Anatomy of A Bookstagram Ad

by | January 22, 2024

On a recent night, the monotony of my evening Instagram scroll was interrupted. I was clicking through stories: Lil Nas X binge-eating communion wafers, a friend planting a cactus, and then suddenly, with no warning, Book of the Month advertising quaaludes:

I paused. Was this a black market operation, offering exclusive access to a once-beloved drug that was  discontinued in the early 1980s? Or was this a cheeky, provocative way to advertise The Shards, Bret Easton Ellis’s 2023 thriller which, like the rest of his oeuvre, features nihilist youths overindulging in narcotics? 

I didn’t click “Learn More” out of fear of ending up on an FBI watchlist. Instead, I turned to Google to find out what the hell is going on. 

Book of the Month was founded in 1926 as a membership club and book subscription service for a burgeoning group of middle class readers seeking tasteful recommendations.  In 1988, it had 1.5 million members. Once owned by Time Inc., after folding in 2015, the company got an Instagram-era facelift when a private investor purchased a majority stake in its parent company. Now chicly nicknamed BOTM, the company is fully leaning into millennial marketing vibes. Membership tiers include “friend” and BFF,” users are encouraged to “treat your shelf,”and books are assigned “Bookmojis” like Feminist, LGBTQ+ Themes, Family drama and action-packed.

Asking Instagram users if they want quaaludes is just the tip of the iceberg. According to an X user, the service also sends subscribers bookmarks printed with Skinemax-esque encouragements to continue reading: “you know you want to keep going,” “Please don’t stop,” “Close to the climax, huh?” and “Use me or lose me.”

BOTM is trying to make reading into something adventurous and sexy rather than nerdy and earnest. In other words, this isn’t your mother’s book club. 

Recently, on Instagram, I’ve been inundated with drag queens waxing sponsored-poetic about queer telehealth apps and ominous invitations to participate in depression clinical trials. But there are more layers to my soul. Since I follow a few authors and have read a book, I imagine that daddy algorithm has also designated me as a potential consumer for the enchanting realm of Bookstagram, a bustling corner of the web which consists of lit influencers unboxing lavish boxes of book merch, sharing perky reviews of new releases, and posting moodboard stacks of novels (a visually pleasing trend that Drake jumped on). 

Last fall, Nylon published a much-discoursed report on how literary it girls are coming up with innovative, DIY ways to market their releases: book trailers, custom merchandise, buzzy parties. Even with all the hype, however, there’s no guarantee that a novel will venture out of the hands of a niche few. 

The Shards, which BOTM is offering for a $5 add-on to its membership service, is tough to capture in Bookmojis (though they tried: “famous author,” “80s,” “unreliable narrator,” and “400+ pages”) or a bite-size Bookstagram review. It’s an esoteric mix of queer coming of age tale, autofiction, and thriller that sticks out from BOTM’s typically crowd-pleasing selections, which in the past, have been advertised based on readers’ preferences in pizza, water bottles, and coffee (if you order oat milk lattes…).

 

Additionally, there’s the reality that the author is polarizing and comes off as prickly in interviews and maybe isn’t the type to enthusiastically make an Instagram Reel. 

BOTM is distilling a controversial author’s 608 page book and all of its complexity into a single temptation. Basically: The Shards isn’t homework (or canceled), it’s Wolf of Wall Street.

Speaking of finance, let’s crunch the numbers.  The novel is currently on the website’s “popular right now” list  and has over 1,185 ratings with 37% of readers loving it, 42% having a mixed opinion, and 17% unsatisfied. Since it’s unclear if all those users were lured in by Instagram story, I asked my Instagram followers whether they interfaced with the ad to measure its success. 

Flavia Bortoleto claimed that though the BOTM x The Shards advertisement “caught” her eye, it ultimately made her feel quite confused. 

“I was certain ‘Quaaludes’ was the book name, so it’s surprising to hear it’s actually The Shards,” she wrote in an email.

Bortoleto speculated that a “third party validator” like ending up on the New York Times bestseller list or Oprah’s club is a more “tried and true method” of getting someone to buy a book. 

BOTM may have concluded that in an overcrowded field of tastemakers, you have to get #weird. Last Thursday, the company posted a reaction Reel starring comedian Sarah Adelman. After explaining that “quaaludes are like very prominent in the book,” she aggregates some of the most absurd comments the ad garnered, peppering in her own quips (“y’all are crazy and I love you for that!”). BOTM is selling books with content about content about content. In marketing terms, however, this is a triumph in brand awareness. 

“I guess if you’re running Instagram ads for books you might as well throw everything on the wall and see what sticks,” Bortoleto told me.

The publishing industry is at a crossroads: Oprah’s Book Club or quaaludes? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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