Brittany Schulz is the owner of Fiction & Friction, an online bookshop dedicated to stocking indie authors, specialising in romance titles. After two years running the online shop, Schulz is is now opening a physical location in Murray Bridge, Adelaide, to cater to increasing demand. She spoke to Debbie Lee, Ingram Content Group’s senior manager of content acquisition and business development, about her journey into bookselling.
When did you first think about setting up an online indie shop focusing on romance titles and what inspired you?
I’ve always wanted to own a bookstore. I think every book reader has had that dream at one point or another but in 2020 I really started thinking about it. I couldn’t work due to my disabilities (chronic pain conditions) and I was on bookstagram but so many people had never read the books I was talking about.
One day I thought to myself, I wonder what would happen if there was a store that only stocked indie books. I always knew that indie books were amazing, but they never got the spotlight that the trad books did, so I reached out to author friends and they also thought it was a great idea. I dove in from there. At the time I thought it would be a cool hobby—I certainly didn’t expect it to grow this big!
I kinda fell into the romance genre because those are my favourites, but I do stock a small number of other genres (middle-grade, children’s books, poetry) and I will expand those ranges with the physical bookstore opening soon.
How did you source your first titles and how have you grown the list of authors and books since?
I started off with around 20 authors. They were mostly authors I knew personally and some that I took a shot on reaching out to. I’ve now grown to almost a thousand different books by more than 250 authors. I started by getting books directly from authors. Now, I do a mixture of working with authors, and ordering via my retailer account with Ingram Content Group who print-to-order and I receive the books within days.
You must read voraciously! How do you decide what authors to showcase and what titles to stock?
Deciding what books to stock started getting hard when I realised how many authors wanted me to stock their books. I had a waitlist of over 170 authors at one point, it was crazy. I couldn’t believe it.
I have a few things that I do to choose. The first is based on my own favourites—I go through lists of authors that I love. Two, I have an Expression Of Interest (EOI) form that is open to all authors—if I think your book will appeal to my customers you are in. Three, I have a customer request form on my website. This lets customers tell me who they’d like to see in my store.
I’ve gotten good at knowing what will and won’t sell to my customers, but it does make me feel bad if a book doesn’t suit my store.
Romance has really made a resurgence in recent years. What do you think is fuelling this since the days of Mills and Boon (when people wouldn’t necessarily admit to their reading fetish!)?
I feel like social media has played a huge role in helping derail the stigma behind romance books. It’s very much still around but lots of us no longer care if a sexy man on the cover draws odd looks from other passengers on the bus or train! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We have found so many like-minded people on the internet and we don’t feel like we are the only ones reading romance anymore. We know millions of us do!
And why do you think romance writing is thriving so well particularly in the ‘indie community’?
Same as above! Social media can be a very bad place to be, but it can also be one of the most supportive places when you find the corners of the internet full of people who read the same things you do.
In addition, there are a lot of events that cater to the romance writing and reading community. Last year Fiction & Friction was lucky enough to be invited to attend Australia’s biggest romance-based book signing event (over 1200 tickets sold) as their official bookseller. The Ballgowns & Books Event is run by two amazing independent Aussie authors, Tate James and Jaymin Eve. When they invited me, it got me thinking about other events.
I’ve attended lots of signings for independently published authors/readers and they either don’t have a bookseller or they have one that stocks no indie books. So, I started reaching out and asking if I could attend these events as a bookseller. They have been fantastic. In September I attended the Newcastle Book Boyfriend Author Signing event, and this month, the Books In-Sight Author Signing event in Melbourne.
Can you talk a bit about all the sub genres—the popular, the quirky and the downright bizarre (contemporary; historical; urban fantasy; paranormal; regency; YA; queer; erotic etc)?
There are so many subgenres! I find that ‘why choose’ romance (which encompasses ‘polyamorous’ and ‘reverse harem’ romance), and ‘dark’ romance books are very popular, and these are two of my bestselling subgenres! I personally love them both. I really love dark romance. It’s a very empowering genre to read as a survivor and I know many women including myself who use it as a form of therapy.
Even though you’re an online vendor, you tend to hold stock of the titles that you promote. How important is speed to market do you think? And do you ever worry about over (or under) supply?
I think it’s super important to have the stock ready to post out; I also do pre-orders on popular books because it’s almost impossible to keep some titles in stock for more than a day. Because I’m only one person I very much have to limit what I can sell and so opening the new store is going to help that drastically.
I always worry about over or under stocking things. It is very hard to tell what will and won’t sell. Therefore, I generally only stock 8–10 copies of new books that I’m unsure of.
Ingram has made a huge difference to how quickly I can restock items. Being able to purchase a bunch of books by different authors in one go saves so much time!
What factors do you think have really given rise to your incredible success in just two years, and how much does marketing and social media play a part ?
Community! I have built a community around myself and my store. I am very open and honest on social media. I talk about my mental and physical health; I talk about being a mother and a business owner. I feel like I’ve built a community of people who truly care about me as a person and not just my business.
I haven’t done a whole lot of marketing until recently and most of my marketing is more towards getting authors to take notice of the store than customers. Instagram is where I get the most engagement, but TikTok is fantastic for getting noticed. I have over 22,000 followers on TikTok and the ones who really love what I do then come over and follow me on Instagram.
Ironically, the pandemic also played a part. While it was risky starting a business in the height of lockdowns, so many people who were stuck at home started reading again, so it turned out my timing was great!
What’s next on your agenda?
Next up for Fiction & Friction is the opening of the bricks–and-mortar store. This is going to help me get orders out quicker as I’ll be able to stock more books by more authors. I will be able to tap into the local market because my town doesn’t have a bookstore. I can’t wait!
And in 2024 I’ll be hosting an Indie Book Convention with over 100 authors in attendance, along with vendors and other industry companies. The aim is to have the Fiction & Friction—Indie Book Convention running every two years and hopefully having it grow each year. I am very excited for the future, and I can’t wait to be able to support even more indie authors.
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