We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christina Pascucci-Ciampa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I started All She Wrote Books, because I saw a lack in different types of bookstores, and a lack of curation in the types of feminist and queer books carried. And I asked myself — instead of blending marginalized voices into bookstore sections where they’ll still be overshadowed by some of publishing’s biggest names, why can’t we have standalone sections where the focus is truly just writers who have been historically marginalized?
The other reason for why I started the bookstore was personal. As a survivor of domestic abuse, I couldn’t find stories of people that survived domestic violence — not just women, but queer people, or anyone. Additionally, as someone who is neurodivergent, I saw a lack of representation of disabled characters as well. When I was younger, I did not see any books with someone in a wheelchair featured in it and being this bold, amazing character, or anybody talking about autism, whether it was fiction or nonfiction.

Deep down, I knew these types of books were out there, and so I asked myself, why can’t we expose people to these types of books? Let’s get them out of their patterns of reading and buying and take a chance on something different that they otherwise would not pick up. Instead of focusing on everybody, let’s focus on the ones that were consistently marginalized throughout time that have worthy, beautiful stories.

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?

All She Wrote is more than just another book retailer. They offer an extensive collection of titles that celebrate diversity and promote inclusivity, highlighting topics and encouraging connection through literacy. They have hosted countless events, meet and greets, Drag Storytimes, and discussions that facilitate conversations with people from all backgrounds. It is a safe queer space to gather, learn, love, and be accepted exactly as you are.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The biggest thing for us is letting people know we were on social right off the bat. Putting our social media handles on bookmarks, tagging people who stop by, tagging authors who have a new release, letting everyone know where our events are going to be and how awesome the previous one was…all of that has helped us establish ourselves on social media. Just constantly having those kind of sharing opportunities helps create the opportunity for you to build your audience.

One thing that has helped a lot is spending some time figuring out what content is resonating with our audience. Periodically, we look at what posts perform best and see what patterns emerge. Focusing on one or two metrics and being open to receiving feedback from our audience is key.

We really saw the value of having a strong audience and reputation in our community when our store was displaced last fall. Because we had a solid social media presence, when Mercury Stardust put up a video promoting our fundraiser, we reached an even larger amount of people. This led to a big bump in our follower count, new bookstore supporters, and the ability to surpass our $60k goal. It’s all about the connections you make, finding out what resonates with your audience, and being consistent, even when things are challenging.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’ve been a fighter for most of my life, because I’ve always been told that I can’t do things. “You can’t do this or you can’t do that.” “Do you actually think a bookstore is worth it?” Or “are you really sure that you’re gay?” That’s what helped me get through every challenging moment as a business owner: resilience in spite of it all.

A big pivot moment for me and the bookstore was in the fall of 2023. We had seen our rent at our first location skyrocket by 130% over 2 years and were experiencing tons of unexpected issues with the space. It all reached a tipping point. I either needed to raise $60k to move to a new space and build it out or close the doors on everything I had been working towards. I could have totally rolled over in August of 2023, and said, “Alright, this was a good go. We’re gonna shutter our doors and be done. This is it.” But I didn’t want to do that. I knew how much this space means to people and I fought like hell to keep it going.

So I made a plan and got the right people involved to help me create a campaign to raise the funds. I swallowed my pride and leaned on the folks who care about furthering our mission, asking them to get the word out and support however they could. Friends, customers, authors, folks on the internet who heard our story, everyone! There were a lot of long days, emails, strategy calls, and tears, but with the help of our incredible community, we raised the money we needed in 5 weeks, something I’m still trying to wrap my head around. It was quite the journey, but now we’re officially celebrating 5 years in business and I couldn’t be happier about where we’re headed.

The impact that we’ve given to the community, it’s the most beautiful thing and it’s something that I just want more of in the world. We all deserve love, respect, and appreciation for who we are. That’s what our space reflects.

The one person I wish could see this is my dad. I wish he was here to see everything and celebrate with us, but he’s not. That hurts me the most, but I know he’s there in spirit and I know that he supports me in all these situations. And I have two lovely sisters that do too.

That being said, there are also people that still want to destroy us or see us fail, but here’s the thing. We aren’t going anywhere and our fourth year in business showed that. Pivoting is never simple, but sometimes it’s critical. You never know what your next chapter might have in store.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.allshewrotebooks.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allshewrotebooks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allshewrotebooks/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/all-she-wrote-books/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@allshewrotebooks