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 constantly stretches me creatively and incentivizes me to experiment with new skills and methods that I
bring to other projects.
1500+
BOOKS READ
SINCE 2011
38-50%+
newsletter
Open rate
2.6K+
EMAIL
SuBSCRIBERS
17K+
Followers
SIGNIFICANT COMMUNITY WINS
-Launched and moderated book clubs and events for local bookstores.
-Staffed book festivals 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.
I prefer the full format experience of my own website, I leverage the discoverability of Substack to experiment, supplement my coverage with short-form trend commentary, and cross-post evergreen WLS reviews based on current events and buzz. I use the dual format to experiment with titles, formats, length, and other factors that improve conversion.
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.
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+
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
science of author marketing determines the method
as the primary driver of sales in my genre. The un-sexy
answer is that it stokes a parasocial relationship, which
is eh for society but excellent for preorder numbers.
After facing a mental block with plenty of workshopping
and analysis, I figured out I could condition myself to
enter short-form content by wading in through audio.
Reducing the pressure by calling it a "voice note,"
I eventually graduated to building out solo video production
—lighting, camera, editing, all of it—to take advantage of
the mechanism.
