Do you have an upcoming BookBub promotion? If so, there are various ways to amplify yours and make the most of the opportunity to generate a high volume of sales. One popular way authors boost their BookBub campaigns is via Instagram. Instagram not only provides a fun way to personally connect with readers, but also allows you to let existing fans know about your discounts, book launches, celebratory news, and more.
To help inspire you when brainstorming ideas for furthering your reach, we wanted to showcase how authors have successfully boosted their BookBub promotions on Instagram. We’ve included examples of:
- Authors amplifying a Featured Deal
- Authors amplifying a Chirp Deal
- Authors asking fans to follow them on BookBub
- Authors thanking readers for posting Recommendations
- Authors boosting a BookBub blog mention
Authors amplifying a Featured Deal
When discounting a book, authors often stack promotions — the strategy of running multiple marketing campaigns within a short timeframe to maximize the volume of book sales within a bestseller list’s reporting period. One common time to do this is after securing a BookBub Featured Deal. Since they reach such wide audiences — often millions of readers at a time — amplifying these promotions can push a book over the edge and onto a list.
Chanel Cleeton
Chanel shared a mobile screenshot of her Featured Deal, and rather than posting as-is, she overlaid it on a blurred background to optimize the image dimension ratio (1×1) for Instagram’s feed. The caption leads with information about the deal before a pitch of the book.
Adriana Trigiani
Adriana posted a picture of her book with a text overlay promoting the discount, and included the BookBub logo to spark recognition. She also posted to her Instagram stories, where readers could swipe up to navigate to the deal (a feature available once you have 10K Instagram followers).
Barbara Delinsky
Barbara posted a screenshot of the Deal Alert email that went to her BookBub followers, optimizing the dimensions (1×1) for Instagram’s feed.
Jennifer Hillier
Jennifer included two images in her post amplifying her BookBub Featured Deal. One showed a screenshot of her deal within the Daily Deals email…
…and one showed a screenshot of the book’s page on BookBub.com.
Allie Larkin
Allie posted a flat-lay bookstagram-style image of her book cover on an iPad, with text calling out the deal price. She elaborated on the details of the BookBub deal in the caption, pitched the book, then included a link to the book’s page on BookBub. (Note: You can’t hyperlink URLs within Instagram captions, but another option is to temporarily replace the link in your Instagram bio and say in the caption, “Link in bio!”)
Renée Rosen
Renée posted a graphic promoting the discount, showing the digital book cover, eye-catching deal price, comp titles, and a blurb from a popular publication. She also called out the BookBub deal in the caption.
Kathy Lyons
Kathy posted a graphic including a screenshot of the BookBub deal and a cute animation of an arrow pointing to the deal price (click the image below to see this on Instagram). The 1×1 image is optimized for Instagram’s feed, with a border separating the white screenshot from the feed.
Laurie Buchanan
Laurie posted a graphic including the book cover, a deal price callout, and BookBub text to spark recognition. She also listed the retailers on which the deal was available, both in the image and the caption.
Frances E. Mayes
Frances took a simple yet effective approach — she took a screenshot of the BookBub Featured Deal on her monitor!
Juliette Sobanet
Juliette posted a vibrant graphic with text calling out the free promotion. At the bottom, she included logos of BookBub and the retailers on which the deal was available.
Rea Frey
Rea reminded her followers of an ongoing BookBub Featured Deal in the caption of an image showing a sneak peek of an upcoming book.
Authors amplifying a Chirp deal
Some authors are also starting to promote their Chirp audiobook discounts on Instagram — a great way to get more visibility for readers who love to listen to their books.
Tessa Dare
Tessa posted a picture of her audiobook with earbuds with a text overlay promoting the deal price. The caption provides more details about the promotion on Chirp, and a bit.ly link to the audiobook’s page on Chirp.
Vanessa Fewings
Vanessa posted this eye-catching graphic when her audiobook was discounted on Chirp on Valentine’s Day. Her caption also touted the $1.99 price point.
Amanda Skenandore
Amanda shared a screenshot of her audiobook deal on Chirp, and provided a link to the audiobook’s page on Chirp in her bio.
Authors asking fans to follow them on BookBub
Many authors encourage their Instagram followers to follow them on BookBub as well. After all, every BookBub follower you have will receive a dedicated email whenever you launch a new book or run a Featured Deal — whereas on Instagram, each post is at the mercy of an algorithm, so not all of your followers there will see your most important announcements.
Charlie Cochet
Charlie created an eye-catching graphic showing her BookBub Author Profile on an iPhone with a call-to-action to follow her on BookBub. She also included her BookBub username so readers could easily find her.
Rebecca Chastain
Rebecca took a bookstagram-style approach, posting a pic of a phone showing one of her box sets on BookBub, with her book in the background. In the caption, she explained why following her is a good idea — to get alerts about her discounts and new releases.
Cynthia Vespia
Cynthia posted a graphic encouraging readers to follow her on BookBub so they “never miss a deal, recommendation, or latest book news!” She also included the URL to her BookBub Author Profile in the caption.
Victoria Blue
Victoria also created a graphic encouraging readers to follow her on Instagram. Rather than including the URL in the caption, she encouraged viewers to click the Linktree link in her bio, where they could tap a subsequent link to her BookBub Author Profile.
S.E. Rose
S.E. posted a cute graphic showing her BookBub Author Profile on an iPhone with a call-to-action to follow her on BookBub. She also included the URL in the caption.
Authors thanking readers for BookBub recommendations
Millions of BookBub members have posted recommendations for books on BookBub.com, and we’ve seen authors use these recs as fodder for their marketing collateral, including Instagram posts. (Note: We recommend getting permission from a recommender before republishing their quote in any format.)
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Hank created a graphic including her cover alongside pull-quotes from BookBub recommendations. Her caption included a heartfelt thanks to these readers.
Jess Mongomery
Jess pulled a quote from one individual recommender on BookBub, placing the quote alongside the book’s cover. She also linked to the recommendation in the caption.
Authors boosting a BookBub blog mention
Another opportunity for exposure is on BookBub’s blog, where BookBub publishes book lists, sneak peeks, giveaways, spotlights, and more. And authors often boost these placements by celebrating them on Instagram.
Kristin Hannah
Kristin shared a screenshot of a BookBub article in which one of her books was nominated for “the biggest tearjerker of the decade.” In the caption, she thanked BookBub for the nom and encouraged readers to vote for their favorites.
Kellye Garrett
When Kellye Garrett’s book Hollywood Homicide made BookBub’s list of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, she posted a screenshot of the article to Instagram with a heartfelt caption.
Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
Coauthors Alli and Asha celebrated the mention of their book in one of BookBub’s listacles, 14 Books You’ll Want to Read in One Sitting by sharing a graphic including a screenshot of this post. They created the graphic using the app PicCollage.
Jessica Kate
Jessica excitedly posted about how her book was featured in BookBub’s listicle 16 Christian Romance Novels Readers Are Guaranteed to Love by sharing a screenshot of the article headline, and writing a heartfelt caption celebrating this mention.
Melissa Ferguson
Okay, now we’re getting extra meta. Melissa Ferguson celebrated a mention here on the BookBub Partners Blog when we featured one of her Instagram posts in 15 Ways Authors are Using Instagram to Overcome Physical Distancing Challenges. She shared a screenshot of her screenshot (screenshotception!), wrote a celebratory caption, and included a link to the post in her bio so other authors could learn from the post as well.
Have you boosted your BookBub promotions on Instagram before? If so, we’d love to see! Share a link to your Instagram post in the comments below.
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