I started my bookstagram in February of last year. Since monetizing it a few months in, it’s made me over $15,000.
It took me six months of running the account before I even realized monetization was on the table. And I want to show you how to skip those six months of cluelessness, even if you’re sitting at under 5,000 followers right now (which is exactly where I was when I started).
Why I started a bookstagram in the first place
I started my account because I genuinely love reading. I’ve always loved being creative, taking photos, and using tools like Canva to design things. Notebooks, planners, you name it.
But the real reason I leaned into it? Life got loud. We were in debt. I lost my grandpa. The world felt like it was falling apart in slow motion. So I did the most chaotic, productive thing I could think of: I started a bookstagram account and decided to talk about the books I love. Six months in, I was getting better at Canva, and the digital business followed naturally from there.
I needed a safety net, not a side hustle aesthetic.
Here’s the honest context: I work a 9 to 5 in corporate, as a contractor, from Romania. Being a contractor means they can let me go at any time, with no warning and no explanation. Which also means that if I ever have a baby and go on maternity leave, there’s no guarantee I’d have a job to come back to.
Bookstagram gave me something my contract never could. A safety net. Something that pays my bills, that I can budget around, and that I can build savings from if things ever go sideways.
My first product (and my first $200)
Deciding what to sell wasn’t hard. People already loved my posts and my edits, so my first product was a pack of Canva templates.
I took the posts I’d already created, replaced the photos with free stock from sites like Pixlr, swapped out the Canva Pro elements for free versions, and started selling. That’s how I made my first $200, using Ko-fi for checkout and Linktree for the link in bio. Both completely free.
Did I have any design skills or certificates? Absolutely not. What I had was time spent on the explore page instead of doomscrolling Reels, which slowly built my eye for what was working on bookstagram and what people actually wanted.
My second product (and the trick that made it my best seller)
I actually started building my reading planner in July 2025, but I didn’t release it until December. So even though it wasn’t the second product I sold, it’s the second one I built.
And so far? It’s generated more sales than anything else I’ve made.
Why? Because I made it resellable. People can buy it, edit it in their own style, and sell it themselves. I also have a simple PDF version for people who just want to track their reading without the reseller piece.
If you create something and add PLR or MLR rights to it, you will sell more. People don’t want to spend months building a digital product from scratch. They want to plug into something that already works.
You can do this with almost anything you create. It’s one of the most underrated moves in the digital product space.
How I sold digital products with under 5,000 followers
You don’t need a huge account to monetize. What you need is content that shows your product in use.
What I did was simple. I’d post a carousel of value (bookstagram content ideas, reading tips, post inspiration) and add a final slide showcasing my product. I’d show my reading planner in use. I’d add a soft CTA telling people they could find it in the link in my bio.
You’ve probably seen content creators making money through brand deals, promoting other people’s products. You’re doing the exact same thing. Just for yourself.
Why I chose digital products over physical ones or author services
I work a 9 to 5. I try to make it to the gym at least four times a week. I have a life I want to actually live. Which means I don’t have the bandwidth to handmake bookmarks every weekend or manage an author services account on top of everything else.
If you do have that bandwidth, those are amazing income streams. But for me, I wanted something I could create once and sell forever. Every few months I’ll build a new product, but the ones I’ve already made just keep selling in the background.
Build it once. Sell it forever. That’s the entire pitch for digital products.
“Isn’t it disingenuous to sell stuff on bookstagram?”
I’ve heard it. “You’re in it for the wrong reasons. You don’t actually care about books or the community.”
This is simply not true, and I refuse to let that thinking talk anyone out of taking their bookstagram seriously or getting a little salesy when it counts.
The people who say those things don’t pay your rent. They don’t pay your debts. They’re not the ones lying awake at 2am wondering how you’re going to cover next month’s bills. Some of us live month by month, with just enough to survive, and a hobby that pays you back is not something to apologize for.
You can love books AND make money from your account. The two are not mutually exclusive. They never were.
This is your sign to start monetizing your hobby account
You don’t need 50k followers. You don’t need design certificates. You don’t need a perfectly aesthetic apartment or a publisher contract. You just need to start.
If you want some content strategy tips to go with this, my full YouTube breakdown is here:
And if you want to see the exact products I’ve built, the Canva templates, the resellable reading planner, and everything else, they’re all on my Stan Store:
Browse my Stan Store → https://stan.store/nissaonlyreads
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