Offbeat Romance, Sentient Objects, and More with Unfortunate Reads

Romance reading is evolving, and readers are discovering wild new genres that challenge traditional storytelling. In this podcast episode, Alesia sits down with Cassie from Unfortunate Reads to explore the fascinating world of monster and sentient object romance, breaking down stereotypes and celebrating diverse reading experiences.

Cassie is a sex-positive, feminist, LGBTQIA+ ally who enjoys reading every type of smutty book - from slow burn and mafia romances to straight-up gingerbread man erotica — but what I’m known for is reading the extremely weird/off-the-wall ones (think…clippy/door/flamingo shifter/coronavirus/etc.)

In this episode, we're discussing:

• Sentient object romance isn't just about weird sexual encounters; it's a nuanced genre exploring complex themes
• Reading should be about joy, personal growth, and exploration, not just meeting societal expectations
• Monster and unconventional romance genres provide safe spaces for readers to explore sexuality and identity
• Indie authors are creating incredibly diverse and inclusive narratives within these unique romance subgenres
• Content creators like Cassie are helping readers discover books they might never have found on their own

Don't judge a book by its cover—or its unconventional premise. Expand your reading horizons, challenge your assumptions, and remember that reading is ultimately about connection, understanding, and personal enjoyment.

CONNECT WITH UNFORTUNATE READS:

Website

Instagram

BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

Jumping the Shark by Ash Raven (Amazon)

Unhinged by Vera Valentine (Amazon)

Squeak by Vera Valentine (Amazon)

Stuffed by Sylvia Morrow (Amazon)

Handle Me by Unfortunate Reads (Amazon)

Unfortunate Reads (Amazon)

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

Thank you for listening to the We Read Smut Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag @WeReadSmut. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast.

Connect with Alesia:
Storygraph

This podcast was produced by Galati Media.
Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Cassie and Unfortunate Reads
• 5:30 The Rise of Sentient Object and Monster Romance
• 12:45 Reading as Empowerment and Safe Exploration
• 18:30 The Joy of Reading Beyond Social Expectations
• 23:15 Navigating Content Creation and Authorship
• 28:45 Diversity and Representation in Unconventional Romance
• 32:30 Closing Thoughts and Recommendations

Transcript

Alesia Galati: 0:00

Get ready for a absolutely wild ride. Today, we're exploring the boundaries of romance, where love stories defy expectations and convention with Cassie of unfortunate reads. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Cassie, I am so thrilled to have you on the podcast. AKA, unfortunate reads. I absolutely love your content, and I remember finding you and just laughing hysterically at your content and being like, I read this book so you don't have to just like, Wait, actually. Now I kind of want to read that book, because the way you described it was epic, and I love, oh, before we get into all the unfortunate reads and offbeat romance, let's go ahead and hear a bit about your reading, because we've kind of become an adult reader.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 1:00

Yeah, I think most I started out reading really young, like really young as an only child. So that was a lot of my downtime. Was reading, but I got into when I was, like, in middle school. I think my mom gave me my first book. She's been super open about that stuff, like back in the Joanna Lindsay Fabio cover, step back days. And so I found myself back in it when I was pregnant, because I couldn't do any of my normal hobbies. And that's when I started finding these weirder romance books that I really liked to join, enjoyed reading, and that's where I am today.

Alesia Galati: 1:28

I love that, and I love that your mom was like, so open about it. My mom was open in like, the vocal sense. She was a sex worker when I was very young, and she was open about that, open about cleanliness, open about all the things that I feel like in the 90s, there was just a lot of like, purity culture, and don't talk about it. And I was born in the 90s, but, like my mom, was always very open about sex, about what it was like. I remember when I got my first period, and she was like, so this is what I'm like, Mom, I already know we don't need to have this discussion.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 2:09

That's definitely not common. I know my experience was common, like when I was in middle school, I came home and I asked what an orgasm was, because someone said it, and she told me what it was straight out. And then in high school, when I want to get on birth control, she was like, thinking about having sex. I was like, Yeah, but because of that, I know because of that, I never had to hide anything from her. So our relationship's always been

Alesia Galati: 2:26

like that, yeah, and I think that's so powerful. And I have boys, so it's very different, and it's very co hosted with my husband conversations. And they're 10 seven, so we're at the point of your body's gonna go through changes, and this is what sex is and these is what your private parts are called. This is what alternate private parts are called. And like, we're very open about the language and no shame, which I think is so important, especially as parents, to not have shame when we're talking about these things, because these are natural functions and natural things that happen. So I love that your mom was like that with you. So wonderful. So let's hear a bit about how you got into Bookstagram, because I feel like everybody's journey into like, Okay, I'm gonna create bookish content. It's a little different.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 3:16

Yeah, and this is where everyone always laughs because they think I've been doing this for a long time. I started in September of last year doing this. So I'd always been reading again. Like I said, I was pregnant, breastfeeding, all that stuff at home, and I just kept finding these books, and, like, one of those people that sees it, I'm like, I gotta know. Like, I have to know. And so I was sending it to my friends who are not as avid readers, and definitely not on the weird side of stuff. And they were like, You should probably just start an account, because I'm pretty sure they were sick of me, just like, hollering at them about these weird these weird books. So I did started with unhinged, and then a couple of my videos just took off. And within three months, I had 25,000 followers. And then within six months, I had 38,000 followers. So it's like, absolutely wild that progression happened. So it was just blew up. So

Alesia Galati: 4:00

for anyone who's like, what is your content? What kind of things are you posting? How did you do that? Give us a little bit of insight into the kind of content you're posting.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 4:11

Sure, I think it's funny because you mentioned my tagline, which is, I read this shit, so you don't have to, but then it gets you intrigued about what it is, right? So I think that a lot of people may think that I'm like, talking bad about these books, but when in reality, I don't even review them. I don't give them stars, I don't say if I like them or not I really do, like a TLDR recap of them, so that people can decide, oh, I might want to try that, because it's either really weird or really good. And then some people be like, I don't need to know. Thank you. Bye.

Alesia Galati: 4:37

I can think of one specific recommendation that you posted about. And for the life of me, I cannot think of what the title of the book is, because I read so many books. It's a bit ridiculous, but it was the shark alien.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 4:52

Oh, jumping the shark, yeah.

Alesia Galati: 4:55

So you you mentioned it, or you posted about or you did a video about it. So. Something, and I was like, Color me intrigued. I'm going to read that. And I did it. I loved it. So cute, right? Good. And

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 5:10

it's something that people might not pick up because it's totally out of their warehouse. It's an author they've never read before, but just knowing that it's a weird little match breaking service, and he's got two gnos and whatever. So special features, I guess this is explicit. I could say that whatever. So this is censoring myself at this point, and you want to get into it, because you would never know that if you didn't have someone give you a recap of that. Yeah.

Alesia Galati: 5:32

And so that's why I love one way I love Bookstagram is because you can find the most obscure things and be like, actually, I kind of I'm interested in that. And I think it also expands us a bit more even, yes, we talk about romance is like this, who kind of thing where, you know, oh, you read romance. Oh, that's not really reading or, Oh, you read smut. You're just reading it for the smut. You're not actually reading it for anything other than that, and I've talked about this before, but there's so much more that we can get from romance that I do not think people who don't read it actually realize they just see it as porn, which it's not at all.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 6:20

Yep, and there's nothing wrong with porn. Who doesn't want porn? Some people don't. I get it, but I'm not gonna sit here and disparage porn in any way. That's just fine, too. But this is a little bit different, and a lot of what I say is like reading is reading. It doesn't matter what you're reading, as long as you're reading. People used to watch Flavor of Love or teal and tequila fall in love with people, or blind date, or whatever the new reality TV show is there's no different to just put your mind on something different and escape for a little while, whether you're reading about a door or you're reading about some 500 year old Fae that falls in love with a 19 year old girl. Anyway, I read those books too, but still. So I actually have a lot of people in my DMs a few months ago that have thanked me for getting the reading again, these little, short things that have gotten them reading again, and they didn't feel ashamed about it, and it was just a little hour long book they could escape into. It wasn't intimidating. Some people have bought Kindles now they've got Kindle Unlimited. So it's a lot deeper than just your reading porn.

Alesia Galati: 7:15

Yes, could not agree more. Yeah, I think about even like, the empathy that I have gained as just like being able to understand someone else's experience, and, no, I don't mean smashing an alien shark. The other things, which I mean, like interesting, but the other things, like, in that story, specifically thinking about someone who's like, hey, we can't procreate. Are you okay with that? That is a topic for a lot of people, and that's not your typical hea happily ever after for the uni initiated.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 7:54

Yeah. And I'd say, like, it is a trope, but it's redone, right? So there's always the bars needs women trope, where the women were always abducted because the men on the alien planet couldn't reproduce and had no women left or whatever. This does it a little bit differently, where it's all consensual. They sign up for it. They're expecting it. It's not like they were just joint out of their backyard and sent to some alien planet.

Alesia Galati: 8:14

Yeah. And I like this idea of being able to tie in different things like that, or being in a dead end job that you hate, and just wanting to have shark daddy take care of you. Like, I get it. I

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 8:27

feel that, listen, I feel that if I had some rich shark daddy be like, come to my beautiful planet and like, with my two dicks, and I'll take care of you. Yeah. Sign me the frick up. Sorry, husband, love you. Tie me up

Alesia Galati: 8:43

exactly. Yeah, I think it is. It's interesting, like thinking about, like romance and how and even the unfortunate reads, right as you so lovingly put them, that we can learn so much about our own desires or like, what we want in a partner beyond just two dicks, right? Because we know that's not, most likely not going to happen, statistically, but there's so much more to romance than I think meets the eye, and so this is not the place for any shame or shade you want to read the craziest stuff. I don't want to say crazy, because I feel like that's overused in the sense of, like, bad, right? But you guys, I

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 9:27

call it weird lovingly, like, I take back that word, like I read weird shit, and that's fine. I love it. There's nothing wrong with that. So take that word back. You can call it crazy, weird and off the wall, and I'm here for it.

Alesia Galati: 9:39

I love it. So let's get into some of those, like initial books that you read where you were like, Oh, this is very interesting that, like you mentioned, it piqued your interest, and ones that you tend to recommend to like noobs.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 9:53

So when I first started delving into Monster romance, that was a long time ago, before it was really popular, and before. Or the indie publishing was, like huge and as easy as it is now, but to get into the sentient object stuff, I will say that unhinged was one of the ones that caught my eye first, and also Vera Valentine's other one squeak because it was a door. I had to know how she banged the door like I just had to know what the story was, right, whether it was going to be super weird or I don't know what I was expecting, but Vera is a phenomenal author, like she is a wordsmith through and through. So you read these books, and all of a sudden I was like, this is really well written, which a lot of people have that realization, and I get it, but it was really well written. There was a story, there was backstory, there was lore, and it was fun. It spiraled into Tyrannosaurus tops and bottoms. It's in. It also spiraled into stuff, the pillow one, and things like that. So I think it just you, once you get in one, it's like, you don't stop. You just keep going for more. Yes,

Alesia Galati: 10:52

I don't know that. I've gotten so much into the objects, though. Haven't read the door one, but I did read squeak and

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 11:02

squeaks on the edge of like the sentient object, right? Because they're technically shifters. It's a weird Omega burst, and they turn into balloon animals, but they're technically shifters, right? They don't start as something else, like the door does, or the candy corn or whatever else it is. But that's where a lot of my stuff originated. Is that sentient object? Yeah, monster Romans too. I love Monster romance, but sentient object romance is just a whole different level of like comedy and interesting to me

Alesia Galati: 11:31

explain that. So for people who are like, I don't really understand the difference.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 11:36

Yeah, so sentient object romance is exactly what it sounds like. So if you were to look around at your house and this has happened, don't I'm telling you, this happened. And looked around and said, Can I fuck that? How would I fuck it, you know, if I could? And so that's where this all starts. I'm not joking, like, the amount of people who do that. And so that's what sentient object romance is, is you think about an object coming to life, why it comes to life, and how you would do it when it came to life. Whereas monster romances usually revolves around either shifters or aliens, I'm gonna say I'm encompassing all of it in Monster romance. I know that it's technically paranormal or sci fi, but let's talk it as a whole, or monsters or orcs or things that you're used to seeing, right? There's monsters that you have seen in lore or in other books, even as a kid, where a sentient object is out there, it could be anything I

Alesia Galati: 12:26

can just to see people being like, what? But stay with those guys. I promise

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 12:33

it's gonna be good. Listen, I promise it will make sense to you, if you ever pick up one, yes.

Alesia Galati: 12:40

What is the difference than what we would see in, like, your typical romances? I know a lot of these in sentient objects. Those tend to be like very short bite size, not a ton of backstory that you would expect, minus the Avira ones that you've mentioned, where there's a lot of backstory where you might not have expected that. But typically, from what I've seen, they're like your one one and a half hour reads, how does that differ? And how does the story arc tend to differ from, say, your typical contemporary romance or your typical sci fi romance?

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 13:17

Yeah, so I'd actually say that it doesn't differ that much. I think that there's a couple ways people write, and neither one of them is right or wrong. So like, you have Vera or me, who puts a lot of information on how it got turned into a human, or how it's alive, or whatever. Meanwhile, Holly wild is like, We're fucking sunscreen. Now I'm not giving you an explanation. You're gonna like it. So there's two different approaches to the sentient object romance, and I don't think either one of them is right or wrong. So some of them are just, you're going to deal with it this, forget lore, forget backstory. And so those are your really quick reads, like under an hour reads. And then I think that even though some of these ascension object romance books are short, they have a full range of characters from like a redemption arc, they've got issues with other people and governments and whatever you have you all packed into a book that's under 100 pages. And so it takes those tropes and arcs in a contemporary romance book and translates them in how you would do it in this so like the door book, obviously they have sex, and you have to figure out how to do it. But there's also the arc of the landlord's evil and things like that. Or I'm trying to think of another book that has the tropes that you would consider touch or and die is a big one. And stuffed and stuffed the pillow literally drains the life from people. And the original reason he drains like the life force from this person is because he the pillow. Ori saw this guy, Todd being slimy to the per the girl he was in love with, and so when Todd touched the pillow, he like sucked his life force out of them, right? So it's like they had another touch or die. In stuff too, is some security guards were going to be catching her and do something like nasty to her, so he sucked the life out of them too. Like it's a touch or die, but it's a pillow. And then in the double stuff, the second one, there's primal. Play at a chase scene, but it's between the pillow and the fish man, so I don't think it varies all that much. I think that a lot of the sentient object authors take what you see in a contemporary romance and turn it on into that a little bit. Yeah,

Alesia Galati: 15:12

I love that, though, because I think that really, and I like to say this for diversity too, right? If you want a second chance romance, that's a contemporary romance, right? Like monsters and sentient objects aside, if you want that kind of trope, you can find that across a slew of diverse authors, diverse backgrounds, diverse stories, and still have a really high quality, either low angst, high angst, like it doesn't matter, you will have that across the board. And so I think that it's such an important point that while we can read for fun, we can still read whatever we want, and it can be across the board diversely, whether that is a touch her and die mafia or a touch her and die Black Mafia or a touch her and die pillow, it doesn't matter. Yeah.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 16:02

And I think what's fun about sentient object romance and even monster romance is that it's inherently diverse. I think that a lot of the authors just if you're banging something that doesn't have a gender in the first place, and it can be anything you want, so you don't have to think about specifically. Obviously, you want to write with your own voice. You don't want to write something about you don't know, but you have a little bit more freedom to write about different gender expressions and sexualities and things like that. So there's really to read it diversely, but also weird. Yes, 100%

Alesia Galati: 16:32

I think that when people view dark romance specifically, because that tends to be the more popular topic. There's a lot of talk about, is it safe to have those and we've talked about this before on the show, but there are dark romances where it is allowed those storylines allow sexual assault survivors to be able to process their experiences in a safe way for them, and so I think that the same goes for these types of books where it's like you can learn so much and create safe and empowering spaces to explore your fantasies and your desires in a way that's like You're not actually getting kidnapped by a two digit shark. So

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 17:23

I now that you mentioned that I actually went, there's something I wanted to say about that is that there's a lot of asexual people who have messaged me to say that this is a kind of a safe way for them to explore these sexual topics, because it's not a person, right? It's not a person that you get attached to there's sometimes there's not even skin. Some, it depends. But I've had a lot of people who enjoy these books because they can explore that in a safe and a way that they have control over, versus some of these other romances that like a contemporary romance, or a dark mafia romance or something like that. Oh,

Alesia Galati: 17:56

that's such a good point I saw in threads. I want to say it was just a few days ago, where it was an asexual author who has sex scenes in their book, and they mentioned that one, just because they're asexual doesn't mean that they don't enjoy writing about it and exploring it in a way that feels safe on page, but they really don't want to do in real life, and that's a Okay. And a lot of people who commented were like, wait, that was the thing that was holding me back from stating that I am asexual, was that I don't mind thinking about it. I just don't want to do it. That opened up, like the idea of, oh, wait, I can claim that as something that I feel really aligns with how I show up. So I think that it's so important that point like you wouldn't think, Oh, this is something that can help people or is a safe space for asexuals to be able to explore, especially if you're someone who does not identify as that, because there's so much of a spectrum to sexuality that oh yeah, if you're not in that space, it could be like, Oh, no, that's just people who and you can label them right in a really negative way. And so to be able to see that, oh, wait, that is such a great point. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah,

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 19:12

one of the authors as a friend of mine, latrucksa Nova, is Ace NB pan this is all out there. I'm not like outing them or anything like that, but they write the like, really hot sex scenes, and they love writing this stuff, and like writing weird stuff, but just because they write about the experience and have fun doing it doesn't mean that they necessarily want to have it themselves. It's a way for them to express this without doing it in real life.

Alesia Galati: 19:38

Yes, I think it's such an important point, and I don't think that when, especially people who don't read romance, try to talk about it, I don't know if you read the article that was in Cosmo UK, where they had quoted Ruby Dixon and Katie Robert and mentioned monsters. Or Minotaur one seeing a Costa? Yes, thank you. So they had mentioned that, and you could tell that this person was not a romance reader at all, and that it was all about monster romance and why we're obsessed with aliens right now, and why we're obsessed with fucking sending objects, and why we're into this whole thing, or why we want to get chased through a maze by a minatorium for it, I'm not going to try it, you know. And so, like, you could tell from the article that, well, Ruby Dixon was like, I was just happy to be quoted. Like, I thought that was cool that I was in Cosmo at the same time. She was like, I didn't really love the approach, but it's cool that I got quoted, and I agreed it was just like, you could tell that they were just giving a lot of negative connotation to people reading this kind of stuff and not really exploring the conversation outside of just, oh, you're reading monster smut, which I think about even myself. 10 years ago, before I started reading this kind of stuff, I was super judgy of even, like regular smut, not even talking about monster smut.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 21:19

I clearly was not, since I started. So, yeah, I think that's important to what you're saying, is they don't explore outward, outwardly, of what else it could be besides the sex, right? Yeah, okay, there's sex, and some of them, it's hot, but sometimes that's not the point of some of these books. And people who write these books are still authors, so they're still writing characters that practice consent, or have an identity crisis, or have body dysmorphia. That's, I can name books that have all of those things in them, outside of just cool, the sex was hot, like I had sex with an orc. But also there was a sex worker involved in gaff only fans, that it's not only fans selling fannies or something like that, and like body dysmorphia and interracial dating. So it's just there's a lot of that we put into it that is beyond just like fucking

Alesia Galati: 22:08

Yes. And I think that when we approach these conversations, and you and I are being comical a bit in the way that we're approaching it, and I feel like you approach it very comically, but in a way to draw people in. You're not it's like the one girl who reads all those one star reviews of books, flips them. It's, oh, wait, that kind of made me want to read the book, or, Oh, that was, like, a comical way to approach that book. She's not tagging me authors or doing any of that stuff. But it still is a way to, like, comically approach these topics. And I think that you do that so well. Like you stated where you're like, look, you're either gonna read this or you're not, not gonna tell you if I liked it or not. But this is what happened.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 22:53

I think a lot of times you need humor to draw you in, because people shy away from things that are too like, serious, right? Have I read them? Yeah, I've read classics, but I don't want to. I want to read this other stuff instead. So if you do a little funny, people have to watch. It's like, I look at the door. I had to read it. Someone hears me talk about the door. They got to know what happens. You

Alesia Galati: 23:12

know, yes, I think it's so good, though, because it allows people to feel like, oh, wait, this isn't the one. Reading doesn't have to be as serious as I think we make it as adults. And that was a lot of my own reading journey was, oh, I'm in college, and I have to read for college. Oh, I'm an adult, I'm a new mom, so I have to read new mom books, or, Oh, I'm an adult, and I'm trying to be a better person and be a good parent and show up as a good wife. So I need to read all these self development books, and I was pushing myself to the point of feeling shitty about myself because I couldn't get through these books. I

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 23:52

hate those books. I'm not so say, like a specific book, it's just as a whole. I don't enjoy reading them, so it's a slog. I read fast. I read really fast. At one point, I think I read over 400 books at the end of 2022 or something like that. That just it drags for me, right? Like it's just not the way I want to consume my media. Regarding that topic, how the comments on my page are on the videos, especially when things get on the wrong side of the internet, are like, Why don't you try reading something serious? Or have you ever read, why don't you try reading catch or the rye, and I'm like, Yeah, I have have you. I've read gana Karina, I've read War and Peace, I've read Of Mice and Men and all those classics. That doesn't mean that the books I'm reading now aren't any more or less important to what my experience is as a well rounded reader. I think a lot of times they throw that in your face, and I'm like, okay, yeah, I have, and I don't want to.

Alesia Galati: 24:46

Does that make you a and I think this is person specific, right? Is what you're reading, allowing you to grow as a person or live the life that you want to be living, which I don't think is. Something that we consider, enough that especially with society of like social media and seeing everybody else's stuff and seeing what everybody else is doing, and, oh, I read X amount of books, and they were all self development, or the other one guy who said that he read like a book a day, but really he just skimmed to the first two pages of each chapter.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 25:25

I think along the way, we've lost and again, not everybody's like this, obviously, but I'm watching my son right now. He's two, and he is obsessed with reading and books, and wants to just pick up his own and do his own thing. And he will go through him book after book, and he's getting excited when he understands the words, and it brings you joy. And then you get joy when you read other stories, and you get to read about more detail stories, or there's goosebumps, or the thoroughbred series, or whatever else it is, right? But somewhere between high school and college and adulthood, we lost that reading is for pleasure and joy aspect as well as knowledge. So I think that a lot of people are like, Oh, we can't read for fun anymore. We can only read serious things. That's not true, because if you have no fun in your life, then that doesn't make you a well rounded person either. Yes,

Alesia Galati: 26:11

I think as maybe this is men see this, but we don't have these conversations. But I think as women, too, there's so much pressure on us to be just one thing, right, instead of multifaceted and having hobbies and having interests outside of our house, outside of our jobs, outside of our marriages, I'm not saying go outside of your marriage. I'm saying like interests outside of your marriage, when, in reality, interests actually allow you to come back to your relationships way healthier. I know I got a lot of people having opinions about me going back to work after I had both of my kids, and it was like I got my clear from the doctor. After six weeks, I'm going back. I do not want to be home with a child. I'm already dealing with postpartum depression. I need other people, and I need to be having adult interactions to be alive. So no, I cannot be home with my child. There's

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 27:15

a lot of comments, and then it's really just translated from porn to dressing scandalously or whatever it is, is that men think that they can police the way that women act and what they enjoy and consume. So a lot of the comments on my page are, if I had a girl, I wouldn't let them read this. This is I was like, let them what. Let them like. That is a red flag left and right, just it's a book, and now it's the phrasing, and it's again, men trying to police what women can enjoy and what women can consume, or how they act.

Alesia Galati: 27:47

So there's another conversation. I'm curious, of your opinion going around about putting ratings on books like they did for CDs. I want to say that was early, 2000s What are your thoughts on that?

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 27:59

So here's the problem, and we're talking about readings just for everyone. I'm assuming. We're not talking about stars, we're talking about content ratings, right? So Ma, or whatever it is, okay, that would be great. However, because of logistics, we can't, because a lot of these books are written by indie authors, and the main source of publishing for indie authors is Amazon. Amazon is very strict about the words you can use, what can be on their covers, even down to what can be in your blurb. I've had books put on what's called a dungeon because I had one word wrong in my keyword search. And as much as we'd like to the reason you see a lot of authors say your check your trigger warnings are on my website and not my book, is because Amazon scans that stuff and we'll ban them, and will revoke your account and access. So as much as I think it would be great to be able to have, like, spice level, it's just not logistically possible. I think it's also, you know, even if they had something, especially for these cartoon covers, because I know that a lot of times it looks like rom com is actually like a dark fafu, yeah, because that's just the trend right now. But on the other hand, you should be reading the blurb, right? You should be reading. If you're getting into a book and you read about it, you should know what you're getting into in the first place. You shouldn't just pick it up blindly, unless you're like me and you don't care. One of our reviews on push to cushions, reviews don't bother me at all, was a one star and it said, basically, it literally said, I read the trigger warnings. I just thought it would be different. What No Ma sticker on the front of that is going to change that person and how they reacted to the book or stop them from reading it.

Alesia Galati: 29:26

Yeah, and that's so true. Yeah. One of the authors who was combating this idea was saying, just like, Walmart will not allow ma on their CDs that they're selling. You don't want to put authors in that position. And then it also ties a bit into banning books, right? And What books should be allowed or what books shouldn't be allowed, and, yeah, there's so much discussion around this that I'm always so interested in people's opinions, because it's never something I thought about.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 29:57

I actually have a very specific example I just went. Room. So my book handle me is dungeon, and I could not figure out why, because I thought me because I put erotica in the like search titles, they're very finicky about what it is, and so I actually messaged them to be like, what is it? What do I have to do to get this on dungeon so you can search for it? And apparently, and I don't remember doing this, because it was my first book I published on my own, and I don't think I did this. I think something messed up. There's a thing that says, Does your cover or title contain any explicit imagery or words you have to hit? Yes or no you always want to hit No. Mine was selected as Yes, and literally, if you select Yes, Amazon will suppress that book No matter what, even if it's in the category of raga. So they said that Amazon will suppress books like that and keep it out of their search results, to keep Amazon a safe space. So that's why we can't do that. It's just like you said, like Walmart has restrictions. Amazon is like guys, just has a chokehold on the market, and they make it easy to publish, but you gotta follow their rules.

Alesia Galati: 30:55

Yeah. So interesting. What is it like being a content creator for bookish stuff, and also an author. How do you balance it? And also, there's a lot of talk about like author spaces, reviewer spaces, reader spaces. So how do

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 31:12

you balance all that? So I think it's a little easier for me, because I started out not doing reviews. I didn't give star ratings, I didn't tag authors, and star ratings once you've have crossed the line from just a content creator to publishing your book, which happens a lot, you no longer can be a content creator that reviews that way if you want to be part of the community, because essentially, what you're doing is you're talking good or bad about your co workers, right? And you can't do that. You've now switched gears into being a little more in the author space, even though you're bridging both. So yeah, it was easier for me because I never gave reviews, because I just didn't feel like that was that's not my style. It's not what I wanted. I just wanted to tell you about the book, whether I liked it and thought it was a five star reader you did, and everyone's gonna have a different perception of it. Perspective, oh my gosh. Words are great perception of it. What level of good it is? So

Alesia Galati: 32:00

yeah, that's a good point, too. And I always get a little like iffy, because I see people go from reader to author. Kudos to you. That's awesome. I'm always curious how they're going to approach that going forward, and how they plan on either shifting their content entirely or like, I know one author who does a lot of independent she's an indie author, and she doesn't necessarily review them. She'll just say, Oh, these are the books I read this month, and shout out to those authors, which I think is a good way to approach it, rather than leaving ratings and reviews, because there's a lot of finickiness to that.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 32:40

Yeah, and I actually have a friend who's publishing her first book, and I think it helps to have the community watching out for you once you get yourself in that community, because she is publishing her first book is not published yet, but it's coming out, and she posted over rating like she normally does, and I messaged her. Was like, Hey, you can't do that anymore, like you can, but I'm gonna tell you what the consequences are, and I don't think you should do that for your career. If you have people watching out for you, that's also super helpful when you're transitioning.

Alesia Galati: 33:06

Yeah. Oh, that's so fun. So this has been amazing, Cassie. Thank you so much for being on where can people find you get to know you watch your videos because I gotta tell y'all just go watch Cassie videos because they are hilarious and I love watching them. And also, check out your books.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 33:25

I have my website, unfortunates.com where I'm still updating with my books, but I do have all my narration listed there, my shop, my Instagram and tick tock. The place you want to watch my videos is mostly Instagram and tick tock. And as far as the books, they're all on Amazon for the most part. So if you go to my website, there's links to everything

Alesia Galati: 33:41

awesome, and we'll make sure that we have links for that in the show notes, in the description, for anyone who's watching or and doing other things as podcast listeners tend to so be sure to go follow Cassie. Cassie, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much.

Cassie @Unfortunate Reads: 33:56

Thank you for having me. Wow.