We Read Smut: Bookish Conversations for Romance Readers

Melanated Reader on Mobilizing One Million Readers for Black Literature and Fighting Post-Literacy

• We Read Smut • Season 4

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What started as a simple vision to mobilize the bookish community has turned into an entire movement aiming to pull one million people together to read books by Black authors. In this special bonus episode, I am sitting down with Crystal, the founder and force behind Melanated Reader Forte. We dive into her One Million Black Books initiative, what it actually means to live in a post-literate society, how fast-forwarding through content is shortening our attention spans, and practical ways we can demand reprints of out-of-print Black literature while supporting indie authors.

Crystal (Melanated Reader) Forte is a 19-year educator, PhD candidate, book influencer, and community organizer. Across social media and in-person community spaces, she builds inclusive literacy initiatives that bring readers of all ages together around Black literature—from children's books to banned classics and open-door romance.

In this episode, we're discussing:

  • The core mission behind the One Million Black Books summer movement and how families can participate together across age groups.
  • What living in a post-literate society means for short-form content consumption and our daily attention spans.
  • Why building a sustained 35-minute daily reading habit improves critical literacy and standardized testing stamina for students.
  • Practical ways readers can ask publishers hard questions about backlogs and demand reprints of out-of-print Black literature.
  • How to support indie Black authors through platforms like Kindle Unlimited without breaking local budgets.

CONNECT WITH CRYSTAL:

BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

Antoinette Sherelle 

Wild Women Don't Wear No Blues: Black Women Writers on Love, Men, and Sex is a nonfiction collection edited by author Marita Golden 

Zora Neale Hurston 

J. California Cooper 

K.C. Mills (They Call Him Nas) 

Christina C. Jones 

Alexandria House 

Kennedy Ryan

Join the We Read Smut Lounge. Want early access to next week's episode, entry into our private Discord server, two monthly virtual silent book clubs, and a free monthly e-book? Head over to our Substack and join the paid community to access goodies and get early access to episodes. 

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in these show notes are affiliate links. If you make a purchase or borrow a book through these links, I may earn a small commission at zero extra cost to you.

Connect with Alesia:
Storygraph

Instagram

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

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

Intro: Mobilizing One Million Readers for Black Literature

Alesia Galati

What started as a vision to mobilize the reading community has turned into an entire summer movement, aiming to pull one million people together reading black books. I am so excited about this movement. Let's get into the conversation with the founder, Crystal, aka Melanated Reader. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only.

Meet Crystal (Melanated Reader Forte): Educator, PhD Candidate, and Organizer

Alesia Galati

Hello, Crystal. I'm so excited. For those who don't know, you are Melanated Reader, and I've been following you for gosh, I want to say it's been like maybe five years now that I've been following what you've been doing. And when I saw that you had the One Million Black Books initiative for summer of 2026, which is when we're recording this, and everybody go follow Crystal, see what she's cooked up next, because I'm sure it's gonna be incredible. But for this summer, I knew I wanted to have you on Let's Push This Movement Forward. And then I saw that you were taking interviews and you were on TV, and I was like, I need to get her. I need to get her in my sphere. So before we begin and get into everything about this movement, tell us a bit about who you are and your reader journey.

SPEAKER_01

Hi, y'all. I am Crystal Melanated Reader Forte across all social media platforms. I'm trying to be everywhere. So you'll always see me. I hope it's working. I hope it's working. So if you don't know, I am a this year of a year, 19-year educator. I'm a PhD candidate. I'm a book blogger, book influencer, book critic, whatever you want to call us in this space. I do all the things. This summer I've taken the initiative to push a challenge or summer reading club called 1 Million Black Books. What does that mean? I want 1 million people to read a book by a black author this summer. And no, I'm not playing. I'm

Family Reading Grids: Involving Kids, Middle Graders, Teens, and Adults

SPEAKER_01

serious. This is dear to my heart because it includes the whole family. Y'all know I'm an educator, so getting those babies to read, getting your teenagers, the middle graders out the rooms, get them out the rooms and get them to read. Being that we're in what's called a post-literate society, why not now more than ever? I want everybody to pick up a book by a black author. I don't care what it is. Uh fantasy, is it romance, is it contemporary, is it literary, is it thrillers or whatever you want. I need you to go out there and get it and read a book by a black author. Can you be an overachiever? Absolutely. That's why we have things called Story Graph. They're tracking their readings. I got little grids out now. So people are tracking them all kinds of ways. And I ain't creating none of this stuff because people want the word to get out. So if you're not on board right now, I need for you to get onto it immediately after this episode.

Alesia Galati

Yes. Oh, I love that so much. And I noticed that when I filled out the form because the way that you're keeping track of this is you fill out the form, get people to pledge that they're doing this that you had in there. Like, how many people in your house are you committing that are going to be doing this with you? Right. And I was like, every single one of us, if I gotta pull some audiobooks out, we're gonna listen to some audiobooks as a family, and we're gonna make it happen.

SPEAKER_01

I got middle grades grids, I got teens grids, I got adult grids, I got the contemporaries, I got black lit in its rares form, which is banned. I got any kind of book that will be of interest to any single person so that we can all get on board for this. So that's why I'm asking all these questions. I didn't even ask you what your child's name was. I just need to know what age range they are in. Because the biggest fight that we have now, when I go out to the community, because a lot of this is me actually going out into my community, into communities that open their arms to me, and I'll navigate by printing out those

Taking Literacy to the Streets: In-Person Community Events and Tangible Cue Cards

SPEAKER_01

cue cards. I actually print those out so that people can have something in their hand. Because if you leave them with something, they're more prone to think about it later on and say, Oh yeah, she did give me a card with suggestions on here. I can read one of those, you know what I'm saying? Versus me just saying word of mouth. Okay. So I give out the kids' ones, the middle grades and adults. And the last session that I went to, man, the adults, all of their cards disappeared. And I'm stuck with look, I got kids, more kids' cards than anything else. So what does that tell me? After every community event that I go to, I need to bring an influx of adult cards because a lot of us are not on social media, and I'm trying to reach those who are on social media and are not on social media because I need everybody reading.

Defining a Post-Literate Society and Reclaiming Our Attention Spans

Alesia Galati

Yeah, I think it's so important. And you mentioned that we're in a post-literate society. What does that mean for folks who I'm a parent and we homeschool our kids, and we have one kiddo who's on the spectrum who struggles with reading, and so we are like in it. We are in the weeds with the teaching our kiddos to read and reading regularly and reading as a family and finding different ways to read. So, what does that post-literate society mean?

SPEAKER_01

That people are no longer depending on books. They don't want to read long-range content or long-range, as I would call artistic medium. They're depending on solely the internet, this slow TikTok generation of I need this immediate attention. I can fast forward through this, and I'll have all that information in one spot instead of gravitating towards like we know when our mama used to sit up and watch the news. They would actually sit there and watch the news, and it wasn't no fast forward. So post-literate meaning we're not here for long-range content, which is crazy. Our attention phase are shocked to shit, okay? Everybody is crazy. Everybody is insane, and even me. I find myself, I refuse to fast forward through TikTok videos anymore. After I heard that or fast forward through an Instagram clip or whatever, I refuse to do that because I know that I'm shortening my attention span leaf. Now that I know that. Now that you know that, I want to challenge you to do the same thing because get smarter. We're trying to get smarter. We ain't trying to, I don't want to hear anything about why you're losing brain muscles.

Alesia Galati

I don't want to hear. Yeah, it's so hard. I saw somebody post that they were like, yeah, we were reading like 300-page books in fifth grade, sixth grade. I remember reading books and doing reports on them and all that stuff. And and it's so hard, especially as a parent, and maybe the educator in you knows tips and tricks, but moving our brain from the quick and fast information to then reading books or getting the information in other ways. I think following interests, honestly, is probably the best way. That's the biggest practice

Following Interests to Build Readers: Survival Books, Audiobooks, and Immersive Reading

Alesia Galati

it. One of my kiddos, he's obsessed with the zombie apocalypse right now. He's 12, and he's preparing for the end of the world. And so we went to the library this morning because we're library folks. We love going to the library. And he was like, Oh, I found three different books that are all about survival. And he was just like in the back of the car reading it on the way home, getting all the information that he needed.

SPEAKER_01

But he was immersed in it, right?

Alesia Galati

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

So if that's what's going to garner him to pay attention, give him anything he wants on it. I'm serious. And let him read it in long, sustained periods of time. I challenge my high schoolers every day. I say, you need to sit up there and I need you to read for 35 minutes a day.

The 35-Minute Reading Rule: Building Stamina for Students and Adults

SPEAKER_01

Why? Because when they take these standardized tests, and I'm telling you to read a selection with four paragraphs, four passages. You can't sustain reading 35 minutes for four passages. You've timed out. It's a problem. It is. It's a huge problem. And it's because they don't read. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They don't channel their energy that way. So their first thing is, how do I get better on standardized tests? You have to read every single day. Forte reads every single day. I can't be a mirror for you if I'm not doing it. You know what I'm saying? I read literally every single day. Sometimes I read all day if I want to. Because I'm like, I can do that. I ain't got no kids in my house. Ain't nobody here for me. One day you can be like me. But with today that comes, I need you to read these at least 35 minutes. And then we're gonna go up five minutes every other month. We'll go up five minutes. Just to give them a tangible goal. So by the end of the year, hopefully they are reading at least an hour a day.

Alesia Galati

Yeah, that's a great idea. I know right now we do for the younger one who's on the spectrum, he has to listen to 30 minutes of an audiobook. And he could be doing puzzles, he could be organizing his toys, whatever, but he needs to be headphones on, fully immersed. And I can always tell when he's fully immersed because he'll interrupt everything, be like, oh my god, guys, guess what just happened? He's like, I gotta tell y'all. And we're like, we're literally in the middle of doing schoolwork. I need you to go sit over there. And then the older one, he has to do a chapter of a fantasy novel. And right now I have him reading The Hardy Boys, kind of that mystery who done it kind of thing, where my husband's like, Nope, you gotta read. I think it's The Alchemist or The Magician. Oh, yeah, yeah. Those ones. He's like, I read it when I was younger. You gotta read them too. So he's doing an immersive read where he has the paperback and the audiobook for that one.

SPEAKER_01

For your younger one, 35 minutes is good. 30 minutes is good to have him immersive read or at least listening. Try to challenge him to read, at least look at the words for five minutes. Yeah. So that he can form that full circle connection of full literacy. But I commend you for at least having him listen to it. Because of course, listening is a form of reading. Literacy is full circle. If he puts together those words and those and what he's hearing, it's gonna regurgitate. So he'll start speaking some of those words, and you're like, where did you get that from? It was in this book, like my kids do me. It was in this book that I was reading. Excuse me, thank you for broadening your vocabulary. I am enlightened today. Actually, just getting them to capture those full circle moments, definitely, especially if it's something that he loves to read. I would capitalize on what he's reading right now.

Alesia Galati

Yeah, no, that's such a great idea. And I love that you have and are resharing a lot of recommendations for everything from the children's books, like you said, all the way through to if you want fiction, if you want nonfiction, if you want romance, I gave a huge here are 50 books that are all by black authors. Go check them out. They're not difficult reads, and they're all open door spice. Y'all know I love some open door spice.

Multi-Genre Reading Rhythms: From Open-Door Spice to Essays and History

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, because I'm reading everything. The people ask the publishers do not know what to send me ever. Why? Because I'm usually reading like five different books, five different genres, five different points of madness. Like I'm reading a book by Antoinette Cherille. Okay, I'm in a series. I'm on book two. And she's top tier, okay? The things are happening, all right. The plot line is very urban slash romance slash, oh yeah, he's getting it. She yeah, he or she is getting it in. But then I'm over here with women, sex, and what is it? Love, women, and sex, and it's just a collection of nonfiction and fiction essays by Marita Golden. So you're seeing all these different arthors that have been out there, but I'm also added to my TBR because baby, who wrote this store, that kind of thing? And then I might be reading on some kind of civil rights icon because I want to know how the movement changed and at what point of the movement did we actually see some things coming to fruition because I want to be a movement maker. I want to be a mover and shaker. You know what I'm saying? So it could be anything going on over here. So that's what kind of shakes up the city because I've always been this reader. So I've always pushed black romance, I've always pushed black people in general. You know what I'm saying? But they know everybody that knows me, I've always been a queen of the hood.

Addressing Publishing Gaps: Demanding Reprints of Backlog Black Classics

unknown

I love it.

Alesia Galati

What are some of those challenges that you think that this movement is really addressing on the publishing side, right? Especially the traditional publishing side. I think I saw something, and again, this was a video, so I did not fact-check this at all. I'm gonna preface this statement with that. But that it's the lowest year for black stories being purchased, like traditionally published stories. A movement like this can make a big difference in something like that. But what is like your all right, yes, we want people to read black books, but what is the what's the end goal for this? Is there in goal?

SPEAKER_01

I love it. I don't think that the summer reading challenge, yeah, the summer reading challenge is gonna end at the end of the summer, but there's no real end goal with one million black books because melanated readers is always gonna be melanated reader. I'm gonna continue to push black books, but I do want it to go in the direction of we're in schools, we're in communities, we're still pushing. Even if we don't get to one million, which I would love to give to one million by the end of the summer, but let's be realistic. We are living, like I said, we're living in a post-literate society for a reason. That's a lot of people out here that can't read. But to put something that is tangible and accessible in their hands where they are at least given that access point, that is my number one goal. I want to give people the access point. So when I go to these publishers and I'm asking them, can we do a giveaway for this? I got 25 million of giveaways happening right now. That's how publishers are wondering how you can step in. You gotta put your money where your mouth is. If I come to you in your inbox and ask you, can I get a giveaway for this many winners? And literally, that's a nickel in the bucket, that's the least. And that's only the first step I'm asking. That's literally only the first thing I'm asking for. And the gag is a lot of the our books are they're out of print. So what I'm asking for, a lot of people don't know what the backlog catalog looks like, okay? And then for the books that are not in print, a lot of books I'm asking for them to be reprinted because they're necessary in our society today just as much as so when they were printed back when way back when.

Alesia Galati

What is the response you're getting? I'm so curious. And how can we as readers care about this stuff come alongside you?

Supporting Indie Black Authors Without Breaking the Bank

SPEAKER_01

Either they're responding or they're not. So it's either, yeah, okay, sure. Let me check what's in my catalog, or this is what we have, or this is what we can't offer you because backlog is not offered, or whatever. Or silence. Silence is still a response. I just told somebody that today. Yeah. No response is still a response. You know what I'm saying? So if the publishers that I have not heard from that's a real loud, like because I'm inboxing, of course. First up because I'm lazy sometimes. And then I'm going to their actual publishing emails, and I'm also sending emails. What's hard for me is, yeah, I want people to also know indies, but I also don't want to hurt indies pockets. You know what I'm saying? So that's a question that we can ask ourselves. How can we still push the indies without breaking the bank on indie pockets? You know what I'm saying? I can't buy every indie book. I promise you, I cannot. I'm just a school teacher. I'm a teacher. But I would still like to support indies. I know the books are good. I got Casey Mills right here. Can I afford to give five?

Alesia Galati

That is a good book, by the way. They call it. Everybody go check that out.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. I love Casey. But there was only one for me. You know what I'm saying? But how do we continue to support them or indie authors without breaking the bank for them? You know what I'm saying? I don't want them to come out the pocket, to be honest. Yeah. People like Christina C. Giles, Alexander Hop, I don't want y'all to come out the pocket. Or even like I'm reading Antoinette Sheree, ever. No. So how can you make it happen? You know what I'm saying? That kind of thing.

Alesia Galati

Yeah, I think one way is using things like Kindle Unlimited. A lot of these indie authors are on Kindle Unlimited and they get paid for each of the pages that you're reading using Kindle Unlimited. And that is how many of them are able to make money. So if you are someone who can't afford to buy the books, I saw someone, they were like, Oh, you got that Lego back there, you got that good money. And I was like, I don't know about all that, but I do like Lego. And I do of course I have about 200 books. I like my books signed. So events are like great. Oh, yeah. Events are great for that. I like to shop at signed bookstores where they have books signed by their authors or even seeing local authors. I live in North Carolina, so all of my Kennedy Ryan books are all signed, right? I'm here for it. I love it. But I also understand that not everyone has disposable income like that to be able to buy the physical books or even the space or the desire to have bugs surrounded around them. And so Kindle Unlimited is a great way. Even buying the ebook, a lot of authors who are maybe not on Kindle Unlimited, you can buy the ebook for two, three bucks on their website, which is also fantastic. Even sharing, right? There are so many ways that we as readers can push these authors, whether they're trad or indie. And so I'm curious, do you have a running spreadsheet of these books that you're looking for that you would like to get back in print, or you're looking for maybe original prints of or anything like that?

How to Ask Publishers Hard Questions and Get Books Back in Print

SPEAKER_01

I do not have a running spreadsheet sheet. And all I know is when I shoot my chat and you tell me this is all you have, and I go to your back catalog and I look for myself and see all of those wonders and gems that you did have at one point before. Say, i.e. J. California Cooper. I'm pretty sure that the reason why her first two books or three books got reprinted within the last few years is because I asked a lot of questions. And that is my girl. Literally, J. California Cooper is one person I do not play about. And I was like, I don't understand how her work is not being reprinted. A lot of the times it's the questions that you ask in the way that you ask them. And who are you asking these questions to? And then if somebody can't give you an answer, is there anyone that you can you can direct me to that can give me the answer that I would like? Yeah. And not being afraid to ask the questions, ask the hard questions. And like I tell a lot, even a lot of influencers, they're like, man, how do you get the books or whatever? All they can tell you is yes or no. That's literally it. If I want a book and I see it's about to come out or it has already come out, and I already know that I'm gonna do my due diligence, y'all gonna see the book anyway on my timeline. Give me the book. Yep. I'm just like, what's the question? What's the problem here? I don't understand.

Alesia Galati

And once you're in the no too, and they see that you're like because having a podcast is a great way to be able to like, hey, I'm gonna interview these authors or highlight them on my blog or highlight them on my website. I have a subsect that's 15,000 people, that kind of stuff. If I have that those stats to say, hey, like I I just got a book, and we're in July recording this. I got a book. It comes out in November, like a pre-pre. And I was like, I want that. I just finished the other one by that author. I want that one. Send that on over. We'll get her on my calendar because I already read her stuff and I like it. But I think that a challenge that each of us can take, listeners and myself alike, is find a book that, whether it's a kid's book, whether it's a mystery book, the the subgenre of your choice, find a book that is no longer being printed and ask a question.

SPEAKER_01

Ask the hard questions. Tell me how many people I need to request to buy this book for you to print, reprint, start printing this book out. Yeah. Or start the reprints up. You know what I'm saying? Let's be for real. And see, my author friend I was talking to this morning, she said, and I didn't know this was a thing where if you wanted the author to come to your city city, sometimes they request we need this amount of books to be sold at the event. Did you know that was the thing? Yes. And I said, friend, I wish I would have known that because maybe I could get that. You know what I'm saying? The number that was given, I was like, almost flabbergasted. What? You don't think I can get it? Please, I can I can probably sell you some books, and some people probably wouldn't show up, but you the book will be sold. Get you here. I need you to come to say that's all it's gonna take to get people to come to my city, which people don't come to Birmingham often. I always have to drive to Atlanta, or I always have to drive to Jackson. Or now I know I can drive to New Orleans. I always have to drive somewhere else to get the people I want to come in so that they know that they have a fan base here. And it's plenty of fans. It's plenty of people who will support you here, but we just gotta know how to do it. How do we make this tangible? Right. Something that's accessible to all of

Grassroots Organizing: Laminating Reading Cards and Highlighting Black Books Locally

SPEAKER_01

us.

Alesia Galati

Yeah, which I think leads me to my next question was like, how can we as either book clubs or content creators or Indie bookstores or whomever like really amplify this challenge, really push this. You mentioned pamphlets, like where's the best place to get those printed? So that maybe we put them in our free little libraries that are local to us.

SPEAKER_01

Or we you know I will tell you the truth. Wherever. Printed them things out right on this corner at home. There you go. And I laminated it. I think that's just the educator and me.

Alesia Galati

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Make a white. I put it in those little squares just enough so it wouldn't be too much. We wouldn't be holding a huge big piece of paper. Here is your square with your recommendations. As far as bookstores, make a what do they call it? Viewpoint. Y'all highlight everything else. Highlight the challenge. People don't know what's going on until you highlight something. I'm gonna put one up in my library at work. We're doing this. I want the whole school involved. In collaboration with my college, my former university, Miles College. We're trying to put in an initiative, get all the students on board when school starts. So that they know that this challenge is happening and they know I'm a mile in two times because I graduated there with two degrees. We can get this thing popping, we can get this thing rolling. Big initiative. People like to feel like they are in a community, especially when they're reading. Because y'all know why we read in these spaces, because it's community. We always say we don't have anybody to talk to about what we're reading. We're in these communities because this is what we do within these communities. And we show other people they have no idea that this could even be a thing. Well, you can be in a community and y'all are talking about the same books. Oh girl, read this. Or even you don't even have to really be reading the same exact, but girl, read this, you like that. Or I get up on in my camera so many days and I'm like, oh my god, y'all got to read this book. A lot of people follow me or get the book because I said what needed to be said about the book, which I don't not be lie. The book be good. Okay. But just getting people to discuss books like they do movies or like you do a television show, just putting it as a part of the conversation will change the trajectory of where we're going in this post-literate

Word-of-Mouth Recommendations: Bringing Book Talk into Daily Life

SPEAKER_01

society. It just irritates my nerves. It wrecks my nerves.

Alesia Galati

Yeah. I even think about I my kids go to MMA, which is mixed martial arts for the uninitiated. Sometimes people are like, wait, what's MMA? Mixed martial arts, where they do like wrestling and grappling and boxing. It's like a mix of all that. And it's really great for the autism and the ADHD and the kiddos. So keep them. All of it. Four nights a week. I'm here for it. It's a lot. So I see these parents a lot. And I'm near a military base. So we get a lot of families in and out. But I'm always reading when I go because ain't nothing better to do. I'm not watching these kids do. I'm here. I can see y'all. There's a person there helping y'all. We're good. So I'm usually reading a book. And I've had a few times where another mother or someone will peek over to see what I'm doing. They're like, hey, so what's your reading good? And I'm like, oh, let me tell you. Let me tell you. And I have actually gotten some of the other moms to read books by black authors who were in a predominantly white area. And they're probably not getting access or even their algorithm is not pushing them to read these black authors. And I'm like, oh, if you like this, if you like this trope, I definitely recommend this book. And I won't even say, oh, it's by a black author or it's a black romance. Right. Just focusing on the trope. You like this trope, you'll like this book. I think can help people get over the hurdle. And I recommended a book. I actually let her borrow my physical copy. It's signed and everything, but I knew I'd see her. I know. But I let her borrow it and she came back two weeks later and was like, this was incredible. I absolutely loved it so much. I was like, and here is book two. I just keep you on this role. Let's go. And so I think just that, right? Like talking about it, communicating with other people about here's some incredible books can really get people out of their heads. I love the idea of having just here's some cardstock, here's a laminator. I got one of them at home. We can do that at the house. Put those in some of our free little libraries that we have locally, and here's some books by black authors. Let's go ahead and put some of those in there. And I think that can really help in that initiative and really pushing people. So I mentioned at the beginning that the way that you're tracking it is with that Google form. Super easy to fill out. Is that the best way to tally your mark of I am joining this initiative? And are there other ways to make sure that we're staying connected with this?

How to Join the One Million Black Books Tally Across Social Platforms

SPEAKER_01

Well, I did the Google form, and then you followed me on the 1 million page, right? So what I've been counting is the Google form, the 1 million page on Instagram, the 1 million page on Threads, I got a 1 million page on Facebook, and the story ref. And with those numbers, I've calculated all those together to well, you see, like we got 8,500 and some people reading a book by a black author this summer. I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure we almost had nine. Okay. So we got almost 9,000 people reading a book by a black author this summer. And that's where those numbers go to.

Alesia Galati

Awesome. Okay. And let's Substackers, people who subscribe to me on Substack, there's 15,000 of y'all. Let's read a black book.

SPEAKER_01

Y'all can follow Melanita Rita over there on Substack. I'm over there too.

SPEAKER_03

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01

Sometimes I live in Instagram. I live on threads. So if you want to really inbox me something, I'm going to see the same day. Those two definitely. And I'm checking on my friends on Facebook because my friends on Facebook, we're growing over there. I don't know what's happening. We almost had 3,500. I'm like, wow, we were at 1200 at the beginning of this summer. Who y'all finding out of over there? So we're growing and it's just becoming such a beautiful thing. It's just like the scene.

Alesia Galati

Oh, it's so incredible. For folks who are finding this episode after your challenge has quote unquote completed. What is the best place? I'm thinking Instagram is the best place to stay connected with whatever you're working on now, whatever initiatives that you're pushing, because I do not think this is the end at all or the.

SPEAKER_01

I don't think it's the end either, but keep following Melaneda Rita, definitely. That's me. That's gonna be me all day long. That's where you're gonna really hear from me first.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

If something is popping up, you're gonna really hear from Melaneda Rita first. Right now, we almost at 33,000 strong, which is crazy. Nuts, actually. Y'all are nuts. I just went down to that. And come on and just let's just we're gonna continue to have a good time. You know, I just always like a good time. Reader don't have to be boring, reading don't have to be super challenging all the time. Am I with the shits for challenging reads? Absolutely, because I've read all the classics. That's more near Hursting over there, okay? Do not play. I do not play. But do will I be here for a good time? Absolutely. I'm hanging with, I'm looking closely at them girls who are joining up for the Black Romance Book Festival for 2027. Oh, yeah. I'm like a it's like a bat signal almost. Oh right. Oh, and the house party.

Alesia Galati

I know. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, and love in books, Hollywood. So if you are in California, you might see me if you come.

Alesia Galati

Awesome. I love that. And we'll have links for all of this that we mentioned in the show notes. Everyone, go connect with Melanated Reader. Check out the recommendations you on the One Million Black Books Instagram. There are tons of recommendations that folks are sharing.

Outro: Connecting with Crystal's Etsy Swag and Upcoming Initiatives

SPEAKER_01

I have swag, y'all. So if you are interested in swag, I have an essay store. We got bookmarks, we have buttons, we have reading journals over there now. All of the things that you're oh, we got Kindle inserts for the black girl. Okay. So we got Kindle inserts. We got all kinds of stuff. Y'all come on over and see your girl.

Alesia Galati

And like I said, we'll have links for all that in the show notes and the YouTube description for anyone doing other things as they're listening to us. Definitely go check that out. Crystal, thank you so much for being on. This was an absolute pleasure.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, thank you for having me. Until next time, y'all.

Alesia Galati

Oh yeah.

Head Shot

Alesia

Host

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