Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we collect together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.

This week: insights into Instagram and some of the best new books to read in self-isolation.

Insights Into Instagram

Fast becoming the social media platform of choice, Instagram is enjoyed by millions but rarely used to its full effect. There are millions upon millions of potential readers out there, yet most of our posts barely get seen even by those we’re personally friends with.

Tailwind, a social media scheduling tool, recently analysed 1.8 million Instagram posts and came back with some interesting insights. For example: small accounts tend to have greater engagement than larger accounts, there’s no “best” account type, and most people are actually doing better on the platform than they think.

There’s too much to go into in full here, but you can explore more about the ins and outs of Instagram over here.

Best New Books of 2020 (So Far)

It’s hard to believe we’re 5 months into 2020 already. Nothing’s happened, apart from the small matter of a global pandemic. There’s certainly not a lot of non-virus related news going about, that’s for sure.

Still, at least some people have been left with a lot of time for reading. And whilst there’s been no real impact on the publication of self-published books (possibly even an uptick, in fact), trad publishing has been thrown into a spin. Here are a few of the best big name books that got out before everything went mad.

Tom Ashford

Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.

He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.