WORDS LIKE SILVER
I started my book review blog, Words Like Silver,
when I was 13 years old—which is why if you work
with me, you'll hear a constant refrain of "Oh, I've
read a book on that." The blog began on Wordpress, shifted to Squarespace, and now lives on a custom site designed by me and developed by Chris Oka.
Words Like Silver is a personal project, so I don't subject it to the same scrutiny I bring to my editorial and brand management work, but it stretches me creatively and incentivizes me to experiment with new methods that I bring to other projects.
Often, it's the arena in which I develop a new skill, curiosity, or insight.
Editorially, I'm a big believer in "right book to right person" i.e. reaching non-readers to convert them and emphasizing the subjective nature of books and taste. My fluency across genres allows me to personalize recs for individual people and problems in a way that helps them discover (or rediscover) the love of reading—and, while I mostly run WLS for myself, the feeling of activating that connection for someone else is such a rush.
38-50%+
newsletter
Open rate
17K+
combined
Followers
2.6K+
EMAIL
SuBSCRIBERS
1500+
BOOKS READ
SINCE 2011
SIGNIFICANT COMMUNITY WINS
Launched and moderated book clubs for local bookstores,
Staffed book festivals and panels serving teenagers and 1K+ Title 1 students,
Advocated against book bans, and for literacy initiatives,
Featured in Teen Vogue, Business Insider, and Tampa Bay Business Journal,
Converted a school system serving 500+ students to using a local bookseller vs. Amazon—
and many other consumers, anecdotally.
When I do make videos, I've had multiple edits reach 1-2.2M+ views on Instagram and TikTok.
In a month-long sprint focusing on video,
I doubled my Instagram following to 9.8K+.
More soon, but there's quite a bit I can't publicly share yet.
SOME FAVORITE POST FORMATS (THAT AREN'T BOOK REVIEWS)
One strength of Words Like Silver is how
associative it is across disciplines. My readers are
fascinated by how I can group and explain threads
to follow between book titles and topics. To address
how I go down my "rabbit holes," I launched a
Pickup Artist series tracing my mind maps and
recommendations.
I don't love showing my face on camera in my personal
capacity—always happy to do it for a brand!—but the
tried-and-true laws of author platform marketing necessitate
it at this point. The un-sexy answer is that parasocial relationships
are the primary driver of book sales in my genre, which is
eh for society but excellent for preorder numbers.
After facing a mental block with plenty of workshopping
and data-driven analysis, I figured out I could condition myself
to wade into short-form video content by transitioning through
audio. Reducing the pressure by calling it a "voice note,"
I eventually graduated to building out a solo video production arm
—lighting, camera, editing, all of it—to take advantage of
the mechanism early.
While I prefer the full format experience of my own website, I leverage the discoverability of Substack to experiment. I supplement my longer blog coverage with short-form trend commentary, and cross-post evergreen WLS reviews based on current events and buzz. Knowing when to re-surface pieces from an editorial calendar is equally crucial to effective content marketing! I use the dual format to experiment across titles, formats, length, and other factors that improve conversion and retention.
Most importantly: roughly once a week, subscribers receive my “best of WLS” digest via newsletter, always under 1500 words.
Substack has also revived some "stale" posts, with
an older graphic built for another platform receiving 6,500+ likes and 2,000+ subscribers.
