who write in the same vein as the young people on social media, and the books have been a great commercial success,” she explains.


Record signing session


Leo Teti, 31, is another of the early literary influencers. Based in Barcelona, he is now International Editorial Director of the Urano World group, whose catalogue includes American author Shelby Mahurin, who holds the record for a book signing at FIL in Buenos Aires – seventy-two hours straight! But are today’s fans really the readers of tomorrow? Leo Teti thinks so. “I’m delighted to see that influencers are now also interested in adult fiction and even in more literary works. And their reviews still go viral, thanks to all these young people sharing their passion for books,” he says.


Admittedly, social media generally focus on established authors, usually writing in English. But young people’s enthusiasm for books is also benefiting Spanish-speaking writers, albeit to a lesser extent. “I’ve been living in Spain for almost three years now,” says Leo Teti, “and I can see that there’s a huge audience for local authors of youth literature”. 


The first literary event to launch activities for young readers was the Guadalajara Fair in Mexico. At its last salon, TikTok had a stand of its own. “This alliance has been very beneficial. Out of 2,113 media accreditations in 2023, 20 per cent were from content creators,” explains Mariño González, Communications Director of this prestigious trade fair.


It’s not surprising that content creators now occupy a prominent place at trade fairs, given their decisive impact on sales. “One of our great prodigies in 2022 was Spanish author Alice Kellen. The work of literary influencers was fundamental to her commercial success,” says María Estomba, Marketing and Communications Director for Grupo Planeta Argentina. But bookfluencers still retain their editorial freedom, and their support is not guaranteed. “They can also demolish a book or an author that they don’t like,” warns María Estomba. 


Born into a world of screens, the younger generation has not turned its back on reading, as some had predicted. In fact, they are still very much in favour of paper books. “Young people like books with maps, dust jackets, bookmarks... Contrary to what you might think, they generally prefer to read stories on paper, rather than on a digital medium,” says Marcela Luza, who was head of the V&R publishing house for four years. Cris Alemany, head of Movida Juvenil at the Buenos Aires Book Fair, paints a picture of a young generation with hybrid habits. “At the Fair, over half of the nearly one million visitors are young people. This is a source of great pride and hope for the future of books for young people.”






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