What This Week! (Vol. 7 2025)
WEEK: 2/16/2025 - 2/22/2025
It’s my birthday week and I’m so excited! I love birthdays and always have. For 25, I have something really big planned! A gift to myself. Something big, that I will be sharing with all of you very very soon!
Here are two things to look out for this week on my social media:
Thursday: Birthday Giveaway on Instagram
Friday: Big Announcement on Friday on Tik Tok & Instagram!!
Changes coming to the WTW Articles: Booktube Influencers will no longer be a category. Unfortunately, I’m not always able to find a Booktuber who talks about dark romance specifically. Due to the scarcity of dark romance specific booktubers, I will be removing the category altogether.
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Quick Update!
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Bookstagram spotlight
Booktok spotlight
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Author Spotlight of The Week
K.M. Moronova
3 New-to-me Authors
K.D. Rose
Piper Leigh Ion
Elise Lang
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The Plight Of A Graphic Designer: Is Cover Design Art?
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No Videos This Week
What am I reading this week?
This week I have 2 ARCs to complete and 2 books I’ll be starting to do content pulls on. This past weekend, I completed my first content pull ever for an author and she absolutely loved it and I feel so giddy about it! I’m so excited to learn more skills that have to do with being a personal assistant for authors. It truly makes me so happy not only to learn these skills, but to do it and do it well!
I never thought that when I rekindled my love for dark romance that I would end up exactly where I am. I am fulfilling my love for my passion project, I am learning to become a PA through awesome experience, and also pursue being an entrepreneur and I never thought that was even an avenue for me to pursue!
The opportunities that I get to explore in our dark romance world are endless and I am honored to be apart of what we are building as a community!
Influencer Spotlight
Bookstagram:
@mymagicalbookshelf_ on Instagram
Sweetie pie Kaitie! She is the owner of the bookish company Euphoric Chapters and she truly is another supportive human that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. We were able to connect at Sinners and Stardust (2024) and I didn’t want to let her go! She is a girls-girl who also wants to see everyone win. Her content is the cutest and when you guys check her page out, I know you’ll see what I see!
Booktok:
@everything.erynreads on Tik Tok
I just discovered Eryn on Tik Tok! Lately, my goal has been to re-build my Tik Tok FYP brick by brick with all the dark romance besties that I can find. Not only did I stalk Eryn’s page and love her content, but it also felt like such a welcoming place as a dark romance girly. I love finding peeps who give me new reccs, funny content, and a good vibe overall. I look forward to more of her content and can’t wait to see what videos she drops this week!
Author Spotlight
K.M. Moronova - the author that broke me and put me all back together again. Here’s to you altering my brain chemistry forever - cheers!
The Fabric of Our Souls was the first book that I read by her, but it will certainly not be the last. It always feels so surreal when a book completely enraptures me. I felt as though living through the world she built on paper was an inflection point for me in 2024. How transcending it must have been for the Angel of the past to read this book for the first time. I wish that I could relive the moment I finished this book all over again. My heart and soul remain with those characters and I hope you all feel the same way when you read it. Kudos to you K.M. I’m so excited to continue watching you succeed and write the most hauntingly beautiful reads ever.
New-to-Me Authors
Shoutout to indie authors on Tik Tok that promote their books! I see you! I try my best to look for new-to-me authors who are self promoting their books so that I can help them get the views and engagement they’re looking for!
These all look like such good reads! When doing my searches I use the hashtag #indiedarkromanceauthor. If you want to look for other indie dark romance authors that are new-to-you, then you should keep up with that hashtag on Tik Tok!
Bookish News This Week:
The Plight Of A Graphic Designer: Is Cover Design Art?
art (noun)
the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
Art is a testimony to the way someone sees the world around them. No matter what form of art content we consume, whether that be drawings, sculptures, paintings, film, music, graffiti, architecture, or even digital art - at the end of the day, it’s all a form a self-expression. Even comissioned pieces have traces of the artist all over it.
Typically, artists are chosen because of their unique style and presentation. If you’ve ever taken a look, for example, at the portfolio of one cover artist, you can get a feel for exactly what their modus operandi is. No two works by a graphic designer or cover artist are the same. They leave their hearts in every piece they are commissioned to complete. This includes multiple redesigns if the commissioner is unhappy with the work, visiting and revisiting the drawing board several times before presenting an original idea, and even diving deep into what the story and plot line include in order to tie a cover into the story for a more cohesive presentation.
This week, the book community was made aware of an author who implied that cover art is not considered art to authors and that a graphic designer’s “worth” is only how successfully their cover design is in helping an author sell that book. To be clear, there is no direct data that correlates cover design to book sales. That is not reflected nor reported in any self-publishing portals (assuming we are talking about self published authors who commission artists because in the traditional publishing world, publishers typically have artists as full-time employees). The only way to determine how a cover design has helped you sell your book, would be to get every single person who purchased your book, to fill out a form in order to collect said data. This on its own is not feasible as, again, there are no reporting options available to readers for this on sites where they will purchase your books.
It’s unfortunate to hear that an author only estimates the value of a graphic designer based on a job that is not theirs to do - market a book. While a book cover does play a part in catching the eyes of readers, it’s not the only tool at an author’s disposal and should not be considered the sole defining factor for the success of a book. The idea that if a book doesn’t sell well, it’s the cover designers fault, is outrageous. Such a statement has the potential to do so much harm to a community of artists who often freelance and put their whole heart into the work that they do. Graphic design takes not only effort and skill, but time. As with any job, graphic designers are not only paid based on their experience (years in the field), but also their potential to adopt new skills, adapt to the role as it grows with their job duties, and how many hours they’ll put into said job. As someone who works in the human resources and job recruitment field professionally, I know this first hand.
I can say with confidence, that many graphic designers who freelance or moonlight as cover designers, severely undercharge their clients. Many of them don’t know their worth which makes them a community that often gets taken advantage of and are often under appreciated. Cover designers are an integral part to the self-publishing process. While you can create your own cover, they are a professional alternative. In the dark romance community alone, there are many wonderful cover designers that I’ve come across that build the most beautiful relationships with the authors they work with.
Here are a few awesome dark romance cover designers that I’ve seen on social media! If you’re an indie author looking to commission someone who specifically handles dark romance covers, and doesn’t use AI, then check these IG Handles out:
@disturbedvalkyriedesigns
@thebloodiedsouldcreative
@opulentdesigns121
@suziantoinette.designs
@pixelandquillstudio
@kbg.designs
Remember that our community is what we make of it. Instead of tearing others down, let’s focus on uplifting those around us to continue doing the things they love and are passionate about.
Booktube Videos of The Week
I didn’t get to watch any dark romance youtube videos this week. Sorry guys!