We’re excited to introduce you to the interesting and insightful sister duo: Nicola and Shannon MacNaughton, from Calgary, Alberta. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with them below.

Thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

If you’d asked us just a few years ago if opening a romance bookstore was something we saw ourselves doing, we would have laughed in your face. A bookstore? Dedicated purely to romance? You must be out of your mind.

But here we are, in 2023, on the verge of opening our spicy bookstore paradise. Now, you are probably wondering, “how did we end up in this situation?” That’s a great question, and sometimes we wonder that ourselves. The short and simple answer is that I picked up a romance book in November 2021, discovered a community of book lovers on Tiktok, noticed a trend of specialty romance bookstores popping up all around the world, got the crazy idea to open one myself, and convinced my ever-supportive and analytical sister to join in. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now for the longer answer. When I picked up that first romance book (Beach Read by Emily Henry), I had no idea of the rabbit hole I’d find myself in. In a time when the world was going through turmoil, the escape that the book provided was so powerful that it re-ignited my love for reading. I went from reading one or two books a year, to consuming three to four books a week, all in the romance genre.

When I stumbled upon the popular Booktok community on TikTok, it only further ignited my passion for this genre. Finally, I had people to talk to about my interests, to share book recommendations, reviews, reading tips, and relatable bookish experiences that only others who shared my obsession could understand.

My experience is not unique. The Booktok community has expanded rapidly in recent years, and many users have found new books to read while connecting with other book enthusiasts on the platform. Booktok has also contributed to a surge in book sales for certain titles, with some books going viral on the platform and becoming bestsellers. In the case of opening a romance bookstore, it has increased our store’s brand awareness worldwide, sparking international interest in an online store.

When we conducted market research before taking the plunge into the bookstore business, we discovered one of the biggest trends in the industry, the romance genre, is growing at a fast pace. According to our research, between 2021 and 2022, the romance genre increased unit sales by 52.4%, which is more than double any other category in fiction (source: Publishers Weekly).

Moreover, with the rise of indie authors self-publishing their own work, the range and diversity of romance novels are expanding, enabling independent bookstores like ours to continually feature talented authors who may not be found on the shelves of larger chain bookstores.

While it remains uncertain whether the current trend in the romance genre is temporary or will endure the test of time, one thing is crystal clear to us: we are thrilled to be embarking on this journey together. Regardless of the outcome, we are so happy to be pursuing our dreams.

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 both take a minute to introduce yourselves and give our readers an idea of your background and interests?

Shannon: I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship, and throughout my undergrad and MBA, there have been many business plans I’ve started and subsequently managed to deter myself from continuing. And I think the reason for it is that in all those instances, I was solely responsible and taking on the risk alone. This venture with Nicola gives me the freedom to flex my financial and analytical skills while sharing in some of the risks, and knowing that she is there to provide the strengths I lack (social media skills and marketing, as examples.) At the end of the day, we’re family and we know that even though we may disagree on certain things, we’ll always come back to the respect and love we have for one another. I am proud of how much we have accomplished in such a short period of time and I’m really excited to watch our community of romance readers grow. As many ways as we can involve the people who love these books the better, whether it’s through events we hold, author signings, book clubs or just providing a space where romance is out in the open and celebrated by everyone,

Nicola: I would say I stumbled into this industry by accident. Did I always envision opening a romance bookstore? No, not even a little bit. But in 2021, when I picked up that fateful first romance book, little did I know that the path of my life would veer off into uncharted territory. The change was gradual; at first, I consumed romance novels at an alarming pace. Then, I joined the popular community of Booktok, where I created amazing friends on the platform and even attempted to write my own spicy novel.

Then, on a random Sunday in February of 2023, I called my sister after scrolling through Tiktok. I had just seen a romance bookstore opening in Australia and thought, “Oh my god. I could do that.” And by that, I mean, I could only do that if my sister agreed to partner with me because there was no way I could do it by myself.

Thankfully, she agreed and even became the mastermind behind finding the perfect location. Our skill sets complement each other so well. What I lack in financial acumen, I make up for in my marketing background and knowledge of this industry. Both of us coming from business backgrounds helps us immensely in operating a business like this.

But ultimately, what sparked my overwhelming desire to start this business was the realization that our bookstore would fill a very specific need in the marketplace. We would be combining people’s love for romance novels with their love for shopping at bookstores. While we will never be able to compete with Amazon in terms of prices, what we offer is a haven for romance lovers. Because we all know that buying books and reading books are two very different experiences, and they both serve a purpose in a bookish person’s life. Seeing other romance bookstores popping up around the globe has validated our belief that this is something that could be successful.

Chain bookstores do have the capability to carry indie authors, however, oftentimes they don’t, unless specifically requested by customers. Our goal is to differentiate ourselves by featuring a variety of indie-published and traditionally published novels across a range of romance sub-genres, such as contemporary, fantasy/paranormal, sports, erotica, mafia, dark, YA, and clean. Our diverse selection will also include representation in both the characters and the authors who write these books, from 2SLGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. Some of our favorite authors are self-published, and we aim to highlight their work alongside more mainstream titles.

I am most proud of how my sister and I have come together to turn this dream into a reality. Without each other, there would be no bookstore, and for that, I am forever grateful.

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

What’s unique about the community of book lovers on social media is the overwhelming amount of support people showed us when we announced the opening of our romance bookstore. While this may not be the case in every industry, we were able to tap into a very unique and active subculture of passionate users on platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram. We were fortunate enough that on only our second post on Tiktok, we had a video go viral. As someone who worked in the marketing industry prior to this, I knew that going viral is not a common occurrence. We are so thankful that we were able to have that initial reaction, which has truly set us up for everything that came after.

That being said, you don’t need a viral video to grow your audience. The methodology we use in our social media strategy is still very much the same, regardless of that one video that pushed us into the stratosphere.

The most important thing we discovered when we first started our social media channels, especially in the industry that we are in, is to show your passion, show your excitement, and authentically be yourself. We had it in our minds that everything needed to be perfect, polished, and pristine, but the more we posted, the more behind-the-scenes content we shared, and the more people engaged with it.

Ever heard of a bookstore with no books before? Well, some days it felt like we were close to just absolutely failing and never figuring it out. However, sharing our journey when we struggled not only resonated with our audience but also opened doors to other opportunities where people wanted to help.

One piece of advice that we can share, which is universal when setting up any social media channel for a business, is to know your audience and identify your niche. What works in our industry may not work for yours. Also, not every social media channel is necessary for you to be on. Once you understand what social media platforms your audience engages with, you can tailor your efforts to those specific platforms. You don’t need to be on every platform to be successful. It’s better to do fewer things and do them well than to be overextended and underperforming.

Once you have identified your audience and the platforms they use, you should start creating regular posts with consistent messaging. Additionally, it’s important to identify the tone of your brand. Will you be witty, serious, informational, or something else entirely? To make the process easier, we recommend batch-creating content in large amounts so that you have to do less work daily. This approach also helps to maintain consistency with your messaging and tone.

Social media is such an amazing tool to connect with your audience. As is with most things related to social media though, it can be a love-hate relationship that changes constantly. But one thing is for sure, if done right it can sometimes change the course of your entire life. In the instance with our bookstore, overnight our fears about starting this business shifted from “I hope people find out about us and want to buy books” to “I hope we have enough inventory for the demand and we can keep up with expectations”.

It’s been a rollercoaster, to say the least, but we wouldn’t be here today without embracing social media as a way to connect with our audience.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Our whole foray into this business venture has been an exercise in resilience. That’s not to say it hasn’t been exhilarating, but we have definitely come up against some hurdles as we worked towards opening on time. Whether it was dealing with shipping companies, website issues, getting a business license approved or just dealing with a multitude of personalities, we’ve really had to flex our patience muscles. The caveat to that is those moments when we’ve had to push for the things we needed on time, or they just wouldn’t happen at all. This has set us up well for the future, knowing that there are times we simply can’t take no for an answer as we do everything in our power to be successful.          

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.slowburnbooksyyc.ca/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slowburn.booksyyc/
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@slowburnbooksyyc

Image Credits
@norahanakophotography