Starting My Bookstagram!

Hey everyone! It’s another instalment in my what I’m uptown this summer series and today I bring to you me starting my very own Bookstagram! This is an idea I’ve been toying around with for quite some time and now, I’ve finally taken the plunge!

So, first you, you all can go follow me at @coffeeaddictedbibliophile_!

MAKING THE PROFILE

DECIDING MY ACCOUNT NAME 

This art of creating a Bookstagram was relatively simple for me since I already have a blog name. So, I tried out a couple options on instagram and settled with coffeeaddictedbibliophile_ as it seemed like the best option available to me!

CHOOSING A PROFILE PICTURE 

I didn’t have any recent photos of me and books but I did remember having a really cute photo of me behind a book from 2 years ago and it took me a little while to dig it up but I was able to find it and I think it looks really nice!

WRITING MY BIO 

This was also a fairly simple step as I just put down some words that adequately describe me such as my age, pronouns, books that I like reading and a link to my book blog!

PICTURES 

SETTING 

So the first step before even starting to click the pictures is to find an appropriate location with a lot of natural light to click your photos. My room has windows in all the wrong places and so, I had to take over my mom’s room to get some nice pictures! (TIP: If you’re doing the, click pictures when your mom is off to work because otherwise she’ll just keep commenting and being scared that you’re about to drop something)

PROPS 

After that, you need to find a few props to put in your picture! I am a poor student with literally no bookish material because I can barely afford to buy the books so I just used stuff from around my house such as some artificial flowers and figurines and stones and stuff. So, don’t worry if you’re broke, you can still click really good pictures, just keep an eye out for things you see everyday around your house!

CLICKING PICTURES

Now comes the part everyone thinks is most difficult but it really isn’t! Even an iPhone camera can click really great pictures so don’t worry if you don’t have a DSLR but I have a semi-DSLR that I used.

The main thing here is to try out the different angles and see what looks best! I often end up with 10-20 pictures of the same books all just titled in a little different way but what do you know? Sometimes a certain lit makes the picture go from okay to great!

EDITING THE PICTURE

For this I use Pixlr which is a free website and it’s really easy to use! Clo @CuppaClo did a post on how to use it a while back and I found it really useful, so you can all go check that out, it’s linked just below in the resources section!

If you want to see how exactly I edit my photos, let me know in the comments below! I was thinking of doing a post on comparing my before and after bookstagram pictures and let me know if you’d be interested in seeing that!

RESOURCES I TOOK HELP FROM

Here are the links to some posts that I found really helpful:

Tips on how to start a Bookstagram by the Uncorked Librarian

Bookstagram guide by The Curious Reader

How to get started on Bookstagram by Paper Fury 

RELATED: MY OTHER WHAT I’M UPTO POSTS

Reorganising my Bookshelf

Planning my book

Coming soon: Making myself some easy bookmarks!

So that’s it for today! Are you all a part of Bookstagram? What has your journey been like? Do you have any tips for an amateur like me? Let me know in the comments below!