Insta Novels completely re-wrote the rules of both literature and Instagram. By bringing some of the world’s best stories to social media, Insta Novels introduced a new set of behaviors to an audience that had all but give up on the written word. The LA Public Library and Holocaust museum now have plans to franchise the idea in order to bring their stories to a broader audience. As evidence for impact this idea has had in a short time, Instagram have asked us to consult with them on how to evolve their platform to enhance Insta Novels in the future.

In 2016, 80% of U.S. teens reported consuming digital content online daily, versus only 20% who reported reading a book, magazine or newspaper. This 20% figure is the lowest ever recorded. It’s a conversation heard all too often: technology, and in particular social media, is the enemy – a modern pollutant dumbing down people’s intelligence. So at a time when many believe we’re witnessing the death of literature at the hands of social media, it would seem counterintuitive for a library to embrace a digital-first philosophy. Yet that’s exactly in tune with the Library’s mission to “advance knowledge by providing free and open access to materials and information…”

The New York Public Library wanted to meet teenagers, with great stories, exactly where those teens already were: on their phones. We created InstaNovels, the world’s first digital library created specifically for Instagram. We uploaded full books directly into Instagram Stories, thereby hacking the world’s most democratic social media platform.

But Insta Novels did more than innovate the world’s most popular social media platform. It inverted how the typical library essentially functions. Instead of going to a library to engage with literature, literature now comes to you. Insta Novels changes the perception of a library from just a building with books to an institution that makes access to information at its core. It also flipped the purpose of social media, enriching user’s lives by exposing them to important social perspectives and knowledge they would not have had.

The New York Public Library’s mission is to “advance knowledge by providing free and open access to materials and information…”

But, we all know, younger people aren’t engaging with the written word the way they used to. We needed a new solution.

So we created Insta Novels; a unique way to engage Instagram users by creating a new way for them to read some of the world's most iconic pieces of literature. To launch Insta Novels, we created a short animated video for each title, which doubled as a program tutorial. Each novel ended by prompting audiences to explore The Library’s extended offerings, resulting in the highest downloads of their e-reading material, capturing email addresses for every participant.

The Insta Novels program is a simple idea: the full book is uploaded directly into Instagram Stories, complete with unique and engaging design elements. From the color of the page, to the placement of the thumb rest, to the original soundtracks, we thoughtfully sweat over every detail of this new format. The background is a warmer white so that it’s easy to read on screen, and the font is Georgia, a typeface that pays homage to the history of the written word in both print and digital. Readers rest their thumbs on the screen to hold the page. They lift their thumbs to turn the page. The thumb holder also doubles as a flip book: if a reader lets the book run they see an animation. Even the music for each promotional video was created using the sound of real books.

We promoted the project organically through press and social platforms, for a total media spend of $0, the same price as a library card. The user response the day Insta Novels was released exceeded any of our wildest expectations. Clearly, people were ready to read something with more substance on Instagram. Since Insta Novels launched, @NYPL’s Instagram following grown over 80%, exposing 155,000 more people to The Library’s efforts to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen different communities. To date, over 300,000 Insta Novels have been read. With our focus on the future, we’re now in conversations with Instagram to have the platform optimized for long-form content and literature. While we seem to have found a new home for literature, we know the work here is not done. But at least the future of books isn’t an open and shut case.