Last year, I cosplayed as Thistle Greenbud from my mom’s middle grade chapter books Bad Fairy and Bad Fairy Strikes Again. I bought a black wig, put on a black frilly dress I’d worn for Halloween once, topped it with a dark red T-shirt, clipped a flower to the fake hair, and trained my voice so I spoke as I imagined a fairy would speak. Thus, Thistle was born. Or, more accurately, Thistle became human-sized.
I was looking for ways to help my mom market her books, to attract more readers, to stand out. Honestly, while it did stand out in terms of a unique way to promote a book, it didn’t garner the result I was hoping for; we didn’t see an increase in book sales. Not all ideas work in the way you imagine.
Still, I had fun.
After I shared images of myself as Thistle, I created short videos that I turned into reels on Instagram. A lot of people don’t like videos on Instagram because it started as a photos-only platform, but everything evolves and evolution is a good thing. Reels can be a creative and fun way to promote a book, which is 100% acceptable to do on Instagram or any other social media platform. Reels/videos can also be used in informative and educational ways, as well as a way to connect to followers more than through immobile images and captions, no matter how long they are.
So, I recorded myself as Thistle.
Here’s the first reel I shared to my mom’s Instagram account:
NOTE: When you click the play button, the video will be small because it’s a reel, not a full-sized video. You can watch the full-sized reel by clicking the “View on Instagram” links below each short clip.
Thistle’s Cry For Help:
0:12 seconds
After the initial video explaining how Thistle got to be as big as a human, I created short clips to introduce her, share fairy secrets, talk about fantasy creatures mentioned in the books, and highlight some fairy slang.
Thistle Reveals Fairy Secrets:
0:21 seconds
Thistle Greenbud:
0:22 seconds
Facts About Thistle:
0:18 seconds
What’s A Batty-Eye?
0:19 seconds
What Does Okum-Sokum Mean?
0:09 seconds
The above reels/videos are the ones that I think are good introductions to Thistle and are a couple of my personal favorites, but I also want to share the most-viewed reels on Instagram because it’s usually not the images and videos we think will do well that get a lot of interaction. From the ones above, Facts About Thistle (currently 1,090 views) and What’s A Batty-Eye (currently 1,509 views) are among the most-viewed on Instagram, but here’s more:
What Do You Call A Group Of Fairies?
0:11 seconds
Currently 1,064 views
What Are Brownie Fairies?
0:17 seconds
Currently 1,395 views
What Are Flower Fairies?
0:28 seconds
Currently 1,380 views
What Are Goblins?
0:14 seconds
Currently 1,365 views
What Are Boggarts?
0:14 seconds
Currently 1,347 views
What’s A Pixie?
0:13 seconds
Currently 1,079 views
