#meetthebookstagrammer interview with @quietmountainreader

Emma’s account was one of my inspirations for the Taylor Jenkins Reid Readathon that I ran not long after I joined Bookstagram. I love her energy and character, and I was excited to learn more about the woman behind @quietmountainreader.

Nadia: You live in Salt Lake City, right? What’s your favourite thing about it?

Emma: I love the artistic community here. I have a lot of local art in my home. It’s a beautiful, passionate scene here. There’s loads of local bookstores too. It’s just all very home-y. I love being close to the mountains as well. I’m like two minutes away from being inside of a canyon.

Nadia: And you’ve just hit your two-year anniversary on Bookstagram! What was it that got you started?

Emma: I’ve always loved reading and Instagram. I was posting so many pictures of books and I was following a couple of small Bookstagram accounts, but I didn’t have a sense of the breadth of the community. Managing two Instagram accounts sounded like so much pressure and I realised my current following didn’t care to see what I was reading all of the time, so I eventually decided to take the plunge. I didn’t know what my account would become. I thought it’d be more of me tracking my reading for myself, but it’s become infinitely more and I’ve made so many great friends.

Nadia: How, if in any way, has being on Bookstagram changed your reading habits?

Emma: There’s a lot of #bookstagrammademedoit posts for sure. I wouldn't have found a lot of the books that I’ve found without Bookstagram. It’s changed my habits when I go into bookstores as now I look for things I’ve seen on there. I’m also more eager to go out of my comfort zone as I meet people who have so many different passions to me and I like to explore what they’re reading. It’s opened up my genres and led me to some amazing authors too — this is how I found Taylor Jenkins Reid. I wouldn’t have found her without Bookstagram, and she is the queen!

But, now it’s hard to get off Bookstagram and actually read. I’m always scrolling, and looking at recommendations and content. I need to get better at putting my phone down and reading more, but I just like talking to people!

Nadia: Do you have anything that you’re trying to do to help you with that?

Emma: Yeah. I’m trying to be more conscious of the fact that if I don’t spend time reading I won’t have any content to post! And I really swear by the Bookly app. It times you and you can see how fast you’re reading and the average number of pages you get through. Because I am so competitive, I don’t want to check my phone as it’ll mess up the math that the app calculates around how fast I read. And honestly, just committing to reading, especially at night, when it’s like: okay, all my Bookstagram friends are asleep. It’s time to read!

Nadia: Because your Bookstagram has become such a key part of your life, has reading become this ‘serious’ hobby that you have to do? And does that impact your enjoyment of reading in any way?

Emma: I was talking about this the other day. I haven’t done a lot of requesting books from publishers, though I have a couple of publishing houses that I do partner with frequently. I don’t reach out for books as I don’t want it to feel like homework. I never want it to get to the point where I’m receiving fifty books a week and it’ll feel like college again. I want to be able to read what I want to read, to read from the backlist. Right now I’m re-reading Harry Potter and I read it like every other year. I want to keep being able to do things like that and not feel like I’m missing deadlines.

Bookstagram is weird because I do think about it every single day. I wake up and think: “okay, I need to get a post up. Because if I don’t post between 8 and 11am, the engagement will fall.” I’m passionate about it and I love the people so it’s never too much of a chore, but there are times when I’m like: “I have to step back. I need a week away. I need a social media cleanse.” It’s a very interesting dichotomy, but it’s not been bad enough yet to get me to quit.

Nadia: You mentioned wanting to post between a key window every day or engagement will drop. Do you see a key difference if you miss that window then?

Emma: Yes. One hundred per cent. And I don’t know if that’s just because fewer people are on the app…I used to work in social media and so I have all of these statistics offhand. But the Instagram algorithm has gotten so mean lately and I just don’t know how new Bookstagrammers can start right now. If you don’t post every single day, if you’re not commenting every single day, if you’re not utilising stories, it’s so hard to grow an account. And even the bigger accounts, the friends I’ve had on here for two years, are all stagnating, just because it’s become so relentless. You have to be constantly on your phone, and I can’t do that: I have a full-time job, I have to read, I have to go be out in public.

But yes, if I don’t post early in the morning, you can tell engagement slips. If I’m busy at work and I can’t get a post up until 3pm, I ask myself: do I post something at 3 and only get forty likes or do I skip today and take the hit for the next couple of days to re-build my engagement? It’s insane. But that’s when you have to decide: okay, this is a hobby for me. It’s not about the likes. It’s about connecting with other readers and sharing books. Of course I want to get more likes and followers, but at the end of the day I have to focus on the connections I’ve made.

Nadia: You’ve never reached out to them, and yet you partner with a few publishers. When and how did they start reaching out to you?

Emma: I think I’ve been very lucky with the people I’ve become friends with. Some of those I met on Bookstagram have gotten jobs at different publishing houses and they will recommend me when they’re looking for reviewers for certain genres. If I’m reading books from certain publishers I always tag them in my posts and because of that they start reaching out to me that way: “Hey, we saw that you loved this book, would you like to read this one?” And then you can just start building up a relationship from there.

But I was never brave enough to reach out and just go: “Hello, I’m Emma. Here are my stats. I would love this book.” I wouldn’t feel bad about doing that now, but I just have so much to read that for my own sanity I don’t want to burden myself. And there’s no risk in DM-ing. Everyone I’ve worked with in the publishing world has always been very kind. So, if you wanna request a book, I say: go for it!

Nadia: Okay, I’m going to change topic a little bit now. You love writing, but unlike a lot of the writers I’ve come across on here, you’re not writing novels, but poetry. Do you manage to find time to write it these days and what’s your poetry like?

Emma: I try to! I’ve done novel writing too. I did NaNoWriMo in 2015 and got to the 50,0000-word goal. And then it took another couple of months to properly finish it. Poetry, I’ve always loved. Before I switched my major to English, I was a Theatre major. I’ve always loved poetry and Shakespeare. I used to push out three to four poems a week back in the day and I’m not at that level now with work and life. It’s hard to find the time to just sit and write. But if inspiration hits, I pull out my phone and put it in my notes. And I do still post things on my blog at quietmountainreader.com. All of my old poetry and flash fiction is still on there. It’s very personal, a lot of it is very romantic, about the people I’ve been in love with. That’s the vibe of my poetry!

Nadia: And during the day you work as a Public Relations Manager — what does your day-to-day look like?

Emma: Very busy and varied! I work at an advertising agency so I have a bunch of different clients, as opposed to just one. It’s a mix of event planning and management, coordinating influencers for some of my clients, and so many meetings. A lot of it is just talking to people. And I do love when we have events, especially when we do charitable ones. I love being out with kids during those. I’m moving a lot, writing a lot of blogs and press releases, and doing media outreach, but it keeps me creative, though in a very different channel to anything else.

Nadia: @atypicalreader has just asked: How do you decide what books to read and review? How do you curate your Instagram?

Emma: That’s a good question! I’m a big mood reader so for deciding what to read I just go with what I’m feeling. Lately I’ve been having a lot of anxiety issues and when I have that I crave familiarity and fantasy. So I picked up Harry Potter again.

Nadia: So your thousands of followers does not influence what you read in any way — you still just go by what you feel?

Emma: Yeah, I don’t feel influenced at all. If some of my friends are doing a readalong, and I know a bunch of them are going to be reading a certain book, if it’s something I’m in the mood for I’ll join in. But I pretty much stick to what I want to do. With regards to curating my Bookstagram, I just take pictures of what I’m reading, books I buy. I use the same filter on every picture. I use an app called RNI Films, if anyone wants an app recommendation.

Nadia: Okay! Let’s do the quote challenge now. When we were talking the other day, you said that you’re big on quotes and that you have a good memory for them. So, I want to get your number one favourite quote from three places. First, what is your favourite quote from a book?

Emma: It has to be from ‘The Great Gatsby’, that’s one of my favourite books of all time. My first tattoo was the word ‘Gatsby’ on my wrist. It has to be the first introduction to Jay Gatsby on the first pages, where Nick says: “He has a romantic readiness and an extraordinary gift for hope.” I love that. I feel like it describes me. It’s like a deadly romanticism. It’s always stuck with me.

Nadia: Now that’s a book I definitely need to read. Okay, your favourite quote from a movie.

Emma: It’s from the movie ‘An Education’ with Carey Mulligan. At the very end, when she’s gone through a lot, she says: “I feel old, but not very wise.” I love that quote because it’s like: she’s very mature, but nobody is as mature as they think they are.

Nadia: And finally, a quote from a TV show.

Emma: This is so hard. I love so many. But I’d probably go for one from ‘The Office’, the American version. There’s a part where Jim is talking about falling in love with Pam and he says: “It’s not gonna happen.” And Michael says: “Never ever ever give up on what you want.” It’s just such a beautiful, tender moment.

Nadia: Okay, it’s time for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the quickfire round! You ready?

Emma: Yes — let’s do it!

Nadia: One book at a time or multiple?

Emma: One at a time.

Nadia: Mood reader or strict TBR follower?

Emma: Mood.

Nadia: Fiction or non-fiction?

Emma: Fiction all day, every day.

Nadia: Print, digital or audio?

Emma: Print. All the time.

Nadia: Favourite light-hearted book?

Emma: ‘Anna and the French Kiss’, by Stephanie Perkins.

Nadia: Favourite heavy/emotional book?

Emma: ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak.

Nadia: Favourite unexpected favourite?

Emma: Ugh! Probably, ‘Paper Towns’ by John Green. I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did.

Nadia: All-time favourite book?

Emma: Probably Gatsby. I gotta say Gatsby.

Nadia: If you could have any career in books or publishing, what would you do?

Emma: I would love to work as an author, but also for a bookish non-profit.

Nadia: Favourite thing to do outside of books or reading?

Emma: I love kayaking and swimming.

Nadia: Ah — nice! And now three shoutouts. You can shout out any book you want.

Emma: I’m gonna shout out ‘A Great and Terrible Beauty’ by Libba Bray. It’s a Young Adult, fantasy novel. There’s three in the series. And Libba just announced that she’s doing something with those characters again. I don’t know if it’s more books, or a scene in other books. For fans of Harry Potter, you need to pick these ones up! There’s a Victorian boarding school, magic—it’s awesome!

Nadia: Shout out any Bookstagram account!

Emma: I’m gonna shout out my good friend Alisa of @worldswithinpages. One of my very first Bookstagram friends.

Nadia: Finally, something non-book related!

Emma: I’m gonna go for ‘Yoga with Adriene’ on YouTube. She is amazing. I’ve had a lot of anxiety issues lately but she has a new video out every week and it’s helped me. I definitely recommend checking her out.

Nadia: Okay, that concludes this interview. Thank you so much, Emma. This was so good!

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