Would you like to share your favourite bookshelf with us? Great! We’d like to see it!
There are a few key components, please read carefully, and don’t be afraid to get in touch with any questions.
Your photo
The ‘shelfie’ part of the Shelfie! Please include a photograph of your favourite bookshelf in your home or office:
Ideally, focus on one shelf (not the whole case or wall).
Landscape or square (ideally around 1200 px wide)
This will be public on the internet! Please be careful about including photos of children, personally-identifiable information, or anything else sensitive.
Most important of all: please don’t pose or curate your shelf! We absolutely understand the temptation, but this is about real shelves of beloved books. We want your authentic, messy shelf! (Or authentic, un-messy shelf, if you’re tidier than we are. The important thing is the authenticity!)
If you like, and only if you want to, send us a picture of you too - with or without your shelf. We will include it with your bio (see below).
Your story
Please tell us about the books on your shelf, and what they mean to you.
We are not looking for reviews. We want to know about why that book is special to you. Where did the book come from? Who gave it to you? What’s the story behind it? Why do you keep it there?
Please try to yourself to 3-5 books (or other objects) from that shelf
Aim for 100-200 words (a paragraph) per book
You can send us your contributions as a Word or Google doc, or simply type them into an email. Whichever is easiest for you.
From our experience, readers (like us) respond best to personal stories.
Shelfies that are project-based or overly promotional (e.g. ‘these are the books that informed my upcoming new book’) are less authentic and less interesting. Conversely, people sharing warm, human stories earn much more engagement.
We’re very happy to help if you need an editorial hand.
Your bio
Please also include a short (2-3 sentence) biography of yourself. Definitely include a link or two, if you have a project you’d like to share.
The administrative part
Send everything to [email protected]. And also email if you have any questions.
We try to maintain an 8-10 week lead time, because life is stressful enough already. If you’d like to time your Shelfie to coincide with a special date or milestone (book release, etc), let us know.
All Shelfies are also shared on Instagram at @shelfies.please. Let us know your handle, and we’ll make it a collab.
Shelfies is a weekly newsletter and blog, launched September 2024. A new shelfie is mailed out every Friday to our subscribers.