THREE QUESTIONS WITH TAYLOR SWIFT AS BOOKS

Read Amy Long's behind-the-scenes of running TSAB on Instagram

New Year, new Pine State Publicity newsletter series! (I really couldn’t think of a good pun here, I did try).

While you’ll still be getting two long form posts regularly a month from us, I decided for 2024 I was going to ask people across publishing THREE (specific to them) QUESTIONS that might help some DIYers out there, publishing hopefuls, or just readers & writers. A third monthly post!

Launching the series is everyone’s favorite Instagram account (now boasting 10k followers!) TaylorSwift_as_Books (Amy Long).

In three questions, Long gives us the behind-the-scenes of running the account, algorithm secrets and all, what makes a great collaboration between Taylor and cover, how to get your book “Swifted,” and how being a “good literary citizen” comes in many (Taylor’s) versions (& eras).

You can read other interviews with Amy Long in Literary Hub, Pop Poetry, and buy the Swifted books on Bookshop.

Taylor Swift as Ada Limon’s (@adalimonwriter) The Carrying: Poems (2018), @milkweededitions. Cover art by Stacia Brady. Cover design by @mspeaker.

1. What does a day (week?) look like in the life of TSAB behind the scenes?

We do three posts a week (at 10:30 Eastern on Tues, Thurs, and Sunday). I put up stories every day, but posting days are the busiest. I have people in group chats who help me cheat the algorithm, and usually I send them a “30 minutes to Taylor!” before I say “Taylor up,” and everyone likes the new Taylor as soon as they can. I watch the post until it hits 100 (in part because I put up stories when we’re 13 likes away from and when we hit 100, 200, 300, and so on and in part because I swear they do better when they know I’m watching!), and then I send my cheater group chats a thank-you message.

Those first 100 likes seem to set the tone for the day. I have a theory that you need to get to 1% of your followers in the first hour to get momentum going.

And then I check in on them and put up stories (there’s got to be at least one story between “13 to X00” and “X00,” but I mix it up so it doesn’t get formulaic.

I try to balance submission calls with publications by and interviews with TSABers (anyone I’ve Swifted), things that affect writers in general, and Taylor stuff (surprise songs during tours, album and other announcements, news stories). Luckily, I am a smoker, so I find most of this stuff while I smoke, send it to myself, and use it when I need it. And I love checking the stats, especially when a post is doing well. I think some people think I do TSAB to boost what would be my enormous ego, but I just care about the books. If a post gets a lot of likes or followers views (follower reach matters more than likes, but you need likes, shares, saves, and comments to expand the reach), I get at least as excited as the author. I started TSAB because I hate writing reviews and pitching interviews, but I want to be a good literary citizen, and TSAB is fun. Now, no one would rather me do traditional promo for them than Swift their book.

2. How do you decide what books to Swift?

I’m always on the lookout for covers. I follow my favorite designers and presses and take a lot of screenshots. I try to fulfill as many requests as I can. But I prioritize people who like Taylors regularly (not just the people in the group chats—I watch notifications come in and have a near-photographic memory for otherwise useless trivia such as who likes what or which outfit Taylor wore to that event 2019). I’ve got a stable of supportive, cool presses that like seeing their books Swifted, and I do as much as I can for them (and avoid any that feel sketchy). At this point, I can look at most covers and tell exactly what they need right away or at least decide whether it’s doable. Ease plays a role! But sometimes a cover is so cool that I have to do it no matter how hard it is. I’m invested in ensuring that the grid never gets too white, which can be hard since some designers sort of go “Black = Africa = ALL THE COLORS,” and Taylor has only so many ALL THE COLORS outfits! Plus, sometimes that aesthetic really serves book, but it can feel lazy and (likely subconsciously or at least unintentionally) racist.

Really, though, a lot of my decision making centers on whether a press is good to work with, a designer loves seeing their work Swifted, or an author supports other writers and artists—especially cover designers! If someone sends in a request without their cover designer credited, I ignore the message.

I hope this doesn’t sound delusional, but I run the account as if Taylor checks it every day.

If I don’t think she could laugh with us, I don’t make the joke. If a writer says “My book would be hilarious next to Taylor,” I won’t Swift it. We are not above Taylor’s work here (I love her work!), and we like her earnestly. She was a strategic pick; I could have chosen an artist with indie cred or whatever, but they wouldn’t get the books in front of normal readers. Taylor does. I didn’t want to run another website where writers show each other our books. I wanted to get small press books to people who might never see them otherwise, and Taylor and have succeeded!

So, it’s a big blend of whether someone is a good literary citizen, likes and gets what we do here, and is on a press whose taste I trust (obviously, I can’t read every book I Swift!). Or sometimes something just intrigues me or looks cool. There is no one way, but certain things make a book more Swiftable.

3. What’s the magic sauce of book + Swift, or when do you know you’ve got a hit on your hands?

This is a hard one. Sometimes, the images are so totally mirrored (Marisa Crawford’s Taylor for her poetry collection Diary is a good example) that I know it’s going to go crazy when I hit “Share.”

Taylor Swift as @marisa_crawford’s poetry collection Diary (15 Oct 2023), @spuytenduyvilpublishing. Cover art by @erinmriley.

But a lot of the time, I’ll hold off on a book because I’m not sure about it, and everyone loves it!

Mostly it’s a gut feeling.

If I’m excited about it, I think that comes through the screen. I’ll make a bunch of drafts and post the one that feels right to me, and often someone else picks out a perfect detail that I didn’t even realize was there. I think the best ones tend to come most easily or serendipitously; you’ll see Nicole Harontunian’s Taylor soon, and I love that cover but didn’t think I could match it, and then the perfect picture appears in the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) booklet.

With Jenny Irish’s latest, for Hatch, I was like “Oh my god, how am I going to do this,” and then I turn on the Golden Globes, and Taylor is wearing the book. I swear her stylist knows what I need and gives it to me when I’m most desperate for it! So, mostly gut and fate, I think.

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Amy Long is the author of Codependence: Essays (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2019), selected by Brian Blanchfield as the winner of CSUPC’s 2018 Essay Collection Competition. Her work has appeared in Diagram, Grist, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere, including as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2018.