The Curvy Literary on Curating Your Algorithm to Find Plus-Size Romance

What happens when you realize the romance novels you love don’t feature characters who look like you? Keshia, the creator behind The Curvy Literary, joins the podcast to share how she reclaimed her reading life by centering plus-size heroines. She explains how she intentionally trained social media algorithms to serve her the representation she craved and why she launched a podcast to explore the human experience through long-form conversations.

Keshia is the host of The Curvy Literary podcast and the voice behind the Bookstagram of the same name, where she spotlights plus-size romance and body-positive storytelling. Discovering romance novels with heroines who looked like her helped heal her relationship with her body and embrace self-love, and now she’s passionate about amplifying stories where every body deserves a happily-ever-after. When she’s not talking books, Keshia loves traveling, exploring coffee shops and local art, catching live music, getting lost in bookstores, and spending time outdoors.

Key Takeaways:

• Keshia shares her transition from a science major focused on anatomy textbooks back to leisure reading sparked by the Bridgerton series.
• She details the specific steps she took to curate a bookish feed that prioritizes plus-size bodies over standard industry defaults.
• We explore the logistical side of Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) and how to secure books from indie authors through newsletters and specialized marketing teams.
• Keshia offers a refreshing perspective on the ARC trap and why she now prioritizes mental health and boundaries over follower counts.
• Alesia and Keshia discuss how niche platforms like podcasts offer unique access to major publishers and publicists regardless of download numbers.
• We flip the script on the pressure to finish every book and discuss why it is okay to DNF (Do Not Finish) an ARC

Connect with The Curvy Literary

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Resources Mentioned:

Amanda (Talk About Swoon): Instagram | Storygraph mARCh Challenge

BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

Mary Warren Instagram | Amazon

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

Transcript

Alesia Galati 0:00

Creating a bookish account, whether that's a Bookstagram, a Booktube, or a bookish podcast, is a lot of work. And with that comes ARCs or advanced reader copies. But what happens when you have to be very specific about the types of books or the types of content that you actually want to talk about in these forums? Today we're talking with the Curvy Literary, who is a podcast host and talks specifically about curvy romance. We dig into her journey into reading as well as podcasting. And then we go into how she's able to get advanced reader copies of books that she's wanted to get from authors who are maybe not traditionally published or who are more specific to the types of books that she wants to read. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Hello, Keisha. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. If you could start by telling everyone who you are and your reader journey, what has that been like?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Thank you, Alicia, for having me on. I'm excited to join you today. So yeah, I'm Keisha. I run the platform and also podcast of the same name, The Curvy Literary. I got into like Bookstagram about a year and a half ago, but prior to that, I think I've always been a reader since I was like a little kid. Like one of my like prized possessions is I have a set of all the Jane Austen novels that my aunt got me when I was like really young. I think I was like in fourth or fifth grade. I still have them and I love them to death. I will never get rid of them. So I've always been a reader. I have always loved to read. I've been reading my whole life since I was a kid. I had Nancy Drew. Yeah, I'm a millennial. So like all the things you probably hear about Goosebumps books, the babysitters club, the boxcar kids, like all those books. Definitely read those when I was younger. And then I think I stepped back from reading a bit, maybe late in high school, and then throughout college and stuff, which is really ironic because I feel like I do a lot of reading in college, but which I was, but I was like a science major. I wasn't like a lit major or anything like that. I was reading a lot of anatomy and physiology books. But yeah, I came back around to like reading more for leisure, if you will. About I two years, a year and a half ago, and that's when I picked up romance. I was I would say late to the game compared to what other people feel like a lot of people, it like blew up during the pandemic. People really started leaning into it and book talk and books, all that stuff really picked up. So I was a little bit late to the party, but the thing I always talk about this, but the thing that got me back into it was Bridgerton. I had never read any of those books or heard of them before. I didn't have a mom or a grandma or an aunt or someone who was like reading romance, and I like snuck their books, like nobody was reading them. And so I didn't really have that influence. But then I started watching the show Bridgerton, and then I love it, just like a lot of people do. When that season three was gonna feature Colin and Penelope's story, I was like, oh my god, they're actually gonna put like a character who's bigger on the screen. This is also a bit of a like spicier show, so I was like, wait, I'm very curious. So that I basically I got that book. I bought that book and and I read it before the show came on, and I was like, this is so cool reading a story with someone whose body is more closely looks like mine. And so then I just went down the Google rabbit hole and was like, more romance books with plus size women, and slowly started to find things, got into the like bookstram space and found more that way. And then I was like, This is so cool! Like, I I want to talk about this with people, so I was like, Let me make a little bookstogram and see what happens.

Alesia Galati 4:11

So yeah, that is so interesting because usually we'll have people over there like, yeah, like I read when I was younger, and I could definitely resonate with the boxcar kids and or the boxcar children and the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and like reading all those. My secret pleasure was Amish romance, because that's all we had access to because I was in a Christian cult, and so it was like all that we were allowed because it's Amish people on the front, they're not gonna get that spicy. Let the kids read that, and so I would read tons of those, but not a lot of seeing anyone reading romance growing up, so I can definitely relate to that, and then college, I feel like this is a journey for a lot of millennials, is that we read when we were younger, we had the personal pan pizza that we would get with Pizza Hut, Scholastic Book Fair, all that stuff that encouraged us to read. And then we went to college and then stopped reading for fun. And then now, as we're like, all right, we're getting into our 30s, let's go ahead and read something for fun, let's enjoy our lives. And uh, what I find so interesting about your journey at that point is that it is very different than a lot of us folks, where it's like we get into maybe a popular book or a bookstagram that we're like, oh, that sounds titillating, let's check it out. And then we go down the very white skinny thread of book talk and bookstagram. Whereas you were like, this is a body that represents very close to what I look like. That's interesting. I want more of this. And so it sounds like you were able to tailor your algorithm fairly quickly. Whereas it took me a few years, and then I was like, none of these books look like me. What am I doing? And then I was like, we need some diversity in here. Like, there, I haven't read a black romance at all this year. What am I doing? And like had to challenge myself to tailor my bookstram. So, what was that like? Like just being fed the kinds of books that you wanted right off the bat. That it sounds incredible.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

When I was Googling it, so this was before I even thought to look on like social media, and again, I don't think this would surprise anyone. When I was like Googling it, not not a lot was coming up. Algorithm, we know it's biased to self. Like I have an informatics background. So I'm like, I know how this is working, I know how algorithms work, I know what all the biases are. Like, I wasn't getting a ton, but the few that did pop up, the few authors whose names popped up, I like plugged them into Instagram, and there were only a few, and I started following them, and I had known that if I engage with their content, it'll start like telling the algorithm, no, this is what I want when things would come up. That was like, no, thank you. I'm not interested. Yeah, it didn't take very long. And I think also when I finally was like, okay, I created my Bookstagram account separate from my like regular just day-to-day personal account and followed the few people I knew about, and then I posted on there because which is probably very on par with me for people who like know me really well, is like I was like, I need more people to know that this exists, and I wanted to create like a directory because of how hard it was to find it on just like searching on the internet. So I put a thing on there that was like, Hey, if you write plus size romance or people who are writing plus size romance, put your name here. I want to put a list together, and that post I got so much like traction and people like tagging other because they all know each other, and so they were like tagging each other, all the authors. And I think that in my mind at least, like that post I think opened the door wide open, and so then I started getting all kinds of stuff, and it was really fun, and I think just having to do a lot of that training of the algorithm, just like repetition, and I'm not interested in this stuff, at least not right now, and this is really what I want to find and read. So just trying to like really engage a lot with that content, and then also Mary Warren was like the big author, and then also some person like promoting those books. There weren't really, I don't maybe one other at that time, there wasn't really any other specific account just focused on that. Mary was the game in town, that was it. But since a lot more popped up, which is great, that's the gist. I think that post was really the catalyst for it. And then just again, really being picky and specific about what I was engaging with so that I could reinforce through the machine learning that feeds an algorithm. This is what I'm looking for, this is what I want you to push at me because this is what I want to read.

Alesia Galati 9:20

Yeah, and I think that's such an important part when you're newer to or even like wanting to shift the books that you're getting fed, that you really do have to be very intentional. I keep trying to explain this to my husband. He's he's also a millennial, but he's a very old man in his mind. None of this technology is working. That's constantly what he's saying, and I'm like, here's how it works. So, like, you really have to feed it what you want. And so now he's getting it tailored. He's like, I just want like middle of the woods living and then gardening. That's all I want. Don't send me anything else. And then sometimes new things will sneak in. He's I watched it for five seconds. How dare they not start showing me all of a sudden? I'm like, you gotta skip it. Like I'm telling you, or just click not interested, and then it will stop showing it to you. He's like, I know, but it's a lot of work, it's annoying. I'm like, no, it's so annoying, but it's such an important part of trying to curate our feed in a way that makes sense for what we're trying to achieve and the kinds of books that we want. Yeah, I'm trying to think back to a few years ago. Yeah, I feel like Mary Warren was the only one who had like a account that was specifically curvy women in romance focused. And then I think it was a little harder too, because that was around the point where she became an author as well. And so it was like finding that balance of navigating, all right, I'm gonna promote my own books, but then also here are all the these other books and like finding that balance. And then we started to see a few more accounts pop up. Now I work in podcasting, I have a full service podcast production agency, I've been podcasting since 2018, guesting since 2016. So, like, I understand podcasting through and through, the strategy behind it and all that. Why a podcast? Because podcasts are so much work. And if we're gonna look at data, 90% of podcasts stop before 10 episodes because of how much work it takes. The turnover rate is crazy. So, why a podcast?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, I am not a short-form human, like I am just not. I come from a long line of people who take forever to explain a story, and then the people who are part like either married to them or like related to them in some way who are like, okay, get to the point. And so I don't know. I had really gotten into podcasts as a listener three to four years prior, and I just really liked getting to learn about other people. I think I'm just inherently interested in other people's experiences, just I think in general, like the human experience, I find it really interesting and how different communities and people and their stories and what they've gone through, and just what drives somebody, what makes them happy, what are they passionate about? I love learning about people. I think in hindsight, I think part of it probably was like when I was younger, like a kid in like elementary school, I wanted to be like at the time, like Barbara Walters, who has done some problematic interviews, obviously. I I know that now. But like at the time, like I was like, I want to be in a journalism, I wanted to write and report on things and try to like understand perspectives and make meaning and really tell the stories about people, places, events, and try to understand. So I think that as I again in hindsight, I think back about why in the world was I like, I'm gonna start a podcast. Like, why would I do that? I think that was probably bubbling below the surface of this natural inclination I think I've had since I was like a little kid and went maybe a little different direction in college and like career-wise and stuff, but it's come full circle, and I just liked the idea of being able to spend more time really digging into the books. I think this is one of my big things that I'm really have been thinking a lot about lately because everything going on in the world, and with book banning, and there's also this definitely narrative around romance and smut, and like, oh, it's whatever, and like people are like, that's not real books, and people almost shaming it in a way, and of course you're shaming it because women like you, okay, that tracks, but there's so much in romance novels, like the framework and structure of a romance novel and what's gonna end in a happily ever after. So it's almost, I feel like, creates this kind of safe space to explore topics, experiences, identities, people that maybe are a little different than you. And I wanted to be able to dig into that a little bit deeper, and I thought a podcast would be an interesting way to do it because I have a hard time like creating posts sometimes because I just am like, how do I digest this into a small thing that someone's actually gonna read? So I thought that might be a different way to maybe dig into it and have some of those conversations.

Alesia Galati 15:00

Yeah, I think that it's such a good way to have those deeper conversations because you can go longer. I actually, oh my goodness, regrettably. I say regrettably, I don't regret it. I just regret the amount of work that I know it's gonna take. Launch the blog. I also want to go deeper on the topics, I want to talk more about these things, and also was like, all right, I want to do a roundup of the most popular tropes and kinks and a book recommendation for each one. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. It's like 71 kinks and tropes at this point with 71 recommendations, and I'm like, you are losing your mind, it's fine. But that is not something that I could create necessarily, especially with affiliate links and trying to fund the brand. I refuse to be on TikTok just because I'm not gonna dance, I'm not dancing for anybody, it's not gonna happen. I'm not sorry at all. And so having a podcast was like when we launched WeReach SME, I launched it with my friend Nicole. She's since transitioned out of the brand, but I said, I want to launch a podcast. And like every month it was like, we should launch a podcast, we should launch a podcast. She was like, Alicia, I am not doing that. There is no way that is gonna happen. And then literally as soon as she transitioned out, two months later, I was like, We're launching a podcast. I love the ability to have these deeper conversations to go further than even an Instagram live or doing live content. I find that live content, people are watching, they're commenting. I get very distracted when I see people commenting. I'm like, ooh, squirrel, what is that comment about? And then I go off on a whole different tangent than what I actually had planned to talk about. Whereas with the podcast, it's me and Keisha having a conversation. Y'all can listen in if you choose to, and that is at a later date after it's gone through editing. And so I can just get to know you also on a deeper level than if we were doing a live, than if I was interviewing you for a blog post, or if I was like, hey, let's collaborate on a roundup of something, right? I get to know you as a human way better, and my listeners get to know you as a human way better. And so I think that podcasting is such a fun, I'm biased because I work in the industry and I love it so much. But I do understand how much work goes into it. And so as you were thinking of, okay, I want to have the curvy literary, I want to have this podcast. I know having plus size representation was really important to you. Were there any things that you were like, these are my values and I'm sticking to them as you were coming up with your brand? Because I know that can be hard for newer books to grammarmers or bookish accounts where you're like, I don't really know where I land just yet. So, what was kind of your thought process as you were going through that?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I think as I was going into it, I knew I wanted to advocate for, share, promote the people writing those stories with plus size characters. I wanted to also really read stories with characters who, you know, yes, they were plus size, but maybe they came from other communities or they had different like identities than I do, and different things like that, because I do think that's important, right? I have a disability, and those are things that do get decentralized in our society and in media and what we see as quote unquote normal, even though like normal does not, that's not even a thing. It doesn't exist. And I wanted to make sure that I was holding myself accountable in terms of what I was reading. I wanted to make sure I was reading diversely within that like context of plus size romance. And so it was really important for me to also have people for the podcast at least to have people on who had different experiences than I might have, who came from different like communities, identities, but then also who write subgenres that I don't necessarily read. I think a good example is I personally do not read dark romance mob mafia type stuff just because I've always been really nervous because of some stuff I've experienced. Like I was nervous to like dive into that. But I wanted to talk to at least one or two authors who are writing that to understand. Tell me more. Like, why would someone want to write stories like that? What's the goal? What is the story? What's the experience we're trying to get across? Like, how does that look? How does that feel to like readers? How does it feel to write that? What does the inspiration come from? So that's I think an example for me where I want to understand other perspectives and things that don't necessarily call out to me. I think just understand like everyone's varied experiences and perspectives on things.

Alesia Galati 20:22

Yeah, I think that's so important. I had the pleasure of seeing Kennedy Ryan speak. And one thing that she said that I've mentioned a few times on this podcast where she said that the books that we read are either a window or a mirror, reflecting our own experience back to us or a window to the world outside of us. And I think that romance does such a fantastic job of doing that, and to be able to understand someone's experience outside of our own can be really powerful and create more empathy for the people who are going through that. But the literally the whole reason I have you here is to talk about arcs. So we should probably talk about that as well. I love your podcasting journey and all of that. Everybody go check out what Keisha's doing over there for Curvy Romance. But ARCs have such a love-hate relationship with arcs. And for the uninitiated, that is advanced reader copies. Or if we're talking about ALCs, ARCs is ARCs, advanced reader copies, ALCs, advanced listener copies for audiobooks. With you having such a specific focus on plus size romance, NetGalley might not be the best place for you to find books that you can arc or read ahead of time. And we had an episode, I'll link it in the show notes, where we talked about how to get free books and we go through all of that. This is not a NetGally conversation. It's if you're looking for something more specific, what are some strategies that you can use? To actually get those copies, with especially the bias that we see in the romance space, in the publishing space, to ensure that you're getting the books that you actually want to read ahead of time.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Not a ton on that, Gally. I think the secret there, if you're looking for plus size romance and you're really interested in ARCs or ALCs, because those are now starting to pop up more with like indie authors. I think that's I think the secret there is you got to get really familiar with indie authors that you really like and follow them on their social media. They're gonna post when they have ARCs. They have their window of when they're gonna be you can sign up to receive an ARC or request an ARC. They'll post that on their social media. There's different like book marketing and author support folks who do that work, or they like support authors with marketing their books on social media and different things like that. And they have no association with like any of the publishing houses, they're just like independent contractors to do that type of work for a lot of the independent or indie authors, and so you can sign up. I would say follow those as well. There's definitely probably I'd say around maybe eight to ten that I think have a pretty good array of authors that they work with and support with those types of things. So they'll do like ARC management for authors, and so I follow those accounts too, and they're gonna post when new ARC opportunities come up, depending on how much you want to engage with social media. I ebb and flow. I've been definitely pulled back recently for just lots of reasons. And if you're not on social media lap and you still want to learn about it, the newsletters. I'd say sign up for your authors you really like for their newsletters. And they will also, when they send out their newsletter emails, they'll post in their arc request forms, will open up in a week. That's a really great way to track it too, without having to be necessarily maybe glued to your social media to keep an eye out. And I also think one of the nice things about newsletters that a lot of indie authors do is they cross-promote each other's books, which is really cool. I've also found a lot of like new to me authors through that as well. Other authors who I like love and adore through their newsletters, I have found new authors. And so you'll find out about ARCs, but you can also find new authors as well. Go check them out, read a couple of their books if you really like them, sign up for their newsletter, learn more about their opportunities as well. Definitely, if like you're more a social media person, like definitely just pay attention to those authors' posts, follow those like promo and marketing companies, those smaller companies who do that work exclusively for authors. And then, yeah, I would say newsletters are a good way to learn about it as well. And then I think other bookstogrammers too. So I have noticed there's a few bookstogrammers who are trying to like share, like, hey, here's arcs that are open and stuff like that, which I'm just like you are doing us the service for so many, because that is I don't know how people track all of that. But I think if you find other people who are focused on books that you're interested in, are like genres or tropes or kinks or certain types of identities that they're talking about on their accounts. Like if you follow them too, you could also, I think that's a good way to find new authors and then also get connected to ARCs as well.

Alesia Galati 25:50

Yeah, I couldn't recommend that enough. I recently saw even uh bigger authors, like Sierra Simone had one recently when she was like, My ARC team applications are opening. Obviously, I did not sign up because I do not need more ARCs at this point at all. But it was just like, that's cool, right? Like that even bigger ones where maybe you have some notifications for them or you are following them on their newsletter. And I agree, the author newsletters are honestly one of the best ways to get recommendations or even following authors on their Patreon. So maybe you pay them five bucks a month and they send you like here's a free novella, or you get early access to all of their books. That's always fun. And it's like a nice, literally a coffee way to support an author on a regular basis. And I have found so many good recommendations from that. So I love sci-fi romance, it's like my genre of choice at all times. And so Elizabeth Stevens is one of my favorite sci-fi authors. I have a few, but she's one of the favorites, and she's constantly reading other people's sci-fi, especially diverse sci-fi authors. And so I'm always getting good recommendations from her newsletter or from her Patreon. I agree, those are such great ways, especially if you are trying to dial back from social media, maybe not posting as much or being on there scrolling as much. Now, how do you manage it all? Arcs can be a lot and overwhelming. I think I started the year and we're in March. I started the year with 12 arcs, and I have 12 arcs, and I have read some, and I'm like, Alicia, why do you keep doing this to yourself? And so do you have it together? Do you not? What is your process like for getting through these?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

I don't think I have it together. I think I have had a similar kind of challenge where I get so excited and I apply for the stories, the arcs, and part of me is like, I mean, just am such a fan of so many authors out there, and there's definitely some that I'm like, yep, I will always apply for an art from that author. But I again I try to apply for new ones too, especially perhaps newer authors who are building up their kind of their platform, their profile, and everything. But yeah, I do the same thing. I did recently try to love an Excel spreadsheet. And so I tried to create my own tracker of because I was finding what I was doing was I was like applying for them, and then I'd forget I did it, and then all of a sudden I'd get five emails of here's your arc, and I would be like, Oh crap, what am I gonna do? I have like six books to read, and I need to get them all done within like a month, they're like less than a month, and my like quote unquote nine to five job, which is rarely actually eight hours a day, it's usually 10 or 12. But I have personally slowed down on the arcs too, because I want to make sure I think this gets back to that values thing too, is I think it's so easy to get into this, at least for me. I found myself, I caught myself getting into this chasing of the stats. Oh, I need to post like constantly. I need to be like pumping out stuff so I can get more followers, which means then I could like maybe get on that publishers, like different publishers that have like their different teams for their different imprints and stuff. And a lot of them have like minimum follower counts and stuff, and I'm not very good at just doing things in the middle. My personality is I tend to go a thousand miles and like a hundred and ten percent, a thousand miles an hour on things, and so I've been kind of reassessing my I guess quote unquote relationship with ARCs and ALCs and trying to pull back a bit and be really intentional and trying to limit how many I'm doing instead of just signing up for all of the ones all of them that I see, because I think I got for a little bit there, I think I got in over my head and it started to feel more like work and not like fun. I started this just because I wanted to be in community with people who loved reading these stories and loved talking about them and believed things that I did about how important reading is and it creates empathy, and reading is inherently political and why it's so important to read diversely. And I just wanted to be in space with people who shared those values that I had and believed in. Definitely started finding myself, it was I was feeling stressed about out about it. And I was like, hey, I'm not doing myself any favors. I'm getting a little bit off track of like why I started showing up in this space and like why I wanted to engage in this community and in this world. And also, I think like I'm doing a disservice to myself, but I also there's a part of me that's like I'm doing a disservice to the authors who put so much time and effort into the stories. And if I'm just like trying to read through them just so I can get them, like, okay, I did it, put a post up, check, okay, next on, like it just didn't feel good all around. So I've been pulling back a bit and just resetting how I approach all of that.

Alesia Galati 31:50

Yeah, sounds like the moment that I deleted my entire T VR because I was like, what in the world are you doing? There are thousands of books on here that you are never going to read. Let's redo this. Yeah. But I do think that it's important, especially when we have bookish accounts, bookish brands, podcasts, that we are being intentional with balancing that. And it is very difficult to balance if you don't have space to reset. And so creating that space of like, all right, once a month I'm gonna look at this and see, do I still enjoy doing this? Yes, okay, let's keep going. Have that kind of check-in can really be helpful, or even having someone who can talk you through it can also be really helpful. And yeah, the arcs are just they're so difficult to manage. I'm a mood reader, and so when I request it, I want to read it right away, but then it does, I don't always get it right away. Then by that time, I'm like, I have moved on. I know it's been three days, but I have moved on. So it can be really difficult. Having a podcast is probably one of the easiest ways if you don't want to do like the arcs through NetGalley, through the author's emails, if you do want to get in with the publishers. Having a podcast is a very easy way to get in with some of these publishers because at least every week they're like, hey, we've got some, or it's probably every month, we have new authors coming out in the next few weeks. Here they are, here are their books. Do you want net galleys of any of these? It's always very interesting. And usually I'm like, none of these are a fit right now. Here are the types. And so, like for your podcast, being very specific of like, I'm looking for curvy representation or authors who do or have curvy representation in their books, like you have to keep saying that to the publishers. I know for me, I have to keep saying I prioritize BIPOC and LGBTQIA plus authors. And so if you have those, please send them my way. Like just letting them know. And so that's that I have found having a podcast for just opens doors in a way that is like you don't even necessarily have to have a certain follower account because I don't know about your experience, but they've never asked me how many downloads does your podcast get? No, they don't care. They're like, Oh, you have a platform, this is media, my client likes this. Yes, please. Yeah, I found that's been really helpful too.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

That's true. Yeah, that it does help to have a podcast. Like, I remember the first time I got an email from a publicist, and I was like, How in the world are they like my podcast? We are small and map but mighty, like we not have like the street cred that I would think you would want for and but it's so cool to me though, of like, okay, yeah, because it's niche, but there are people who care about this. So I've noticed that. Like, there are a couple authors that I really like who are on NetGalle when their arcs or ALCs come out, and if I request them, I've noticed for a couple of them, I was like, bam, right away. I'm like, oh, they I think they know who I am now. They're like, she can have it.

Alesia Galati 35:18

And getting in with the authors too, I think is so good. Naima Simone was like, oh my gosh, I can't wait to read your new book. And she was like, I'm on a cruise right now. It was like a romance cruise. She said, but give me your address, I'll send it to you when I get home. And I was like, sweet, don't have to wait for the net galley. And I can add it to my collection. So yeah, I love that. I do want to make sure that I do mention Amanda of Talk About Swoon has a March Madness that she does every year. It's MARCHH Madness. And it's really just help you, and there's a story graph challenge associated with it and everything, but it's to help you get through your arcs and prioritize arcs. And all right, here's your starting net galley percentage. How many did you read this month? What is your percentage now? And so, like, she's got templates for all that stuff. And I found that doing it in community, yeah, even if it's off social media, like you can just do it on Story Graph, can be really helpful in prioritizing these if that's something you want to do. And also encouraging you, and also encouraging myself, because this is a struggle that I have of DNFing. We're pausing and saying, This is just not for now. I might get back to it later, but I'm not going to do this right now. I'm literally telling myself that because there are some books that I'm like, I'm halfway through the arc, I'm struggling, and I honestly really need to just DNF it. It's okay to DNF, Alicia. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

I say that to myself all the time. And I think I still sometimes have a hard time with it. But I remember the first time I was like, hey, it's okay. You don't have to finish this. And I would say too, if you make that decision that you're not going to finish an ARC, if it's managed through one of those like smaller companies who do like arc management for authors, like they'll ask you to let them know, and that's okay. And I think it's nice to let them know too. And I think it's okay too. I've definitely been in a spot at one point where I was just like drowning in arcs, and I was like, I can't, I cannot get these done by the deadlines. I knew it. And so I did send a couple emails of I greatly appreciate the opportunity. I way overcommitted myself. I am not gonna get this done in time. And I think just communicating that too, like, no one's ever been like, how dare you! No one's ever been like super mad. They're like, thank you for letting us know. We really appreciate it too. So I I appreciate you saying you can DNF. And it's okay to also then let whoever's managing the arcs know I didn't get a chance to finish this. And it's okay, no one's gonna come for you. Because I think in my head I thought I was gonna get in trouble for a hot second, and then I was like, oh, wait, no, it's okay. Actually, like communicating that is respectful and helpful, right?

Alesia Galati 38:14

Like it's not part of my job, and it's not an assignment for school. It's fine, it's okay. Yeah, right. Definitely understand that, and also the desire to please can definitely play a part in that of like I want this author to have a great experience, and I wanted to at the moment read their book, and I also my life is a little wild right now. I need to figure out what I need to drop, and sometimes the book is the thing or the arc or the ALC is something that you have to drop, and it never feels good, but I think who wrought are you to setting that boundary as well and just saying, look, this is my capacity, and I overcommitted and I'm sorry, and also moving on, and I think there's a lot of power in that too of giving yourself spaciousness to then read the books that you want to read, especially when you have a demanding job. It's like the amount of work that we put into creating content for bookish accounts or and especially for podcasts is quite ridiculous. It's like a whole other job. And so, like, we have to prioritize what's gonna work best for us as well at the end of the day, and where we are able to get the rest that we need and our bodies need to be able to make the money we need in a capitalist society as well, right? So, yeah, we have to prioritize that too. Keisha, this has been so much fun. Where can people find you, get to know you, listen to your podcasts, all that fun stuff?

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Yes, so much fun to chat. So I'm on Instagram. You can find it's at the Kirby Literary on Instagram, and then I am on Substack. I want to start doing more like long form writing and stuff over there. I think similar talking about some of these things and the underlying themes and discourse in the book space over there in a longer format because succinct is not in my repertoire of skills. Just I don't know how to do that. I'm still working on it. So yeah, I'm over there and then podcast, it's the curvy literary as well. And it's pretty much wherever you listen to podcasts. I was posting weekly episodes for quite a while, but I've also had to pull that back a little bit. And my plan moving forward will be episodes will be twice a month moving forward, just balance. That's like my word of the year. I feel balance. Love it. But yeah, there's lots of episodes up there right now. If you're interested, we'll give it a listen. And I really appreciate all the support and even just like connecting with people. I've met such incredible people like you and others in this book space.

Alesia Galati 41:06

The bookish space, podcasting, all of these are such great ways to connect deeper with one another. And we'll make sure that we have links for all of your stuff in the show notes in the YouTube description for anyone doing other things while they're listening to us. Keisha, thank you so much for being on, and I'm so glad we had this conversation. Thank you so much for happy me.