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Bookinfluencers.com: 5 Years of Growth and Community
On January 6, 2026, we celebrated the Bookinfluencers.com 5-year anniversary, marking half a decade of connecting authors, publishers, and book lovers around the world through innovative book marketing campaigns. CEO Antina van der Veen reflects on the journey, from the launch in 2021, through challenges, team growth, and personal hurdles, to the thriving book influencer community we have today. This milestone is not just about the company’s success, but the stories, campaigns, and connections that make our community so special.
2021 – Launching the Company
For many people, January 6, 2021 is the day they remember because of the riots in Washington DC. But for me, it was the day I launched Bookstagrammers.com (now Bookinfluencers.com), a platform I had been building for months with a project manager in Amsterdam and a team of developers in Asia. Little did I imagine that today I’d be celebrating Bookinfluencers.com 5-year anniversary!
Building the Bookinfluencer.com Community
I can still remember the feeling of utter happiness when I saw that on day 1 alone, hundreds of creators created a profile and joined this new community. But was it all hosanna those first days? Certainly not! I learned a lot about the cultural differences within the community. Things that are very normal for a Dutch person turned out not to be for others. And of course, the community was eager to get started with campaigns but I still had to secure business. In hindsight, it might have been better to wait until we had a few campaigns ready before launching: but live and learn!
Connecting with Publishers and Early Clients
2021 was a steep learning curve. I tried launching a YouTube channel, but it didn’t take off. I reached out to major publishing houses, but initial interest often ended in silence. I even experimented with a webshop selling bookish products, which unfortunately wasn’t successful.
Despite these setbacks, there were bright spots. I came into contact with VIZ Media, a leading manga publisher in America. To this day, they are one of the company’s most important clients. By the end of summer 2021, more authors and publishers began discovering Bookstagrammers.com, and I started feeling confident about the company’s future.
2022 – Building a Team
In 2022, running everything single handed was taking a toll. I realized I needed support and decided to hire a freelance community manager. I posted a vacancy on LinkedIn and let the Bookinfluencers.com community know I was looking for support. My hope was to hire someone from within the community, and it worked! In May 2022, Paula joined the team.
But I had spoken to someone else who I thought was also very suitable for a role within Bookstagrammers.com. That was Kristin, and I invited her to become our campaign manager. She accepted, and suddenly, I had a dedicated team to help grow the platform and support creators.
Partnering with Tandem Collective
More and more fun campaigns and projects came our way. We collaborated with Tandem Collective on a campaign for Karin Slaughter’s latest thriller. Our French, Spanish, Scandinavian and Dutch creators took part in Nextory’s Booktok campaigns. We even organized a weekend away to promote a publisher’s new releases with a group of booktokers.
Rebranding to Bookinfluencers.com
With the rise of BookTok, it became clear that our original name, Bookstagrammers.com, no longer covered what we did. That’s why I decided to make a change. On October 3, 2022, we officially rebranded to Bookinfluencers.com, a move that set the stage for the community we celebrate today with our Bookinfluencers.com 5-year anniversary. You don’t want to know how much work has to take place behind the scenes for a change that seems so small!
2023 – Overcoming personal challenges
In 2023, we initially continued the upward trend. We welcomed a new team member: Maren. She came to my attention through the project Svenskabooktok, a Swedish collective of booktokers. She began by assisting Kristin with campaign management and later took on a larger role in the company’s sales and marketing efforts.
Lymphoma Diagnosis and the Team That Stepped Up
Scrolling through our Instagram account, I see that we were still happily announcing new campaigns in the spring of 2023. But behind the scenes, there was a lot going on for me personally. In April, I was diagnosed with lymphoma and faced severe treatment with a 50% chance of survival. During this time, my young team had to manage without me. Thankfully Naomi from Tandem Collective turned out to be a guardian angel. She stepped in as an invaluable support, guiding the team when needed and ensuring campaigns continued smoothly.
The team excelled under pressure, organizing the next edition of Boektokhouse and creating content for a meet and greet with author Lucy Score maintaining momentum for Bookinfluencers.com even during my absence.
By the end of 2023, my treatments were complete and I returned to work in the hope that the cancer would stay away. The year concluded on a positive note with a Christmas dinner with the Tandem Collective team in the UK, celebrating our resilience, teamwork, and the successes we achieved despite the challenges.
2024 – Growth, Events, and New Initiatives
Full of energy, we threw ourselves into the new year. We worked closely with indie authors and publishers to bring their books into the spotlight through our network of creators. The titles we had the opportunity to work on were increasingly diverse and high profile, including:
- Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang (The House of Books NL),
- Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury US),
- A Groom of One’s Own (Emma St. Clair),
- Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow (Blossom Books NL),
- Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings (Xander Publishers NL) and many more.
With Jenny’s arrival at the team, we professionalized our blog and newsletters. We set up an ambassador team that would help us bring new campaigns to the attention of a wider audience. And of course we also organized live events around recently published books.
Launching Challypop
Together with Naomi, I started ChallyPop that year, a website that hosts challenges about books, among other things. So much fun! As we celebrate the Bookinfluencers.com 5-year anniversary, and move towards ChallyPop’s second birthday, I reflected on how far we’d come: all major publishers are now among our clientele and I invite everyone to take a look. Who knows, there might be a fun challenge for you!
2025 – Slowing Down and Shifting Focus
When I look back on 2025, I realize that I have slowed down. I was happy to be alive, but my energy levels were low. In 2024 I had pretended that my body could handle everything like it did before I became sick and I had simply asked too much of myself. When my mother turned out to be terminally ill in early 2025, my priorities were again focussed on family, instead of Bookinfluencers.com.
During this challenging period, I also worked on a side project: a coloring book for readers. This creative outlet provided balance, mindfulness, and a welcome distraction, allowing me to stay connected to the literary community even while focusing on personal priorities. It was exactly what I needed at that moment.
Expanding Online Services and High-Profile Projects
In 2025, Bookinfluencers.com shifted focus from live events to online marketing services, leveraging our expertise to support authors and publishers in reaching wider audiences. Our TikTok advertising knowledge became a key asset, making us a trusted partner for campaigns across social media platforms.
Our projects included major titles such as
- Sparking Fire Out of Fate by Brigid Kemmerer (Bloomsbury US),
- Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (The House of Books NL)
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Atlas NL).
In addition, we became a go-to marketing partner for the new graphic novel publisher The Lab Press, which markets luxury graphic novels. These collaborations reinforced our position as a leading platform connecting authors, publishers, and book influencers worldwide.
2026 – Celebrating 5 Years and Looking Ahead
The New Year has only just begun and on January 6 we proudly celebrated the Bookinfluencers.com 5-year anniversary, marking half a decade of connecting authors, publishers, and book lovers worldwide. Bizarre. I am grateful that Bookinfluencers has built a solid foundation. That I can rely on a team of loyal employees who have a heart for the business and who can also manage very well without me.
I have made friends for life with the CEO of a company that many would consider our competitor. But why compete if you can be stronger – and have more fun – together? Collaboration and partnership have proven more valuable than competition.
Our continued success is reflected in the returning clients who trust us with their book campaigns and marketing projects. But above all, Bookinfluencers.com is proud to be part of a fantastic community of readers. Because our shared love for books is the foundation of everything we do!
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