We recently connected with Erin Sparrow and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe success is measured differently for everyone, and it can require different traits depending on the person. However for me and my shop, to be successful it takes becoming extremely invested in my customer’s preferences, forecasting products they want, and fulfilling those wants in unique ways.

I am in a very special position where I am heavily involved in the world of my customers. I read the same books as they do, become invested in the same characters as they do, and get excited about the same products/book releases/authors as they do. This makes it easy to forecast products and ideas they will love.

For my business niche specifically, I believe this is a requirement to be successful. The fantasy book fandom is SO committed and appreciates emotional references, theories, and subtle character nods in their merch, Without being fully “in” the bookish world, I wouldn’t be able to create the emotionally connective merch that has grown my business.

Being invested in my customer’s preferences is just the first step. Once I determine what they will love, I have to execute the ideas differently than the hundreds of other shops selling licensed book merch. A large part of this process is research. I am constantly researching what kinds of merch is selling well and what design trends are popular. Not only am I observing what is selling well, but also what kinds of designs are oversaturated. For example, if you go on Etsy and search “A Court of Thorns and Roses shirt,” you will see hundreds of shirts that say “Velaris” in pretty fonts with mountains. So I now know what design NOT to make.

I then use this mental archive of my customer’s wants, designs styles that are trending, and what kinds of items have been overdone, and decide on what kinds of products/designs I want to finalize. Rinse and repeat!

Erin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Erin Sparrow and I am the owner of Sparrow and Wilde, a shop selling licensed bookish merchandise including apparel, accessories, and temporary tattoos.

I started my shop in June 2022 designing and selling apparel, and at that time I was focusing on several different niches (mental health, music, occupations, etc.). I became interested in the idea of selling clothing when I learned about the print-on-demand business plan, which is a platform used to sell items without holding inventory (so there is little upfront cost and low risk). With no design or sales experience, I dove into learning everything I could about this industry. I hired an Esty coach and watched hours of YouTube videos on design. As I got more experience, I began to gain traction on Etsy at the end of 2022.

In early 2023, I reached out to the author Sarah J. Maas to apply for licensing to design and sell apparel based on her book series A Court of Thorns and Roses. Once approved, I got to work and now have hundreds of designs based on this book series, along with Sarah J. Maas’ other series (Throne of Glass and Crescent City). I have since become licensed with several other authors, including Rebecca Yarros (Fourth Wing), H.D. Carlton (Haunting Adeline), Carissa Broadbent (Crowns of Nyaxia), Rachel Gillig (One Dark Window), and Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti (Zodiac Academy).

My goal with merch is to create emotionally connective designs that are unlike anything readers have seen before. I accomplish this by focusing a lot on side characters (i.e. the characters who we LOVE that play an important role in the story, but who don’t get as much merch love because they are not one of the mains). I also accomplish unique designs by creating “if you know you know” merch. For example, I will create a shirt that looks like a band tee you’d get at a concert, but the references within the shirt are from the book series. So no one would know it relates to books unless they are within the bookish world. It makes for fun encounters at the grocery store, where if someone recognizes your tee, you know you have made an immediate book friend.

Although I began with selling mainly apparel, my product offerings have grown based on diving further into the bookish world, and learning more about my customers’ preferences. I now sell eReader cases, blankets, office accessories, stickers, and more. My most popular product is temporary tattoos based on the characters in these book series. I believe this product sets me apart from most other licensed bookish sellers. I have not seen many, if any, other sellers creating tattoos (likely because of the amount of supplier/product testing involved).

The idea to sell tattoos came to me during a book club meeting, where I had brought some general temporary tattoos for us to put on for fun (flowers, mountains, etc,). When we were applying the tattoos and discussing our favorite books, I thought to myself, “what we need is tattoos based on this book series.” I immediately went onto Amazon and was surprised there were zero options. And thus, Sparrow and Wilde temporary tattoos were born. The process to reach out to suppliers, test products, and finalize packaging took months. It is surprising how many low quality temporary tattoo products are out there. After months of testing, I finally found a quality tattoo partner, and dove in headfirst to designing different tattoo sheets. I now offer eight different 11″ x 7″ temporary tattoo sheet options (each with 20+ tattoos), which last 2-5 days depending on placement.

Shortly after finalizing this new product, I reached out to several event companies to see if I could be a tattoo vendor at fantasy book events. I have applied tattoos to guests at several events, including The Fantastique Collection’s Starfall Ball event. The tattoos have been a hit for people attending these kinds of events, and my customers are amazing at tagging me in ball photos or reaching out to me to tell me how everything worked out.

A few months after finalizing the temporary tattoos, I began looking into semi-permanent tattoos (which last 1-2 weeks). This kind of tattoo sinks into the skin, rather than sitting on top, so they last much longer and look extremely realistic. The process to find quality suppliers took about three months, and I launched semi-permanent tattoos in June 2024. I now have a division of my shop, Wilde & Inked, solely dedicated to these tattoos (as the application process, tips for longevity, and FAQs are much more involved for this type of tattoo). This division will include licensed bookish tattoos, but also several other tattoo styles and designs.

I am hopeful that my unique designs and product offerings set me apart in the book merch world, and that my customers appreciate being able to show off their love of these series through subtle apparel designs and tattoos. I am very proud of the bookish shop I have created, and the community I have gotten to know throughout my shop’s growth on Instagram. The community I have found on Bookstagram has been the most fun part of this process – everyone is SO supportive and helpful. It’s like a huge book club where we all support each other’s passions, small businesses, and general life events. I am so grateful to have found this niche, and am excited to see what other adventures my shop takes me on!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started my shop’s social media presence on TikTok in May 2023. My growth was slow but I took it as a learning opportunity as I had never created content before. Once I felt like I had a solid footing on content creation and managing notifications, I started investing time in an Instagram account for my shop around October 2023. My engagement and audience on Instagram took off shortly thereafter. I found the community on Instagram to be SO much more present than TikTok (at least in my experience). Instagram is now what drives most of the traffic to my website.

As my Instagram grew, I observed what kinds of posts did well and created more of those (and what kinds of posts flopped, and created less of those). My main strategy for Instagram is that people don’t just want to be sold to. I try to make my brand an experience instead of a just product. At first, I was creating mostly “sales-type” content. After a while of doing that, my engagement flattened out. I decided I needed to invest more time in learning about what kinds of content works. I went onto Bookstagram accounts that were doing well, and started making content like theirs (with my own twist).

For example, I noticed a lot of “tweet” posts getting engagement on Bookstagram. So I now have a content theme where I create a funny book-related tweet, and then at the bottom it says “Swipe to see designs with this vibe” or “Swipe to see designs based on this character.” I found this type of content does very well because it doesn’t feel as “salesy.” I applied this strategy to my entire content creation platform and started to see rapid growth. I create funny or emotionally connective reels wearing my merch (and just mention that I sell shirts in the caption so if people want it they can find it), but it doesn’t feel like I am solely selling products. I am creating a community of readers who like the same books I do, who find the same things funny that I do, and who I have built relationships with outside of my shop.

As for advice, my main piece of advice with most things is to just start. Because (most people) have to be bad at things before they can become an expert, so you might as well get the “being bad” part started earlier so you can get a jump on the learning curve. Just like with any skill, content creation takes practice, observing what works and what doesn’t, and constantly evolving based on what you learn.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

In my opinion, selling high quality products is the only way to create a lifelong business with a loyal customer base. I am very invested in my customers’ experiences and want to ensure the products I sell are high quality, easy to use, and exceed expectations. I ensure product quality by undergoing extensive testing prior to any new product launch. For example, I had several of my Instagram followers test my semi-permanent tattoos before I launched them. The testers provided photos and a feedback form relaying their thoughts on the application instructions, packaging, tattoo longevity, etc. I then compiled all feedback and made necessary adjustments prior to the launch.

I’m also in a unique situation where I am in contact with several of my customers on a day to day basis through my Bookstagram account, and I take their product comments/suggestions/ideas VERY seriously. People will reach out with ideas they have for designs or will inquire about new products, and I am extremely receptive to these types of messages. I feel so lucky to be in the position where I get to form relationships with customers and bounce ideas off of them!

Also, I believe issue management is a huge part of creating loyalty. If someone reaches out with an order issue, I treat it as my top priority. My business has become part of my identity, and with that comes not just the desire but the innate need to fix any and all order/product issues.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sparrowandwilde.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparrow.and.wilde
• Other: Semi-permanent tattoo division link: https://wildeandinked.com