Does your mind sometimes go blank when it comes to writing Bookstagram captions? You have the book photo, but not the words to go with it. To overcome this issue, we’ve made this handy guide which lists different types of caption that you can easily use to perk up your posts without scratching your head for hours.
Further down the post, you can find suggestions for formatting your captions and easy ways to customize your fonts.
Book Quotes for Bookstagram
Book quotes are a failsafe when it comes to finding an easy and quick caption. They can be adapted to all types of Bookstagram posts. Goodreads and Pinterest are great sources for quotations – particularly when location for a specific author. We’ve also published some of our favourite book quotes here. These can be adapted to most generic photos. And the beauty of using these is that they never dry up. Authors are constantly creating amazing lines all the time!
Question of the Day (#QOTD)
Some Bookstagrammers use questions to frame every single post. The questions you can ask are endless, but here are a few to give you an idea:
- What was the last book you read?
- Do you ever DNF a book?
- What’s your favourite classic?
- How often do you buy books?
- Do you prefer old books or new books?
- Where is your favourite spot to read?
- Which title is at the top of your wishlist?
- Do you prefer standalones or series?
- How many books do you own?
- Is the cover important to you?
The beauty of #QOTD is that you encourage your followers to enter into conversation – which of course is the whole point of Bookstagram.
Predictive Text Captions
Although I’ve never posted these, I love to have a go at them on other bookstagrammers’ pages. If you’ve never come across them before, you basically start off with a couple of words and ask your followers to add the rest of the sentence using predictive text on their phone. For instance:
“I love books because_”
When I type this into the comment box it gives me “I love books because they are not normal.”
You can really play around with these and they’re one of my favourite Bookstagram caption ideas because you never know what will pop out of your phone.
Battery Strength Captions
Battery strength captions have been growing in popularity recently and are a lot of fun to do. Basically you just ask a question ‘Based on your battery strength, you will wake up tomorrow and find yourself in…” and then you list a number of outcomes depending on the measurements. For example 0-9% could be Narnia, 10-19% could be Middle-earth, and so on. Followers then add their result to the answer.
Some suggestions for other variations are listing different kinds of foods, Disney films, classic novels and outcomes such as winning the lottery,.
Play a Bookstagram Hashtag Game
I’ve written about this in more detail on our Bookstagram Post Ideas summary, but Bookstagram hashtags can provide the basis for a caption. These aren’t quite as easy to match if you’re in a hurry, but tags such as #colorbooktag and #shelfiesunday can provide an anchor for the rest of your copy. By tagging others, you also build dialogue within your Bookstagram community.
Ask Your Followers to Caption Your Bookstagram Post
If you’re really stuck for Bookstagram caption ideas, then hand the job over to your followers in exchange for a shout-out on stories. It’s fun to try to come up with words for someone else’s image and always interesting to see what everyone has suggested.
You can also use captions to direct followers to polls and challenges in your stories. Just make sure that your image is connected to the theme in your stories so that the words link everything together well.
How Long Should Instagram Captions Be?
The maximum limit for Instagram captions is 2200 characters, and the platform only shows the first 125 characters in the post preview. This includes emojis and hashtags so make sure you use the introductory line space wisely.
There’s no particular rule when it comes to the ideal length of the Bookstagram caption. However, this 2020 research from Later suggests that captions are getting longer – with 405 characters being the average. If you’re relatively new to Bookstagram then it’s best to try a few different styles out and see what resonates with your followers. Many Bookstagrammers use their accounts as micro book blogs so longer content is generally more welcome than in other genres.
How to Format Instagram Captions
Main Text
You can format your captions in anyway you like but as with blogging, it’s best to break your text into smaller chunks with line breaks in between. This makes the content easier to read and also allows you to highlight important pieces of copy with emojis.
You can either leave the empty lines blank or punctuate them with emojis or single full stops. Note that to do this you need to make sure that there are no spaces between the end of the text and the punctuation.
Taking the example below, I’d type it like this – …The Booksellers beats them all hands-down[stop][enter][Star Emoji][Enter]The film focuses…
Any extra spaces will result in the text butting up to the emoji. However it doesn’t matter if you get this wrong (which I do all the time) because you can go back and edit easily.
Using Emojis in Instagram Captions 😊
When it comes to using emojis in Instagram captions – less is more. Add emojis to highlight themes and key words in your caption. Too many and your followers will lose the thread. The same goes for hashtags in the main body of the text.
Instagram #Hashtags
There are several ways to add hashtags to an Instagram caption – in the body of the text, separated from the main text by emojis or full stops, or in a separate comment. The internet is awash with theories about some creating more engagement than others, but I’ve tried them all and haven’t noticed a difference. My personal preference is to keep the bulk in the main Instagram caption but separated by full stops with one or two in the main text. Again this is a stylistic choice.
How Do I Add Customized Fonts to Instagram Captions?
You may have noticed Instagrammers using fancy fonts in their posts and profiles. There’s only one font available in Instagram captions (stories have multiple fonts) but you can easily add different styles by using Instagram font generators. Here are a few to play with:
Simply type in your words then copy and paste into your caption.
Are there any Bookstagram caption ideas that you’d like to add?
We hope you find the Bookstagram caption ideas we’ve listed here useful but we know there are many more out there. Let us know your favourite ways to add words to pictures on Instagram in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this, you might also find these other posts useful.
How to Become a Bookstagram Influencer
How to Stay Positive When Your Instagram Reach Drops
Great post – helpful and informative.
Author
It was fun to compile all of these. I’m really pleased that you found it handy – I love the playful side of Bookstagram!
Great post Mel! After 5 years of doing bookstagram, my mind is often blank!
Author
Mine too! I can totally understand why people decide to use one caption format every day. It’s harder when you mix & match!
Awesome post!! ☺️
Author
Thank you! I’m really glad you liked it!
Thank you so much for these! I’ve been really struggling with my bookstagram, although partly because I don’t put the effort in. There are some really useful tips and hints here – quotes always seem like a safe bet!
Author
Quotes are always a winner! Instagram has become tougher over the years and you are 100% right about the time factor. The more you put in, the faster your account grows but it really depends where you want to take it. Sometimes it’s just satisfying to make friends on there!
Thank you so much for this post, it’s so useful
Author
A pleasure! I hope you enjoy using these tips.