A Guide to Twitter Hashtags for Book Bloggers

Are you a book blogger who uses Twitter? Are you struggling to find hashtags that work for you? This post is for you. Evelina from Avalinah’s Books tweeted a wish for a resource of hashtags for new book bloggers, like the thread for new authors.

I wish someone did this for #bookbloggers too, this is absolutely awesome 💪 https://t.co/vDVfcVMnNW

— AvalinahsBooks 😸 (she/they) (@AvalinahsBooks) March 15, 2018

This inspired me to research hashtags beyond the one in the tweet above and share them with all book bloggers. Then I found so many that I had to create a list.

This list isn’t complete, but I hope it gives book bloggers a place to start.

New Book Bloggers

#Bloggiesta

This is the hashtag for the Bloggiesta blogging marathons, “revolving around ticking off those items on your to-do list and improving your blog while in the good company of other awesome bloggers doing the same thing.” While this doesn’t appear to be book blogging-specific, it could still help you improve your blogging. There was a marathon last month, and there should be another in June.

#NewBloggers

This hashtag was created by Avalinah’s Books as part of her New Bloggers 101 series. It covers more than the book community, but her posts with the hashtag are very useful for those new to blogging and book blogging.

General and Miscellaneous

#amreading / #currentlyreading

These mostly announce what you’re reading.

Book Titles

Some popular books have their own hashtags. Examples are #TheHateUGive (a.k.a. #THUG), #LoveSimon, #TheBookThief, #MemoirsOfAGeisha, and #HarryPotter.

#bookbloggers / #bookblog / #BookTube

These are generic hashtag that call attention to those who use different platforms in the online book community. They can be used to talk about their communities and what people are doing in general.

#booklover / #bibliophile / #bookdragon / #bookworm

These are the various ways you could say that you clearly love books and reading. They can also be used to joke and complain about the everyday things that come with being a bookworm.

#bookreview / #arcreview

These are self-explanatory.

Genres

#ChickLit, #contemporaryYA, #cookbooks, #classicbooks, #crime, #dystopian, #erotica, #fanfic, #fiction, #graphicnovels, #histfic, #indie, #kidlit, #LitFic, #manga, #mgbooks, #MGLit, #mystery, #nonfiction, #paranormal, #picturebooks, #romance, #scifi, #urbanfantasy, #WomensFiction, #yabooks, #YALit, #yareviews, etc.

Try different ways of phrasing your favorite genres to see what exists. If other book bloggers use a genre-specific hashtag you’ve never seen before, follow it to see what people are doing with it.

For the sake of argument, I am also including #books, #ebooks and #audiobooks as genres for this too.

#readallthebooks / #ReadingIsFun

These seem to be for getting excited about reading and announcing reading challenges you have accepted.

#tbrproblems / #TBRMountain

These are used to complain and commiserate about the ever-growing and never-ending to-be-read pile.

#TuesdayBlogShare

This is a blog share where you can share any blog post that has to do with books. It functions a lot like #SundayBlogShare and #MondayBlogs, but it’s specific to books. More information and rules can be found on Rosie Amber. (Thank you, Rosie Amber, for sharing and creating this hashtag.)

Discussions

#bookchat / #booktalk

This is the hashtag for discussing specific books in-depth. If you watch a lot of BookTubers, you have probably seen “bookchat” in the titles of their videos.

#LetsDiscuss2018

This challenge is associated with the Book Blog Discussion Challenge, created by Nicole from Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon from It Starts at Midnight. It challenges everyone to write those discussion posts we always mean to write. The sign-up pages also link to monthly link-ups where you can find these posts.

The hashtag gives you ready access to these discussion posts on Twitter. NOTE: This hashtag updates every year, so last year it was #LetsDiscuss2017.

#T5W / #Top5Wednesday

If you participate in this weekly meme, this hashtag will help you find others who participate in it. A lot of book bloggers and BookTubers participate, so this is a good place to get involved in the community. Since most of these questions are essentially discussion questions, I count them here.

#TopTenTuesday / #Top10Tuesday

This is another popular discussion-post hashtag to list the top 10 of whatever topic is given for the week. I see more book blogs under the first one, but both are active.

#TSBC

In other words, The Sunday Book Club. This is a weekly chat that gets everyone to talk about book-related topics. More information can be found on The Sunday Book Club website.

I am aware of there being other book-related chats on Twitter, but I’m not sure what they all are.

Diversity

#1000BlackGirlsBooks

This hashtag is for sharing and talking about books with Black girls as main characters.

Here is the history of the #1000BlackGirlsBooks. Marley Dias was tired of reading books about White boys and their dogs, so she started a campaign to find and donate 1,000 books with Black girls as the main characters to libraries. This started the #1000BlackGirlsBooks movement on Twitter. She had collected more than 9,500 books by May 2017, and has now written her own book now.

#diversebooks / #DiverseBookBlogger

I think these are self-explanatory.

#kidlitwomen

This is one of the many hashtags that overlaps with publishing and authors, but this is a topic that is talked about by bloggers. As the School Library Journal reports, #kidlitwomen is “calling attention to the gender inequities of the children’s literature community, uplifting those who have not received their due, and finding solutions to reach equality for all.” I’m not sure how long this hashtag will continue since it was intended for March, but I can see it lasting for a long time.

#LatinxBooks / #LatinxLit

This hashtag is for books that star characters of Latin American descent, like I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez. It can be used for marking reviews and discussions about the subject. This hashtag also looks like one where you can specify it to specific genres and industries too, like #latinxinpub and #latinxkidlit.

Why the ‘x’? Spanish is a language that marks gender (masculine and feminine) for every noun. Instead of defaulting to one gender with an ‘o’ or an ‘a,’ an ‘x’ gives room for all genders.

#lgbtbooks / #lgbtreads / #lgbtqfiction

This tag will help you find books and discussions about books with characters and by authors in the LGBTQ+ community.

You can also use hashtags for specific groups in the LGBTQ+ community. A short list of examples are #gayromance, #transfiction, #transpositivity, #nonbinaryfiction, #lesbianfiction, #ffromance, #gaylit, #transpoetry, #queercomics and #queerromance.

#MuslimShelfSpace

This hashtag is used for books with Muslim characters by Muslim authors.

Author S.K. Ali, who wrote Saints and Misfits, created #MuslimShelfSpace in January 2017. This was in response to the Islamophobia and to share these #OwnVoices books. You can read more about it in this HuffingtonPost article.

#OwnVoices

This hashtag indicates books that feature diverse characters who were written by authors who share those identities and intersections. If a book you’re reviewing or talking about is an #ownvoice book, then use this hashtag. It can also be used to talk about the subject.

#POCCharacters

This hashtag is for sharing about characters of color. This hashtag goes well beyond books into artwork and movies.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

The We Need Diverse Books organization, which created that hashtag, has a mission of “Putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children.”

The purpose of this hashtag then is to bring awareness to the issue of needing more diverse books and giving a space to talk about it. It encourages all to seek out diverse literature and to produce it.

Events

#BannedBooksWeek

This coincides with Banned Books Week, where we read and talk about banned and challenged books. You can also used #bannedbooks for all times of the year.

#TheBookCon

This one is specifically for the BookCon, which takes place in New York City every year. It drives excitement for the convention and gives a place for people to Tweet about it as it happens.

Other hashtags exist for other book conventions and festivals.

Geographic Hashtags

#CanadianLit

This is all about Canadian literature.

#LoveOzYA / #LoveOZYABloggers

These are the hashtags for Australian young adult literature. I will quote the #LoveOzYA website about this:

#LoveOzYA is for teachers, writers and readers of Australian youth-lit…. If you share your love of books online, blogging, bookstagramming, booktubing, tweeting, check out #LoveOzYABloggers and join in the fun.

#ukya

This tag gives you the chance to talk about UK YA without having to participate in the #ukyachat. (Thank you, Hannah Brown // SPW from Sprinkled With Words, for sharing this hashtag.)

#ukyachat

This is a bi-weekly chat to talk about young adult fiction. As I understand it, you do not have to live in the UK to participate in this chat. There is more information from Queen of Contemporary.

Reading Challenges

These will vary from challenge to challenge, if the reading challenges have hashtags. If you’re participating in a reading challenge, find out if it has a hashtag and use it. I will list a few examples of existing hashtags.

#ARCsAnonymous

Evelina created this hashtag and its Goodreads group to help everyone get through their piles of ARCs to be read. If you have a lot ARCs to read, this is a hashtag you should use and follow.

#LibraryLove

This goes for the Library Love Challenge, which encourages you to read library books. The main purpose of this hashtag is for sharing library books you have read. I think it can also be used for supporting libraries in general.

Technology

#Goodreads

This is good for talking about Goodreads, and Goodreads also follows this hashtag.

#kindle / #ereader

These can be used to talk about ebooks, ereaders, apps and their individual services. They also appear to advertise that a book is available as an ebook. I see that #kindle and #ereader are more dominated by authors and people who use eight or more hashtags per tweet, so these might be best saved for posts and tweets that are related specifically to ereaders.

#Netgalley / #Edelweiss

This is for talking about those eARCs and uncorrected proofs you have won, requested and read from their respective sites. These (plus #Goodreads) were also used several months ago to draw attention to changing policies of giveaway sites.

Trading and Selling

#arcsfortrade / #booksfortrade

These mean what they say. People advertise books and ARCs that they are looking for and those that they are offering to give or sell. For the past few months, #arcsfortrade and #booksfortrade have seemed pretty interchangeable to me for trying to get hands on the ARCs you want. Be wary of scams and who you share your information with.

#freebooks

This is for advertising and finding free books, though I am not sure how everyone works out shipping. I think it can also be used to say, “Hey, I got this book for free.”

#swagfortrade

Like #booksfortrade, this hashtag is used for bookish swag. There are illustrations, accessories, clothing, cards, etc.

>^..^<

As far as I can tell, you can also get away with using hashtags from Instagram, like #shelfie and #bookstagram.

Are there other hashtags that you think new and veteran book bloggers should be aware of? Have you seen any of the hashtags above change in usage? Let me know in the comments!