The archive · Public & Social · Marketing decision · 2018–2019
NYPL rebuilds five classics as Instagram Stories — 300k reads, followers up 67%
The New York Public Library and Mother New York turn Alice, Kafka and Dickens into animated Instagram Stories, meeting readers on the platform they already use.
The New York Public Library · Mother New York
What it had to solve
NYPL wanted people who never visit a branch to read real books, but its media budget was the same as a book from the library: $0. Its audience already spent their time in Instagram Stories.
How it works
In August 2018 the New York Public Library and agency Mother New York launched Insta Novels: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, digitized and rebuilt as an Instagram Story with animated illustrations by Magoz. Readers hold their thumb on a corner rest to turn each page, like a paperback, and a flip animation plays when they lift it.
Four more titles followed — Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, Poe's The Raven, Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Dickens' A Christmas Carol — each illustrated by a different artist with original sound design, and all archived in the library's Instagram Highlights so anyone could read them anytime.
The results surprised even the team: Instagram followers rose 67% within four months, and by mid-2019 more than 300,000 Insta Novels had been read. The project won the inaugural Webby for Best Use of Stories and Fast Company's 2019 Innovation by Design award in Apps & Games.
Every title was also free on the library's SimplyE app and Project Gutenberg — the point was less a new app than meeting readers where they already were.
Why it lands
- Meet readers inside the feed instead of asking them to visit a branch — the platform's constraints became the format.
- Each book got its own illustrator and soundtrack, five distinct identities rather than one template.
- A zero-dollar media budget meant the idea had to spread on its own — and the thumb-hold page turn made it shareable.
- Public-domain texts kept licensing costs at zero, so the whole budget went into design.
What it did
Instagram followers up 67% within four months of launch (Adweek); 300,000+ Insta Novels read since launch (Webby); won the inaugural Webby for Best Use of Stories and Fast Company's 2019 Innovation by Design award in Apps & Games.
What you can take
Don't drag readers to your institution — rebuild the experience inside the platform where they already are; a zero-dollar media budget forces the idea, not the spend, to carry the work.
Since then
All five Insta Novels remain readable in the @nypl Highlights; the format won the inaugural Webby for Best Use of Stories and Fast Company's 2019 Innovation by Design award in Apps & Games. NYPL kept pushing free digital reading through its SimplyE app, and Mother's team framed the project as the start of new ways to use social platforms.
Sources
- Read NYPL Insta Novels
- The New York Public Library Released an Insta Novel of A Christmas Carol
- Webby x Instagram All-Stars: New York Public Library Insta Novels
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