The Ultimate Guide To Instagram Book Promotion for Romance Authors
Instagram is one of the most powerful platforms for marketing your new romance book. It’s a perfect tool to connect with new readers, ultimately build lasting relationships with them and showcase your romance author brand and book branding.
Here is a guide with the best practices for Instagram book marketing to promote your romance organically.
Why Instagram is Essential for Book Marketing
As of April 2024, Instagram ranks as the third most-used social media network globally (Statista) with a significant user base between 18-35 years old (Statista).
This aligns well with the romance genre’s average target audience, which is women aged 18-44 but particularly 24-35 years old (The National Herald).
In short, Instagram is a prime space to meet potential readers for your romance book organically through posts, networking and engagement.
So, how can you leverage Instagram book marketing effectively to connect with these readers?
Market Your Romance Book With Instagram Reels
As of March 2024, Instagram Reels remain the top-performing content type on the platform, with high engagement and impressions (Social Insider), so needless to say they should be a high priority in your marketing strategy.
The great thing about using Reels for your book promotion is that you can and should re-post these videos to TikTok as well.
To maximize your reach, add relevant hashtags and pick trending sounds for your Reels. From experience, these post types are highly effective for gaining new followers and readers.
Here are some Instagram book marketing ideas to promote your romance book through Reels.
1. Slideshows of Emotional Book Scenes
These are very easy to create in Canva. Take a scene from your book that has a particular twist or is especially emotional and create a slideshow video. Make sure your hook on the very first page is captivating – here’s a blog article to help you come up with intriguing hooks.
Make sure it doesn’t spoil too much and creates the need for readers to know more. You also need to pick visually appealing pictures – and make sure you are licensed to use them. Here is a blog article outlining the best free stock photo sites for pictures you can use!
Still not sure how to find great hooks? I offer Author Services that include content pulls and Reel creation, find my price list and inquire here!
2. Screenshot Overlay
Create a Reel by overlaying a screenshot of a key scene with a matching video. For instance, pair a romantic scene with a video of page-flipping, or add a video related to your book’s theme (e.g., a hockey game for a hockey romance).
3. Lip-syncing
Whether Booktok or Bookstagram, during your research your will encounter videos of users lip-syncing to a song with key-scenes from a book described in writing. While this may not seem all too different from creating the slide-shows, showing your face adds a personal touch and may help strengthen your author brand.
4. Text messages
Does your book have fun text message banter or do they reveal a big twist? With message simulators and Canva you can turn them into a video for an Instagram Reel as well. Make new messages pop up every few seconds, at a rate that allows viewers to read along comfortably.
For more Reel examples, have a look at my blog article with faceless Reels ideas.
Success in Instagram book marketing through Reels varies, so study what works for other romance authors and adapt ideas that fit your book.
Promote Your Books With Instagram Posts
Instagram posts are what drive the most comments, making them ideal to interact with your readers and building a connection.
Whereas Reels mainly help you build an author brand if you show your face, it’s important to utilize branding strategies in your feed. That includes your ‘corporate identity’: Meaning stick to colors, fonts and wording that you have decided on beforehand.
Usually, Instagram posts for book marketing include: A cover reveal, trope reveal, quotes from your romance book, reviews, a playlist if you have one in your book, and character introductions.
Additionally, Instagram’s bio link feature allows easy access for readers to join ARC lists or newsletters—an advantage over platforms like TikTok, where follower thresholds apply.
No idea where to start? Consider getting yourself an Instagram Post Template from Etsy, like the one above. They provide content ideas, are easily customizable to fit your book and can be used with the free Canva version.
Collaborate with Bookstagram Accounts
Working with influencers is a crucial element of Instagram book marketing, as word-of-mouth promotion can drive new readers to your romance book.
81% of consumers have bought or considered buying a product from posts made by influencers or friends and family.
Readers follow their favorite influencers for honest book recommendations.
While generally, you need to be prepared to spend money if you intend to work with big influencers, in the bookish space you might find micro-influencer who are willing to work with you without any compensation for exactly this reason.
They want to share their honest thoughts about a book and discuss it with their readers – paid ads that might even have certain wording to post in it, would attack their credibility and might even cause them to lose followers.
The key here is putting work into approaching them. A copy-paste message ‘Hey Bookfluencer, look at my book!’ is not going to cut it.
Before you even consider reaching out, you need to have a proper look at their profile and check:
Prior posts and what kinds of books they have read and enjoyed before
Whether your own book fits that genre and profile.
Once you decide that your book would be a good fit for that bookish influencer, you will want to create personalized messages for every bookish influencer you approach. Check out my article on how to craft the perfect, personalized message to Bookstagrammers!
One thing to note when working with Bookstagrammers is that you will have no influence on what they post and as long as there is no contract and money exchanged, you cannot enforce them following through.
If they enjoyed your book, it’s likely they will post about it, but if they don’t, you have no leg to stand on to hound them into posting.
On the bright side – it’s a great way to find new readers among bookish influencers and build lasting relationships that you will benefit on in the long run!
How To Utilize Stories To Promote Your Book
The most important aspect about Stories is that they let you add a link. When it comes to readers purchasing books, it’s important to make the purchase as easy as possible for them, with as few clicks as possible.
So your book has just released? Post a Story with a link to Amazon.
Your book is on sale? Post a link.
You have a new Facebook group? Want your followers to sign up to your newsletter? You get the idea.
They also allow you to create more interactive comment with your readers. Be it a little q&a where you answer your followers’ questions, or letting them vote on character names, it helps to build a relationship with your readers and make your book promotion a two-way street where readers can answer, instead of ‘only’ posting.
Share posts and positive reviews of your book you have been tagged. Aside from your viewers seeing readers gushing about your books, it shows the original poster appreciation for their work to share it with your followers as well.
Not All Book Promotion is Promotion
While it’s essential to post about your book to promote it, there is so much more to effective book marketing. Interacting with bookish creators, liking, sharing and commenting their posts, will get your name into their notifications.
Instagram is a great way to interact with your fans and also potential readers – and even a positive interaction might make someone pick up your book and regular engagement will increase your chances. Social Media might be a marketing tool, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun on there and take part in the community.
Optimize Your Book Marketing With Instagram Insights
If you have a professional account, Instagram as integrated analytics so you can optimize your romance book marketing.
The professional dashboard provides insights on follower demographics, peak activity times, and engagement metrics to help you will help you optimize your Reels, Stories, and posts to reach more potential readers. Additional analytics for your Reels and Instagram posts show you their performance compared to your average performance.
Share Your Promotion Content To Other Platforms
If you activate it in your settings, Instagram will share your content to the other Meta Platforms as well: Facebook and Threads.
As of now Reels can be viewed on Facebook as well, while posts can be crossposted to Facebook and Threads. You can also download your Instagram Reels and post them to TikTok for additional book marketing.
While this is a real time-saver, make sure to have a solid cross-media marketing strategy. Every platform comes with a slightly different target group and expectations from viewers, so it’s very important to adjust your content accordingly for each.
Final Thoughts on Instagram Book Marketing
Instagram is a fantastic place to get the word out about your romance book and build a fanbase of engaged readers. By using Reels, posts, and Stories—and teaming up with Bookstagrammers—you can boost your book’s visibility and connect with people who’ll love your work.
Keep an eye on Instagram Insights to see what’s working best, and don’t forget to cross-post to Facebook and Threads for extra reach. With a bit of strategy and a lot of genuine interaction, Instagram can help you find your audience and grow your author brand in a way that’s fun and impactful.
Happy posting!
