How to Start a Bookstagram: Your Beginner’s Guide

How to start a bookstagram that shares your love of books through pictures? This is what the book community on Instagram is all about. Whether you are a traditional book blogger or a book lover that wants to promote a bookish lifestyle by posting aesthetically pleasing photos, learning how to start your own bookstagram is easier than you imagined. From finding the best props to generating new post ideas, this how-to for starting a bookstagram account will guide through the steps and tips to help you get your own booktagram set up and running with ease.

How to Start a Bookstagram

1. Set up a Bookstagram account on Instagram

• • Choose your own bookstagram username or handle for your bookstagram account. Making it a book theme will help it to be recognized as a bookstagram account.
  • Add your profile details.
  • Upload a profile picture. Use an image of yourself or your brand.
  • Write a  bio that reflects what your bookstagram account is all about: your name, what to expect, personality traits, etc.
  • Add a website link. There is only one spot for a link on Instagram, so if you have multiple links that you would like to share, Linktree is a free and easy site for your bio links.
  • Choose a creator/professional account instead of a traditional personal Instagram account, as this will give you useful analytics to understand your audience and post engagement.

2. Gather Props for Your Bookstagram Photos

• • Collecting items to use in your bookstagram images can be as simple or extravagant as you like. Some great places to find inspiration and great novelty items to use as props to go along with your book pictures can be found at the dollar store, craft stores, Amazon, or things you already have on hand in your house.
    • Prop ideas for bookstagram photos include: flowers (real or fake,) candles, wooden board, trays, scrapbooking paper, fairy lights, seasonal items, mugs, bookmarks, nature items, pets, bookshelves, reading socks, funko pops, book sleeves, etc.

3. Set up the Lighting for Your Bookstagram Feed

• • Choose appropriate lighting to set the tone and the theme for your feed.
  • Use lots of natural light by taking pictures in a sunny window or location.
  • Capture images at the same time of day to create consistent lighting effects in your posts.
  • Make use of a ring light to get the best lighting.

4. Take Bookstagram photos

• • Take photos for your bookstagram account using a traditional camera or an iPhone/quality smart phone camera.
  • Plan your account theme/aesthetic/colour scheme as you are taking images for bookstagram.

5. Editing

• • Instagram has built-in editing right in the app, but it does not have a variety of options. Depending on your skillset and comfort level, a third-party app can provide better results. There is nothing wrong with using the Instagram editing tools and the main point of joining the bookstagram community is to have fun and enjoy sharing a love of books.
  • Third-party apps to use for editing bookstagram photos include:
    • Canva
    • VSCO
    • Lightroom

6. Presets

• • Bookstagram presets are filters that you consistently use on your Instagram posts to edit your images. There are quite a few combinations of settings that give you a specific look to your posts. They help to give your feed consistent and cohesive content. You can find lots of sellers on Etsy for some amazing presets to try.

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  Presets for Bookstagram from MintandPepper via Etsy

7. Posting

• • Post consistently to keep your followers engaged and satisfy Instagram’s algothrithim.
  • Use a variety of post ideas, such as flatlay, bookstore, book review, books in the wild, etc.
  • Choose a caption that conveys the theme of your post and engages your followers to comment by asking a question.
  • Use lots of hashtags, such as:  #book #books #reading #bookish #bookblogger #read #bookstagram #instabooks #bookworm #bibliophile #yalit #yabooks #booknerdigans #booknerd #booklove #bookphotography #bookgram #bookaddict #ireadya #bookstagramfeature #igreads
  • Tag the book’s author, publisher, location (if applicable)
  • Use the different post types. There is so much more to play with and explore on Instagram, such as reels, single photo posts, carousel photo posts, video posts, live videos, guides, and stories.

8. Gaining followers

• • Engaging with your followers in the comments is the best way to grow a fan base and get people coming back for more of your content. Also, engaging with other bookstagram accounts helps bring other creators to your feed.
  • Follow similar accounts to share your love of books.
  • Host a giveaway to promote your account and find potential followers.
  • Participate in a reading challenge, book tag, or a meme on Instagram.

How to Start a Bookstagram

How to start a bookstagram that is stunning and engaging? The tools are all at your fingertips! Have you started a bookstagram account? Let us know in the comments.