Marketing for Authors

Reader-First Marketing | June 11, 2026

Josefine — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:45:00 GMT

Hello everyone,

This week's edition is back to offering lots of practical tips, such as how to write better YouTube titles, what to do when you send a newsletter with an error, and why putting a review at the top of your shop page might increase your book sales. Of course, there are also some social media platform updates at the beginning and end.

Happy reading!

Josefine

Instagram Subscriptions - Update

I already mentioned it in last week's Reader-First Marketing newsletter but now, we have more details on what at least Instagram Plus entails.

Directly from Meta, here is what's available now for $3.99/ month:

Story Spotlight – Give your story priority for your friends.
Super Hearts – Send vibrant, animated hearts that burst across the screen to celebrate stories from friends.
Multiple Story Audiences – Create as many audience lists as you want, so you can share exactly the right story with exactly the right people.
Story Extend – Set your story to last 48 hours so the people you care about have more time to see it.
Story Preview – Preview stories without the pressure to react.
Story Rewatch Insights – See how many times your stories were rewatched.
Search Viewer List – Quickly check if a specific person viewed your story.
Custom App Icon – Choose your own app icon from a curated selection designed by Instagram and Instagram creators.
Custom Bio Font – Customize the font of your profile bio to match your style.
More Profile Pins – Pin up to 6 posts to your profile to highlight what matters most.
Post Directly to Profile – Post to your profile or highlights without it appearing in friends' feeds.

To summarize "The Instagram you know and love today isn't changing and will always be free; this new subscription is simply an optional upgrade for people who want more control, deeper insights, and premium features."

Initial thoughts: Features like Story Priority and Story Rewatch Insights will be interesting though, because they could give paying users an advantage by showing their stories higher in their followers' feeds and providing more details about how their viewers interact with their content. I will keep an eye out for new information about this subscription and its potential impact on user experience.

Social Commerce Growing 4x Faster Than E-Commerce

Social commerce: refers to users buying products directly on social media platforms
E-Commerce: refers to users buying products on the author's website or sites like Amazon

What Does That Mean?
Readers who are active on platforms like TikTok are increasingly staying on TikTok. They're not just using it to find new sources of entertainment, they're also using it to buy from you.

There's a general trend in buyer behavior that is moving away from the traditional "search - become a lead/ newsletter subscriber - buy" flow and instead has readers discover and purchase new books directly via social media. That's why, on channels like TikTok, it's important to focus on building a community. In return, this community will build trust and show potential new readers what you and your book are all about.

Translate YouTube Analytics to Better Titles

Nadine Sykora shared a video where she's going through three different reports in her YouTube Studio analytics to see which of her videos could use a boost and then shows how a change of the title can help YouTube understand who the video is for.

Her tips:

Cut vague words and say what the video is about. Example: Instead of "why I love this book" say "the depth of the main character made me fall in love..."
Add who the video is for. Example: "recommendations for Fantasy beginners"
Don't use broad categories. Example: use a specific trope instead of the overarching genre -> "enemies-to-lovers" instead of "Romance"

To summarize: Be more precise with your titles. Stop using vague, clickbait titles that don't tell viewers what the video is about 😉

An Experiment for More Book Sales

I've read this article about how to increase the conversion rate, which is the percentage of visitors to a site who click "purchase." In other words, it's about getting more people to click "buy" when they are on a shop or pricing page. The article is specifically about subscription products, but I'm wondering if the same idea would work for an author's product page.

The article explains that most shoppers want to see "social proof," such as reviews from past buyers, before making a purchase. It then describes an experiment in which adding a review to the top of the pricing page convinced more people to sign up.

This is what it looked like for their site:

This logic should apply to any product.
We already know that book reviews are a great driver for new sales. The more reviews a book has, the more people trust that it's worth their time, so having one or more of those reviews at the top of the shop should solidify a reader's purchase decision.

Are you going to try it out?

One More Tip: Email Oopsies

You just sent your monthly author newsletter, but then you realize there was an error: the wrong link or the old subject line.

Mistakes happen, and most of us have been there. Instead of panicking, use this opportunity to show that you're human. In a world dominated by AI, this is definitely needed.

For example, if you used the old subject line, refer back to last month's newsletter and share what that was all about (here is an example from a company that did that).

Or if you included the wrong link, blame the internet box.

What's New on Social Media

01 Instagram: Reorder grid is a new feature allowing you to reorder the images and videos on your Instagram profile.
Announcement on Instagram ->
More Details and Why You Should Think about it ->

02 Instagram & Facebook: Meta is testing serialized content for Reels, allowing you to create individual episodes that are then part of a bigger, connected story.
More on TechCrunch ->

03 YouTube: A new feature allows users to personalize their feed to match their mood or specific interests.
More on YouTube Help ->

04 Reddit: Reddit adds video replies to comment threads.
Read the Reddit Thread ->

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Reader-First Marketing | June 4, 2026

Josefine — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Hello everyone,

This week’s edition of Reader-First Marketing is full of social media platform updates. So much has been going on the last two weeks that I wanted to summarize it all in one edition. Next week, we'll add some more practical tips back into the mix.

So, without further ado, let's dive right in.

Josefine

Instagram Subscriptions

One of the biggest news of the past week was probably the announcement of Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus, Meta's new subscription service for its apps. Prices are $3.99/mo for Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus respectively.

So far, little information has been released about what exactly it will entail, other than "fun new features." TechCrunch says it enables "extra features, like profile customization, super reactions, and story insights, among other things". However, there is no further detail in Instagram's knowledgebase, and the announcement has been rather vague as well.

What I'm most curious about is if this premium feature will move analytics behind a paywall, similar to what Twitter/X did a while back... I'll keep an eye on it and share more information in future issues.

BookTok creators are selling 59 million books a year.

A New Facebook App

Meta's new iOS app, Forum, is based on Facebook Groups and brings them into their own space.

The groups are also on Facebook, and any conversation you start or participate in will be visible on both apps. But if you're an active member of those groups, this app could help you focus on the group's topics without the distractions you typically see on your profile.

TechCrunch article ->
Download from App Store ->

TikTok Trends

Metricool, a social media platform similar to Later or Buffer, released a study on TikTok user behavior. Here are some interesting insights:

TikTok is saturated with more content than ever before, so pretty much every performance metric (reach, likes, etc.) has dropped over the last year.
The "for you" page is still the biggest driver of views, meaning, the first seconds of your video are more important than ever. Plus, your content should assume that the viewer doesn't know who you are.
Hashtags are still very important.
Video is still the best format for TikTok.
Ask questions to get people talking.
Tiny and small accounts (0-10k followers) have the best chance of growing.

Here is the full study ->

There is More!

01 Instagram: The teleprompter function from Edits is now also available in the main Instagram camera.
Continue reading on SocialMediaToday ->

02 YouTube: AI altered or generated content will be labeled more visibly.
YouTube's announcement ->

03 TikTok: You can now add or block keywords for a TikTok post after publishing it. Click on ... on your video and scroll all the way to the right till you see "Manage keywords".
More information on SocialMediaToday ->

04 YouTube: There are more daily viewers on YouTube than on Netflix. In 2025, YouTube was watched for an average of 99.1 minutes per day, compared to 93.4 minutes per day on Netflix. Also, the number of people watching YouTube videos on TV continues to grow (I'm definitely one of those TV-viewers 😆 How about you?)
The Guardian article ->

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Reader-First Marketing | May 21, 2026

Josefine — Thu, 21 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Hello everyone,

there was a lot going on in the last week (or maybe I'm finally catching up to all the news I've been reading 🤪), so this week's Reader-First Marketing newsletter is a bit longer.

Happy reading!

Josefine

Features

YouTube

Preview Snippets
In addition to thumbnails, YouTube started to show preview snippets of the video to help viewers see what the video is actually about (and to reduce the issue of misleading or over-designed thumbnails).

Those snippets are short clips from various moments of your video. YouTube decides which sections of your video to show during that preview.

This is currently still in its experiment stage and not everyone might see this feature yet.

From the YouTube team:

Media Kits
If you are looking to diversify your income (talk about a fancy term, lol) and if you are part of the YouTube partner program, you have access to the media kit. The media kit can be used to share your channel's interaction and follower data with potential sponsored brands.

As a new feature, the media kit now includes more detailed information about your follower's interests, household income and parental status, giving potential sponsors a better idea of what they could sell via your channel.

You can access your media kit from YouTube Studio on a desktop > Earn > Create resources & tools.

Instagram

Rearrange images within a carousel
You can now rearrange the individual images of your carousel on Instagram after publishing. Simply press and hold to reorder the images. You can't yet add new images to the carousel after it's published. Maybe soon?

Schedule trial reels
A trial reel is a reel that you can share with users on Instagram that don't follow you yet, and once you are ready, you can expand the reach of the reel to your followers. Starting now, you can schedule them.

Paid subscription?
Meta is experimenting with various paid services on Instagram. Last week, I mentioned clickable links in the caption, but there are also reports about extended stories, downloadable reels, spotlights, and more.

Trends

BookTok creators are selling 59 million books a year

Pretty Little Marketers put together an overview of the creator economy on social media, highlighting BookTok (and specifically author Olivie Blake) as an example.

59 million books a year... (wow!). That's how much BookTok is contributing to the book industry. Overall, the creator economy (all of it, not just book related), is worth $100 billion (again, wow!).

But the creator economy is changing. You don't need a huge following to get brand deals anymore. Thanks to all the different social media platforms (Twitch, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc), everybody can find their niche with the type of content they want to produce. And content is no longer polished and only driven by highly influential peoples.

Normies - like you and me - is what people want to see. Sharing their knowledge about recipes, law, finances, and (you guessed it) books. And with that, the options you have to monetize your channel changed as well. Now we see courses, Patreon memberships, affiliate links, giving you options to grow in a way that fits you and your schedule and ambitions.

Tips

Instagram Engagement in 2026

I found so many interesting articles on that topic, that I wasn't able to summarize it in a short paragraph for this email. So, I put together an entire blog post for you.

In that blog post, I share some interesting stats, what the Instagram algorithm values, and give you tips on how to approach your content.

Did you check out your YouTube media kit to see what your audience looks like yet? I sure did... lots of SciFi & Fantasy movie fans (go figure).

See you all next week!

Josefine

P.S.: If you prefer getting the newsletter directly to your inbox, sign up here.

Instagram for Authors in 2026: What the Data Says About Reaching Readers

Josefine — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:21:37 GMT

HubSpot just dropped their 2026 Instagram engagement report. It's aimed at B2B (marketing to businesses) and B2C (marketing to consumers) brands, not authors, but the platform mechanics don't care what industry you're in. If you're an author trying to get your books in front of readers, this data applies to you too.

I went through the numbers, cross-referenced with Buffer and a few other sources, and pulled out what's actually useful. Here's what the data says, and what it means for you specifically.

A few numbers to start

Reels rank #1 for reach, likes, and shares (more on this below)
56% of marketers are posting daily
For B2C brands, the best time to post is weekday mornings. Tuesdays between 9am–12pm keeps coming up (I'll share my own account data on this further down)
Once you hit 1,000 followers, the strategy has to adjust. Start focusing more on engagement tactics, for example getting your audience to like, comment, and share. Think about it as a two-way conversation.

Instagram metrics worth tracking

The most important metrics to track for Instagram are watch time, like rate, and share rate -> aka, everything that shows how engaged your followers are with your account and your content. But overall, Instagram uses multiple different factors to decide what to show to whom:

User engagement: likes, shares, saves, and comments
Content performance: how many people like a post and how quickly
Account performance: how many people have interacted with the account
Relationship performance: how accounts interact with each other, not just one-sided engagement (meaning, how much you engage with others as well)

When to post: finding your own best time

Instagram actually tells you this. Go to Dashboard > Insights > Account > Most active times on desktop. You get hourly and daily breakdowns for your specific audience (which will always be more useful than a universal average.

For my own account, 9am–12pm held up every day of the week, not just Tuesdays.

Buffer also put out a "best time to post on Instagram" heatmap and they are aligned on the weekday mornings, specifically, Thursdays at 9am. (btw, I have no idea why their heatmap goes backwards - 10pm to 6am 🤷)

So, how does the algorithm work on Instagram?

There are 3 important aspects to Instagram: Feed and stories, explore page, and reels.

Feed and stories are designed to help you keep up with accounts you already know (in addition to seeing new accounts with similar content). The more you like a post from a specific account or comment on it, the more other posts from that same account you will see on your feed.

Interaction is the sign for the algorithm to push more of the same. So, if your followers reply regularly on your posts and stories (and you respond in return), the more likely it is that your followers will see your posts again and again and again.

The explore page is about discovering new accounts. The posts shown here are based on what else you tend to look at, save, or interact with, not based on if you follow that account.
Your posts will be shown here if they match a person's interests. To be shown, your existing posts popularity signals have to be strong as well. That includes likes, shares, saves, and comments, and ideally all of those early on after you posted.

Reels are meant for entertainment. And the more you watch a reel, the better. Important here are watch time, rewatches, shares, and audio clicks. If the algorithm sees strong engagement across these four, it will push your reel to new audiences (similar to the explore page). Important to note, reels are the best way of growing your community right now.

Let's talk reels

Reels get 36% more reach than carousels and nearly double the reach of a single image. As mentioned before, interaction is key. Instagram looks for the engagement of users with the reel, their history with the account (you), if it uses a trending audio, watch time, etc.

Here are some additional thoughts on what types of reels perform better:

Keep reels to 90 seconds or less if you want to show up on the explore page. Longer videos still reach existing followers, they just don't grow your audience as well.
Include human speech in the first 3 seconds as it drive better responses (more than music). Additional text-overlay is best left for music videos though. Retention goes up by 9.8% for videos with music but down by 4.5% for videos with speech (suggesting that when a person is speaking, excessive text may distract from the human connection). Keyword being excessive. Some text explaining what the video is about helps with the user experience.
Show your face early. When a person appears in the first 3 seconds, 10-second retention improves by about 10%, and viewers are 4.3% more likely to watch with the sound on (remember, clicking the sound on button counts as engagement). Videos featuring people do see slightly lower replay and engagement rates though.
Short looping reels (up to 7 seconds) increase the replay rate by 18.7% and the engagement rate by 16.1%.
A vertical video format sees 20.9% higher reach.
And reels shared via DM are the most heavily weighted distribution signal, meaning, if your watchers share the video with a friend, it's a huge bump for your content.

There's more than reels

In addition to reels, carousels and original content that uses trending audio are still better than static images.

Carousels—posts where users swipe through multiple images— see the highest engagement of all post types. 12% more than reels (no surprise, given you have to click to the next slide to see the rest of the post). Instagram recently bumped the carousel limit to 20 images, so lots to swipe through ;)

One thing worth knowing about static images and carousels: adding audio means the post will appear under reels. Without audio, image posts only show in the feed.

Also, check out Instagram's ideal image size to avoid cropping of your post.

By the way, sharing your own image or reel to your stories doesn't change your overall reach. Instagram knows that this is your on post that you published already, plus, the feed has a higher reach than stories anyway.

What hurts your reach

Post whenever and whatever you can, right? Nope! While consistent posting is rewarded, posting too often can hurt your reach (we're not on Twitter... excuse me, X...).

Beyond frequency, Instagram does not want to recommend posts with:

Low resolution content
Mostly text
Logos or watermarks from other platforms (don't repurpose your TikTok video directly, upload the original file)
Content that goes against Instagram's community guidelines

The more focused and consistent your content is, the better the algorithm can match it to the right reader. Think of Instagram as a matchmaking service. Instagram is trying to match your posts to your readers, so those that love the same genre or niche. That's the easiest, if your posts and reels are all about the same topic.

What this means if you're an author trying to reach readers

Here's where I want to zoom out, because there's an important distinction between growing a following and reaching the right readers.

A lot of this data is about reach and engagement in the abstract. But your goal as an author isn't just gaining more followers. You want to find your next reader who is likely to pick up your book. That changes how you should weigh some of this.

You need different types of content for he different stages a reader is: those that don't know you yet, those that might have seen your content before but haven't bought anything, and your fans who have read your book and now want more. These are also your amplifiers on Instagram.

To attract net-new readers, those that are not familiar with your books yet and where you are trying to reel them in (no pun intended ;) ), they find you when Instagram pushes your content to their explore page. To get here, you need to know who your typical reader is and what other, similar content they consume. That then gives you ideas on what content you should be creating. For example, if I love enemies-to-lovers romance books (and that's what you write), look for other authors that write books with the same or similar tropes and take a look at their profile and take inspiration from them.

Now that someone found you, they want to get to know you and your books. That's where consistent posting comes in. To show up on their feed now, you have to keep posting, and it doesn't really matter if you post reels, carousels, or images (a good mix is ideal). As long as it is authentic and showing them who you are and what they can expect from your books. The key is building a relationship with them.

And lastly, those followers who have read your books and loved them will be the ones helping you be more visible. They want their friends to know about you and by sharing or reposting your content, they are stretching your reach to their followers. So, your content has to give them something that makes them want to do that. And I'm not necessarily talking giveaway posts or free stuff. Posts that show in an easy way what your book is about or a memorable quote can be as effective.

Work with the algorithm data, but make sure that what you actually put out there is in service of building real connection with readers.

Frequently Asked Questions

So what should authors actually do on Instagram in 2026?

Be yourself. Original content from a real person outperforms polished brand content. Readers follow authors because they want to connect with the person behind the books.
Post consistently. Daily or weekly doesn't matter. Regularity matters more than frequency. Pick a pace you can actually keep.
Use reels to grow, stories to deepen. New readers find you through reels. Existing readers stay connected through stories. Both matter, for different reasons.
Mix your post types. Reels for reach, carousels for engagement, stories for the ongoing reader relationship.
Check your own data. Look at when your specific followers are most active and post during those windows.
Keep your content focused. The more consistent your topic (your genre, your books, your reading life) the better Instagram can match you to the right readers.
Don't sacrifice connection for optimization. The algorithm is a tool. What keeps readers coming back—and eventually picking up your book—is feeling like they know you.
Have fun with it. Readers can tell when content feels like a chore.

Sources

HubSpot Instagram Engagement Report 2026

Buffer — The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2026

Buffer — How the Instagram Algorithm Works: Your 2026 Guide

Buffer — Data Shows Instagram Reels are Best For Reach — But Not Engagement

Hey Orca — How the Instagram Algorithm Actually Works (2026)

Social Media Today — Human speech and presence help drive Reels engagement

Social Media Today — Instagram chief debunks popular engagement hack

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Reader-First Marketing | May 7, 2026

Josefine — Thu, 07 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Hello everyone,

with the second edition of my newsletter, I'm diving into monthly wrap-ups and what drives engagement for new YouTube channels.

Happy reading!

Josefine

Features

YouTube

For those of you that already get lots of comments, this new feature might save you some time. YouTube started rolling out the Comments to ❤️ feature that allows creators to bulk heart comments they received from within YouTube Studio.

There are not too many details available yet, but you can listen to the announcement at minute 0:15 here.

Instagram

Instagram added clickable links inside the caption - yay! I have been waiting for this forever!

Big BUT! It's only available for Meta verified users (the ones with the blue checkmark - aka, via paid subscription) and according to this article, you can only use the new feature 10x per month.

Trends

End of the Month Reading Wrap-Ups
A trend that is very popular on the reader side is the monthly wrap-up, talking about all the books read the prior month. While this might not be typical content for authors, I have seen authors post what they read in the last month too. And why not? Authors are readers too and it's interesting to see what catches your attention.

What other elements could you add to your wrap-ups?

What you hauled/ purchased last month
Books you unhauled
Other things you enjoyed, like movies and TV shows
What happened on your channel
Life updates
An overview of your reading stats
Your next month's TBR (or are you making that a separate video?)

Personally, I love watching monthly wrap-ups. It adds personality and authenticity to the your socials.

Tips

Being Discovered as a New Channel
Tubebuddy put together a post where they talk about all the new features the YouTube released over the last months that helps creators with their videos and discoverability. And they also shared tips on how you should behave at the beginning.

Post consistently: They suggest one or two videos per week to help YouTube test your content.
Optimize for discovery: Have descriptive titles, searchable keywords, and high-quality thumbnails.
Short and long: Mix both formats to attract different types of viewers.
Reply to comments early: Don't wait to reply to comments on your channel. Try to respond as soon as possible.

A note on keywords: That doesn't mean hashtags and tags necessarily. They help, but talking about what your video is about in the description and making sure you use relevant phrases is as important. I.e, if you share a book review, make sure your description says this is a book review about book xyz from author zyx in the thingymagic genre.

YouTube uses your hashtags and keywords but also the video title and description to determine if your video is relevant and worth sharing with others.

That's it for today. Quick teaser: I already have a big topic ready for the next edition of the newsletter.

See you all next week!

Josefine

P.S.: If you prefer getting the newsletter directly to your inbox, sign up here.

Reader-First Marketing | April 2026

Josefine — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Hello everyone,

welcome to the first edition of the Reader-First Marketing newsletter.

I'm super excited for this! I've been working on the concept for some time now and am finally pulling the trigger. It's live! Yay!

The first newsletter has a variety of information from the last weeks, starting with a lowered entry point for YouTube shopping, the latest sizing guide for Instagram, and the "Bookish Expectation" trend.

Happy reading!

Josefine

Features

YouTube

YouTube Shopping
You can now unlock YouTube shopping with just 500 subscribers (it was 10k before).
Check minute 2:26 in this video by Creator Insider.

YouTube shopping allows you to add affiliate links for the books you're talking about to your YouTube video. You can select from various vendors, i.e. Barnes & Nobles and earn a small commission if someone purchases the book using your link. How much exactly depends on the company you're selecting.

You don't have to sign up with any company other than YouTube. You have to meet the requirements for their partner program though, which are currently set to 500 subscribers with 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days, and 3,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months.

More details about YouTube shopping here. and the YouTube Partner Program here.

Trends

Bookish Expectations
Using #bookishexpectations Bookstagrammers are sharing the books that:

Exceeded their expectations
Met their expectations
Didn't meet their expectations
And books they hope will meet their expectations

Everybody puts their own spin on it using pictures of themselves, their pets (like I did 😝 ), events they've been, or even adding another option to the list.

Tips

Dimensions for Instagram in 2026
Here are all the dimensions you should use for your various Instagram posts.

Feed posts: Square (1080 x 1080 pixels), portrait (1080 x 1350 pixels), or landscape (1080 x 566 pixels).
Stories and reels: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio).
Profile grid: Previews display in a 3:4 ratio; keep important content centered.
Profile photo: 320 x 320 pixels (displayed as a circle).

More details here.

Let's keep it short for the first edition. I don't want to overwhelm you 😉

Let me know what you think.

And see you all next week!

Josefine

P.S.: If you prefer getting the newsletter directly to your inbox, sign up here.