Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time in a far away land called Japan, there lived a poor Waffle Queen named Kat. Her deepest and most ardent desire was to have a beautiful bookstagram account like the ones she saw on her phone. But sadly, Kat didn’t own many physical books, and because she lived in a far away land, she couldn’t afford the international shipping costs. Also, her kingdom did not have a local library with all the newest and most popular releases. For a long time, Kat feared she would never be a true bookstagrammer. But then one fateful day, she had an epiphany – she didn’t need physical copies of books to create the bookstagram feed of her dreams. She had her tablet, her phone, and her e-reader; she could take pictures of ebooks! Once she realized this, she rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after. The end.
The International Disadvantage
Although this story about my bookstagram plight might seem silly, it very well could be your story too. With just one glance at the most popular bookstagrammers, it’s easy to fall into the same false thinking that I did – that in order to have a bookstagram, you need to have thousands upon thousands of physical books at your disposal. That immediately puts us international bookstagrammers at a disadvantage.
Getting a physical ARC sent overseas is about as rare as finding a Holographic Charizard in a pack of Pokemon cards. (In fact, even getting an e-ARC can be a Struggle with a capital S at times). Not only that, but affording the international shipping fees for book boxes, bookish merch, and books themselves can cost about the same as a Firebolt broomstick.
RELATED POST: How To Get Your Hands on English Books While Living Overseas
Pictures of eBooks Are Valid Too
But never fear! Even if you don’t own many physical books, you can still live your dream! You can still have one of those feeds that makes people cry buckets upon buckets of heart-eye emojis! All you need is a phone, a tablet, or an e-reader.
Now, is there a stigma surrounding ebook photography? Possibly. Some influencers might believe that Kindles, tablets, and the like are just not photogenic enough. That they don’t have a good “aesthetic.” That they make a bookstagram look cheap and unprofessional. But I will shout from every rooftop from here to Neverland about how THAT. IS. NOT. TRUE.
Feeds featuring pictures of ebooks can still be popular, aesthetically pleasing, and successful. Don’t believe me? Then take a gander at these seventeen jaw-droppingly, door-slammingly, heart-burstingly beautiful ebooks pictures that without-a-doubt prove I’m right. And then go; live your dream. You can have a happily ever after too.
17 Beautiful eBooks Pictures
My Instagram Feed
And last but not least, a majority of my own Instagram pictures include ebooks! I photograph both my iPad and my phone, and generally I’m quite pleased with how they turn out. Check out my feed for more inspiration on how you can take pictures of ebooks too! *coughcoughSHAMELESSSELFPROMOTIONcoughcough*
Do you take pictures of ebooks for your Bookstagram?
What tips or tricks would you suggest for people taking pictures of ebooks?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
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As someone who reads 90% ebooks, this post meant so much to me, Kat 🥺 I’m definitely guilty of thinking that not having a huge collection of physical books is a disadvantage on Bookstagram. But this post is giving me some hope! Maybe I’ll start a Bookstagram account some day, but I just know that I don’t have the time for it 😂 (Will that stop me though? I don’t think so.)
Btw, your feed is gorgeous 😍 (and so are all the pictures you shared in this post!)
Caitlin! Thank you so much for reading and for your kind words! 💛I’m glad that this post has inspired you! And I totally understand what you mean about being too busy – I really like taking pictures for bookstagram myself, but have found I just don’t have as much time to dedicate to it as I would like. It’s like, I’ve already got a blog and that sort of takes all the free time I have already haha. ANYWAYS YOU ARE AWESOMEEEE 💛
I never thought that ebooks in pictures made them any less “aesthetic” or something haha! Thank you for sharing these bookstagram accounts – they’re all beautiful!! And yours too! So yellow and very on brand 😍
Thank you so much, Miri! That means a lot! 💛💛💛 And I’m glad that you never thought that ebooks looked less pretty, because I totally agree with you! haha
Great post!! Loved loved all the insta pics u included so pretty 💕
Thank you so much!! 💛 I agree – there are so many talented bookstagrammers out there!
I most definitely take pictures of ebooks!! Since I have a Kindle Voyage that only shows black-and-white versions of the book covers, I normally download a coloured picture of the book cover from Goodreads, and then when I go to edit the picture I took, I insert the coloured version over the Kindle screen.
Here’s an example: https://www.instagram.com/p/B823psdgQGp/
YAY FOR TAKING PICTURES OF EBOOKS!!! 💛💛
And wow, you do such a great job photoshopping the covers onto your Kindle! I wouldn’t have guessed it was added in manually if you didn’t tell me!! Nice job!
Haha thank you! No Photoshop needed! The basic photo editor on Samsung devices let you add in a picture so there’s no need to pay extra!!
Wow, that’s impressive! It’s amazing what you can do with all the free resources we have at our disposal!
As someone who barely has any physical books: thank you so much!! All I have are my eARCs and audiobooks subscriptions and some ebooks… It’s so demotivating when it comes to instagram that I’ve been ‘on hiatus’ there for MONTHS!! I need to implement some changes and be more creative with that :)
I’m glad that you found this article to be inspiring 💛💛 And I’m totally with you about not having hardly any physical books!! It’s definitely demotivating, but I hope that you are able to find a way to make it work 💛Thanks for the lovely comment!
Yes Kat!!! I love this so much!! I think Bookstagram can be pretty bias at times towards physical books, but that’s not always accessible for everyone and I love being introduced to more accounts and photos that showcase ebooks! <3
I’m SO GLAD that you loved this Tiffany! 💛I agree that Bookstagram can be a pretty bias place sometimes but there are definitely ways to get around that and make it work, even without physical books.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment 💛💛
This is such a fun and uplifting post, Kat! As an international blogger, I do understand the struggle to own physical books and I guess it’s why I never dip my toe in bookstagram- it seems like there’s an unwritten rule of “physical books only”. So thank you so much for this post! <3
TASYAAAA 💛💛💛 Thank you so much for your lovely comment! I’m glad that you found this post to be uplifting :) And I’m glad that I’m not the only international blogger who struggles to get physical books haha.
I used to be very afraid of using ebooks on my bookstagram because I just didn’t know how to make it work. The screen just didn’t look right, and I always felt like the picture lacked something. Now I’ve learned it’s better to just stage everything with the screen in black and just add the cover of the book later through an app like PicsArt. That way the cover looks on point where it’s supposed to be, no awkward lightning!
SCREEN GLARE IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!!! haha. Also, I’ve been following your insta for a while now and I never would have guessed that the ebook covers were added in later with another app! They look so natural!
I’ve tried to photoshop in the covers later, but it never looks quite right…maybe I just need some practice though. Anyways, thanks for reading and for leaving such a lovely comment 💛💛💛
Yeah, they’re so tricky! But knowing that makes me so happy!!! ♥ Since I don’t know how to use Photoshop I always do a few things so that I don’t have a lot of problems with the editing later: 1) Never put anything on top of the screen. If my finger is on it, or the edge of another object, it’s dead, because that kind of fancy editing is beyond me. 2) It has to be flat or else the angles are never quite right and it’s just more complicated. 3) I never try to make the cover fit the whole screen, I just make it’s aligned vertically. 4) I tend to do a selective edit and lower the saturation of the area with the cover so that it blends better with the rest of the picture. And when I add the filters, I do it after the cover is added so that it doesn’t stand out too much. ♥
Thank you so much for this advice, Pamela! It’s really SO helpful! I’ll have to give this a try myself and see how it goes! 💛
Best of luck :3
I LOVE THIS POST SO MUCH THANK YOU!!!!! i honestly need this post because i don’t really ever buy books so i’m limited to my libraries selection (WHICH I CANNOT COMPLAIN AT ALL bc the selection is amazing and i’m so fortunate to be able to have one) but still i read a lot digitally or through audiobooks
the pictures you shared are literally the most gorgeous pictures i’ve ever seen I AM IN AWE 😍😍😍😍 and yes i’m absolutely in love with your very yellow, very waffley instagram layout 🥺🥺🥺
MAYYYYY 💛💛💛 I’m so glad that you love this post as much as you do (and that you love my instagram – you are too sweet)!! It truly means the world to me!
And YES I KNOW RIGHT??? There are so many talented people out there with GORGEOUS insta feeds! I NEED TO DISCOVER THEIR SECRETS haha
Ah this is such an inspiring post, really and all of the pictures you picked out are AMAZING, wow. I see too rarely ebooks on bookstagram and it makes me sad, even if I understand that physical copies can be more appealing, these pictures (and your entire feed!) just proves that ebooks can be just as aesthetically pleasing on bookstagram pictures. I! love! this! so much!
MARIE !!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! 💛 Your kind words mean a lot and I’m really so glad that you found this post to be so inspiring! 💛
I love this so much! Back when I had a Bookstagram, I definitely felt the pressure to buy all the latest & greatest & most beautiful books so I could make my feed look more *aesthetically pleasing* (ditto with Booktube) – especially for posts about hauls etc. But it definitely made a significant dent in my bank account, and these photos prove that you really don’t need physical books for gorgeous photos! 😍
💛 Ngoc
NGOCCC!! 💛 I’m glad that you loved this post as much as you did! And I totally agree, the pressure IS REAL when it comes to having all the most recent releases/special editions/etc. But with a bit of creativity, I think it’s possible to have a gorgeous feed even without them!
Thank you SO MUCH for your lovely comment 💛
AAAAHH this post is brilliant! Not only do I have some new folks to follow, but it’s reminded me how much I miss including my Kindle in some of my posts. I always struggle with screen glare and give up, but this shows it can be done anyway. 💛
GLARE IS MY LEAST FAVORITE THING, so I totally feel your pain. Something I know people do to avoid that is photoshopping the book cover onto the ereader or tablet later on. But I personally don’t do that. Anyways, thanks so much for your kind words and lovely comment, Meaghan!! 💛It made my day!
Glare only exists to spite us and I think that’s terribly rude. And yeah, I definitely do that since my lighting situation is best friends with glare! Just haven’t done it with my Kindle in a long while.
And you’re welcome! 💛
[…] Kat @ Novels and Waffles proves that you don’t have to have physical books to make a stunning … […]
I love this post SO MUCH! Okay, first of all, I feel like ebooks are so much harder for me to take good pictures of than physical books, so I’m infinitely amazed by people who consistently push out stunning pictures of their phones, iPads, kindles, etc. Like, WOW, to have that much power??? I could never. And second, most of my favorite feeds consistently feature digital titles! I think they’re so lovely and I’ll never understand people who don’t get it. Sigh. Sorry for the mini rant, but your post just brought some feels out. 😂 I love it!
Oh gosh, Destiny! Thank you so much for such a lovely comment. I’m so happy that this post brought out some feels 💛💛💛
Also, I totally agree that taking pictures of ereaders is a lot harder than taking pictures of physical books – there’s that stubborn glare to think about! (It’s honestly the bane of my existence haha.)
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