If you’ve been coming to my blog for a while, you know I love to talk and write about books. Maybe you want to do the same! But you don’t want to go to all the trouble in creating a blog, so I propose something easier for you: a #bookstagram.

What is a bookstagram?

A bookstagram is a book account on Instagram where you can post book reviews, reading roundups, book lists, and other book-related posts. A bookstagram, or book Instagram, is an outlet to share your love of reading and the books that you’ve read.

In fact, some bookstagrammers make it their full-time jobs! Who knows? Maybe that can be you.

But how? Here are some tips for starting a bookstagram.

Just start it!

If you keep saying you want to start one, but don’t do anything, you probably won’t ever start one. Open the Instagram app and create a new account.

Pick a username that means something to you.

My bookstagram is @oliviagreadsbooks, which is a good direct back to my blog. Choose a username that reflects your personality—it can be your name and something book or reading related next to it, but it doesn’t have to include your name. It can be @/booksandplantsqueen if that means something to you. (That’s actually a really cool name so if you take that, lmk and I’ll follow you back.)

Start following bookish accounts.

Instagram give you suggested accounts to follow based on personal friends from other social media apps or they offer you suggestions based on your account. If you write in your bio about books, then you’ll get suggested accounts that also talk about books.

Make your first post.

This can be your first bookstagram review of the last book you read or anything you want. Make it fun! Post an introduction post and introduce who you are and why you started this account. When you get stuck on what to post, look at other accounts for inspiration—but don’t copy and paste someone’s post. Some post ideas that aren’t just book reviews: shelf pics (#sundayshelfie), favorite books of a specific genre (favorite romance books, favorite thrillers, etc.), and/or books on your TBR. Here are more bookstagram post ideas!

Keep it fun.

Listen, you can monetize a bookstagram—and a lot of people do! But bottom line is, keep it fun. Don’t stress yourself out because you haven’t posted in a week or haven’t updated your Stories in three days. Don’t stress yourself out because other people read three books in three days and you struggle to get through one within two weeks. Life happens sometimes! Post what you want when you want to and have fun with it. So what if you never grow? Keep creating and posting content for the followers you do have—those people are your community.

Don’t feel boxed in to only talk about books.

If you want to talk about the latest reality TV news or want to create travel-inspired videos, then feel free to do so! I love following bookstagram accounts that don’t just talk about books. I love following booksta accounts that double as Taylor Swift fan accounts. Like I mentioned above, if you want the username @/booksandplantsqueen, and talk about books and plants, then do it! Find a way to combine your love of books and plants in one post—in fact, that will help you stand out amongst other bookstagram accounts and will help you grow your account.

Like I mentioned above, just have fun. If you’ve been thinking about starting a bookstagram account, then just start it. It’s an account where you talk about books—don’t take yourself too seriously. If you want to take pretty pictures of your books, do that and have fun with it! If you want to create graphics with books in Canva, then do that! Bookstagram is a fun space to talk about books and share what you’re currently reading and find new books to read. You can do it … I believe in you.