Let’s Talk: A Year of Bookstagram

Happy Friday, friends! We’ve made it another week. Since my bookstagram anniversary is coming up, I thought it’d be fun to reflect on the last year, and everything I’ve learned and observed. So grab a cup of  tea, get cozy, and let’s chat!

While it is my bookstagram anniversary, I’d done some prep-work prior to making my bookstagram. I had looked into different aesthetics, and bought a couple props — I knew that  I wanted my account to be very bright/warm, with lots of florals! I played around with coloring (which I do in Lightroom, and highly recommend — you don’t need the paid version, although that’s what I do have), and decided on a specific style that I wanted for all my photos. 

I’m really lucky in that I wasn’t going through my bookstagram journey alone. Both, Caitlyn and Mary also re-started their bookstagrams with me, and I had some friends who were already on bookstagram — Quinn from pagesofquinn, and Celina from venusinbooks, among many others, so I was definitely given a lot of tips!

The first thing I downloaded early on was the Preview app (although I’m sure there are many other Instagram planning apps out there, and you could reconfigure Notion’s “board”)! Something that I really like about the app is that it allows you to plan posts in advance, and allows you to see if your coloring matches (which is something I personally care very much about). I like taking my bookstagram photos in batches, just so I know I always have content to post! I’ll usually try to anticipate what books I’ll be reading, or books I want to post about, and then just set a timer for 20 minutes or so, take as many photos as I can. I do this every other week, or whenever I have inspiration, since I’ve found that having a set time to take a batch of photos makes it less stressful for me! I will say that sometimes I struggle with captions, and so I usually try to make them related to the photo! 

Something else I’ve learned early on is the importance of hashtags — I looked into which hashtags were popular, and then made a little cheat sheet of some good ones to use. Ever since switching to a business account, I’ve been able to look at my statistics and engagement rates, which I found to be really helpful. Having a business account allows you to view your insights, which also tells you when your followers are most active, and where your likes/engagement come from for each post. That being said, engagement isn’t everything — the reason why I joined bookstagram was the community, and so for me, making genuine connections and friendships is more important than a certain amount of likes or comments. One of my friends also did a little experiment on Instagram ads, and found that her engagement completely spiked after paying for an advertisement. The Instagram algorithm works in mysterious ways that I don’t entirely understand, but I know that occasionally sharing reels will help boost your post, as well as engaging with comments (and other posts) for at least 15 minutes after you post. The more you post and interact with other posts, the more your own post will be viewed/liked/shared, due to the algorithm. 

A few of my friends are in engagement groups, and I’m in two myself. The ones I’m in are considerably smaller (both have under 25 people in them), and I’ve gotten to know people I wouldn’t normally know through them! Engagement groups have their pros and cons, though, and I’d be cautious before joining. I love the ones I’m in because they ask for genuine engagement, and not just comments like “I love this picture!”, which has allowed me to make more friends on bookstagram. However, some engagement groups also require you to like and comment on each photo within a certain timespan. I’ve interacted with some content that I wouldn’t normally due to engagement groups, simply because they’re promoting books and authors that I don’t personally want to be associated with. 

I really love bookstagram, as it’s allowed me to make a lot of friends, discover new books that I wouldn’t normally, and learn even more about books and the bookish community. However, there’s a huge consumerism issue — which Mary has written about here. Everywhere you look, there’s another special edition of a book, a book box, and at times, it seems like a competition of who has more books. I don’t have any formal research on this, but I feel like I rarely see library books, or eBooks on my feed. Personally, I don’t read on my kindle too much, unless it’s an ARC, but if I’m trying to post photos of my kindle, I’ll just go on Photoshop and add in the cover! I know there’s easier ways to do this (I think some people use Canva), but I personally just prefer Photoshop. 

I think it’s also easy to get caught up in followers, likes, comments, etc., but at the end of the day, it’s okay to take a break! It’s okay not to reply to everyone, or like every photo you see. I know a couple friends who have posted about bookstagram burnout, or having too much going on to keep posting regularly, or needing to take a break, and all of that is okay! At the end of the day, bookstagram is simply a hobby, not a second job. If it doesn’t bring you joy, if you need a break, that’s totally okay. 

Are you on bookstagram? I’m over at cossettereads, if you don’t follow me already, and I’m always down for making new bookstagram buddies!