Sara Flower Kjeldsen

Book Twitter & Bookstagram

Social media is one of the best avenues to market your book if you’re an author. There are niches that are worth focusing on if you’re looking to get more readers for your story.

Book Twitter

This is a different space from the Writing Community (Which is mainly used as a hashtag for writers who want to boost their numbers.) Book Twitter has a purer objective and that is to connect with other readers – many people in this space are open to connecting with authors as well. They tend to use hashtags such as #booktwitter #booktwt and #bookrecommendations. They’re there to find books to read and share what they’ve been reading. I noticed the age group of this space is usually quite young – many of whom are girls in the 13-18 age range. I suppose it makes sense that teens have the most time to read!

I tend to search #bookrecommendations once or twice per week and reply to posts that I think would be a good fit for one of my books. I’ll check out their profile to see if they’re also a writer or if they seem open to indie authors. If they seem to have a good vibe for my stories, I’ll reply with a little description and link to my book. Most times I get a positive response and one person so far has bought my book – a total stranger! It’s a good feeling. Fingers crossed that they like my book.

I think connecting with Book Twitter type of folks is more effective if you’re hoping to increase your readership. While many authors are also avid readers, it might not be the best way to make use of Twitter if you’re only connecting with the Writing Community. As I said, it can often be about gaining followers to impress literary agents rather than being interested in other people’s books (No judgement on this, but speaking from a book marketing perspective, it isn’t the best use of your time).

One thing to note is that a lot of people on Book Twitter prefer to buy paperbacks over e-books. People in the Writing Community are more likely to buy ebooks than paperbacks.

Bookstagram

Bookstagram has its own section of Instagram. If you check out the hashtag of its name, you’ll be able to scroll lovely book posts for hours. A lot of people also find books to read this way, so having an author account on Instagram is helpful if you’re hoping to interest new readers. I’ve been increasing my efforts by posting more pictures of my books on Instagram lately. I’m noticing that the time of day you post is huge – posting later at night when most people are sleeping and not on Instagram isn’t so helpful. You risk missing a great part of the demographic seeing your post as it will be buried by the alogarithm by the time the next day rolls around. Posting in the morning is usually your best bet to maximize the number of views your book post will get.

I’d say it’s really important to be consistent with your posts. You might not have a bunch of people keen to buy your book at first, but if you keep posting book content, you’ll start attracting more interested readers. Already I’ve had one person interested in my seafaring novella! It was exciting as I’d never spoken with him prior to posting about it, so it does definitely help to use Bookstagram. A lot of people in this sphere also tend to buy print books so they can post about it on social media.

Using searchable hashtags are super important on Bookstagram. Be sure to use tags such as #Bookstagram #Booklovers #Indiebooks #indieauthor #authorsofinstagram #paperback etc. This will maximize the number of people who will find you – and hopefully buy one of your books! 🙂

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I hope you found this post helpful. Book marketing definitely takes time and work, but if you can sell a few books out of it, I’d say it’s well worth the effort. Now, go sell some books, you amazing author, you! ❤

28 comments

      • Yes, it’s alot to do with cultures as I am Italian Irish, disability growing up in such a ignorant era, Mental health grow up and being a young mum, with no help around, bullied how to overcome things in life, many many life stories of myself and many I have met.. it could help someone else ..

      • Yes your story will definitely help other people a lot. 🙂 It sounds like it must have been very hard growing up in that era. I would definitely love to read your book! ❤

      • That’s no worries at all. 🙂 I can definitely understand you. Hm I always wanted to write a few epic stories – was always a dream of mine. Then I read this epic fantasy book by Wayne Thomas Batson and I knew then that it was time to finally write my first novel.

      • Ye have come to falcon stair,
        But enter not ye unaware,
        For better men than thee have fled.
        They that entered soon were dead.

        Very interesting choice of fantasy he does it well I found him on youtube and i do like how he goes into character, so this is the type of book your writing or written?

      • Hahahaha the sailor language. XD I really got into his Isle of Fire series as well. It’s like a Christian Pirates of the Carribean and very good. I really liked the style in my mid-20’s even though it was for teens. Hahaha he is quite a character, isn’t he? That’s so cool you checked him out! 🙂
        I’ve written a lot of different genres including fantasy, historical, and drama. I honestly believe his writing still inspired my most recent book, Inspiration.

      • Sara, sometimes those smaller writers have the best books and are always under-rated in a way, there are so many talented people out there in this world and they are undiscovered and overlooked pity really!

  4. Owk. I assumed you intentionally kept it out as not many authors are willing to build a fanbase there since it heavily relies on video. Your post’s helpful btw. Thanks for sharing!

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