How my bookstagram feed has changed over time

I started posting about books on Instagram in 2016. It’s been an interesting experience with its ups and downs. Lately I’ve been in a weird place about my social media presence. I like what I’m doing, but at the same time, it’s not as rewarding as it used to be. 

In the spirit of acknowledging the work that goes behind each post, which doesn’t only apply to me, but to anyone who’s been in a funk about social media, I wanted to share my bookstagram feeds at several stages during these four years.

This blog post has been in the works since mid January, but due to work I just kept pushing it back. I really wanted to share here some of my bookstagram journey. It’s always nice looking back at what you’ve done before and realize how far you’ve come.

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Taking photos on my window seat

My bedroom doesn’t work for instagram. I love my bedroom, but it just doesn’t work because of the light. And I wanted pictures with a lot of natural light. So when I began, I took my pictures next to a big window in my living room. It has a window seat, so that’s the space I used.

Looking back I also realize I had a lot of troubles setting up things, finding the props to put everything together. I just had the books and then would add whatever seemed to work at the time. If it was the same color? I called it a win.

You can tell at the beginning I was also struggling to find a style I wanted to stick to.  I turned that exposure and brightness to the max, because I wanted to achieve a crisp and super contrasting result, like Cait. I really looked up to her feed -still do. And also, I started using this tiles thing that I was seeing a lot of accounts do.

 

Filters, props and backdrops

It didn’t take me long for me to go ‘hey, this is really fun!’ So of course I wanted to get better. I was so in love with how some accounts made it look so cohesive and perfect, and for the longest time I just had no clue how they achieved that. Some relied on using the same setups or backdrops for their photos. I got that, but I wanted to take it that step further with the editing. I just didn’t know how to do it.

Some bookstagrammers often show their editing process, so when I stumbled upon some of this content and discovered different apps to edit with, I was so there for it!

I wanted to go all in, so I also mixed in a bit of DIY getting some plywood together and creating my own backdrop. I painted it and all. I don’t use it anymore, but it was part of my style for a while then and it really helped me.

It also got me out of the window seat. I began taking pictures outside (soon learned direct sunlight is not my friend), and then settled with taking the pictures just at the front door, with the door open so a diffused natural light could come in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around this time, my dad got me a real bookshelf which I could proudly display. Before, my books had been stored in my bedroom in a sort of nightstand/shelf furniture thing. My collection was growing so I was beyond happy I had more space for books now. The new bookshelf also gave me the little push I needed to get out of only shooting flatlays.

I felt like I was running out of ideas for pictures that were always about how to put a lot of things together on top of a flat surface. Including the bookshelves and starting to appear in the pictures definitely changed things for me.

As for props, like I said, I was very inspired by Cait, and then more accounts that I saw were using fake flowers. Well, some use real ones but I can’t really with that. I killed a cacti recently so… Anyway, I had the chance to get these fake flowers at a really awesome price, and I went crazy with them. Finally I had some props I could sprinkle in most pictures and help give everything that cohesive look I’d always wanted.

This was a great time for me because I felt like I was growing, and meeting a lot of new people through bookstagram.

 

Getting off track

The DIY backdrop era had its time, but then I switched it to just using the floor. It has an interesting pattern, but… I don’t think it was a good idea in the end. The pictures with the bookshelves were definitely doing better.

There was this time when my house went through renovations, so I couldn’t take pictures, and it was just a hard time in my personal life. There were many up and downs during this time, and I think it showed in how I managed my feed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a very drastic change, now that I see the feeds side by side.

But my engagement dropped, and I was feeling very sad and confused about it, not very motivated with what I was doing. It felt as if people could tell I didn’t even know what I was doing, or why I was doing it.

My props collection grew, yeah, and so did my book collection. But it was just a weird place for me, keeping up with personal problems, my job, and my bookish life.

This went on until relatively recently.

 

Finding Reverie Society

I’m going to be real with you right now. I’m loving the filters I’ve been using recently. I love the main color palette too. I just feel so in control, and that control actually gave me the freedom to explore new photo ideas? Because it feels like anything I do, I can still ‘theme’ it and make it fit in my feed, because I know how it’s supposed to look like.

Is my engagement skyrocketing and all is fine? Absolutely not, it’s driving me nuts. It’s so frustrating that now that I feel I’ve figured things out, it doesn’t seem to be working numbers wise. But that’s the beauty of it… I’m not really mad at it, because I love my feed situation right now.

I’ve been sprinkling some design elements when it seems appropiate, I’ve been including digital books using my sister’s iPad, and I’ve got a proper desk now!

I’m feeling really satisfied with where I’m at now, just waiting for the numbers to catch up. Despite that, I’m just happy right now I’m not second guessing myself. I can get frustrated about external things, but my work, I’m enjoying it right now.

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How about your journey? If bookstagram is not your thing, then what about when you began blogging? Who was your inspiration? What mistakes do you feel you made?

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