One social media platform keeps appearing in AI citations—here’s why.

Hi there,


Welcome to a new edition of the Reedsy marketing newsletter! This week, we’re resuming our series on AI visibility, with a particular focus on the #1 site powering AI search results today: Reddit.


In the last issue, I shared a study by Semrush showing that Wikipedia and Reddit were the two most-cited domains in AI answers in late 2025. 


A more recent research by Peec AI, analyzing over 30 million sources, found that Reddit was the most-cited source across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. 


These are broad studies across all types of prompts, topics, and industries — but they all single out Reddit as the #1 site that LLMs look at when generating answers. 


In my own personal research, I’ve found that Reddit threads appear time and again in the citations of ChatGPT, Google, and Gemini for prompts related to book recommendations. Here are but a few examples:


Why is Reddit so predominant? There are several reasons.


First, Reddit possesses a credibility mechanism that LLMs tend to rely on. They know that Reddit answers are curated by moderators, ordered by upvotes, and thus tend to be more “credible” than those of any other random forum out there.


More importantly, two of the big AI firms actually have massive stakes in Reddit. Google pays them a $60 million annual licensing fee to ingest Reddit data directly into its AI training and search retrieval pipelines. Similarly, OpenAI maintains a comprehensive API partnership with the platform, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has a personal equity stake of around 9% in Reddit.


This explains why you’ll almost always find Reddit in the citations of ChatGPT or Google, yet much less often in Claude’s (Anthropic doesn’t have a financial partnership with Reddit).


Does that sound like a massive conflict of interest? It 100% is. But it also means that if we want our books to show up in ChatGPT, Google, or Gemini’s recommendations, we first need to make sure they’re discussed on Reddit.


So here are a few tips to get you started.


1. Find your niche subreddits

If you’re not familiar with Reddit, the first thing you should know is that it is divided into thousands of independent communities called “subreddits” (denoted by the “r/” prefix, like r/books, r/fantasybooks, or r/writing).


While bigger subreddits naturally have the most activity, that’s not where you should start (it’s unlikely that your posts or comments will get visibility there). Instead, focus on niche, trope-specific subreddits. For example, if you write cozy mysteries, try r/CozyMystery, or if you write game-lit, try r/LitRPG.


You can use Reddit’s search bar to find relevant subreddits and “join” them. You’ll ideally want to follow at least two or three relevant subreddits discussing books just like yours.


2. Become a regular (not a spammer)

Once you’ve found your subreddits, spend a few minutes there every day. Read the top posts, upvote those you like, or leave some comments. If you feel like it, you can even try starting a discussion of your own.


That said, there is one thing you absolutely shouldn’t do: posting about your own book. Reddit users are notoriously hostile towards self-promotion, and moderators will not hesitate to ban you at the first sign of it. Every subreddit has its own strict set of rules (usually found on the right-hand sidebar): read them carefully and, if ever in doubt, use the "Message mods" feature to ask for permission first.


Naturally, there can be exceptions to this: some subreddits allow for self-promotion in one thread, or on specific days. For example, r/fantasybooks posts a sticky thread every month entitled "Authors - Pitch your Fantasy Book to readers :)". 


Other subreddits, like r/CozyMystery, will allow for “cover reveals.” Each subreddit has its own rules, so again, read those thoroughly first and post accordingly.


3. Host an AMA (Ask Me Anything)

An AMA is exactly what it sounds like: a thread where you introduce yourself and invite the community to ask you questions.


Many niche and writing subreddits host these for authors. Check the community rules to see if they have a dedicated schedule for AMAs or if you need to apply to run one. 


Bear in mind that, unless you’re already well-known in your genre, you’ll need an original angle or story to make your AMA interesting. A simple “I’m John Doe, author of {book no one has heard of}, ask me anything!” isn’t going to attract any interest — and is likely to get rejected by the mods out of the gate.


Instead, approach it with humility and a willingness to share your writing process, your worldbuilding secrets, your publishing journey, or anything unique about you and your books. It’s about building a connection with readers, not just pitching your book — here’s a good example.


4. Drive your existing readers to Reddit

You probably already ask your mailing list, or your ARC team, for Amazon and Goodreads reviews. Why not ask them for support on Reddit as well? For example, if you are hosting an AMA, or if you spot a reader organically recommending your book in a subreddit, share the link with your newsletter!


You could also consider adding a note in your book’s back matter asking readers who enjoyed the story to recommend it in relevant Reddit threads. 


5. Try Reddit advertising (but don’t expect to make your money back)

If you don’t have the patience to build an organic platform on Reddit, you can try a shortcut: advertising. Reddit ads allow you to target specific subreddits and insert a post about your book.


Sadly, ads don’t really count for LLM visibility — AI models are trained to strip out and ignore sponsored content when scraping for answers. However, they can boost your awareness in the community. Seeing your cover a few times might prompt a reader to finally pick up your book and start an organic discussion about it. Or it might help them “recognize” you the next time you post or comment in a thread.


A word of caution: Reddit ads rarely convert into sales, so you’re extremely unlikely to make your money back. You should treat this solely as a brand awareness exercise. 


6. Start your own subreddit?

Creating a subreddit dedicated to your own author brand (e.g., r/YourPenName) is free and easy to do. But you should only consider this if you already have a massive, highly-engaged audience.


A bustling subreddit dedicated to your universe (think Brandon Sanderson's r/Cosmere) is a goldmine for AI recommendations. But unless you have that kind of audience already, you’re likely to end up with an empty subreddit with two posts and zero engagement — which will do absolutely nothing for you. 


Building a presence on Reddit takes patience. It’s not something you can automate or fake — what Redditors value is genuine human interaction, and ironically, that’s the main reason why LLMs trust Reddit so much. 


That said, this is work that can yield evergreen results: if your book gets a lot of discussion on Reddit, it’ll feature in AI recommendations for years to come.


Happy writing, and happy Redditing,


Ricardo

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