Instagram can be an effective way to raise awareness about your book. But like any form of social media marketing, you don’t want to be constantly spamming people with ‘buy my book’ posts. Blatant and constant adverts won’t get you much engagement.
With this in mind, here are 5 fun ways to promote your book on Instagram that will help boost your engagement!
1. Pick a Page!
Pick a page is really simple. Use the ‘Questions’ sticker in Instagram Stories, and ask your readers to pick a page number. Then, in your next story posts, share a line from the pages they pick.
Here is my example for my book Cupid’s Match.
2. Character Aesthetics!
Character Aesthetics are a great way to introduce readers to your characters and the tone of your book. Here is an example of one of my character aesthetics for Cupid.
Canva is a really great free website you can use to make your own aesthetics. Choose the Instagram Post size, then search for ‘grid’. It’ll give you a selection of grids you can use for your aesthetics that you can fill with images related to your character. TheStocks.im is a great place for finding free public domain images if there’s nothing on Canva that takes your fancy.
Sometimes I’ll follow my character aesthetic with a short scene from the book (like here) and sometimes I’ll just give a little introduction to the character (like here).
3. Quote art!
Quote art is great for sharing some of your favorite lines from your book to hook your readers! Here is an example of a quote art graphic for Cupid’s Match.
Use Canva to create your own! To accompany the quote art you could write a bit about the character who said the line, talk a bit about the scene the line comes from, or tell your audience something about the writing process of the book.
4. The Predictive Text Game!
The predictive text game is great for boosting the number of comments you get on a post and it’s lots of fun! Start a sentence related to your book and ask your audience to finish it using predictive text. Here is an example of a predictive text graphic I used for Cupid’s Match.
Use Canva to create a text based graphic. Or play the game beneath a photo of your book.
5. Photos of the book!
Share photos of your book, and make sure you re-post photos your readers send you – either
on your feed, or in your stories. Use one of the many instagram repost apps to do so. You can search them on the app store. I use Repost.
Also – if you’re comfortable showing your face on your Instagram – sharing pictures of yourself with the book and sharing things like unboxing videos are great for engagement (here is me holding my book for the first time and looking very dorky!).
You’ve written a book, it’s a great achievement, and people want to get excited with you!
Pro-tip: whatever you’re posting, make sure you ask your audience questions as this encourages them to comment!
Do you have any fun Instagram marketing ideas? Let me know in the comments! And come follow me on Instagram (@LaurenPalphreyman)!
Want to connect with me about writing? Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Or join my mailing list!
LAUREN PALPHREYMAN is a writer based in London. She is best known for her supernatural teen romance series, Cupid's Match, which has accumulated over 50 million hits online and was published by Wattpad Books / Penguin Random House, October 2019. Her new book, Devils Inc. comes out Friday 13th November 2020. Find her on Instagram @LaurenPalphreyman and on Twitter @LEPalphreyman.
Get hold of her debut, Cupid's Match, here!
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