Books are my business: Bookouture publicity manager Jess Readett

With an Instagram account where she reviewed books Jess Readett realised her passion, so she got a job with a digital publisher and hasn't looked back since

Jess Readett also advises authors on media opportunities, organises events and attends festivals.

Jess Readett is publicity and social media manager at digital publisher Bookouture, part of Hachette. She is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

She also posts about books on Instagram at @idontbookwithyou

How did you get into publishing?

Books have always been a big part of my life. Growing up, I always wanted to be a writer, I thought I was going to be the next Jacqueline Wilson.

During lockdown, I was in a job that I liked but didn’t love. In my spare time, I started an Instagram account where I reviewed books and chatted about them. I realised I was so happy doing it and I thought I should start exploring publicity and marketing roles in that area. 

It was good timing because Bookouture were looking for a publicity executive, which I joined as. That was three or four years ago and I was promoted at the start of this year.

They took a chance on me as I hadn’t worked in the industry before but they could clearly see everything I was doing on social media.

Can you tell me more about Bookouture?

We are a global commercial fiction publisher. What sets us apart is the open submissions process — which means anyone can submit to us whether they have an agent or not. Our publishing is more accessible which means we attract some really interesting and fresh voices.

Also, because we are primarily a digital publisher, we can get data that other traditional publishers don’t have the means to collect, which allows us to make changes and make the process more precise.

What does your role involve?

There is a lot of focus in my role on creating content for social media. I also advise authors on media opportunities, organise events, attend festivals. There is such a variety that no day is the same.

I do everything I can to promote our authors and our books. With Bookouture being a digital publisher, we sell directly to readers rather than bookshops, so we focus on building reviews from the wider reading community. A lot of our work on social media focuses on people talking about the book in an organic way.

What social media platform works best in terms of book promotion?

Bookouture’s audience is largely made up of older women, a lot of whom are still on Facebook, which is big for us. One of our books, The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, did go viral on TikTok and got on the New York Times bestseller list. 

The power of TikTok is so interesting because once it latches onto a book…it can resurrect anything really, which is pretty impressive.

What do you like most about what you do?

Probably the variety in terms of the books and the authors I work with. We publish a book a day so I work on so many different books in a range of genres.

What do you like least about it?

Anyone who works in this industry is usually doing it because they love books. But because I love books so much, and they’re also a part of my free time as well, sometimes it’s hard to switch off. 

Especially working in social media, sometimes I will see something on my own social media, and think, ‘oh that would be cool for work’. It is something I have got better at but when I started, there was a lot of blurring the lines. That is the price you pay for doing something you care about.

Three desert island books

My first pick is Duck Feet by Ely Percy, which is just so different from anything else I’ve ever read. It is about a girl coming of age, written in Scots. The narrative voice is so strong and I have never laughed so much reading a book like that. 

My second is In Memoriam by Alice Winn, which is an amazing book. It made World War I seem so close and real, and I really connected with it. 

For my last one, I would pick a romantic comedy, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, which is also a book about books. Henry’s books are great for escapism and it’s good to read a happy book after reading a powerful, hard-hitting one.