✨RESULTS: 2024 Reader Survey

Boosktagram survey results and analysis are IN

Welcome to my analysis of the results of the 2024 Bookstagram Reader Survey!! This is, according to Substack, about a 40 minute read - it’s actually too long to even fit in one email, so it’ll cut off at some point - I recommend opening this in the substack app or web browser. Sometime in the near future I am going to convert this to a PDF, but I wanted to get y’all the scoop as quickly & directly as possible.

READING THESE RESULTS:

I will tee each of these up with the question, results, and analysis. The results can be interpreted in multiple ways - that’s perfectly normal for data! That’s why there are very smart people paid a lot of money to analyze data for companies. Unfortunately (fortunately?) you have ✨me✨ so I am going to be as objective as I can while applying the knowledge I have, both from being prominent on bookstagram as well as being a full-time marketing strategist, to give you meaningful take-aways from each result.

If you have any questions about specific analyses, or any part of the results, please feel free to put them in the comments! I look forward to having conversations about this. For my paid sub authors, I’ll set up a questions thread for us as well where I can dig a little bit more deeply into specific applications for you.

THE DATA (our confidence in these results)

This survey was completed by 1,580 “reader” individuals. I deleted 13 full entries made identifiably by authors, as their perspectives would skew the data. There may have been some who slipped through the cracks by not identifying their account type honestly. We must also note there is no published bookstagram or booktok population size.

With 1,580 survey responses, we have exceeded the threshold of a 95% confidence interval with a 3% margin of error for a population size up to 20 Million people. I think there are far fewer than that, but better safe than sorry, lol! We should also note that this probably falls closer to the CBR audience profile - women aged 18-45 or so. While I know for a fact this was shared widely and answered by those NOT in my community, it’s important to note.

PRACTICALLY speaking, for an example. If I asked a yes or no question, and the split was 60% yes, 40% no. I am 95% confident that the TRUE sample (if we asked every single one of the 20 Million people) that it would be +/-3% of that 60/40 split. The ONLY hang-up is that there is no way for me to guarantee or measure that this population is “truly random” as they self selected, mentioned above.

I am comfortable moving forward with confidence, with all that being said, that these results more or less reflect the general consensus of bookstagram.

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SECTION ONE: User Behavior

Question: Do you run a bookstagram? Or just “lurk” from a personal account?

My thoughts: I was honestly a little surprised by this result! I did not anticipate that so many would follow from purely personal accounts, though honestly, I could not tell you why I had that feeling - I suppose it’s truly confirmation bias, there.

While we have 53% personal accounts and 40.7% bookstagrams, the “other” is important to note. MOST of those responses were ancillary bookish types; people specifying that they are a cosplay account, an artist, a bookish or creative business, or someone who formerly ran a bookstagram but now only lurks.

This means we’re looking at a roughly 50/50 split. As far as conclusions to draw, I’d say a few things…

1. Be mindful when you make requirements around sharing posts - either in giveaways, ARC readers, what have you. You may be inadvertently disqualifying up to 50% of your potential readers if they are unwilling to share bookish things to their stories where personal family/friends/etc can see. I suspect this is more true in romance/monster/dark romance spaces.

2. Don’t discount your outreach/new reader posts from making it “outside” of bookstagram. There’s a significant percentage of folks who may lurk on the fringes from personal accounts who will still see your work! (AKA - as always - bookstagram is not the be-all-end-all)

3. When creating content, keep larger, non-bookish trends in mind. If a huge percentage of the general instagram population is using a specific song or joke in a trending reel format, using that but reapplying to your book or series could be a great way to weaponize the algorithm reaching those “in-between” users.

Pretty straight forward question and result!

Question: Where do you spend the majority of your time on bookstagram?

My thoughts: The data SHOWS that most people use stories, and I’ve even heard people say it, but seeing it like this (self-reported) was really interesting to me!

They were able to multiple-select on this question, hence there being many more incidences than respondents. I’m not wholly surprised that stories is right up there with the home feed - but I am a little surprised that reels lags so far behind.

I am interested to see that almost half of the respondents reported utilizing the Following Feed - it’s something that I haven’t quite gotten in the habit of using, but with today’s algorithm, I can see it being extremely useful.

So what would I learn/do/change in response to this?

• I would MAKE SURE that everyone I work with/advise has a thoughtful story strategy. I’ve enumerated on it a few times, but the biggest keys there are - not sharing too many stories (data shows users swipe away after an average of 7 stories in a row), being thoughtful with what you DO share, and also using it as a space to show off your personality/life/relatability with content you wouldn’t necessarily put on your feed.

  • For example, if you’re considering integrating more “author stuff” via WIP updates, inspo, your writing space, etc - consider testing them in your story first, where people are looking for your most recent updates.

  • Further, I would recommend using stories to be more unpolished, and more authentic. I understand curating your feed, but try out being your full unaltered self in your stories! People will connect with you on a deeper level - check out how lifestyle influencers use their stories to do the same.

  • Finally, I would make sure you’re using polls, stickers, etc as engagement tools in your stories. If you’re only going to post around 7 a day, make them count! Story engagement works the same as with posts - the more people view it and engage with it, the more of your other followers - and even non-followers - the algo will show it to.

• I would make it a point to have your post call-to-action every once in a while to be for the user to add you to their favorites, and to utilize their following feed. We have ALL felt the frustration of not seeing people we follow in our feeds, and your gentle reminder will work in both your and their favor to reconnect them with the folks they’ve followed.

• 1/3rd of all respondents report spending significant time on the explore page - which is a game of thumbnails.

  • If you’re trying to make sure your work hits the explore page and is discovered that way as a specific goal, make sure that in addition to keywords and hashtags, you’re creating an image/first slide that makes the content of your post VERY CLEAR. Go do some digging and note to yourself which little thumbnails on the explore page make you click in to see the rest of the post!

Question: How often do you go on instagram?

Pretty straight forward! And honestly, as expected. Most of us are checking in multiple times a day. (Some of us…. too much…. insert meme of Kermit & shadow Kermit staring at each other) (it’s me)

ANYWAY ! What do we do with this? Not a lot (I know I know). It’s good to know though, because it means we have multiple chances to grab people with the same post, and it means that our users (bookstagram or personal accounts) are more active than most. The average is 33 minutes a day, and I would hazard to guess that our 86.3% of respondents at “multiple times a day/ hours” exceed that.

Not much else here - just interesting to note! :)

Question: Do you prefer Reels or Static Posts?

My thoughts: WHAM BAM THANK U MA’AM I could kiss these results. I always sort of had this feeling but I had absolutely zero evidence. Meta TRIED to convince us all the only way to thrive on the app was by reels - and okay yes, there’s a lot of truth to that. More than a little bit. That’s the best way to GROW for sure.

But I love love love to see that 81% of bookstagram respondents either prefer static posts (38%!!!!) or have no preference at all.

Personally, this confirms my current posting strategy - which is a reel once a week or so, or as I’m inspired to do so, to continue to reach new audiences. In between, my static posts and carousels are for my existing followers - and I think they enjoy that.

It ALSO means that if you want to continue to reach your EXISTING followers, you probably have to do so via static posts/carousels. I would recommend that you hop into your stories and put up a poll (during the time your followers are most active!!) and ask them yourself. See if your followers line up with this and try to meet them where they are.

All that being said….you still do need to make reels, of course. And this doesn’t negate the fact that reels continue to be the single best way to reach new non-followers. But I think it should take a little bit of the mental load off of you to constantly be churning out reels.

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SECTION TWO: Bookstagram Behavior

Question: How much of your feed/following is Bookstagram?

My thoughts: This one sort of surprised me - I’ve planned this analogy for a few of my responses, so please bear with me!

Imagine we have 10 (bookstagram) people in a room. 2 of them have FULLY 100% dedicated bookstagrams, and only follow bookish accounts. 3 of them describe that they have about 25% of their following as non-bookish accounts. 3 of them say it’s about 50/50 bookish accounts and other stuff. 1 person says that bookish accounts are less than 25% of their total following, and 1 person made some sort of ultra-niche clarification that honestly would have fit in one of the other categories (lmao) (no more other options, Charlie…).

What do we do with that? Well for one, knowing that you’re in “competition” with other niches is sort of helpful to think about. This reminds me a bit of what I was speaking to with the bookstagram vs. personal accounts - some accounts are fully immersed, but for many, bookstagram is a portion of what they’re dedicating their account & instagram time to.

As far as actions to take with this, I don’t think there are any - but it’s good to keep in mind when you’re looking for content inspiration online - we should be reaching into other niche’s to see what’s working really well for them, and seeing if it crosses well into bookstagram territory! It also makes me think that it’s worth seeing if you can cross-niche yourself. If you write and publish around monster romance, but you’re also really into…say… miniatures; post your collection, or hunt down/create something related to your books. You might A) introduce existing followers to something they love while keeping it relevant to your primary content (important) but also B) snag the eyeballs of new readers spending time in the other niche’s instagram territory!

Question: Do you actively seek out authors to follow on instagram?

My thoughts: This one actually did subvert my expectations, because my general feeling on instagram is that people do not seek out authors to follow as they decide to read their books. I was wrong!

I think the ~46% of respondents reporting that they head off to follow you after they’ve read your book is to be expected, and I often brought this up as a hypothesis to authors that I gave 1:1 advice to when they had a goal of growing their following. To me, the more important early metric is engagement and the “Profile Activity” (aka visited your account") because it’s the best way to measure that conversion to interest in lieu of actual purchase links. AFTER they’ve read and loved your books, they’ll come back and follow.

The more surprising metric was the 38.4% of respondents who say they follow you as a sort of reminder that you’re on their TBR. I think this is actually fantastic news! These are the people who are already followers but will continue to benefit from any content you create to entice people to read your books. You never know which quote may make them bump it up their TBR and read it sooner.

This does also mean that you need to be sure to have your pinned posts sorted! I recommend at least one, though two is probably better.

• One explaining who you are, what you write, your current catalogue, and where to find the books.

• The second should be details about whatever your next release is.

• This way, folks can really easily find everything they might need to make a purchase right that second, mark their calendars for your next release, all that jazz.

The “no, period” crowd… I mean, I’m a little surprised they don’t ever follow any authors, but we’re not going to convince them, so we’ll leave them alone.

The final 7% were folks who do ultimately follow authors, but who added nuance to when, how, and why they do so. Many said it was a combination of both “yes” options, some said it’s a maybe based on if they vibe with the content/personality of the author, some were just extra exuberant “YES !!!”s. The final “bucket” of responses is best summarized by a crowd of people who are very picky about the authors they follow, whether they’ve read them or not.

Question: Do you follow authors whose books you have not read yet?

My thoughts: This is sort of a repetition of the previous question, but I really wanted to drill down for those authors who are really interested in growing their follower counts. How many of those folks do we actually have access to?

18.9% repeat from the question prior that they do so as a way to bookmark you - I do this myself, so it’s a mindset that I understand. We have an absolute mammoth TBR pile amongst us, so seeing something that makes it easy for me to bump a book to the top of your TBR is worth its weight in gold (for both of us).

50.1% of them niche down and specify that it’s not just a way to bookmark a decision made, but also a choice they make during that decision process - which means they’re not quite convinced yet. This is a great opportunity, and they’ll continue to benefit from your “convincing you to read” type content.

28% (honestly, a smaller percentage than I expected) say that they’re not following until they’re confident that they already do, or will, like your work. Because of this phrasing, we know for sure that these folks probably will not follow until they’ve read your book - but it makes me wonder about novellas, free downloads, anything you can offer publicly and visibly as a “writing sample” to convince them. I have a lot of opinions about that topic in particular actually, so if y’all are curious to hear them, please let me know 😂

Finally, our darling 3% “Other” or, as I am now calling them, people who probably could have chosen one of the prewritten answers, but felt that their nuance was CRITICAL. I love you, overachiever babies. ANYWAY. They noted:

• Sometimes/ a few but not many / rarely

• Depends on the content itself (repetitive? fun? memes?)

• More likely if they hold the rec more highly - good friend, trusted influencer, an author they already like

• and 6 responsed: “NO because I’m afraid of spoilers!!” which I’m including because while it’s a tiiiiiny percentage, it’s a good reminder.

In conclusion on this one? Continue to split your content between “new” and “existing” readers, because even your followers might not be readers yet!! This is a really great opportunity brought to light to better connect with your audience. (and I’m REALLY curious what would happen if you threw up a poll in your stories to ask, with no judgement, if followers have read your books yet or not!!)

Question: Where do you get the MAJORITY of your book recommendations from?

My thoughts: This probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, tbqh haha.

I included this question because I speak to a LOT of authors new to publishing, new to instagram, or new to spending time on their social media strategy - and a lot of them seem really hung up on convincing rando’s on instagram to read their book. I think that’s FAIR and I understand it, but I think that “convincing you to read” content is most successful when you’re focusing on being available with that information when the reader is looking for it.

The truth of it is that as a society, we are wired to look for the reviews. It often doesn’t matter how compelling the original marketing is, even if that’s what we see first, because we know we can go see what other people are saying about it. I have looked up reviews online for a product I was holding in my hands, in the store, before purchasing.

So, we should shift our mindset from our individual ability to convince readers to pick up OUR books without the surround sound of reviews either on instagram, Goodreads, amazon, what have you. We should still be trying to catch new eyes and attentions, but simultaneously recognizing that either a friend or influencer sent them in your direction in the first place, or that they may go dig around next and see what other people are saying.

As always, word of mouth continues to drive this beast!

Question: How do you feel when Authors follow you, as a reviewer, and like/comment on your posts?

My thoughts: I want to lead with the fact that the next question in the survey was open ended, and a chance to add nuance to any of the previous questions. Many who run personal accounts (not bookstagrams) specified that while they selected an answer, it was hypothetical, because they do not post anything bookish for authors to interact with.

That being said, understanding that all but 1.8% of the respondents either really enjoy (the majority) or don’t at all mind when authors interact with their content is a good thing!

I know there’s a lot of conversations spinning around this right now, that I don’t feel equipped to really address. Many readers are really coming together for authors right now with love and respect, while many others act rude, entitled, and sometimes just straight up mean. I know a lot of authors are choosing to pull back from this engagement in general because of the risk of interacting with that second group.

Keeping that in mind, though, I know there’s a lot of authors who really enjoy & pride themselves in being an active part of the wider community, and that includes following and interacting with readers. I think it’s good to have confirmation that you are generally wanted there - it’s just the bad apples turning it into threads discourse over and over. (We readers are turning the tides and working to manage our own community, as we should. Here’s hoping this improves.)

QUESTION: Is there any nuance you’d like to add to the second above on bookstagram behavior?

This was a really difficult set of information to synthesize. I’ve worked to integrate some of the nuance in points above, and I want to only spend the time bringing you really statistically significant “buckets” that summarize common responses.

• Many emphasized that they feel overwhelmingly positive (“like a star”) when authors interact with their content.

• Those who had answered that they did not like author interaction explained that it’s because they feel like they themselves, or others, are less honest when they feel an author might see.

• Some reiterated that they do not like to follow authors until after they’ve read their backlog for fear of spoilers.

• Other places people listed getting recs from included local bookstores, podcasts, twitter, reddit, and threads.

• A solid chunk of responses said they’ll SAVE posts from authors they don’t follow, until they can go back and follow.

• Some expressed a sentiment becoming more vocal on social media in general - that they feel influencers are less and less trustworthy as they “sell out”

And one in particular that I’d like to separate:

• MANY - MANY - of these responses express a similar sentiment that they are happy when authors interact with them so long as it isn’t unsolicited self promotion or otherwise “inauthentic feeling” behavior.

  • This is something I see readers publicly complain about quite a bit (mostly on threads) where a debut indie oversteps some boundaries in their comments or DMs.

  • I would say a good rule of thumb is this: don’t self rec unless they are ASKING for recs in general (tho even then some people are asses, it is what is is) and otherwise don’t follow readers unless you’re genuinely and authentically interested in their content. They can feel when you’re just engaging in hopes that you’ll read their book!

  • I’m going to reiterate that because I cannot tell you how many times it’s happened to me. Readers can feel when you’re inauthentically engaging just in hopes it will make them read your book. It’s not a comfy feeling, and it honestly looks incredibly tiring and time consuming, so go ahead and just wait for them to find you haha.

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Part Three: Posts & Specific Content

Question: What is your favorite author content to see? Choose up to three.

My thoughts: The picture sort of speaks for itself in this one! You’ll notice, if you remember the previous iteration of this survey, that I massively simplified the categories. I also got a ton of “other” responses, but most of them fit right back into these pre-written categories, so we’ll proceed with the graphed version!

There’s only one exception I’ll point out quickly - that a chunk of folks said they really liked when authors rec’d books to them. I caution against doing this too frequently, but I have honestly found most of the new-to-me authors I love lately via authors I already know/have read/love. So consider rec’ing books you genuinely loved, and that your readers would likely enjoy, in your stories every once in a while!

Now - art is not (or, shouldn’t be) any surprise to us all. Having art made for your book is probably one of the best *social media strategy* investments you can make outside of direct ads, and even then, your ads should probably feature that same art! Many many many many respondents specify here or in other “nuance” open ended sections that they are convinced to read books on the basis of the art ALL the time. This isn’t news necessarily, but perhaps a good reminder!

“Author content” did surprise me in some ways - I think it was altogether lower the last time we ran this survey - but I have long held that romanticizing your author life, and that brain of yours that brings us these stories and places and characters, goes a long way with us dreamy readers.

If I was an author, I would probably be doing my best to create a content schedule that utilizes art as much as possible, and bringing in the other categories proportionate to how much people like them. Say I wanted to post 5 days a week - a month breakdown would look like this:

• New art reveal if possible, creative reuse of existing art (new crops, paired with quotes, paired with teasers); 5 posts

• author life - visual inspo, astrology signs of my characters or similar, my writing setup, what I read to inspire me, etc - 5 posts

• Updates as appropriate - 3-4 posts

• “bookish content” - reels using trends, visual post trends, classic trope graphic, etc - 3-4 posts

• life update - maybe once a month, cute pics of what I’ve been up to & my cat (or similar) 1-2 posts (mostly reserved for stories)

• Flatlays or similar with engaging captions - 1-2 posts

That would get me through an entire month, chunking down into manageable buckets of content, and allow me to communicate what I need to while mixing it up pretty variably from day to day. Might help take away some of the guess work!

Question: How do you feel about giveaways?

My thoughts: First, our poor international babies. Guys, I got SO MANY open-ended responses from people who like them generally but constantly feel left out lol. If you can afford international book mail, or to at least offer a free copy via amazon or similar to countries that qualify, it would go a long way 😂 they are very sad. and vocal.

Now I know this result is going to be a little contentious because historically (and honestly even now, I think) the group giveaways are really great for authors to share audiences and capture followers that are sort of pre-vetted to like their books.

I think the problem is that there was a period of time where the giant group giveaways were VERY common and LESS curated than they are now. I was being asked to follow authors whose work I would never read, and I knew that at one glance, if I wanted a chance at the books in the giveaway I DID want. So there’s definitely an element here of us readers still a little burnt out on it from that.

That being said, a solid third of these folks straight up just love the giveaways. 31% follow up and like them, but prefer that 1:1 chance to win something directly from that author.

Almost 20% won’t enter at all, though, in addition to the large chunk of the 7% other who wish they COULD but they’re international and often cannot.

Finally, 9.3% do like giveaways, but only for physical goodies & not ebooks.

What do we do with this? Well, giveaways are tough. They’re almost exclusively in accordance with what you can afford to do & what you’d like to do, which is totally none of anyone’s business but yours. Outside of the suggestion we find a way to include international readers a little more often, I’ll leave this data in your capable hands. I’d love to answer any specific questions or “requests for opinion” if you have them, though! haha

Question: Do you like the question of the day format? Do you answer them?

My thoughts: Now, I included this question because it’s a huge point of contention between bookstagrammers - some have asked one every day for the last five years, some will unfollow if they see the acronym. BUT. I think it gets to the heart of a deeper question (that would be much more difficult to ask) around genuine engagement via captions.

HALF of respondents feel neutral about them, but don’t usually answer them. 4% won’t answer them at all. 32.7% don’t mind them, but answer them half the time or less. If you take that last group and split it in half to reflect that, we know that up to about 70% of your audience is unlikely to respond to a QOTD formatted caption.

In the nuance section provided to these respondents a little later, many of them clarified that they feel this way because it feels like transparent “engagement bait” and they either dislike that the question has nothing to do with the book or even reading, OR, they see people answering but the original poster is nowhere in sight. They’re not sparking genuine connection and communication in the comments section for most people.

Does this mean I don’t think you should do it? NOPE. I’ve actually done it before and it worked wonderfully - but I did a few things.

• I use it sparingly - maybe a handful of times in a whole year. your mileage may vary!

• The question was super on-topic to the post. Once, I even used it as part of the rule for entry to a giveaway. Not only did people like the question, but it sparked a ton of conversation in the comments.

• I responded to every single person. Even if I agreed with them, I validated their choice. If I disagreed, I teased them or asked for clarification, or whatever was more appropriate for my page and authenticity.

• I asked because I was genuinely curious what people thought.

I think that the actual QOTD acronym and format may have been ruined for people, based on the fervor of some of the responses. But I do think asking an engaging question in an effort to have a genuine conversation with folks will always work - you just have to let that genuineness shine through and hop into those comments with them!

Question: How do you feel about “personal posts” made by authors?

My thoughts: I asked this question to drill down into the “types of content” ask, where respondents were very interested in “author life” stuff but less so in “life updates”. I wanted to better understand how they felt about, specifically, “personal stuff”.

59.2% here actively like posts like that - so we’re starting off in great shape! They like to see the human behind the books, and specified as such in the later nuance section. Another 37.4% like them or feel neutral about them, so long as they don’t overpower or match the amount of bookish content. Again, that feels standard - I think my audience as a bookstagrammer would have the same split. This leaves us with almost 97% generally in favor.

That last 3%-ish who either don’t like them, or who wrote other, had a LOT TO SAY in the upcoming nuance section about what authors do on instagram that’s a strict turnoff. We will get into that shortly 😂💀

In the meantime, I would take this as your green light to be a whole ass human. If you’re not convinced, check out some of the larger bookstagrammers or even trad pub authors with large followings that are still active online. They share a good chunk of their lives on there - often not even with much depth, just a peek! - and people love it. It is social media after all - if a reader connects with you on there, they want to connect to you.

Question: Have you recently felt “mislead” by an author’s marketing?

My thoughts: This question was MUCH more on-topic a few years ago when it felt like everyone was discussing a specific author & their publisher, and the massive “let-down” that the book was after a frankly erroneous marketing campaign. That being said, I left it in to see how things have changed. If you’ll believe it, that author was STILL mentioned by name in the “other” responses multiple times lol.

Starting off strong, about 75% say no. There were also a decent chunk in the “other” section who, ominously, chose to hand-type in “not yet”. We…will count that as a no too.

This leaves our yes’s. I very highly doubt I have a lot of trad pub authors following me/reading, but in case I do, I think this is a more complicated question for you, because your publisher often handles some amount of the marketing. Errors on their part are out of your control, despite the fact that you catch blame for it. I’m sorry that that happens - but make sure to always be accurate over flashy where you can.

For the indies - what I gather from the nuance section is that this is largely a concern for readers around tropes and comp titles. NOTHING (seems) to chap a reader’s ass like a book being comp’d to the “bookstagram darlings” when it shouldn’t be. I actually have a number of author friends who simply won’t make those comps regardless of how appropriate they might be to prevent that exact reaction, and I can’t say I don’t think it’s a smart choice.

For comp titles, look to your author friends and elders. As I do not actually work in publishing, I’m no expert - and some of these responses are probably just sour grapes - so I’m going to leave it in the capable hands of those who belong in the industry. I can advise that you should be careful and purposeful and probably get a couple of second opinions from Beta’s, but otherwise, I am not your girl.

For TROPES tho, I have thoughts. This has been a discussion ad nauseam for ages - are they spoilers? Are they stupid? Is it a menu board? Who cares. Most readers appear (no data, just observation) to like tropes well enough, and they’re a great shorthand. That being said, just be so, so careful to label them appropriately.

If you can’t tell what tropes you ended up writing, or if they really apply, please ask your beta’s if they wouldn’t mind, or even ARC readers if you have enough time. Some are simple enough - if there’s one bed, and the not-yet-lovers have to deal with it/sleep in it together, that’s pretty straight forward. But if the enemies are only enemies for a chapter or two before they’re lovers, you should anticipate that you’re going to piss off the E2L crowd that hunts down that trope because they love the angst, the morally grey lines separating them, the slow burn, and the break down into each other’s arms after 300 pages of trying to kill each other.

TLDR just aim for accuracy however you can. Get second, third, and fourth opinions. I know it’s a pain in the ass, but it’ll save you trouble in the long run!

Question: You see an author has utilized very obvious Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) artwork on their feed. Does this affect your perception/willingness to read their book?

My thoughts: deep sigh. Okay. I am vehemently anti-AI art. I think this is fairly well known. I have reached a point where people ask me if an account is AI, I go to check it out, and I’ve already been blocked by them - without ever having heard of them. (because it is AI, and they know I’ll say something lmao).

THAT BEING SAID. I am going to analyze this response as objectively as I can. I am going to have my husband proof-read it, who does not feel as strongly as I do and has no skin in the game. This is an objective analysis of the data provided to me.

So: Once again, we have 10 people in a room. You’ve got all your stuff on the whiteboard, and a stack of 10 books for them. You’re asking them to read your book. However, 2 or 3 of the pieces of art on your board are AI-generated. This is how they would respond.

• 3 of those people will leave the room immediately, no questions asked. They will not consider your book.

• 3.5 of them will raise their hands and try to figure out if you KNOW if it’s AI or not. If they feel like you know and you’re doing it anyway, they’ll leave. However, if you didn’t realize it was AI and you take them down, they’ll read your book.

• 2.3 of the people will either not realize it’s AI themselves, or they’ll sort of side-step the whole situation because they’re not sure about AI in general, and “stay out of it”. It will not affect their choice to read your book.

• 1.1 people will be actively pro-AI and not care. They’ll read your book.

If this was an objective question posed to me outside of AI, I would never make a business decision that alienated 29.9% of my potential business, while setting another 35.3% of them on edge to possibly lose them as well. That is too big a business risk, regardless of my personal feelings.

That being said, the remaining 33%ish will likely not be affected. So, outside of both my personal opinions and the many op-eds that you can google yourself about the conversation around generative AI art, I would say it is not in your best interest to use it, especially seeing the very vocal reactions of that first group in public comments sections for book boxes and authors alike who have chosen to use it, unknowingly or otherwise.

As an aside, I am very good at spotting AI art. If you are ever unsure, please email me (charliesbookrecs@gmail.com) or DM me on insta (charliesbookrecs) and I will take a look and give you a % confidence that what I am looking at is generative AI, based on account history, proof of artistic process, and many other factors.

This section has been vetted and approved by Mr. Charliesbookrecs.

Question: Is there any kind of author content that really annoys you / is a strict turn-off?

This was an open ended question 🤡 there were 529 hand-typed responses in this section, the most of any of the open ended opportunities lol.

After many, many hours of boiling passionate rants down to 2-3 keywords, here are the BIGGEST takeaways I got from this section put into “actionable avoids”. If you are a reader and you’re like “where’s mine!” bb girl it’s either lumped in with the others who said the exact same thing, or you were the only one that said it. Without further ado - the mess:

1. A huge number of respondents from the AI question wanted to really reiterate that AI art is a huge huge no for them. Lots of doubling down on if an author knows that it’s AI and does it anyway, it’s a Forever No.

2. False Advertising - again. Many specified misuse of tropes again.

3. Discourse and Politics. This one was as much of a mess as you’d expect, on every edge of the spectrum. I won’t report out on the specifics because you know as well as I do that there’s no pleasing everyone, nor should there be at this point. I also already tried and had to delete it all because I started ranting.

4. Repetition - a huge comment in this section. Readers really, really don’t like when your content feels repetitive. They specifically mention “count downs” (like 7, 6, 5, etc per day until you get to launch) or using the same single scene or quote over and over again.

5. Spoilers - not properly hiding them behind multiple swipes. A smaller portion of folks had a similar complaint about not hiding NSFW artwork behind enough carousel swipes, too.

6. Unreadable fonts - this was surprisingly common in some of these laundry lists! Many feel that authors are using illegible fonts, or putting text on too-low contrast of a background, so they can’t read your graphics. Bookstagrammers are guilty of this too, tbh.

The next bucket of turn-offs are very much related, so I’ll group them together. These were the BULK of the responses - and people feel QUITE strongly about it.

1. Complaining. Readers state that they understand that authors are people and they have bad days too, but will unfollow anyone who is consistently being negative, complaining about sales, comparing themselves negatively to other authors, etc. They use the term “woe-is-me” content quite a bit, and state that they will not read books from authors using “pity” to try and sell more copies.

2. Shame & Disrespect. Readers can see when authors are shaming or disrespecting other authors or genres, and they report very much not liking it. They also point out that shaming reader’s choices, like to read explicit romance, are a huge turn off. This disrespect sort of spills into the next one:

3. Rudeness. Readers view authors being rude as when they: put down other works or authors to promote themselves, negatively reviewing other author’s books or critiquing their work or processes on their pages, putting readers down for their choices, “bashing” other authors in general, creating negative or derogatory posts, and so on.

These three, like I sad, and ESPECIALLY complaining and rudeness, came up more frequently than anything else in this section.

I think part of this might be that authors have taken to threads as a space to interact with other authors, and readers happen to be in there too - so they see when an author might be bemoaning a sales slump or what have you. I don’t think the moral of the story is not to post about bad days - in fact, many of the respondents say that they understand authors are people and want to support them when they DO have a bad day - but that it can become overwhelming to them in reader spaces and cause them to disengage. I would caution against “too much” public complaining or venting in favor of doing so in author discords or group chats.

All in all, I think these are things that most of the authors I interact with & who follow me here are not going to have an issue with at all. Just be aware of the vibes you’re putting out into the world and you should be fine! I’m not asking you (nor are they) to always be sunshine and daisies - in fact, sharing vulnerable moments here and there creates incredible points of connection - but be wary of of the specifics above.

Question: Is there anything you’d like to add to this section about the specific kinds of content that authors post?

This was also open ended! Yay!! haha just kidding truly, there’s a few nuggets in here, and it’s good to see a lot of people continue to double down on why they answered the way that they did in the previous sections. I’ll summarize here.

• More reiteration that AI art is a deal breaker - some providing further nuance that they truly try to ascertain if an author is aware of what they’re doing before they make a decision.

  • This is good to continue to see because it means most hold space for natural, human mistakes. Nobody can spot 100% of AI and it’s getting trickier. If a reader comes to you and asks for the source of art, let’s hope for good-faith conversations and progression in the right direction. I believe most of them are trying to help you.

• Giveaways - people REALLY dislike having to tag multiple friends or share to their stories to enter the giveaway. This tracks with understanding many follow from personal accounts - they want to engage, but can’t/won’t based on account limitations.

• More emphasis on art and “extra’s” being a huge draw to read your books! They specifically mention things like character extras, bonus scenes, hidden inspirations, anything that makes the world and characters feel really lived in. One describes Victoria Mier as doing a really good job with this recently - I agree.

• Many state strong feelings around wanting authors to open up and be authentic. They really enjoy seeing your life, what you’re up to (in your role as an author) and anything that helps them feel connected to you on social media.

  • Again, I don’t advise letting the internet all the way into your life - but sharing highlights here and there creates some really fun connection points! For example, I posted to my story that I’m learning to golf, and had wayyy more interactions than normal with followers I’d never spoken to about the collective misery of being taught to golf by an over-eager husband lol.

• Readers are asking for more timing updates and for release dates & blurbs to be more frequently shared and included in the captions of posts.

• A good chunk said that they really enjoy seeing authors recommend or uplift other authors - and that they love to get recommendations this way. It also gives them warm fuzzies (my words) to see authors celebrating each other.

• Many of them mentioned the sort of nebulous quality of loving when they can FEEL an author’s excitement or engagement. They like when they feel like they’re getting a sliver of the author’s authentic self and energy and it makes them excited, too.

• A lot mentioned humor and or memes, which, as we all well know - humor sells!

• Everything else mentioned was either a single niche opinion (for example: one reader says no pole dancing (dumb)) or covered in the opinions and preferences already illustrated in the full analysis.

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Part Four: Parting Thoughts

At the end of the survey, I gave people an open space to include anything else that I may find helpful, that they felt they needed to include, etc. Similarly to the previous section, I will summarize any overarching theme here that has not already been covered by the previous sections.

1. There is so, SO much love in here for indie authors. They are ROOTING for you. Half of these responses read like pep talks - they love you, they want to see you succeed, they acknowledge how hard it is what you’re doing, and they think you’re fucking amazing.

2. There’s a handful of respondents who took this space to write about the importance to them in uplifting, and seeing authors uplift, the artists in our community. They again contribute many of their reading decisions to art they’ve seen and say they really enjoy following authors that vocally and proudly support the human artists in our community.

3. Authenticity. There’s a ton of responses - a TON (like, most of these)- reiterating that this is the magic they’re looking for when they find and follow authors on instagram. They don’t need or want perfectly polished business profiles, but instead look for honesty and slice of life. They want you to be authentic to yourself and worry that social media may come at a cost to you, and recognize that. They don’t want it to!

   1. I think I speak for this crowd when I say they’d rather see you post less, and love it, than post all the time in a way that lets the stress and anxiety of it all seep through. I think readers as a whole are more understanding than the loud minority of asshole readers lead the community to believe.

4. Small creators - many reference that they feel as though indie authors sometimes look past smaller creators, who still have incredibly dedicated followings & really good “conversion rates” for their book recs, but who don’t have the influencer status. They wish more indies would work with accounts of all sizes on their marketing because they feel like they have a lot to contribute.

   1. Charlie opinion - AGREE. I get most of my recs from “small” accounts and have pointed authors towards absolute super-star “tiny” accounts that have like, a 100% rec ratio. They may only have 500 followers but they are HIGHLY engaged and all 500 will download that book. An account with 20k could have the exact same conversion rate, but care way less about the opportunity. Just saying!! Give smaller accounts a fair shot, too, if you’re not already.

5. The last chunk of these answers are doubling down on basic social media best practices & brand marketing. I touch on a lot of this, but please know that your audience is pretty damn savvy. I was surprised even at some of the terminology that they were using!

   1. The proliferation of influencer-style social media practices has made them as aware as you are of how to write reel hooks, how to craft a caption, how to build a visual aesthetic for your grid, etc. etc.

   2. This doesn’t mean you stop doing it - but it does mean you have to do it with your own authentic twist, or else they’ll just feel “marketed to” and people universally despise that. The bane of modern marketing! Pesky zoomers. (jk)

MY parting thoughts:

You’re a hero if you’re still reading this long ass document. I’m really happy with how this came together and I hope you find it as surprising, validating, and helpful at every turn as I did. Even the “duh’s” felt a little bit more dimensional in this setting.

I want to point out one word I saw only TWICE in 1600 responses. BRAG. Two individuals mentioned seeing a particular author brag incessantly about media deals. In all of the many, many paragraphs that were typed out in every other section - nothing.

I point this out because as I tell you to post more about your life, your experiences, your author-ing, I know from experience that many approach these extremely exciting author milestones with a fear of bragging. I don’t think any reader really feels that way - they just want to celebrate with and for you.

Sure, if you cross over the line into incessant, that’d drive anybody nuts. But sharing your wins with us is NOT bragging, and you should do it with your whole chest. Some of you are really great about this and I love seeing the community cheer you on, but I’ve also personally spoken with more who very, very shyly share a downplayed version of your achievement. NAH GIRL / GUY, SCREAM IT ! First 100 page reads in KU? First 1000 followers? First foreign rights? audiobook deal??? we’re here, we’re excited, we fucking love you guys. So brag away haha.

I’m going to stop typing now, because I think my hands are going to fall off after this. But I’m so appreciative to all the authors who express interest in my work, either via this survey or with this substack, and all the readers who support me and took the time to fill out this survey with all their juicy thoughts and opinions.

I have more work to do with this data, I think, and the plan is to package it into something free and downloadable so it’s easier to digest alongside marketing 101 type tips to help indies get started. If you have any questions, PLEASE put them below so that I can integrate them into version 2.0!

That’s all from me - thank you for reading. XOXO Charlie