Finding Photo Ops — Upping Your Game on Instagram

Wishing you had some beautiful book photos to show off on Instagram? I have good news — you don’t have to be a professional photographer to capture amazing images!

Opportunities for fun book photos can be found everywhere. You’d be surprised how many props you have handy in your own home! Have a fresh bouquet of flowers on hand? Snap a picture of your book with those beauties! How about a pretty mug full of something steaming hot? Set that down next to your book on a clean, simple surface and you’ve got yourself a photo that any influencer would be envious of! Just opened a bottle of wine? Before you kick back and relax, try posing your book on a table alongside a glass containing a nice, healthy pour — bonus points if you sneak a cozy-looking couch, chair, or fireplace into the background!

Of course, it takes more than a pretty picture to engage followers. Try using your photo to tell readers more about the story by including items that are relevant to the plot. For example, if your main character has a favorite purple scarf that they wear throughout the book, staging a photo that includes a similar accessory not only creates an attractive image, but helps to draw the viewer into the story. When I received a copy of Caroline Linden’s My Once and Future Duke, I knew that I wanted to emulate the grandeur of the regency period. My husband and I are working to restore a gorgeous wood table featuring inlaid rose designs, and while the table is nowhere near finished, I knew that the top would make the perfect background for my book photo. After that, all I needed was a deck of playing cards to complete the scene.

This is just one example of hundreds. Maybe your book takes place on the beach and you just happen to have a colorful towel and some seashells laying around. Using a bit of creative angling and the right lighting, you can stage a ‘beach’ photo without ever leaving the privacy of your home (seriously, I once used a dish towel on a desk to make it look like I was laying on a blanket with a book). When Stefanie London’s Bad Bachelor arrived with a tie courtesy of the publisher Sourcebooks, I rooted through my husband’s closet for a few extra accessories that the hero featured on the cover might also wear.

Perhaps you don’t want to show off too much of your home in these photos, or you simply feel that your decor doesn’t complement your cover art. Not a problem! Any piece of furniture can be disguised with a bit of artfully arranged fabric. My living room is decorated in shades of gray, which is great because it provides a blank canvas as a backdrop. When I want a change of scenery, I drape a scarf or blanket over the furniture, adding a pop of color and a bit of texture to the photo. This is how I posed a print copy of Alyssa Cole’s A Princess in Theory! The book cover’s beautiful purple and teal color-scheme disappeared against my dark, charcoal couch. Fortunately, I had a gorgeous orange and purple pashmina handy! Orange and blue are complementary colors, so the material helped to highlight the shades of teal featured on the book’s cover. The final touch was the tiara that I wore to marry my husband, which I had purchased on Amazon for just $25.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your smartphone and get snapping! More Instagram followers are just a few photos away.

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