Many writers seem to take offense when they are told they will need to promote themselves and their work. Maybe they think that a publisher should be doing this work for them, maybe they aren’t familiar with the various platforms, or maybe they are just humble.
But no one knows your work, your story, your characters better than you. I was curating agents and authors and other publishing types on Twitter for awhile. Now it feels like I have parachuted onto a hellish Mount Doom in the bowels of Mordor whenever I venture there. So I have turned my attention to Instagram. I had been using it off and on since 2012, when I took a class at the Delaware College of Art and Design.
Instagram is a welcoming place for authors and books. The hashtag “bookstagram” has 96 million posts. It skews younger than Facebook. Because Instagram is visual, you need to be able to post photos or art that are not blurry. Jane Friedman offers these Instagram tips for writers.
I also signed up for Threads, Facebook’s antidote to Twitter, but I haven’t posted for awhile. It just seems like an Instagram clone without the pictures. Right now, I am focused on Instagram. I study how writers promote themselves and soak up advice from agents. I add a lot of books to my digital TBR pile. You will learn a lot about the craft and the industry if you spend some time there.
