I'm not actually new to Instagram. I first joined when I lived in Japan, and wanted to showcase what I thought were my best pictures out of the thousands I had taken. Castles, flowers, waterfalls, forests, shrines...I put my favorite things about Japan on my Instagram.
When I got back to the United States, I tried to take some artsy pictures of the things around me, along with pictures from family trips, but it just didn't mesh well with all of the gorgeous Japan photos. I kept them up for a long time but eventually deleted them.
Then my Instagram started to change in its style and purpose -- I wanted to promote Son of the Siren (and future books) on it, and really add it to my author platform.
I started out with my Publishers Marketplace announcement, then added ads from Oliver Heber books and my own ads I made through Book Brush. I shared unboxing photos, moodboards, trope maps, and more. And it was a lot of fun!
I also participated in two Instagram book tour services over a period of time. The first one was through MTMC Tours, and I was a bit cautious with that one--it was an international tour and I didn't have a lot of money, so I only booked a week. But the results were great!
Here's just one of the many book photos from the MTMC Tours!
The second book tour was through Storygram Book Tours, and I had more money this time around to pay for a 14-day tour...plus, it was all stateside, which meant the books were cheaper to ship!
Here's an example of an artsy presentation from Storygram Tours:
I absolutely fell in love with these photo spreads and definitely wanted to make my own to promote Son of the Siren. I don't have a professional camera (or lighting for that matter) and I don't have props, so I tried my hand at a digital collage:
This was a lot of fun. I want to keep making things like these for Instagram, but also try something new. I only made one reel/story so far (I honestly have a hard time telling the difference between these two) and hope with more practice I get good at those, but I am not appearing onscreen until I lose a bunch of weight.
If I can master making reels on Instagram, I might possibly graduate to TikTok, but only if I can get a handle on making short videos. We'll see.
What about you? Do you use Instagram for fun or promotion or both?
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