BOOKSTAGRAM is Instagram custom-made for book lovers.
If you are a bookworm, Bookstagram is “heaven-on-Earth” for you too.
Instagram: An App where you can post pictures of yourself (selfies), your hobbies, your food (which is very common), your work, your family, and just basically about anything and everything under the sun.
It is primarily a photo-sharing App, which basically looks like a photo album when you are browsing the newsfeed. It may seem like a small world, looking at the tiny icon from the screen of our smartphones; but this tiny icon can lead to many places and it can become a very intimidating world to get lost in, especially if you are just starting up and getting your profile set-up.
Like if you’re a new author, or if you’re releasing a new book, or you’re promoting an event (like a book signing).
This social media platform is indeed a fun place to be, especially when you know HOW to use it and maximize its potential by boosting your number of readers. As authors, the market can become very competitive sometimes, and we need to stand out in order for readers to take interest and realize how wonderful the texts are inside the pages of our new book.
It doesn’t have to be a tough competition against each other though, there are moments when we can stand together and harmoniously succeed TOGETHER. Afterall, the world has so many readers, all waiting for a good book to buy and read. Readers don’t all have the same preference, and writers don’t all have the same style of writing; so there’s always room for everyone to shine on the spotlight at one time or another.
Speaking of maximizing Instagram and using it to for your benefit, you have to understand first how it all works and it involves several analytical processes.
It involves an algorithm, as complicated as it may seem, but to put things in a simple way, it makes a popular post more popular.
Meaning, the more people like your post, the more it will be seen on the top of the newsfeed and the more chances of it being seen by new viewers.
So the main aim is really to engage in more followers on Instagram, and it doesn’t end there. You have to create posts that are visually captivating and pair it with a very catchy caption, which ends with an appropriate hashtag.
As most of us know, these hashtags link or compile posts on Instagram that talk about the same topic. You can actually create your own set of hashtags to refer to a certain book or event, or you can use common hashtags to link them with already established books or events… or you can even combine both into one post – a unique hashtag plus a popular hashtag – just to make sure that your post appears whichever hashtag an Instagram user will use for search.
The possibilities are endless!
The unique hashtags are custom-made, you can create them base on the title of your book or on the name of the event, and add a little twist to make it a both catchy and distinct.
(Always remember how these hashtags work, when your follower clicks the hashtag of your post, they are led to a new page that contains ALL the posts that contain the same hashtag, so if you don’t want to them to get lost and see other posts that are not related to what you want to share with them, create a unique hashtag that is appropriate, and you will never go wrong.)
For the popular hashtags that have been used and are continuously being used by authors in their Instagram posts, here are the top-ranked hashtags that you might want to try for the next picture that you will share (courtesy of 100+ Instagram Hashtags for Booklovers):
#writerslife (900k) #writersofig (2M)
#writerscommunityofig #writerlife
#writersnetwork #writersofig
#writersofinstagram #writerofinstagram
#writercommunity #writeyourheartout
#writersunite
There are also many hashtags available for anything about books in general. Here are the top-ranked hashtags that have been used more than 500K times:
#bookstagramfeature #ilovebooks
#bookstagrammer #bookstagram
#bookaddict #currentlyreading
#bookclub #amreading
#shelfie #bookphotography
#instabook #booknerd
#readersofinstagram #bookaholic
#instaread #bookgeek
#bookaholic #booksofinstagram
#bookish #bookishfeatures
#bibliophile #goodreads
#booknerdigans #lovebooks
Here are General Category for Book Hashtags (<500k Posts)
#booksarelife #bookcommunity
#bookpassion #bookrecommendation
#bookreview #culturetripbooks
#greatreads #bookquotes
#bookobsessed #bookworms
#bookster #booksandflowers
#vscobooks #bookdragon
#bookfeaturepage #bookflatlay
#totalbooknerd #bookgram
#readmorebooks #alwaysreading
#bookphoto #booksofinsta
#booksandbeans #bookart
#booksbooksbooks #booknookstagram
#bookcollection #bookoftheday
#paperbacks
Hashtags for Young Adult Books
#yalit (800k) #ireadya
#youngadultbooks #yabooks
#yafantasy
Hashtags for Literature Lovers
#literature (3M) #literaturelover
#classicbooks #classicliterature
Hashtags for Romance Readers
#romancebooks #romancenovel
#romancenovels #contemporaryromance
Hashtags for Book Bloggers
#bookblogger (1M) #bookblog
#bookbloggers #bookblogging
Hashtags for Poetry Books
#poems (3M) #poetrygram
#poetryinstagram #poetrylovers
#poetrycommunityofinstagram #instapoetry (1M)
#poetryofig #poetryisart
#poetryislife #poetryisnotdead (1M)
#poetrysociety #poetrytribe
#poetsoninstagram #poetsdaily
#poetrylove #poetrylover
#poetrybook #igpoets
#bymepoetry #spilledink (2M)
#igpoetry
Hashtags by Genre
CONNECT BY GENRE
#AutoBiographical (4,337) #NonFiction (190,819)
#NonFictionbooks (2,447) #ChickLit (53,479)
#ParanormalRomance (22,822) #Poetry (11,413,783)
#PoetryMonth (18,462) #CrimeFiction (26,076)
#ReadCrimeFiction (2,985) #RomanticSuspense (9,785)
TO CONNECT WITH OTHER WRITERS
#writersofinstagram (3,522,603) #writersofig (1,687,520)
#writerscommunity (971,414) #amwriting (725,636)
#nanowrimo (120,441) #amediting (68,056)
#ilovewriting (30,128) #authorlife (120,549)
#writerscorner (72,792) #writerscommunity (971,414)
#litfic (for literary fiction) #histfic and #histnovel (used for historical fiction)
#womensfiction #scifi or #science #fiction
#crime#romance #suspense
#romance (read more about the Romance genre)
#paranormal (used for books like Amanda Hocking’s)
#cookbooks (also related to the cookbook genre #food #cooking #recipes, etc.)
#amwriting: It’s not really clear how one can be writing and tweeting at the same time, but this is commonly used by writers to indicate they’re generating pages.
#amediting: Similar to #amwriting, this hashtag indicated that the writer is going through his or her pages, revising.
#writingtip or #writetip: Writing coaches, editors, and others whose livelihoods depend on authors will offer up their tweety pearls of wisdom, marked by these hashtags.
#writingprompt: This hashtag is used when writing coaches give a suggestion about what to write, an idea to get the writer going and help to stimulate the flow of the pen on the page.
#writingsprint: The Twitter version of “on your mark, get set, write! this hashtag encourages author participation in a timed writing exercise.
#nanowrimo: National Novel Writing Month (in November) helps create solidarity among those toiling on their magnum opuses (opi?).
#writerwednesday: Used on—you guessed it—hump day, this general hashtag can be used alone or in tandem with other hashtags to mark a variety of different tweets—for author promotion (for oneself or one’s friends), to highlight other writerly pursuits, such as a #writingtip (see above).
#fridayreads: The writing and book publishing communities are nothing if not passionate readers themselves. By adding this hashtag to a Friday tweet about what you’re currently reading, you show support for other writers and for the book business. It’s good karma for your own work.
#ff: Stands for “Friday Follow”; another weekly show of generosity on the part of a tweeter, where one recommends sites to follow.