Book blogger spotlight: Tea and Titles
Book bloggers Ely and Michelle are staunch advocates for greater representation of disability in books. Their blog, Tea and Titles, is primarily focused on YA literature, but also covers poetry, graphic novels and comics, as well as their broader interests, such as movies and TV. The duo spoke to Books+Publishing for our ‘Book blogger spotlight’ series.
Describe your blog in under 50 words.
Tea and Titles is exactly who we are as people. It is strong, diverse and independent, but not without its flaws. We are the pairing of a warm cup of tea and a good book.
What makes your blog unique?
Our discussions about disability representation in books sets us apart from others. This is something we are both very passionate about, but it’s rarely discussed in the book community. People have been incredibly supportive of this, which means a lot to us. We also love discussing and recommending poetry, which is also something that isn’t overly popular. We try to highlight books that our readers won’t necessarily have heard about, and we hope that’s what sets us apart.
When and how did you get started?
We started blogging almost two years ago. Previously, Ely had been blogging on another website and Michelle had been posting BookTube videos. As we grew closer, we decided that there was no-one better for us to blog with than each other. We’ve never looked back!
How do you find out about new books?
As best friends with very similar tastes in books, we love recommending and sharing new books with one another. We find most of our news books on Goodreads, which we then share with our readers in our monthly ‘Last 5 books we added to our TBR’ posts. We get sent books by publishers for reviews, as well as indie authors on occasion.
What audience do you reach?
We achieve somewhere over 1000 views per month on the blog. However, we both use Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to share our love for reading and our thoughts on particular books. Most of our followers are somewhere between the ages of 13 and 30, mostly female, and they come from all over the world.
What other book blogs do you regularly follow?
We love supporting the friends we’ve made through blogging. We collaborate quite often with our best friend Angel, of Angel Reads. Otherwise, our favourites are our close friends Jolien from The Fictional Reader and Inge from Of Wonderland.
What has been your most popular post?
Posts about read-a-thons we are hosting are some of our most popular, but our posts discussing disability are always a great hit. For example, Ely wrote a post about why disability is needed in YA, and it received a lot of attention from readers and authors alike.
What’s your favourite social media platform, and what recent trends in social media have you noticed in book blogging?
Twitter is a favourite for both of us. We’ve met so many of our closest blogging friends through Twitter. It’s such a great way to get discussions rolling about books and important issues, as well as being a wonderful place to have a bit of fun.
As for trends, the call for diversity in YA is something we’ve definitely noticed in the past little while. This is something we’re passionate about, so we’re always happy to see people supporting diversity and Own Voices authors.
What are you reading now?
Michelle is currently reading Radical Self-Love by Gala Darling, a self-improvement nonfiction book about learning to find love for yourself.
Ely is re-reading Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne for her Honours degree in Literary Studies, which is focusing on the representation of disability in YA literature.
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