Literary Wanderlust
A writer launches a mobile bookstore for passionate readers
“THERE’S A WAY TO FIGURE THE MONEY OUT. If anyone can open a romance bookstore, it’s you.” My roommate told me this on our way to meet friends for dinner at Scoundrel.
I had finally shared an idea I’d been sitting on for a year. I told her that I wanted to open a romance bookmobile but that I didn’t think I could do it. Other people who had the financial ability and business knowledge opened businesses. I had neither of these things.
But her words hummed in my brain. They had their own heartbeat so loud I was forced to listen. My mind was a daily roller coaster. I convinced myself, before I even tried, that I would fail. Then, I’d read a particularly wonderful romance novel or scour the Instagram accounts of romance bookstores across the country, and I’d tell myself I could flourish.
Two weeks after that dinner, I took a leap: on October 20, 2024, I registered Swoon Booksellers as a business with the State of South Carolina. Very quickly, everything came together. It felt like kismet or that the universe was telling me I was on the right path. Ten days after I registered the business, I drove down to Columbia to purchase a KEI truck imported from Japan; it was the only truck on the lot that was, thankfully, automatic. I scheduled a paint job to make the truck go from ugly white to swoon-worthy pink. I purchased books from a wholesaler. I booked my first pop-up—an event that was hosted by Sun and Soil Plant Parlor.
When I went public with the idea—through an Instagram story shared on my personal account—I was amazed when I gained 100 followers in a few hours. One hundred people were excited about the idea. Some of them were people I knew; most were not.
I realize this sounds like it was an easy process, but it wasn’t. I don’t handle stress well. Being a business owner is twice as hard when a person suffers from—sometimes debilitating—anxiety, where my brain creates negative situations that haven’t happened but I convince myself will happen, and until I am proven the contrary I am unable to believe that everything will be okay. Usually, I stress-cry and then force myself to get back to work. So, that’s exactly what I am: a newly-minted-still-figuring-it-out-while-questioning-every-decision business owner.
THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS of opening Swoon, I talked myself into stress-induced anxiety spirals about things, like whether or not the pink paint would look good on the truck (it does), or if I would book my first pop-up location (I did), or if I’d see any return on investment (I have). I irrationally convinced myself that the IRS was going to find a flaw in one of the many documents I submitted to the state and federal governments to get Swoon up and running and then I’d go to jail for the rest of my life. There was little time to read and write and watch movies. I hardly slept.
Before I started Swoon, I would have said I didn’t have an entrepreneurial spirit. I’m not a risk taker, and a romance bookmobile felt like a risk. But I no longer wanted to be apathetic. I had grown complacent by taking jobs that didn’t feed my creativity and convinced myself I was fine with it. Until, that is, I wasn’t. Realizing I was on a path to feeling apathetic in all aspects of my life, I was finally motivated to make the changes I’d been too afraid to acknowledge. I wanted to feel desire and joy and purpose—and I wanted to realize a lifelong dream.
If you’d asked the child version of myself what she hoped she’d be when she was older, she would’ve said a bookstore owner and a writer. Over the years, I mistreated that little girl. I duct-taped and locked her into the basement of my mind sometime post-grad after months of looking for creative jobs and instead taking whatever I could to afford gas and groceries. I refused to listen when I’d browse my local independent bookstore and she would whisper, “This could be us.” But her whispers got louder, and she wouldn’t shut up about how we could have more. She no longer let me be apathetic.
IT’D BE TOO SIMPLE TO SAY I opened Swoon because I love to read romance. That is true, but it’s only part of the story. As a teen, I read authors who wrote about teenage girls navigating complicated family relationships and experiencing profound (and sometimes fantastical) situations, and, yes, capital-L Love was always a theme. But they were never just love stories to me, and that’s why I opened Swoon. I always related to the female characters of those books because I am someone with a complicated family dynamic who has experienced profound situations that made me who I am today. It is as dramatic as it sounds because that’s the way a book can connect to a person’s soul.
As an adult, it was only natural that I searched for books that still focused on Love. And in those books where the main plot is about two people falling in love, I found those same themes—complicated family relationships and profound (and sometimes fantastical) situations. Yet, I was made fun of for reading romance. I was told “Yeah, but you just read a bunch of love stories,” when I mentioned to a family member that I had read more than forty books—as if love stories have less merit than other genres.
Once a man in his car stopped beside the Smut Wagon—which is what I fondly call Swoon—to ask what event was happening. The word romance was barely out of my mouth before he had dismissed me with a wave and drove off.
That’s okay, though; it didn’t hurt my feelings. Swoon isn’t meant for him. It’s meant for people who enjoy reading romance stories. Historically, that’s been women. Most of Swoon’s audience and customers are women. And I love it. Just as much as I love the men who come with their loved ones and patiently wait while they shop for books; the same men who walk around the truck and admire the handiwork of the paint job and shelving and ask where I bought it.
I have met like-minded people who love to read romance. I have had deep conversations about the plot of this book alongside conversations about the level of “spice” in that book. I have met readers who stopped because they saw a pink truck with pink shelves and needed to know what was going on. Readers who thanked me for bringing romance to Greenville in this way.
Today, I wrote down a new to-do list for everything that needs to be done for Swoon’s next pop-up. I see checklists not as a chore but as a tool, a way to ensure that all of the ideas and goals I have to grow Swoon are achieved. I’m removed enough to know I probably won’t go to jail over some governmental forms because I know I’m too anal to be careless when I filled them out.
I have a horde of loved ones who consistently offer up their free time and skills to support Swoon. I have a community of romance readers who are excited about what is to come this year. And I have a dream to build Swoon into something permanent in Greenville—a pink building filled with colorful romance novels—from young adult selections to classics to romcoms to pure smut. I’m looking forward to whatever is next. V
Photography courtesy of Lilly Frederick
Catch Swoon at these upcoming Greenville pop-ups »
TODAY! March 8, at The Greenville Spark from 11am–3pm
Sun, March 23, at Southernside Brewing Co. from 11am–3pm
Sat, March 29, at Scout's Doughnuts from 10am–2pm
Way to go Lilly! I love this so much.
Love this, Lilly! Hey...I'm a Greenville based romance author....do you take indie authors? I hope to catch you on the 23rd at Southernside!
xoxo
Liz