How to promote books on instagram
How To Promote Your Book
In this article, Instagram expert Anand Srinivasan explains how Instagram book marketing works. We also feature an interview with screenwriter Max Marlow, who uses Instagram to find work.
Do you want to use master Instagram book marketing?
As most writers come to realize, the excitement of having published a book fades away quickly if no one has read it.
Thankfully, social media platforms like Instagram can serve as a fantastic opportunity for book promotion, if you’re an author.
Here are a few tips to get started.
Contents
- Establish a Content Strategy
- Reach New Readers
- Improve Your Rank on Instagram Search
- 1. Come Up with a Few Interesting Post Ideas
- 2. Use the Right Hashtags
- 3. Advertise Your Posts
- 4. Employ Influencer Marketing
- About the Author
- Interview with Max Marlow: How to Tell Stories on Instagram
- Author
Establish a Content Strategy
Instagram is a highly visual medium that rewards original content. Success on this platform comes from a carefully planned content strategy. If you’re a book blogger, here are some strategies for creating original visual content.
- Prior to launch, you could share multiple variants of your book cover art and request your followers to vote on their favourite.
- Post screenshots of your favourite quotes and snapshots from your book.
- Announce author events so followers can attend and share photos and videos from the venue.
- Share photos of yourself with your favourite books.
- Create an Instagram story about your writing process or book launch.
- Content barter—connect with other writers and cross-promote each other’s books to followers.
- Share photos from your initial draft, places you went for inspiration and so on.
Each genre is unique, and what works for one genre or story might not work for another. A good idea is to work out a marketing strategy on Instagram well before you are ready to start.
If you need more help, check out CS Larkins guide how to market a book.
Reach New Readers
Many of the recommendations above work only if you already have a following of a few thousand people on your Instagram account. What do you do if you are just starting out and don’t have enough followers to spread the word about your book?
Here are a few tips.
Improve Your Rank on Instagram Search
Millions of users tap the “Search” option on Instagram every day. Your posts can start appearing higher in the search results, especially when someone’s searching for keywords related to books.
The Instagram algorithm considers data points while ranking posts on search. Among these points are use of relevant hashtags, engagement levels on posts, location tags and so on. Oberto provides a guide to better understand search. You might also be interested in our guide on the best AI content marketing tools.
Here is a short, useful step-by-step guide to rank higher in the search function.
1. Come Up with a Few Interesting Post Ideas
These ideas should not only likely to earn a high share of likes and comments but also promote your book in a non-salesy way. The samples below show how writers can promote their books on Instagram.
Writer Ryan Holiday promoting his new book on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMNDWw8AWMa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Writer Stephanie Danler announcing her book on Instagram (Source: Instagram)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAX8T61FmDG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
2. Use the Right Hashtags
Hashtags are an integral part of Instagram, add context to your posts and help potential readers find your profile.
For instance, #TBT is a popular hashtag meant to share nostalgic “throwback” pictures every Thursday. Similarly, hashtags such as #instagood and #instacool are popular.
As a matter of fact, Instagram lets users follow new posts tagged with specific hashtags, and this provides an opportunity for writers to promote their books.
To incorporate hashtags into your Instagram posts, first identify the trending hashtags and ways to publish photos relevant to these hashtags. For instance, look at this list of popular hashtags. Think of ways to publish content related to your book with popular hashtags.
Second, scour the Instagram accounts of popular writers in your genre and build a list of hashtags they use to promote their books. Take care not to use exclusive hashtags (used by a writer or business to promote their posts).
Piggybacking on a hashtag promoted by others may come across as rude. Be sure to explore existing Instagram posts tagged with the hashtags you are interested in to make sure you are not stepping into someone else’s territory.
I also recommend submitting your posts with the right location tags when your followers are most active. This could help you maximize visibility among followers.
3. Advertise Your Posts
Instagram advertising is tied with Facebook ads that let you target viewers based on unique aspects such as the books they like or TV shows they watch.
Advertising helps you maximize reach in a short span of time. Advertising also increases engagement, and thus makes your post most likely to appear on organic Instagram search results.
4. Employ Influencer Marketing
By far the most effective strategy for book promotions is the use of influencers, or users who have a following of more than a few thousand people, with a niche interest such as book reading, for example. As an author, you must target influencers who are popular among book lovers (bonus points if these influencers enjoy your genre).
This is how you go about it.
- Use the Instagram search function to find popular posts related to your category, for example, “crime novels.
- Prepare to search through posts submitted by different users on related topics.
- When you find a poster with a following of at least a few thousand, analyze their strategy. Are their posts all related to books or your genre? Or is book-related content just one of many things the person posts? The objective is to get a fair idea of how niched the influencer’s following is.
- Prepare a list of influencers with highly niched followers who are either book lovers or read books in your niche.
- Reach out to those influencers either via Instagram DM or email expressing interest in working with them.
- Two kinds of partnerships work. Some influencers expect monetary compensation in exchange for their promotion of your book. If the influencer has a following count similar to yours, you might also work this out.
Influencer marketing is highly effective if done correctly. This is because users trust people they follow. A recommendation for your book from influencers can be highly effective in generating sales.
Do remember, however, that your success depends on what share of the followers are genuine and engage with the influencers.
Fake followers and those who don’t engage do not typically convert, and dealing with influencers whose engaged followers are a fraction of the number displayed might be a waste of your time and money.
Publishing a book is a big deal, and so is marketing it. The tips and strategies in this post should help writers, both well-known and novice, spread the word about their launch to targeted book readers using Instagram.
If you’d like to learn more about promoting your brand on Instagram check out this episode by Darius Tan.
About the Author
Anand Srinivasan is the founder of Hubbion, a suite of free business apps and resources.
Interview with Max Marlow: How to Tell Stories on Instagram
Max MarlowMax Marlow studied screenwriting in Goldsmiths in London, graduating in 2017. He wrote several 30-page scripts only to face rejection from film and television agents who wouldn’t accept unsolicited materials. Then, Marlow started sharing his writings on Instagram.
In this interview, he explains:
- Why every writer can use Instagram to connect with readers
- How he uses Instagram photos as a means of conquering writer’s block
- What it takes to tell stories on this social media network
- How he ended up being mentored by Han Solo director Ron Howard
Listen now
Want more social media advice for writers? Check out our list of authors to follow on Twitter
Join over 15,000 writers today
Get a FREE book of writing prompts and learn how to make more money from your writing.
Author
17 Instagram Book Promotion Ideas from Publishers
Looking for Instagram book promotion ideas? That’s no surprise — according to Rival IQ, brands have a 13.5x higher median engagement rate on Instagram than on Facebook, and 27x higher than on Twitter. And in this survey, 87% of people said that they took action after encountering product information on Instagram, whether that was following a brand, visiting a website, or making a purchase online.
If you want to promote your books on Instagram but aren’t sure what to post, take a look at what publishers are doing. We’ve compiled some great ideas for Instagram content thanks to their stunning posts!
The publisher Instagrams we feature here each have their own content strategies, executed with unique goals in mind. While we don’t have metrics on how these campaigns affected book sales, we hope these examples can provide inspiration, whether you work at a big publishing house or you’re an independent author.
Also note that we’ve chosen to show book promotion–style posts, where one or several books are the focus of the image. But all of these publishers post a variety of photos on Instagram that provide insight into their brands. We encourage you to scroll through their feeds to see what other kinds of photos they post.
1. Post timely content around holidays.
Even when a book wasn’t directly related to an upcoming holiday, Simon & Schuster staged them in a festive setting to tie into the event and included relevant event hashtags in the caption to position these titles as holiday gifts and surface the photo in Instagram members’ searches.
2. Run contests. Get creative with the prizes!
Knopf regularly runs giveaways offering author-inspired swag as prize items, including things like necklaces, shirts, and tote bags! These items feature prominently in the Instagram photos.
3. Promote new or upcoming releases.
Penguin Teen has used Instagram to build excitement around new and upcoming books, as whole stacks of them or a single title.
4. Showcase books in relevant, interesting settings.
A common trend is to post photos of books on a table with an assortment of props. Instead, Kensington Books placed the book in a scene relevant to the book being promoted!
5. Display teaser quotes in stunning visuals.
Orion Books displayed text for teasers in unique ways. They got creative with a timely Valentine’s Day quote from one author and beautiful graphics featuring another’s words.
6. Provide a peek behind the scenes.
Penguin Random House offered insights into their brand and work processes by giving a behind-the-scenes look at their workspaces and bookshelves!
7. Pose with the book and relevant props.
Instead of taking a straight-on shot of a book, Disney Publishing features models posing with the books and holding or wearing relevant props to make the book stand out in users’ feeds. This could be a great strategy for camera-shy authors!
8.
Show a reader enjoying the book.Abrams Books posted photos showing people reading their books, without revealing each person’s face. Another great strategy for those who are camera shy!
9. Source photos from fans. Give credit where it’s due!
Chronicle Books created hashtags for fans to submit photos for specific books, offering to share their favorite fan posts that used the hashtag. Not only did all of those users’ followers see their photos, but Chronicle got some great content for their feed.
10. Feature a book’s swag in an artsy way.
Wednesday Books used their books’ swag to create imaginative and immersive backdrops for new and upcoming titles.
11. Host book giveaways.
When Lume Books ran giveaways for their books, they made it obvious that the book in the image was up for grabs by including the word “giveaway” in a bold banner.
12. Promote deals and temporary discounts.
Allison & Busby created images clearly advertising their discounts to make sure their Instagram followers would know about limited-time price promotions.
13. Brand a book by matching its tone in the image.
Bloomsbury used creative props and lighting their Instagram posts to set the appropriate vintage or moody tone for the featured books.
14. Show animals reading and/or lying on books.
Viking Books used cute and cuddly animals to create share-worthy content appealing to book and animal lovers alike!
15. Repost fantastic photos and promotions.
Grand Central Publishing reposted beautiful photos from fans, making sure to give the original photographers credit in the captions.
16. Ask questions.
Crown Publishing regularly asks their Instagram audience questions — sometimes in the image and other times in the caption — to encourage followers to engage with their posts.
17.
As new TV shows began airing, Harlequin called out books with similar themes, taking advantage of trending media to capture new audiences. For example, they used the Bridgerton buzz to promote their Liberated Ladies miniseries and the Virgin River adaptation to promote Robyn Carr’s latest book.
What other Instagram book promotion ideas do you have? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Want to share this post? Here are ready-made tweets:
Click to tweet: There are some great ideas here for how to promote books on Instagram, based on what publishers have been doing! 👀 http://bit.ly/1UL6LDU
Click to tweet: How publishers promote books on Instagram:
✅ Run contests
✅ Showcase books in relevant settings
✅ Display teaser quotes
✅ Behind-the-scenes looks
✅ Show a reader enjoying a book
✅ Source photos from fans
More great ideas: http://bit. ly/1UL6LDU
This post was originally published on March 31, 2016, and has been updated with all new examples.
About Shailee Shah
Shailee Shah is a Product Marketer at BookBub, where she enjoys helping partners use BookBub's tools as effectively as they can.
10 books about promoting on Instagram | Publishing house AST
Back in 2010, the Instagram application was released so that users could share photos. It is unlikely that its creators imagined that in ten years it would turn into a powerful marketing platform and an ideal tool for blogging. If you've always wanted to upgrade your own Instagram account and become a real influencer, then today's book selection is for you. In their books, the authors share secrets and tell in detail how to become not only famous, but also rich.
Instagram. Earn by joking
It's no secret that bloggers earn a lot. It is a fact! The main task of Sergey Shteps is to give you confidence in yourself and motivate you to create something really cool.
After reading the book to the end, you will discover a lot of new things and be able to find answers to the questions: Where to start? How to find your content? How to shoot wars? How to monetize your blog? How to write a script and do editing? Who are haters and how to deal with them? How to live on Instagram with pleasure?
Instagram. The secret of ZT PRO's success
In this book, you will learn the basic success secrets from ZT PRO and well-known marketing gurus for creating a successful Instagram account to promote your product or profile.
The world of virtual communication is developing and changing every second. In just a couple of years, Instagram, created as a regular application, has become a full-fledged social network that is steadily moving to the top of popularity among users around the world.
As Western marketers predicted, social networks are beginning to be divided not only by the type of users, but also by the type of content.
The Instagram Phenomenon. How to promote your account and earn
Why do you go to Instagram? See how your friends are doing? Post photos from yesterday's party? Unwind and relax? How about making some money? In order for this book to be the most effective Instagram navigator for you, at the end of almost every chapter there are specific tasks, by completing which, you will move step by step towards creating your own successful business.
The evolution of Instagram. SMMarketing on a hairpin
The founder of the first SMM boutique “INTERNET‑AGENCY Alexandra Doroshina” talks about SMM in Russian. About the curiosities of big business sharks in INSTAGRAM, celebrity trips and failures of personal brands. Does it matter if you are a blogger or just about to start your own blog? - From the book you will learn how not to get lost among millions of accounts and how, doing what you love, not only enjoy creative realization, but also earn money. Do you have a product that you want to sell to hundreds of thousands of people? - Find out which methods really help to achieve results, and which ones waste your time and money.
I am a brand on Instagram
Olga Berek is an adherent of classical marketing and a woman who is productive 24 hours a day. She knows everything about how to build a personal brand and keep the bar high. You will save a lot of time and avoid many mistakes if you read this book.
Top bloggers of the country are subscribed to her account! Its subscribers would be able to populate a decent-sized regional center. CEO and owner of an advertising and production company for over 15 years.
How to promote a blog on Instagram
Only the lazy one is not running a blog, Instagram account, social media page, or YouTube channel right now... And everyone is hoping to get a response from the huge online community, find a key topic, share not only personal and intimate, but also create a useful and interesting - important for others - information.
In this book, Aliona Hilt summarized all her experience accumulated over several years of blogging on Instagram, talked about how the main topics of the page and my interests changed, how the number of subscribers grew, what network tools changed the face of my communication with readers. The reader will learn how to work with hashtags and advertising, on what and how to build a blog, overcome fears and crises, run marathons and quests.
Instagram 2.0: I want likes and followers
Indi Gogokhia — Founder of Genius.code agency, SMM and PR specialist, MGIMO speaker. Her clients are top companies in the country, as well as many entrepreneurs from all over the world. She cooperates with such brands as Delovaya Sreda, Sberbank, Moscow Government, Mercedes, Coffeemania.
Instagram does not stand still: new tools, rules, trends appear. That is why the bestseller "Instagram: I want likes and followers" just could not help but be updated! In the supplemented edition, in addition to the main principles of working on Instagram, the author reveals other topics.
Promoting personal blogs on Instagram: a step-by-step guide
Every novice blogger has a lot of questions. How to become popular? Why do some people become popular and others don't? How much money will it take? When will the blog start generating income?
Sasha Mitroshina wrote this book to provide answers. She tells everything in it: how to advance, how to make money on a blog. The author is sure that anyone can become a blogger. At the very least, blogging is a great hobby. Even if you don't turn it into work.
Selling Instagram. Instructions for use for 21 days
The decision to buy a phone with the last maternity money and install the Instagram app was a turning point in Arpina's life. Knowing nothing about promotion, business and sales, but having a great desire and perseverance, she managed to become a real authority in the world of online business, whose opinion is listened to by thousands of people. Through trial and error, she managed to come up with the perfect formula that works and monetizes any account. This book is a detailed instruction on how to turn your regular Instagram into a sales Instagram in 21 days.
Secrets of Instagram. How to earn without investments
Olga SOLNTSE is a name that has long become a brand. A man who made himself, having achieved heights in various areas of life. Once she became known throughout the country under the name of the Sun thanks to her participation in TV projects and touring activities, and now she helps others find themselves and create their own personal brand.
Times have changed, and now everyone can make themselves known to the world with the help of a blog in social networks. This book is the quintessence of experience and knowledge on how to create and develop your personal brand without any investment and how to use the popular Instagram platform for your own promotion and monetization, as the Sun did.
10/08/2018 Reviews
12/20/2019 Books
Tell your friends:
Send news
to email:
Review Policy
Welcome to the Community of Readers! We always welcome your feedback on our books, and we invite you to share your impressions directly on the website of the AST publishing house. Our site has a review pre-moderation system: you write a review, our team reads it, after which it appears on the site. In order for a review to be published, it must follow a few simple rules:
1. We want to see your unique experience
On the book page, we will publish unique reviews that you personally wrote about a particular book you read. You can leave general impressions about the work of the publishing house, authors, books, series, as well as comments on the technical side of the site in our social networks or contact us by mail [email protected].
2. We are for courtesy
If you didn't like the book, explain why. We do not publish reviews containing obscene, rude, purely emotional expressions addressed to the book, author, publisher or other users of the site.
3. Your review should be easy to read
Write texts in Cyrillic, without extra spaces or incomprehensible characters, unreasonable alternation of lowercase and uppercase letters, try to avoid spelling and other errors.
4. Reviews must not contain third-party links
We do not accept reviews that contain links to any third-party resources.
5. For comments on the quality of publications, there is a “Complaint book” button. the form "Give a complaint book."
If you encounter missing or out-of-order pages, a defect in the cover or inside of the book, or other examples of typographical defects, you can return the book to the store where it was purchased. Online stores also have the option of returning defective goods, check with the respective stores for details.
6. Review - a place for your impressions
If you have questions about when the continuation of the book you are interested in will be released, why the author decided not to finish the cycle, whether there will be more books in this design, and other similar ones - ask us at social networks or by mail support@ast. ru.
7. We are not responsible for the operation of retail and online stores.
On the book card, you can find out which online store the book is in stock, how much it costs, and proceed to purchase. For more information on where you can buy our books, see the "Where to Buy" section. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding the operation and pricing policy of the stores where you purchased or would like to purchase the book, please direct them to the appropriate store.
8. We respect the laws of the Russian Federation
It is forbidden to publish any materials that violate or call for violation of the laws of the Russian Federation.
TOP 8 books about Instagram promotion
Share!
Promotion on Instagram is developing - new tricks and tricks appear in it, the functionality of the social network itself is changing. But there are so far few books about this niche. We decided to make our own selection of the best books about promotion on Instagram, based on the rating of online stores.
Read also: How to promote yourself on Instagram
Program for promotion on Instagram - SocialKit: Registration >>>
Well, what? Let's move on to the collection.
- Artem A. Senators. Business on Instagram. From registration to the first money.
The author of the book is a well-known writer, TV journalist, SMM-specialist, creator of the Literary Orgasm community. In this book, he talks about the best ways to make money on this social network. It supports everything with examples, practical recommendations, simple and understandable theory. The book itself is divided into separate chapters. They talk about the preparation and creation of the page, presence strategies, the category and quality of posts, promotion, and useful applications. This book is suitable for beginners, business owners, and experienced SMM specialists.
- Elena Vyatkina. Instagram Promotion: 4 Strategies for Small Businesses to Increase Sales.
This book is difficult to find in digital format - it is listened to as an audio recording, voiced by Taisiya Kudashkina. The work tells about four ways to promote a small business in a social network, as well as recommendations for personal growth. The author tells how to find your calling, including on Instagram, and realize yourself.
- Ekaterina Uvarova, Evgeny Yakimov. Instagram. The secret of ZT PRO's success. From A to Z in progress.
This book is a concentrated experience of the ZT PRO promotion service. At the very beginning, it is told about the benefits of a social network for business, an interesting legend is described, examples of promoting a business and a personal brand are given. The invited participants are well-known Internet marketers who tell their vision of promotion on Instagram.
- Andrey Mizev. “Confessions of an Instagrammer. All the secrets of promotion and earnings on Instagram for 2 years of work.
This book is a detailed, understandable, structured description of promoting an account on Instagram. Together with the author, readers go from creating and registering their first account to attracting the first thousand subscribers. Andrey Mizev shares his secrets, practical techniques and recommendations. The content is built on the principle of "from simple to complex", so the book is suitable for beginners and experienced professionals in the field of promotion.
Article in the topic: Instagram training courses
- Aliona Hilt.
How to promote a blog on Instagram. Life hacks, trends, life.
This book is the confession of a famous Instagram blogger @aliona_hilt. She does not claim to be a guru and talks about how she worked with the social network: how topics changed, how the number of subscribers grew, what tools she used. Auto simply and clearly talks about what she knows herself - about hashtags, advertising settings, post design and other intricacies of working with the target audience on social networks.
Interesting: How to become an Instagram blogger
- Ingate. "Instagram: Promotion from A to Z".
This book is from the Ask Ingate series. Its authors are employees of a well-known advertising agency. The introduction explains what Instagram is and why it is useful for brands. Then it is told step by step how to manage your account, including content, strategy, additional features. Possible ways of promotion are also described. The book itself is attractively designed - it has color illustrations with examples of designing accounts and posts.
- "Instagram for business: 40 hacks and ready-made solutions."
This is another book from an advertising agency that goes into great detail about using social media to promote a business. Its authors tell you how to choose the right goals, what type of account to choose, how to learn how to use the full functionality of the social network. Also mentioned is the trust of subscribers, the search for popular bloggers and the launch of advertising campaigns. Inside the electronic edition there are 36 chapters with useful tips, examples and life hacks.
Read also: 20 life hacks for Instagram
- Evgeny Khodchenkov. Selling Instagram.
The value of this book is enhanced by the fact that it is available free of charge in electronic format.
