We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Fajardin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

In the Bookstagram community, we create content to share about books we love. We aren’t in the book review business for money, we do it for our love of reading; although I have been thankful for the few paid partnerships I have done. It takes many reviews I put out on Instagram, Net Galley, and blogs to get publishers to notice your account to send you a copy of a newly released book. The majority of the books I review are from the library with some books I get sent from authors and publishers. Certain publishers might also want book accounts to have a set amount of followers and engagement to even qualify to work with you.

Most publishing companies don’t have the money to pay people for reviews and posts on every book. There are a lot of costs and thin margins in the book industry. They are affected by rising costs of paper due to lower demand with people moving towards digital copies.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Lisa and I love reading in my free time and reading aloud to my three children. I originally started sharing about children’s books when I was selling books for a publishing company. It was a lot of work moving books around to different locations and schools, but I loved talking about books with others. As our family grew, I backed away from selling for this publisher and moved to reviewing all types of children’s books online.
Today, my three kids(age range of 10 years old-4 years old) are still involved in the account even though you won’t usually see their full faces on my posts. They give their feedback on which books I should share and what parts they liked about the book. It is important for me to have the trust of my followers to know I am only sharing the books my kids and I love. My favorite type of posts to create are bookface photos of books.
I’m proud of my kids for seeing value in reading books along with the books that I have received for our home library and to donate to my community.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal for this account is to help adults find the right books for their readers that get them excited to read. It can be hard to know what type of stories interest your child and sometimes the library or store can be overwhelming knowing what to get for them. There are so many diverse stories and characters being published for children that I want others to find and experience books that work for their family.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Looking back, I would partnered with other children’s book reviewers sooner. Having a trusted group of book friends earlier in this journey to making videos together, brainstorm ideas, and navigate which publishers to reach out to. The book community is amazing on Instagram and always very supportive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.threebookworms.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threebookworms

Image Credits

These photos were taken and edited by me, Lisa Fajardin