In honor of Read-A-Romance Month and Romance Awareness Month, this August we’ll be sharing insights from members of the romance bookish community! For this month’s issue, we took a look at this community and what makes it so special in this article, and interviewed internationally best-selling romance author TL Swan to learn more about her writing approach and widespread impact in this article. Here, you can read the full interview with bookfluencers Lisa Gray & Merrit Townsend. For their social media, see below!
How long have you been interested in reading as a hobby/academic interest/etc.? In other words, how would you describe your history with reading?
M: I have been reading since I was little. So this is going to really “date” me, but we used to have book fairs. We would get $5 and you get to go in and you get to buy a book. And from then on, I have always, always been a reader. You know, you kind of go in and out a little bit, I think, as you things interest you different and you’ll have different things that you enjoy doing, but reading always has been a main portion for me, and it’s a great getaway for me, and I just I love to read always.
L: Actually, I hated reading when I was in high school and stuff. It wasn’t until college that my lit. professor, the short stories and everything were not your typical short stories, which you would think that you would read. I was kind of like, “Well, wait a minute, he killed her, this is pretty dark!” He got me to love reading. So it was college before I started reading. And then, it would go through ebbs and flows, like you’d binge and then you take a few months off and not read anything. And then when COVID hit, and everybody’a so bored and everything, I was like, “You know what, I really enjoyed reading, let me get back into it.” And then I started back reading and then it just kind of snowballed from there. And then I was like, “Let me start this little Bookstagram thing!”
On average, how many books do you read a week? A month?
L: Anywhere from 20 to 30 a month? It depends on how many interviews we have. Because even in the middle of our interviews—because we read for all of our interviews—but in between that we have our favorite authors that we have decided, you know, we have to—we might be in the midst of a series and stuff like that so we’re gonna keep ARCing. So we’ll have these ARCs sprinkled in all these interviews. So yeah, it can be anywhere from 20 to 30.
What is your preferred reading method (i.e., paperback/hardcover, Kindle/iPad, audiobooks, a combination of these, etc.)?
L: Kindle is my [go-to], if I’m doing a book, but I also love audiobooks.
M: I like to read on my Kindle, just because the books that we buy are trophies, and they sit on the shelf. So I’ll be reading a book on my Kindle, but it’s sitting on my shelf because I don’t want to crack the spine, or it’s signed, or you’re afraid you’re gonna get your grubby little fingers on it. You don’t want to ruin it. So I’ll read on my Kindle, but I also listen to audiobooks as well, because we’ll have two or three books going at the same time.
How did you first get into the book community on social media?
L: I started in December of 2022. I kind of dabbled. But I got started in December of 2022.
M: And I started in February of 2021, but had no idea what I was doing. Absolutely nothing. I had zero clue of what Bookstagram really was about.
L: I don’t remember what first got me started. I started because I love to talk. And so I don’t even think I had TikTok at the time. But on Insta, I started seeing all these, and I was like, “I could do that! I like doing that kind of stuff. I’m all in front of the camera.” So it was just seeing other bookstagrammers and thinking I could do that.
M: I just wanted to find some place where I could look and find new authors, new friends, new different kinds of books that maybe I couldn’t find just based on, you know, looking on the computer. I started watching a couple of different bookstagrammers that were really, really big, and, you know, listening to some of their recommendations, or some of the things that they were reading that I had never heard of. And so that’s kind of why I wanted to get into the Bookstagram community just to find new things. And then when you actually saw what this community was, it is something way more than just talking about books. And so that started on me, my trend into, I want to be one of these big people, I want to really, really get into it and meet some people that are like-minded like myself.
What are some of your favorite genres and tropes to read? Do you often follow the trends in terms of genres and tropes that become popular, or do you stick with a particular set of favorites? Do you follow an author regardless of what sort of stories they write?
L: I personally don’t and I can probably answer for Merit also especially because I know our interview style and what we look for when we interview—we don’t really go for whatever the trend is, we go for what we think might be something special. We honestly tried to find that needle in a haystack that we can bring to the forefront and say, “This is going to be a really good book and let’s interview this person.” That’s what we’re looking for when we look for interviews. Now, my favorite trope is an enemies to lovers—cliche! But that’s my favorite.
My favorite is probably that, but that’s not how I don’t choose a book. I don’t choose a book by a trope. I don’t read a blurb and I usually don’t even read the trope list. I don’t judge a book by that. But you know, typically I read contemporary small town, those kinds of things, but I do like dark. I like everything. Fantasy is probably my least favorite, but I still can read it.
If they’re my go-to author, then I’m going to read just about anything that they write. And usually I’ll try to push them to write, you know, in our interviews, we try to get them to go [different ways], “I feel like you could go this way, like, go outside your box!”
M: Yeah, so for me, when I started Bookstagram, I was really into the fantasy. Overall, I needed to have a romance; there has to be a romance for me to truly, truly enjoy the story. Because I love that aspect no matter what I read. There has to be some kind of romance in there. For like two and a half years, that’s all I read. And as I went along with the two years of fantasy, then they kind of got a little darker and more adult. So I definitely left the YA behind and went towards the more adult books, because it was just really hard for me to read about a 16 year old, or a 17 year old. I mean, you know, it was hard. And then I started reading a little bit into the contemporary and then I met Lisa.
Lisa and I met on a street team, which was a very spicy author’s street team. And we started talking, and then we decided to do these lives, and so she got me into these contemporary romances, the small town, which I never thought I would enjoy. She got me reading into all these really brand new authors that now I’m hooked. I’m like, “Fantasy, what?”
Now, you know, I am like Lisa. That’s like one of our favorites is the enemies to lovers, that real tension, the hate to romance, we love, love those kinds of books. As far as following certain authors, there are authors that like she said, that we just absolutely love and no matter what they write, we will read. It could be a dark romance, it could be a rom com, it does not matter. Because we have our favorites, we have those authors that we’ve connected with that have that special something that we just absolutely love, and we will, no matter what, follow them and read even if we don’t have an interview with them.
L: Laura Pavlov I’ll read anything that she writes. Meghan Quinn, anything she writes, I’m going to read it.
M: Some of the ones that you’ve introduced me to like Jade Dollston. I love Jade’s writing. AK Landow, LA Ferro, you know, the four. Those gals I mean, I love. Now don’t get me wrong. The Meghan Quinns are like, I read my first Megan Quinn book. Okay, so she’s like, “You’ve got to read this book!” And so I did and, and she is a favorite.
Lisa has brought a lot of different books and authors to me that I knew nothing about because I was so stuck in that fantasy realm. And don’t get me wrong. I mean, they’re fabulous fantasy writers. It just seems like my interests have changed a little bit. And I’ve kind of moved over to the contemporary, the dark romance type genres. Those are just ones that I’m just loving right now. Absolutely loving.
Who are your favorite authors and how did you discover them? Do you read a lot of indie authors, mainstream authors, or a mixture?
L: I will mix in mainstream. But mostly, I mean, we do a lot of indie.
M: Our main goal is, I think, you know, Lisa, correct me if I’m wrong, is to get those indie authors out there that we know are fabulous authors that need that chance. We want them out there. We want people to see them. And so that’s what we look for. I mean, we still read trade authors, but I think our main goal is indie.
Are you in any book groups for any authors on social media? Do you network with authors? Have any authors sought you out to be a part of their beta team/ARC team/etc.? Have you opted into these opportunities?
L: Yeah, so typically we do scout, so Merit and I will look at what’s coming out, what’s out there, what signups are out there. We’ll kind of look at a book and go, “You know, what do we think about this?” But we also do get reached out to now. We also have a form that authors can fill out that’s in our Linktrees and stuff like that. We’ve had a lot of signups from our signup sheet. But yeah, we do get sought out, and but we also do a lot of the scouting also.
M: As far as beta reading, I know, Lisa and I have both, authors have come to us and said, “Hey, do me a favor, can you beta read this for me?” And the problem that we have, is that we just don’t have the time, because we’re reading 30 books in a month. For me, when I beta read, and I have done it, and I love it, I literally will have a notebook that is full of notes. And it just takes a lot of time that we just don’t have, trying to commit to the book that we’re supposed to be interviewing the author about. It’s time. We just don’t have enough time in the day to be able to do it.
What are your thoughts on the book community, both at large and your specific experiences/interests within it? How do you find the broader book industry has changed over time? Has social media played a role in enacting this change? Describe the book community through a social lens. Has this community granted particular social/friendship opportunities you might not have experienced otherwise?
M: Starting off, I had no idea what this was. I mean, what do you do? Take a picture of a book and put it on your social media. That grew from a basic picture to then buying props; it has really expanded to where it’s almost crazy. If you can imagine, each book that Lisa and I read, we will do not only posts for it, but we will do Reels for them, we do all of our reviews for them on top of it. And so when starting off in Bookstagram, just thinking, “Oh, let’s just take a picture of a book, and let’s talk about it,” has really expanded and it’s really grown. It’s crazy how big the book community is.
It’s really evolved. I know the general industry itself has now become where authors are now, I think, relying on influencers to do some of their marketing because they’re writing and editing, cover designs, dealing with their own marketing issues, and then they rely on us to get their books out even further. Like I said, our relationship, we just happened to be in the same thing and we just clicked I think, and Lisa contacted me and I was like, “Oh, heck yeah, let’s do this, Lisa. Let’s do it.” Because she came up with this idea. She said, “What do you think about this?” And it kind I went from there.
L: I kind of wish that, you know, Bookstagram would get back to the way it used to be. I feel like now it’s gotten a little crazy, because now the algorithms are messing up everybody. It’s not just, you go on, and everybody gets to see your stuff. These platforms play such a big role into what gets put out there now. And it makes it difficult for an author to be successful, for an influencer to be successful. Because you just don’t know. One day, if something’s gonna get pushed out, the next day, it won’t get pushed out. I wish it could go back to the way it was, and just whoever sees it, they push everything out. But that’s not how social media works. And it’s gotten worse.
As far as the friendships go, I think we’re very fortunate, Merrit and I. I see a lot of discord on a lot of different platforms of all this negativity and things like that. And I’m so thankful and lucky to say that, I don’t come across it. And I guess it’s who I surround myself with, as to why I don’t come across it. Everybody that we’ve had interactions with—authors, readers, other influencers—we’ve never had any negative influence. Everybody’s been great, and welcoming, and helpful. It’s crazy how helpful people are. They want you to succeed just as much as they want to succeed. So that’s the nice part. I just feel like it’s a great community. I came from not having much of anything, I didn’t have any hobbies or anything like that. And then when I found this, it just really changed everything. My friendships, how busy I am now, it’s kind of crazy.
M: Lisa, you really hit the nail on the head in regards to who we surround ourselves with. Because Lisa and I are inherently positive. We believe in these authors, and we want to help them as much as possible. But, at the end of the day, we want to succeed as well, along with hopefully pushing out these books that we have. And we haven’t had that negativity that we have seen, because, unfortunately, it’s there. It’s out there, you will see it. We just don’t interact with it. I think that might be maybe some of it. If somebody has an off the cuff comment or whatever, we’re not going to get into an argument with somebody over it. It’s just your opinion, great. You know, scroll on. That’s what’s great about Bookstagram and Instagram is you can just scroll on by. If you don’t like something, you can just keep going, you know?
How did you go from being a reader to filling more of an influencer role? How did you grow your following? How would you describe your position and responsibilities?
L: I started Bookstagram in December of 2022. My first interview was in August of 2023.
I saw some lives, but it just wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. I saw some scattered here and there and I was like, “You know what? I could do that. Like, that would be something that I could so do, and it interests me.” And I was like, “Let me just try it.” And I started doing it.
I think Merit and I—I guess it was December of 2023 when we really started meeting because our first live together was in January of 2024. When I brought her on, I knew that I needed something else. For what my goals were and things like that, like I always pictured. And I don’t think I’ve ever pictured me doing it single. And so when I decided, “Okay, I think I need a duo, I think a duo would do good with this. Like, I think a duo would go well.” Then Merit just kind of fell in my lap. And so when we met, I was like, “Well, there’s my duo. This is who I’m going to duo with.” When she said yes, I mean, one of our biggest authors was her first interview, so we went, balls to the wall, gangbusters and didn’t look back.
M: The whole social media thing, I mean, I still learn stuff every day. Still, every single day, I’m learning something new. If I don’t know how to do something, I call Lisa. Lisa doesn’t know how to do something, she calls me. And we really work together so, so well. And so when she contacted me, I was like, “Oh, hell yeah, let’s do it.” And then I was like, “Oh my God, do I really want to do this?” Because I was scared. I was nervous. Because I want to do something, and I want to do it well. I knew Lisa was very, very good at interviews. And she’s fabulous. I mean, she can talk and talk and talk and just come up with these lines of communication. And I thought, “God, can I assist her? Am I going to look dumb?” And I mean, these are things that were going through my head, and she made it so seamless. And when we first did our very, very first interview, I was like, “Okay, look, can I call you ahead of time? Can we go over the questions?” And she was like, “Yeah!” And we did. And after that first one, I think a lot of it has to do with me and Lisa, how well we get along and we’re very similar. We’re so similar. We love to talk. We could talk for hours. We’re similar in age, we’re similar in what we like to read, and I think that has a ton to do with it. But the biggest thing is Lisa is amazing. I have so much love for this woman. And I feel so blessed that she reached out. And I have this friend for life now. And it’s a very important relationship for me. And so I will do whatever it takes to make sure that that relationship stays as good as it is. You know, I love you, Lisa.
L: I love you. So I’ve done 33 individual, like single, interviews, and then as a duo. We have done 52.
M: I think I’ve only done three or four of them single. It’s fine. I don’t mind doing it. But I enjoy the interaction that I have with the duo. Because you know, every now and then you’re gonna get an author that might be nervous or just isn’t as talkative. And so when you have a duo, it’s seamless when you come into an interview, and that author is maybe a little quieter, or, you know, doesn’t really know what to say. And to constantly be trying to bring out that information. It’s so much easier with a duo. And that’s why I love doing the interviews with Lisa. I absolutely love it.
L: Or if one of us is just not having a good day. We can get on and go, “Hey, look, you’re gonna have to carry this tonight.”
M: And my internet doesn’t work a lot. I’m like, “Lisa, I’m having a thunderstorm. We’re gonna have to do it again!”
L: I do get people that slide into my DMs and thank me for this recommendation or that, or, “I can’t wait to see you on this live,” or, “Oh, I’m so excited that you’re doing this person.” I get those. And I’m like, “Oh, that makes me feel so good.” Because you never know, you hope that you’re making a difference and that you’re bringing somebody new to an author, but you don’t know if that live brought them any sales. They might have had those sales regardless of if they had a live with us. We just hope that if they go on live with us that somebody will see it and say, “Okay, yeah, I’m gonna pick this up,” and then they’ll tell somebody else, and then they’ll tell somebody else. That’s our hope, because by no means—I’m still a very small account. So would I love to be a bigger account and make a bigger role in these authors’ lives? Of course, but I also don’t stress over it. I don’t stress over my numbers. I don’t even pay attention to it really, like, I don’t look at likes, I don’t look at how many views anymore. I learned after TikTok, you know, just don’t stress over it. And I don’t stress over because, you know, you’ll go on Threads, and you’ll see people going, “Oh, my gosh, you know, I had 20 unfollowers,” or this or that. And I don’t even pay attention to my follower count. I do know when I have somebody follow me because it tells me, but I don’t pay attention to that number up there to know, “Oh, I had this many unfollowers today,” or something like that. I don’t pay attention to any of that. I just do my thing every day, and hope for the best.
M: See I’m different. I stress. I stress like you would not believe. And the only reason why I worry is because I feel like it’s our job to get those authors out there. And when I see that, you know, your numbers aren’t that great, it’s frustrating. Because again, not only are we putting the time and the effort into putting these posts out there to hopefully get this author seen—let’s say we do a Reel, right. You do a Reel and it takes you I don’t know, 30 minutes to do the Reel, right? You do some kind of transition Reel, whatever. And you get 20 views. That’s frustrating, because here you have this author who has given you a package, you want people to see it, you want people to buy them, but if they’re not being seen, if they’re not being shown to anybody, how is that supposed to work? So that’s where I worry, because I know that the more your stuff is seen, the more people start following you, the more influence you have with the authors that we’re interviewing. So that’s kind of how I look at it. And again, I shouldn’t. I wish I could be like Lisa, but I’m a natural worrier. I am such a worrier.
L: I never got into this thinking, “Oh, I’m gonna be rich,” or “I’m gonna become a big influencer and make tons of money.” I never went into it like that. I went into it thinking, “Maybe I can get a book!” That’s what I went into it as, and that’s still how I am. It amazes me that anybody wants to send me anything. I’m like, “Really?!” So, it’s very humbling. But yeah, I never went into this Bookstagram or any of this doing these interviews or anything thinking I was ever going to be you know, rich or huge. Now would I love to be a big influencer? And it’s not even about money or anything like that. It’s just to be able to get more people seeing everything that I do.
What platforms do you use to explore the online book community and create content? What kind of content do you make and post?
L: We do Insta, TikTok. We’re trying to get together our YouTube channel. And then I’m on Threads. So a lot of different platforms. And yeah, it’s just a mixture of Reels, stills. That kind of stuff.
M: Lisa is on Threads. I am not. You know, I used to be on TikTok. But that got so negative that it was really, really depressing. So when Threads came out, I shied away from that just because I didn’t want to get put back into that. We’ll do still photos of our books. If somebody sends us something, we’ll do an unboxing for it. Maybe we’ll do a Reel holding the book or something along those lines. We’re both, like I said, [on] Tiktok and Instagram. I think TikTok hates booktok right now. I don’t know what’s going on over there. But I think Lisa and I are mostly doing our interviews on Insta now. Because they weren’t being seen. And so we’re trying to get that back up there. Every now and then an author will want us to go on TikTok for that. But we do aesthetic videos. Lisa does these beautiful aesthetic posts. But again, that’s becoming an issue now. Lisa and I were talking because I would get all my pictures off of Pinterest. And I did one the other day and I took a video off of there. And it was copyrighted. And I got this “removed from Instagram.” I’m like, “What the heck is going on?” And so I showed Lisa, I’m like “Tell me what you think.” And she goes, “I bet you it’s your video.” And sure enough, that’s what it was. It was a copyright. So a little change going on. So we’re not sure exactly where it’s headed, or what we’re going to be allowed to do.
L: Now you can’t even show a shirtless guy because you’re gonna get dinged. It’s a double edged sword. Because, you know, we’ll get dinged if in one of our Reels we have a guy with his shirt off, or if they’re hugging, but then, yesterday, the first picture that pops up in somebody’s feed is a Not Safe For Work art piece, and I’m thinking, “Wow, they allowed that.”
M: It’s crazy because nothing really makes sense. It’s very, very double standardish, right? Like Lisa said, you could show a shirtless guy on one. And then just again, he’s dressed or just might be without a shirt, right? But then you show something else, like I showed a book cover, which was a man’s face. And there was a guy running, it was just a really silly meme. Right? And that was a violation. I don’t know what the violation was. I have no idea. So it’s getting harder and harder to create some of the content. And I think with all the AI that’s going on, it’s searching out those copyrighted videos, it’s searching out the nakedness or whatever they’re searching out for. And it’s making it harder and harder to create content.
L: What’s harder now is you have bookstagrammers with PR companies, they’ll send out the release packets that already have premade posts and all that because they want to get it out, all over the place, and that’s just easier for people that are so busy. But now, you can’t put those premade things out. It won’t get pushed, so now if you’re an influencer and you’re really on a team or something like that, you have to make it original So it takes even more work. It’s crazy how everything’s changing. I’m interested to see how it keeps changing, how it’ll go. But you know, I don’t mind doing my original stuff, because I’d much rather do it that way. But it is changing a lot with all the rules now.
M: It definitely makes it a challenge as a bookstagrammer. I’ve always done my own original pictures and my own original Reels. Now, yes, I take them off Pinterest. But all the editing is mine, you know, the pictures are somebody else’s, but the video is mine. But now it’s becoming harder and harder. And so when we are creating that stuff, you gotta be careful. I mean, it’s like, geez. You know, I don’t want to infringe on anybody. Definitely not. I mean, that’s not anything that we even remotely want to do. So, it is becoming tougher for, I would say, influencers to show some of the stuff that we’re used to showing.
I mean, I love it. I mean, I will spend hours on there [Pinterest], looking for pictures, you know, because as I’m reading, it’s like, “Oh, God, that would be perfect. Oh, my gosh, that’s perfect. That’s perfect.” So, it’s frustrating, you know, thinking that you have the perfect picture, and then you put it in there and they’re like “Copyright.”
What is your approach to sharing about, promoting, and recommending different authors and books?
L: Promotional wise, it’s kind of like a hodgepodge kind of deal. There’s no rhyme or reason to mine, like, Merit will tell you how her rhyme and reason is of how she promotes. Like we said, we always promote the author that we’re interviewing, and sometimes either I will share the blurb in a still, or when I attach the interview, like when we download the interview, or something like that, just something about the book. Sometimes when I’m making my Reel, I make my Reel to try to tell the story with the Reel. Like, these pictures are telling you what this book is about. So I’m trying to get you to pick this book up just by looking at these pictures. So sometimes I will not put a blurb with that because I want them to pick that book up just because of that. But then sometimes I will put the blurb or I’ll put like the tropes attached to that. So it’s kind of a what I feel in that day.
M: I know for me if I will always do my review with a still photo. So we’ll read the book, I’ll write up the review, and then I’ll do my photo. And then I will, you know, add a little bit of content in there. I never, ever, ever do spoilers. That’s one thing I refuse to do. And I will say this, if I don’t enjoy the book, or let’s say it just didn’t jive for me. I will not pan on social media. I do not do that. I don’t believe in it.
So, luckily for me and Lisa, we choose and we search out books that we think we’re going to enjoy. If we look at a book, let’s say an author contacts us, and it just might not look like something either one of us will enjoy, we’re probably not going to take that on just because it’s just not our kind of book. It has nothing to do with the content, has nothing to do with you know, “we don’t like the author” or anything like that. It has nothing to do with that. We just don’t think it’s our type of book.
I know how I am. I’m a mood reader. I mean, we’re pretty similar like, “Hey, does this look like something you’re interested in reading this month?” Because we might not read it this month, but next month we’ll be like, “Hey, you remember that book? Let’s go check it out.” So those are some things that we kind of do when it comes to our posting. But then like Reels, I like seeing Reels that I enjoy watching. So I love aesthetic Reels. They do terrible. They do absolutely terrible on social media, but I love doing them. I like finding those pictures. And I like adding the edits and the different fancy stuff to it. I enjoy it. I like watching them. So that’s how I do it. Because, if I see one that let’s say you’ve done and it looks like something—I’ll go buy the book. I’ll go buy a book just based on an aesthetic Reel.
Where did your desire to interview authors on live streams originate? Describe what these lives are like. What is discussed during them and what is their goal?
L: I’ve watched a lot of lives. I think our approach is a little bit different than others. Because if you watch a lot of lives, they’re talking strictly just about the book. And that’s it. And our thing is, about the first 15 minutes is about the book, and the rest, and sometimes we say over an hour on live, the 45 minutes after that, it’s whatever. We talk about the author, and what else they have written. And, you know, we want to learn about the author, like who is this? Who is this author?
Because somebody might be watching our live with the book that they have out now, and they’re like, “Oh, I don’t know about that.” But then they’ll hear like, we start talking about the back catalog. And they’ll go, “Oh, well, you know, I have this mafia series.” And they’ll be like, “Well, wait a minute. Let me look into that. I might not like this contemporary that you’re promoting. But let me look to see what you got in mafia.” I think our approach is so different from everybody else’s. We do talk about the book for, like—sometimes I’m like, “Oh, we didn’t even talk about the book, hardly”—10 to 15 minutes. And then it’s a whole different kind of interview.
M: We definitely delve into the personal aspect of the author, if they’re willing to talk about it. Like Lisa said, we’ll talk about the book and introduce the book and have them discuss what they want to discuss. And sometimes they’ll swing back around to what they want to talk about, but we really like to get to know the person behind the book. And something different that nobody else is asking them.
Because we want to be different. Because at the end of the day, you could watch a million interviews, and have a list of questions. What’s the book about? What are the tropes? What do you like writing, you know, things like that. But at the end of the day, we want to learn about the person. What makes you write the stuff? Why do you enjoy writing this stuff? Where did you get your inspiration behind that crazy character that you wrote? What was your most favorite part of the book? You know, those are things that we like to find out about the authors themselves.
And if we can get them to spill something, oh that’s even better! We get so excited over that.
When do you write reviews for what you’ve read and what platform do you share these on? What is your approach to writing a book review?
M: I always write on social media. And then Goodreads. Amazon, and BookBub are my main three. If an author requests to do like Barnes and Noble, I’ll do that as well. But every book I read, I will write a review. Now, it doesn’t mean I like every single book, because if I really, really just—it didn’t jive with me, again, I will not trash a book. Because what I love somebody else might not. And what I don’t like somebody else is going to love, so that book could be for somebody else. So I’m not going to trash it.
Now, if I read a book, and let’s say it’s a three-star book for me, right? I’m not going to sit there and write everything I hate about it. My reviews tell about the book and what I truly enjoyed about it. If I found something lacking, the reason why I gave it the three star could be, I just didn’t like the flow of the book, or the way the author wrote the book just wasn’t how I enjoy reading, things like that. But I’m not gonna say, “The book sucked. I hated it. It’s the worst book ever.” I don’t do that. Most of the books that I read, I’m reading what I think I’m going to enjoy. So the majority of my reviews are four and five-star reviews. I think I have two three-star reviews out of 130 books this year. So far. But they’re mostly four and five stars, because we read what we enjoy.
L: Merit’s very good at her reviews. My reviews, that’s the one place I struggle, because I hate writing reviews. I don’t want anybody judging my words. They’ll look at it and go, “Her grammar is horrible.” I don’t want anybody judging the way I write. I’m not a writer. So I stress highly over writing reviews. I put way too much stress on myself about it. But I do the same platforms that Merit does, except it’s very rare that you will see a review on my Insta page. I will sometimes, but it’s very rare. Again, because I don’t want anybody judging my writing.
It’s funny, because all the authors are just like, just put on there, “Damn good book.” That’s all you have to put. And I was like, “I can’t do that.” Because I sit there and either I’ll write way too much about the book. And then I’m like, “Well, nobody wants to know all that.” Or, I can’t just put it sweet and simple. Like, “Really good book. You rocked it.” It’s finding that happy medium, and I have not found that for me, personally, and I’ve written a lot of reviews. It is hard to make it perfect because I do want somebody—but then I think, “Is anybody really reading my reviews?” But in case somebody does, I want them to look at it and go, “Okay, she really liked that narrator, she really liked that book.” So typically, you can tell by my first sentence how much I really liked it, because you’re gonna get like a “wow,” or a “Oh my God,” or something like that. It’s not the fun part of what I do.
M: I would say that it’s probably the hardest part because it is hard to write those reviews and have people look at them and say, “Well, why isn’t it a five star?” I mean, it probably is for somebody. It is a five star for somebody, it just wasn’t for me. There might have been a few things about the book that just weren’t perfect for me. I would say 90% of my books are fives because here’s how I look at it. I don’t look at grammar. I don’t look at a little apostrophe. I don’t look at it as “Oh, it was the best written book ever.” I look at it as: did I enjoy it? Did I go “Oh my God?” Did I cry? Did I laugh? If I do any of those things, like cry, laugh, show any kind of emotion? Five star. Five star. I don’t care if there’s a missing comma, or a misspelled word. That has no bearing on if I enjoyed that book.
What are some of the challenges that come with being an influencer in the book community?
M: I have a really weird feeling about my age being on here because I’m old. Compared to a lot of these young, young influencers, you know, these people are in their early 20s, you know, even in their 30s, I’m in my 50s. So, you know, for me, I have just a little bit of self consciousness, I guess. Because as a lot of these other influencers, they grew up with all this technology. I had to learn it. So for me, learning how to do Reels, how to do Canva, which I cannot do to save my life, I cannot do Canva. You know, those are some of the things that are challenges for me.
Since I’ve been doing this with Lisa, I’ve been better about that. Yeah, do I still have a little bit of, “what are people going to think?” A little bit. But I’ve been better. And the more Lisa and I do, the better I feel about what we’re doing. But yeah, definitely, I have a little thing at the back of my mind about my age. You know, sometimes I feel like, “Am I too old to be here?” Well, hell no, because anybody, at any age—you can be 80 years old and love reading.
If you enjoy reading, that’s why we’re here. And if I could give you a great recommendation, you know, that’s my job. And at the end of the day, I’ve done it.
L: I don’t let my age really bother me much in the platform area, because in my mind, I’m 30. So I don’t think that I’m old. But I don’t know. Just how social media is changing and making it harder for us to do things as far as with the algorithms and things go. That’s probably the most difficult thing right now, with what we do.
M: The most frustrating, too. Like I said, we’ll have a great interview, and we’ll have this fabulous book that we want people to get out there and read, but nobody sees it.
Just getting people to see the interviews and the recommendations that we give, it’s just getting it out there.
L: Getting it pushed out there is probably our biggest challenge.
M: We do stories, we do Reels, we do it all. We do it on TikTok, we do it on Insta.
L: That’s the only thing we hope for, that’s why we do what we do—I mean, we do want to get followers and we want to be a bigger account. But we do it for the love of it. I don’t feel like we stress too much over what our numbers are. I think we stress more over, “Are we doing enough for the authors?” And sometimes we had to pull the reins back on our own selves because we’re overextending ourselves because we want to be equal.
One of the difficult parts is we do have a lot of author friends that we have a circle with and that we have relationships with and it’s finding that you don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. Like if you do a Reel showing a book. Sometimes I do so much overthinking of, “Am I gonna hurt another author’s feelings because I didn’t display their book in this Reel?” Or if I’m doing a Reel where I’m recommending certain books, and their book didn’t make it, you know, that kind of thing. So it’s finding that everybody gets equal time and everything. And I think Merrit and I really had to rein ourselves back and go, “You know what, there’s so many authors, we have to show all the love, and it is what it is. We try.” And so that’s why we’re very good about if you do send us a box, we try to give them a lot of love, over not even just the day that we do the unboxing, but we try to spread that love for a couple of weeks, so that that book can still be out there even a couple of weeks after we get the PR package and stuff. So that’s probably one of the most difficult parts—making [it clear to] all the authors that we are friends with that we still love them, even though they didn’t make the Reel this time.
M: I did a Reel showing I think eight ARCs. I actually had more, but I didn’t have enough room on the screen to show them. So I just chose eight; there was no specific reason. And I had an author message me and say, “Hey, why isn’t my book in there?” And I’m like, “Well, you haven’t sent it to me yet. I haven’t received it yet. So when I do, I’ll do a Reel for you.” This is my one complaint from authors, is that they don’t realize the amount of authors that we “work for.” They’re concentrating on one book at a time, where we’re concentrating on, in a month, 30 to 40 books that we’re promoting. And to find that time to be able to put that all on our social media, I don’t think they think about the amount of time that we already put into it. We also are married, we have lives, we work. And we don’t get paid [to be influencers]. I think that is maybe one of the downsides sometimes is that they’re not taking into consideration what we do all the time for them.
L: Merit laughs at me about my spreadsheets because I keep spreadsheets. And I’m like, “I need to do a spreadsheet on who I did this week.” So I can look back and go “Oh, no, you made a Reel last week. I gotta put this one in.”
Do you feel a certain obligation or pressure to give authors glowing reviews if you get a beta/ARC or you’re just a fan of the author, whether you’re connected to them somehow or not? How do you navigate handling this in a space of impact and considering the public power you have in the book community?
M: If we read a book, and we just didn’t enjoy it, we will tell the author, “Hey, this book just didn’t vibe for us. It’s a rarity.” We’re not going to be mean about it. But we will let them know, like, “Hey, this just wasn’t one of my favorites.” Especially if it’s an ARC, if it’s an ARC or a beta, for sure. Because that’s your job. As a beta reader, your job is to be honest. And that’s hard for me. I don’t like telling people, “I didn’t like this.” It hurts my feelings that I’m telling that to them. I just don’t enjoy it. So I don’t beta a lot. But with reviews, Lisa and I, everything that we’ve read, we’ve enjoyed. It might not have been our most favorite book. But we’ve enjoyed them. So we’ve been very lucky with that. But if we’re not enjoying a book, or especially with an ARC, we will let the authors know.
Do you attend author/book events? What sort of impact do these have on your perspective of the book community?
M: My very, very first book con, was back in 2015. I knew nothing about what it was I just saw, “Oh, look, there’s gonna be authors and, oh, we can get books signed, that sounds like fun!” And it was Love in Vegas, and this was in 2015. And it was nowhere near how big it is now, compared to back then. And I remember walking in and being so intimidated by meeting these people that I had been reading and reading, and feeling like fangirling like you wouldn’t believe. Now, we’re going to cons as influencers, and going out, and interviewing, and seeking out those authors or seeking out those other influencers that are real big accounts and giving them their time at the cons. So those, I mean, I love them. I wish I could go to more. I really do. I wish there were more that were closer to me. I love them. They are so much fun and just to be able to meet the authors in person. We might have talked to them in a live, but meeting them in person is something definitely special. It’s definitely that special experience that I love to be able to see them, give them a hug, tell them how much their books mean to me as a person or to us as readers. I love cons. I wish I could go to more. I really do.
L: I’ve gone to a few, and then we have several scheduled, but it’s fun to meet everybody. Like right now, Merrit and I don’t do a whole lot of teams anymore because we don’t have the time. But when you were on teams with people, in the genres, you see the same people. We read all the same books. So, it’s fun to meet those people that you have so much interaction with, and that come on your lives all the time. We’re fortunate to have a good many same people that look forward to our lives and come on our lives. To meet them, and definitely to meet the authors, it’s just icing on the cake. It’s a lot of fun.
Although social media has definitely helped to dismantle negative perceptions of romance novels (i.e. views that “they’re not real books”), what is your stance on these sorts of beliefs? Furthermore, how do you think the genre more generally, or your particular niche of romance novels, disproves popular stigmas?
L: It’s funny, I get asked a lot, “Why do I use my name? Aren’t you worried about people finding you and what you do and what you read and what you promote?” And I’m like, “Well, my face is all over the internet. So if you really wanted to know who I am, it’s not going to be hard to find me.” Everybody just says, “Oh, you’re peddling porn, or you’re doing this or that.” Because of the stigma surrounding romance novels, I do have several friends who only do aesthetics, and they never show their face. Me, I don’t care. I still go to church every Sunday. And I do have people that have said things at church about what I do. But it doesn’t bother me. Because I’m good with who I am, and I’m good with what I know in my life as far as my spirituality, and I don’t feel like I’m hurting anybody by what I’m doing. It really doesn’t bother me much. People at my work know what I do. I’ll be like, “Hey, though, put your TikTok up and go like some of my videos, please!” I’m all over the place going, “Where’s your phone? Go on your Instagram. Like my videos.” I really don’t care who knows.
But it is sad that there is that stigma. It’s really sad that that people can’t separate real life from non-real life. And that these are just escapes. That’s why I read, it’s an escape for me. Because I can either have a great boyfriend, you know, or I could go to Europe. It’s an escape. Especially when I’m listening to my books, it’s like I’m there.
M: I’ve always read romance. I mean, when I was 16 years old, I had a subscription to the Harlequin Romance. So I would get six books every month. And I would just dive into them. Right. 16, and my mom didn’t know about it.
Reading is so individualized, you know, and everybody likes different things. And I think that the books have really changed through the years. I mean, you remember the whole Fabio, blowing hair on the front cover. Now we have stalkers that have masks and knives that are chasing us through the woods, and people love it. You know, so it’s really changed and it’s evolved.
I love that dark aspect in romance. Is it real? No.
But again, it’s so individualized. And like Lisa said, it is an escape. It’s that time where you can read a few pages, escape, let’s say you’ve had a crap day, you can escape to that book, go into that world, have that wonderful romance, have that book boyfriend treat you like you’re a queen. Those are the things that readers love. I think that’s why books are so important to so many different people. Because you do get that escape. You get to get the heck out of that crap day you had or that crap week, and you can escape into a book.
So, that’s what I love about the romance genre, is because you can take that little bit of whatever, and it could be the sweetest kiss to the craziest scene that you’ve ever read. And somebody’s going to love that, and somebody is going to use that to get away and make their day just a little bit better. And anybody who says that romance isn’t really worth reading, I don’t know if I want to be friends with them.
I don’t care what people think about it. I really don’t. You know, people can laugh about it. But at the end of the day, it’s me. What I enjoy. And I’m not going to read something because somebody tells me I have to.
In an age so flooded with technological influences, what keeps you inspired and motivated to continue reading?
L: I mean, our inspiration daily is that we have interviews. And I love that. And poor Merrit, I suck her in. I’ll be like, “Let’s do this one.” And she’ll be like, “Well, wait a minute, because we have Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but we can put that one more in.” And every time we go, “Okay, well, we’re gonna back off, or we’re gonna leave a day in between.” It never works out that way. But we try. So that’s our number one inspiration, is we have interviews. I love doing interviews, like I could do an interview every night. I love it. Like if I didn’t have to read their book, I could so do an interview every night. It’s not feasible when I have to read their book, though. But that’s our number one reason.
We try to keep it to what we enjoy, or what we’re interested in, like, we just booked one, where we’re really excited because it’s going to be something different than what we’ve ever brought to the table. Really dark, it may bite us in the rear end once we get the book, we don’t know. But it looks like it’s gonna be fun and something that we have not done before. So that always keeps us interested, we try to find those things that we haven’t done, that will keep us interested. And plus, we will take breaks to where we’re not overdoing it for ourselves and get into a reading slump. Because there are times where I’m like, “I have to read this book tonight. And I really don’t feel like reading.” Well, you know what, I won’t read it. I will wait. And I will start the next morning and just read it throughout the day and be ready for that night, because I can read a book in a day. So I don’t stress myself out too much. And like I said, I enjoy reading, I’d much rather read than watch TV. So my favorite thing to do is after I wash my face and climb into bed is I have to read. Even if I don’t have anything that I’m interviewing, I need to read. So that’s how I stay interested in it. You know, typically, I think our number one answer is probably the interviews.
M: There are times when we’ll read a book that we just love so much. I’ll be reading and I’ll call Lisa and be like, “Oh my God, have you started this so and so book,” and she’ll be like “no I haven’t” and I’m like, “Oh my God, this is the best book ever.” And then we move on and like Lisa says, we might have an interview next, and it’s hard sometimes when you’re in a slump, and you have to read a book for an interview. So, sometimes what I will do is I’ll do the same thing that she does, I won’t read it, especially if I’m not in that mindset. Because there are days where I will read two books in one day, like on a weekend. If I know how busy we are the following week, I will read two to three books on that weekend. And sometimes those books are fabulous. And you just can’t get into that fourth book that you need to read because you’re just in a slump.
I have to stop and read something completely different. So, if I know I have a mafia book coming up, and I’m just not in the mood for it—because again, I am a major mood reader. I will go get a rom com and start that rom com. Read maybe 10 chapters, stop and then go on and start that mafia series. It’s like almost like a shift, like you’re doing a reset to your brain. That’s what I do to get me out of mine. And it works for me 100% of the time. If I flip flop genres, I can really, really, really get back into where I need to be for that interview.
But one of the things I would suggest is if you start a book, and you’re not vibing it, don’t push yourself to read it. Stop it! There are too many good books out there. It’s just not for you at that time. You can always go back and try reading it again. And I’ve done that. And I’ve been like, “Why did I put this off?” That’s definitely something that, if you’re not vibing it and you don’t like it, stop. Read something else. Read something you love.
Merrit’s Instagram: instagram.com/always1morebook
Merrit’s TikTok: tiktok.com/@always1morebook
Lisa’s Instagram: instagram.com/lisa_lou_reads
Lisa’s TikTok: tiktok.com/@lisa_lou_reads
Lisa and Merrit’s Instagram: instagram.com/onemorechapterlisamerrit