Bookstagrammers: Legit or Scam – A Bookish Experience

Author Medallio Green breaks down what’s real and what’s risky in the world of Bookstagram. From red flags to real connections, here’s what indie authors need to know before saying yes to a DM.

Hello Bookish Community!

There is an ever-growing trend right now in the bookish community called Bookstagram. According to ForeverBookedUp, a Bookstagram is an “online community on Instagram that is filled with authors, writers, readers, and book-lovers. Their accounts are filled with pretty book photos, reviews, recommendations, and more!”

These accounts have successfully carved out a niche in the community as Bookstagrammers.

A Bookstagrammer’s influence can be very lucrative to authors, especially indie authors as Niru (2024) reported that “Top Bookstagrammers have between 100,000 to over 1 million followers;” while “72% of users have purchased a book because of a Bookstagram post.” This influence can be through bookish advertisements via social media that could include custom graphics and collages by the Bookstagrammer. They could also promote your book with reviews on their blog or YouTube channel. The book influencer could also push your book through several social media groups such as book clubs and writers and readers groups. The Bookstagrammer may enjoy your book so much that they will request to collaborate with you on social media which allows multiple accounts to co-author and share the same post or reel.

Overall, my experience with legit Bookstagrammers has been very lucrative as they did not ask for payment, which we’ll get into later in the article as a shady aspect of Bookstagram. The Bookstagrammers that I have worked with offered to read my books on Kindle Unlimited (KU) or offered to pay for shipping if I mailed out the paperbacks. If they enjoyed the books then they would promote my books through their social media reels and posts and recommend my books to their bookish community all for FREE. The only service offered for payment was something like an author feature or author takeover on their social media pages.

My experience with Bookstagrammer services that were not legit resulted in them asking for payment upfront to promote my book and review it with no guarantee of increased book sales, and organic reviews. Paying for reviews can violate the terms of service with publishers and retailers such as Amazon, “The following are types of reviews that we don’t allow and will remove: A review in exchange for monetary reward…”

How do you know if a Bookstagrammer’s services are not legit and may be a scam? These are my tips to spot a scammer and save you some hard earned indie author dollars.

• The Bookstagrammer will reach out to you via a random DM on your social media that may say something like:
  “Hey Author [My name],
  Good Day!
  I’m Nancy, a caffeinated reader & book reviewer. I recently discovered your amazing book and would like to share my views. If you’re interested,, I would love to read and review your book.
  Best Regards, Nancy Jacob!📚💖” (Equal-Fox-74, 2023).

• You may ask questions about this proposed offer and receive a response like this:
  “Sure! That’s my proposal, It’s $35 + book cost for:
  • Instagram swipe-up Story
  • Goodreads Review.
  • Amazon Review.
  • Instagram Post.
  • Blog Post.
    Best regards, Nancy Jacobs 💙📚” (Equal-Fox-74, 2023).

• Notice that their profile picture may be AI-generated.
  
• Their social media follower count could be 20,000 or more with less than 20 likes on their posts and absolutely no follower engagement (meaning no comments).
  • They may also only have 1-10 posts. This could suggest that they bought their followers.
    
• All the reviews featured on the page are the same or have similar language with 4 and 5 star ratings.
  
• There’s no specific genre that they prefer to read; most readers read several genres but their Bookstagram accounts zero in one or two that correlate with each other because then their rating system would be flawed.
  
• The short timing in which they have posted their reviews is impossible if they have hundreds of posts/reels; suggesting that they don’t actually read the books.

Two more red flags to spot a Bookstagram scammer:

• The Bookstragrammer only requests hard copies or paperbacks at your cost.
• They don’t have a website or a blog, or their website/blog is structured with a basic template.

My recommendation on how to deal with a possible Bookstagram scammer. After they give their spiel, I offer a polite response such as, “Hello! Thank you for reaching out to me with this opportunity. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to pay for reviews or your services. Best of luck.” Then report, block, and delete the conversation unless you need it for future evidence. Make sure that you unfollow them as well (note they may have gone through your followers and reached out to other bookish accounts. Feel free to add a note or post about this experience on your page, if you feel it is necessary.)

Bookstagram is a very trending niche right now in the bookish community that offers lucrative services to indie authors trying to promote their books and find the right readers. Bookstrammers can offer free reviews on social media platforms without fees; while Bookstagrammer services that are not legit could essentially violate your terms of service by offering their reviews on a platform with a large follower count for payment.

Lastly, always be diligent and research before putting up payment. For example, I did my research on a Bookstagrammer and found the author that the Bookstagrammer claimed they worked with on their blog. The Bookstagrammer had an image of the author’s book and a review; I found that the Bookstagrammer took a screenshot straight from the author’s social media page. I notified the author and reported the Bookstagrammer.

In another instance, another Bookstagrammer offered the name of an author they worked with and I reached out to them (I am using they/ them pronouns because I don’t know the authors pronouns) with the following questions: did you see an increase in book sales; did your social media follower count increase as well as your engagement with readers? The author replied that they didn’t see any increase in sales, but they did see follower engagement from foreign accounts.

Finally, this bookish community can be very helpful to indie writers and readers. Keep writing and engaging; you will attract the right group that will want to promote your work for FREE!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Medallio Green is an indie author of magical + dark worlds…with spice. Her writing centers around tortured characters who get happy endings. She is a long-time contributor to author and writers’ groups. She is a fellow Bookstagrammer with Youtube channel Bookish Bedroom Reads w/Medallio where she provides book recommendations with quirkiness and contagious giggles. Like and subscribe! She is also happily a member of several author street teams.

When Medallio’s not writing and editing in the DMV area as a reliable and skillful Technical Writer/Editor, she’s the 1/4 owner of a standard party poodle, but also a singer if you count exclusive gigs in the car and shower. Medallio can be found spending time with her niece at the dog park or taking walks with friends. She has also been spotted at art galleries daydreaming that she painted the whole realism section when she’s not people watching. When Medallio isn’t traipsing around the DC area eating vegetarian cuisine, she is traveling.

Come find me!💜

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