Today I am asking the question “Where is my community?”
This question came about from my own frustrations. I asked on Facebook is there a Christian Fiction book community at Instagram. What I am learning is there isn’t. There are closed door, No spice, clean wholesome but no Christian fiction. While Christian fiction (CF from now on) fits in all these categories I was surprised there isn’t a CF community like on Facebook. On Facebook there are several CF forums which are dedicated to CF readers such as Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or Fiction Full of Faith.
A little background.
I rejoined Instagram last year due to needing to create a new account and decided I wanted to help promote CF and maybe some posts on my cat. It’s here I learnt about being a Bookstagrammer. I learned early on that to be accepted on many book tours you need followers. This led me to joining some Instagram follow trains, the first ones being any readers of any category. Then finding the No Spice community. There are lots of Christian readers and authors there and as long as you don’t promote spicy book you are welcome. However, many of the people there are reading books I am not interested in.
I have joined a few trains and have gained followers and people I interact with. I also joined a closed-door community partly because I was invited and didn’t realise what it was at the time. Due to personal circumstances with the hosts, they were only offering three no spice trains a week. With all three starting at 3.30am my time. One of the rules is interacting within 30 mins. In a few months when circumstances change the trains I can join will return but, right now I don’t have a community. I can still comment later but not being a host or rider I won’t pick up many followers. Hence my question and thinking there has to be a community for me.
My search
As I mentioned I thought there must be CF reader/author communities in the same way there are the other communities. My first stop was Facebook and Avid Readers of Christian Fiction. Most didn’t read my question and gave names of active Christian Instagrammers. A few were also members of the closed-door community. I asked on my Facebook wall and wasn’t sure where else to ask.
Then I asked Chat GPT who was very helpful but couldn’t help me find this community. It gave suggestions. In fact, Chat GPT understood what I was asking and why. Next stop was a chat group I am a member off at Instagram for closed door fiction. Again, many didn’t understand what I was asking. One even gave me a list of groups at Facebook I was already a member off. I went on to explain that I read only CF and was looking for my community. At the same time trying to make sure they understood I was not disrespecting the community. One Christian author reached out and said how she had been looking for the same thing.
My Findings
Firstly, let me explain my frustration and why I started the search. Being the beginning of the year there were so many book promos sent out in Author Newsletters. One was only CF although a couple of other books slipped in. The others were the Closed door/No Spice promos which have both CF and Wholesome books. They don’t label what is what. They may have a spice level but that does nothing to help me know if they have a faith element or not.
I understand authors want to reach the biggest audience they can and if these promos indicated which books are which category I wouldn’t be so frustrated. Anyone remember the song “What about me?” well that is what I am feeling. What about the CF readers who have supported the CF authors and bought their books and want to just read CF. Don’t we deserve the same respect the other communities have. It almost feels like the CF only readers are no longer considered important.
What Next?
I am not sure. Chatting with a Christian author who shares my feelings, we are looking at creating our own train or posts. We are still working out the details of how to go about this, but we want to do something. It is in the very early stages, and we are looking at maybe a shared post or train twice a month to start. We are looking to grow our Instagram accounts, but with followers who will actually read the books we promote.
Question for you.
If you are on Instagram, do you know of a Christian Fiction community? Would you be interested in joining a Follow train or follow me post for Christian Fiction? Would you help support us when launch this idea? How about sharing a post asking your followers if they would be interested? Or do you have any suggestions for me?
Hi Jenny, I’m on Instagram and I think the algorithm makes it tricky because it limits organic post visibility. Hashtags don’t work as well as they used to, either. It doesn’t have the groups functionality like Facebook. I’m not on Threads but I’ve heard that a lot of writerly discussion takes place there. Not sure if readers are there, too?
It’s the Instagram stories where I find I see the majority of content from the people I follow. I’m intrigued by the whole follow train concept and would love to connect with a CF community there. 😊
I’m learning what I want and how I am conveying it are not necessarily the same thing. There are chats in something called channels I think. For me its more to find more followers who align with what I am promoting. Ironically part of this has come from some of the blog tours organisers haven’t helped as some do have a min of 1,000 followers, others it can be the author who dictates the numbers. and some will give preference to those with higher numbers. One author had a giveaway and the launch team could help with it but only if you had over 1,000 followers. What many of these dont realise is you can get the followers by as I said joining every engagement post or train you can even if you don’t align with anything you do. I could have up to 50+followers if I allowed the creepy men and women with questionable websites but I do block these people.
That makes sense. I agree, the quality of followers is more important than quantity. It’s also shortsighted because every influencer superstar started somewhere with only a few followers. They could be missing out on connecting with the up and coming future influencers by having rules based on follower numbers.
So true or they could be accepting someone where 90% of their followers are not the target audience. from what I see Instagram shows those who you interact with. There are a couple I will comment on regulary and they are always in my feed. (plus insta thinks I love cat which are also in my feed). through the follow trains I have been able to recommend authors cos often the question of the day lends to that sort of thing. Like when I was reading the Dragon stories I mentioned it and its amazing how many were interested. Same with Mistletoe and Malice. I have made friends with a former South African living in Canada because she mentioned ice skating. This is what I am looking for. it doesn’t have to be besties but by interaction you get to trust others in their suggestions. It’s interesting some authors don’t care if you have 100 followers they just want you to share. where as others have this thing in their heads if not 1000 you wont get results.