Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tasha Reynolds. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Tasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I’ve always been a bookworm and had a passion for writing, but had no idea what I was doing when I started getting into the indie horror community on Twitter in October of 2021. I gradually started reading indie works, and after being particularly excited about a book I read, reached out to author Adam Hulse to let him know how much I enjoyed it. It was terrifying, because authors always seemed like this upper echelon of folks with the potential to be annoyed by messages from a random person, but he was incredibly thankful and we developed a great friendship from there. It was an eye-opening experience about what the community is really like, and how different the culture is when everyone does something for the love of it rather than a paycheck. The whole foundation for what we do at The Sinister Scoop is promoting these really talented people, who tragically fly under the radar! Authors, artists, filmmakers, and all the other creatives in the horror community are so much fun to work with, and we want the world to know about them!

Tasha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was “that kid” friends brought English homework to for proofreading, and as an adult, I end up being the one called over to read through emails and other communications. I love reading, writing, and helping other people send out great work, so in 2021 I decided to try and monetize that. I started writing random articles on the site Medium, and eventually created a profile on Fiverr to offer editing services. Over the next several months I edited Tarot card decks, stories for podcast episodes, admissions essays, news articles, and my first novel. I was working my way into the horror community at that point, and realized I’d much rather focus on anything and everything related to spooky things, so I had to tackle the fear I had of self-promotion and try to start advertising my services. That led to building my first site, Scribbles with Tasha, which morphed into The Sinister Scoop in February of last year. It’s been incredible seeing just how powerful word of mouth is, and I’m so thankful to every person who has ever recommended me!

While I love all my clients (and I truly mean that – I’m very fortunate), I’m particularly fond of working with new authors dipping their toes into the writing pool. It’s so rewarding to have any role in helping people send their “creative babies” out into the world, and with any luck, helping them start to networking within the community.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I helped put together a charity anthology for women’s reproductive rights in 2022 (Livestock: Horror Stories from the Un-Herd, with Angel Krause from Voices From the Mausoleum), and Cat Voleur submitted a story that absolutely shook me to my core. It was brilliant, and I had some questions about her history as a writer, so I reached out. We stayed talking pretty regularly, she was a guest on an episode of my podcast, The Ghoulish Gallery, and we’ve just continued to develop a friendship that’s very dear to me.

Last January, I was venting to her about the difficulty in finding a full-time job more in line with what my passions are, and jokingly made the statement that I should just develop my own site further and turn it into something that could potentially make money (specifically, a horror news site). Anyone who knows Cat will tell you she’s the world’s worst/best enabler, and next thing I knew, my site had become The Sinister Scoop. She’s been absolutely vital to every part of the process, and it didn’t take me long to ask her if she would be interested in taking on the role of “co-Scooper” as we lovingly call it. She doesn’t just think outside the box, she lives outside of it, and I can’t wait to see what craziness we get ourselves into as the site develops!

How did you build your audience on social media?

This is such a never-ending process, and I’ve actually just started a program in Social Media Marketing to improve on what I’m already doing (and hopefully support a change in careers)! When it comes to first building an account up, especially in the reading/writing/publishing community, the best advice I can give you is to set aside time to start following people. Sit down and look up your favorite authors, the publishers who released their work(s), the artist who made their cover, and bookstores who hosted signing or reading events with them. Make sure you read author bios in anthologies and see if they list where they’re active on social media, since the platforms are all a bit topsy-turvy these days. Be supportive of people, share their victories and celebrations, engage with them, and give off the same energy or vibe you want to attract. When you’re passionate about what’s going on around you it’s contagious, and the more you share that through quality content on your accounts, the more it’ll be noticed. Focus on the quality, and the follower quantity will reflect that! Don’t get discouraged if it takes a while, because there’s no magical way to get those numbers up overnight.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesinisterscoop.com
• Instagram: thesinisterscoop
• Twitter: @sinisterscoop6 and @tmr_8706
• Other: The Sinister Scoop can also be found on Bluesky and Threads, and I have an account on Slasher (app specifically for horror fans) @tmr_8706 !

Image Credits
Matt Wildasin created the logo for The Ghoulish Gallery.