One change in my bookstagram photos made me happier about my feed

 

I’m definitely taking the slow route with blogging. Things have happened, things have changed, since the last time. I love when an idea for a blog post comes to me without me looking for it, when it appears as a question in my mind, or just an opinion I really want to explore.

This is one of those times.

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I had been going through a terrible bookstagram slump, posting content, but always being disappointed by the reach and engagement they got. This has been going on for a few months now, but got worse in the last few weeks. I felt like I was creating good content, but it didn’t seem like people agreed, so I felt bad. The mojo I’d gotten back early this year took a nosedive and I was feeling the worst I’ve ever felt about my work.

I don’t think I’m completely out of the woods yet, but I made two changes. One may have improved my posts’ performance, and the other just made me feel happier.

 

I started taking more photos of ebooks

One of my first posts this year was one that featured an ebook called Outmatched, by Kristen Callihan and Samantha Young. It was lovely, and it was a very spontaneous decision to borrow my sister’s iPad and using it to showcase the cover.

I never made much of an effort with ebooks because I did think at least my followers weren’t too interested, my ebooks are mostly romance and I didn’t use to feel very confident talking about my love for those books, and also because it’s tricky getting ebooks to look nice in photos.

But I did it. And then did it again, and again, with other books.

Creating content for bookstagram got a little easier, because I wasn’t spending so much time trying to decide which books to photograph from my shelf anymore. I could just show what I was reading, or planning to read, which is usually a romance ebook.

It was so freeing to make just that slight change. It’s not even for all posts, but just often enough that it feels major, and like I’m not talking about books in general, but about my books.

Of course physical copies are my books too, and I love to feature them and talk about my favorite series, no matter how many times I’ve already posted about them. But it’s incredible to be able to not just mention my current reads, but also show them.

 

Some pointers about taking ebook photos

• Avoid the glare of the screen by locking it and rather editing the cover into the photo later.
• If you’re not Photoshop savvy, use the PicsArt app on your phone. Open your photo, and then add the cover image, place it where you want it, and that’s it!
• To make it actually look natural, don’t try to make the cover fit the entire screen. Covers in ebooks usually don’t. So it’s okay if there’s blank spaces on the sides of the cover image.
• PicsArt works when your device lays flat on whatever surface it is on. If there are inclinations, then the angles won’t let you fit the image properly onto the space. Doing this edit with PicsArt is like copy-pasting. You won’t be able to change the perspective and angles of the cover image.
• Make sure the screen area is empty and there are no other props getting in the way.

 

Maybe I’ll make a more detailed post about this in the future? For now, I hope this helps!

Now, onto the other change I made that I wanted to mention because I’m testing if it’s really working.

 

I stopped using a scheduling tool

For work, I use Hootsuite to schedule months worth of posts in advance. It’s a pretty handy tool so about a year ago I began using it for my own bookstagram as well. I never really scheduled anything. When it was my usual posting time, I’d add the photo I wanted and write the caption from my computer, instead of my phone, and then selected ‘post now’.

I really just liked being able to write longer captions with my laptop keyboard.

Around this time too, my engagement tanked considerably. I’m not sure yet if using Hootsuite is truly at fault. But it seems like too much of a coincidence. I’ve stopped using it as of one week now, and began using instagram the old fashioned way again.

I feel like I’m doing better? But this could be a fluke, because I also feel better about what I’m doing. And you know how important that is too. When you enjoy what you’re doing, that joy is present in your work and attracts others to it. So I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll need more time to test this out.

 

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This post was partially inspired by Kat’s examples how bookstagrammers that embrace the ebook style and are doing it incredibly.

Tell me something about your bookstagram! Maybe something you have changed recently, or a photo you’re in love with from your feed!

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