From my personal experiences, I think Instagram is the place to go as it has the most active and creative readers present as compared to the other platforms. When it comes to promoting a book, the most important thing is visibility, from where one can reach people/audience whose first and basic interest is in reading and Instagram provides that. It gives an author a community which has been there since last decades and is growing continuously. There are some beautiful accounts with more than 50k followers, managed by people who love reading and are willing to share that love with others. Other than Instagram, Twitter, as well as Goodreads, are the next best places to go.
That depends on what kind of publishing one is going for. If you are being published by a traditional publisher say Penguin or Hachette then, promotion should and usually starts as soon as the cover is revealed. Whereas if you are considering a self-publishing company say Notion Press or Pothi, it’s better to wait till the book is out.
Not finding the right audience. Generally what new authors tend to do is push the book to everybody and they forget that they have to target the right audience! Not everybody enjoys the same kind of book and so it’s important that authors, if they are looking to get their books reviewed, should approach readers/reviewers whose reading taste matches with the book. The other thing is that they become overprotective of their book. When they see a negative review which is inevitable because not everybody will have something positive to say, they aggressively try to defend it. Do not do that!
That depends on where you are promoting the book. On Instagram, everything depends on the number of followers (hard truth); the more follower you have, the greater your reach. For example, if an author approaches a reviewer who already has more than 5k followers, then it’s very likely that the engagement on the book will be higher as compared to accounts with fewer numbers.
That’s really important. Set a budget before you start promoting a book. If you are opting for ads on the social media platforms, make sure you keep a record of the sales and if they are helping in increasing the sales, repeat it and if not, then dump the whole idea. As for paid reviews which are quite popular on Instagram, make sure you discuss the payment before agreeing. It’s also understandable that reviewers with bigger accounts will charge more as compared to the relatively smaller ones. So navigate carefully.
On Instagram, hashtags are important as they help in boosting the visibility of your posts. Make sure to use the right hashtags which will go with the concept of your books and try to post as regularly as possible.
Make sure the page is neat and accessible. Share excerpts from your book. Be present, reply to comments and DMs and try to engage as much as possible. Every news, interview, and review should be shared on the page. Use linktree to share links.
Ads on Instagram are quite effective. I have seen authors benefiting from it and I am certainly of the opinion that it helps, if not in sales then at least in creating a chatter online. Famous authors such as Ravinder Singh and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni have promoted their books through it.
I have been managing my Instagram account (ashish_the_reader ) for more than 3 years now and one of the reasons why I started it in the first place was to share my love for reading and also because I had no one to discuss the books I read with. After joining bookstagram, I met people with whom I could discuss any book to the point of exhaustion. With my account, I want to inspire people to read and discover books that are underrated or aren’t as well promoted as they should have.
In my opinion, one of my biggest strengths as a book influencer is that I’m cold-heartedly honest and that’s the reason people trust my reviews and recommendations.
Previously I have reviewed books by authors old and new, from big and small publishing, and have helped them as much as I possibly could. Whenever I post a review on my Instagram, I make sure to write a review for other platforms as well such as Amazon and Goodreads.
For children, providing them with good books, books that they can enjoy as well as learn something in the process is absolutely necessary. In my opinion, Matilda by Roald Dahl and nearly all the books by Ruskin Bond especially his The Blue Umbrella should be read by all. Other than these, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, stories by Premchand and HG Wells are must-reads. 
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