maybe you're an avid bookstagrammer but you're not getting any advanced reading
copies or maybe you don't even know what bookstagram is but you read all the time and
you just want some free books then i have some tips for you from a publishing point of view
my number one first tip would be to set up a bookstagram account what is a bookstore account
it's self-explanatory it's a book instagram it's an instagram account dedicated to all things books
it's book reviews book pictures books stacks book reading vlogs anything like that it's a
niche place for people to share their interesting books and essentially what publishers are going
to look at to decide whether or not they should give you some free books so my tip for setting
up a bookstrap account obviously do it first of all set the account up choose a suitable name
and have your name in the bio i'm really trying to get it into people's heads that you need to have
your country or your city or your flag in your bio as well this is super important from publisher's
point of view for example if we're just sending out a mailing to uk and island books grammars only
it's going to be super important if we see your page and you've got x amount of followers
you've got really really nice photos really great engagement but we find out that you're in canada
we're not going to send you that book essentially you're wasting your publishers time but you're
wasting your own time as well please just put a flag in your bio it takes one character out of
your bio just so that we know when we're looking even better if it is an international mailing we
want to know where you live so that we can factor that into our budget once you've set up your
account follow other bookstagrammers follow the ones that have got thousands of followers follow
the ones that are just starting up and a similar position to you engage with them i think that is
such an important thing and that i've learned as a fairly new bookstore and myself as well
engage with other people like their posts but comment on their posts read their posts click
to see more bit as well really engage with them use stories as well put up polls see like do you
do you like romance books yes or no get people to actually interact with you put comment boxes on
there like what are your book recommendations from this month and get people to actually engage with
your content and vice versa as well as other book scramblers i really think it's important to follow
publishers as well you can find out firsthand what they're publishing that month if they've got any
deals going on if they've got any giveaways if they've got any proofs going away follow
other publishers when you decide to take step and post a picture make sure that picture is fairly
high quality it's absolutely fine in my opinion to start with a low quality just take a photo on your
iphone that usually just does the job but my tips would be to use some props like plants blankets
candles anything like that if it's christmas time use some tinsel use some crackers use some baubles
use christmas tree if it's halloween used to leave some fake pumpkins anything like that
if you can't afford props just make sure you're taking it in the daylight so there's nice natural
light and minimal editing to do you don't have to spend a fortune on editing software either
use the settings built into your smartphone or use a free app such as adobe lightroom then once
you've posted think about the caption that you're using use emojis but not too many and
use hashtags the way that i do it is i do a first comment on my own post with a tag emoji
i'm replying to that comment so that it's then hidden for other viewers put all your hashtags
on there so people know that that comment if they really want to expand it and look what
hashtags you're using you can do that but it's not going to bulk up uh the majority of your post
use hashtags like booksta grammar book reading bookstagram maybe if you want to make it specific
as well put like why a fantasy ya books why a book lover i also think it's great to put things like
uk books to grammar because if you don't have your flag or your country in your bio that i mentioned
publishers like myself can go onto the hashtag uk bookstrama and find you that way
staying up to date and relevant i think is also important when you're in the bookstagram community
if it's christmas tell us what books you've got for christmas tell us if you're planning to read
any over the holidays if it's easter if you've got any easter books recommendations if it's summer
what are you doing take a photo of you lounging around sunbathing with the book make it relevant
make it up today and engage with other people and finally with bookstagram always say yes to
blog tours if you don't know what blog tours are they are a virtual way for publishers to send book
lovers a copy of a book that's coming out soon the books grammar would then have a date each to post
about their their review of the book my second tip for you to get free books is to simply ask
you don't ask you don't get email the publishers if you're interested in a particular book find out
who the publisher is and then find out a contact email when you email them include everything the
more the merrier the information when you email them include your full name include your postal
address they know exactly where to send it to they don't have to go back and ask you for your post to
address and wait for that they can send it out straight away send them the links to all of your
bookstagram your twitter your youtube anything like that it also helps to have a follow account
on there so you know i've got 10 000 followers it also helps have engagement on there you know show
yourself off a bit and say you know i only have a thousand followers but actually i get 800 likes on
everything you could also have like your preferred genres and stuff as well and say while i'm here
can you add me to your blogger list as well include everything you can and that is so useful
for us at the publishing house if you haven't done this before you can kind of use this as a test see
how you get on first of all if you don't get a response don't worry try again i see how your
format in your email there are different ways that you can do it some publishers will be pickier than
others but my main advice would be to email them and then include as much as possible my third tip
to get free books is once you've got a bookstagram set up you've emailed the publishers they've now
sent you a book is to keep and maintain that good relationship with the publishing house you want
to be on the good side so eventually they're going to send you multiple books in the future
the easiest way to do this is simply send them a link to where you've posted about the book email
them with the exact url and say this is where i posted the review of the book that you sent me
it can be from instagram twitter an instagram story a youtube link whatever it is send them the
link in an email and just say thought i'd just let you know here is where the link to where i post it
it kind of proves to us as publishers that it's worth us sending you the book because you're
definitely gonna post about it and essentially that's what we want as publishers we want it the
book in reader's hands and we want the exposure online i also recommend you tag people in your
post once you've received a book and taken a lovely photo of it and then post a review online
tag the publishers they can then use this they might use this for users user generated content
which is where we say hey we absolutely love your picture can we post this on our main page that has
obviously say 50 000 followers you might get some followers from that if they tag you with credit
tag them so that they can see that you've posted about their book tag the author as well especially
if it's a good review tag the person that has sent you the book the publicist the marketer i
think maintaining that relationship with the publishers the marketer the publishing house
themselves is really important because you're basically then on their good side and then
once you've done it once or twice they're more likely to send you books in the future because
they know that you're trustworthy my fourth tip to get free books is to use netgalley netgalley
is a site where publishers upload a pdf or an ebook of one of their upcoming publications for
readers to request this can be librarians booksellers book reviewers book bloggers
whatever it is as long as you have an account you can request a book use this very wisely though
don't request every and anything that you can see on netgalley because this will actually go against
you the whole point of netgalley is for you to request something in advance of its publication
date in return for an honest review if you request loads of books publishers accept your request and
then you don't leave a review this goes against you you have percentages against your account for
example if you have 100 this means you've reviewed 100 of the books that you've been accepted for if
you have a lower percentage like zero or 20 this looks very bad on you because it looks
as if you're requesting books and just reading them for free without leaving a review which is
what the publishers want so i definitely say use netgalley but use it wisely in terms of
only request the things that you're generally interested in and you're gonna leave a review for
even if it's a very short review leave something there are exceptions to this like if you're new
to netgalley or if you've only requested a couple of books and it's obviously gonna matter in terms
of percentage but use it wisely similarly to my other point about publishers as well make sure
you're following them so you know about updates on netgalley publishers often post this is now
available to request on netgalley if you're following them and turning your notifications
on for when they post about netgalley update you can then go to netgalley and request it from there
with your netgalley as well whether you've got a site now and it just needs updating or whether
you're new to signing up to an account again include everything on there include your full
name include your email address so publishers can contact you directly and say hey we saw you
read this on netgalley do you want the sequel do you want another book about you can also
select your preferred genres on there and this is really helpful for us we don't want to send you a
book that you're going to have no interest in and then link to your instagram blog twitter facebook
etc as well my fifth and final tip to get some free books or arcs or arcs whatever you want to
call them from publishers is i'm afraid a very boring one it's the admin side of it i recommend
setting up a link tree or similar this is one link one url that people can click on and it
has a list of other links so my link tree is link tree whatever it is forward slash elementary rows
and it's got my instagram my personal instagram my twitter my email address my youtube you can just
set up a free version which i think it allows you about five links but you can also pay for a
more premium version and you get loads of links on there so it might be click here to read my latest
blog post whatever it is i recommend you setting up a link tree because publishers can use that
as a form of communication if they need to get your email and your blog and your twitter they
don't want to spend hours searching through your your online profile to find one of them
have it all in one place make it easier for you make it easier for publishers number two make a
spreadsheet i am a lover of a spreadsheet and so yes i have a spreadsheet all the books that
i've been gifted are from different publishers i include who sent it to me what their work
email addresses what their twitter account is what the publisher's twitter account is what
the publication is what imprint it's under well the name of the book is well the publication date
is whether i've received it whether i've read it and then i list all of the links where i've posted
about it on twitter instagram youtube or other i find this so helpful and i wouldn't be able
to manage without it i think it's really important as well to note down the pub date because this is
when publishers want you to build the buzz they often send you a book ahead of publication so
you can read it in time for publication which is then when they want you to shout about it because
it's out in the world for other people to buy it and that's when they want the kind of like the
buzz building so similar to the spreadsheet is just know your publication dates for the books
that you've been given my next tip in terms of the admin side of things is be consistent you can use
a scheduler for this if necessary but if you're for example setting up a bookstagram be consistent
don't post once every few months and then in one week post seven times be consistent post
every day post twice a week whatever is gonna be helpful for you i started recently using a program
called later later.com and there is a limit on it because i'm using the free version at the moment
but it allows you to draft the caption draft the post and it will set a reminder to your phone if
you download an app and it will say time to post on instagram this obviously has uh pros and cons
for example if you're not on your phone at the time you want it you get that reminder whatever
but if that's gonna help you set an alarm whatever it is just be consistent and that will
work in your favor my next tip is to have your dms open whether you're a private account or a
business account or whether you have your dms shot on twitter whatever account it is have your dms
open publishers might want to contact you and say hey we love your profile can we send you a book
of this we think you might be interested based on your profile if your dms are shut you are shutting
away those opportunities to get free books have your dms open make your bookstagram a public
account where publishers can check your page out have it as open as possible so they can contact
you and my final tip on the admin side of things is to sign up to publishers newsletters loads of
publishers have different newsletters where you can find out about the latest deals what's coming
up get involved with some giveaways but they often have newsletters where they say hey we want the
first you know 10 people to reply to this email you'll get a copy of this book getting involved
with their newsletter like that will guarantee you some free books you can be signing up and
getting involved with the giveaways as well you could win a competition giveaways happen all the
time across social media as well as newsletters various publishers also have like a blogger
newsletter sign up thing as well we have one at bonnier books uk that i set up which is basically
a place where you can put in all your information and then you add it to our list and we'll consider
you for future uh mail outs as well so sign up to as many newsletters as you can if you if you can't
find them it will usually be on their website or their social media as well but i think doing this
admin kind of thing staying on top of it with your spreadsheet etc can really help you when it comes
to getting these free books i really really hope this helped you let me know if there's any other
tips that you think are absolutely useful for your peers to know about let me know if you're going
to set up instagram on the back of this and make sure you follow me i'm eleanor m rose with two e's
i'll link in the description down below as well i hope you have a lovely day and happy reading