Bookstagram: What am I changing?

Hello everyone! If you’ve been following my bookstagram for a while, you know that I’ve had it since December 2018. I used to be @lives_in_ya_books, but decided to change my handle to @solaceinreading at the beginning of August. I don’t just read YA books anymore (because of The Poppy War), and I am getting older. It is time for a change.

What are my plans for Bookstagram?

My bookstagram is a product of work, time, and effort. I’ve worked it on since December 2018, coming up on two years this December!! I haven’t been as dedicated to something since rowing, which I participated in from September 2016 to March 2020, so about 3.5 years. I know I want to be a bookstagrammer longer because I can make friends (and already have so many amazing friends who I know are there for me), and love taking pretty pictures! I’ve developed real photography and writing skills. Here are five changes/updates I want to make:

Not following a schedule. “Wait, don’t you have to follow a schedule to be sucessful?” Definitely not. I literally did not have a schedule from January 2020 to nearly the end of June. I still retained about 1,050 followers in spite of my sporadic posting, and that’s what I need to do when (takes deep breath) dual enrollment starts tomorrow. I like taking pictures when I want to take pictures. (Right now, I have no inspiration since I am waiting for Where Dreams Descend, lol.)
Follow as many people as I want to. For some reason, I thought that I had to have more followers than people I was following. HOWEVER, I follow less people because now I can see that I have seen all the posts! I don’t see a million posts per day!
Use stories less. I don’t want everyone to swipe through 15+ story posts per day because I really don’t need to be on Instagram as much as I am. I am going to make it so that I don’t feel like I need to post on my stories if I am not posting on my feed. I want to change my mindset from “this is a place to gain followers and free books” to “this is a place to meet friends and make life long connections.” (Lili @utopia.state.of.mind, ty for this!)
Keep my Close Friends list limited. I like to rant there, and it is limited to people I’ve known for over a year.
Maintain a theme. I like having organization online and offline. (If you ever meet me, you can get on my good side by talking about how much we both love pens and notebooks.)