American Fantasy Author and Bookstore Owner Emma Straub on Why Book Swag Is Everywhere

To promote her new boy band cruise novel American Fantasy, novelist Emma Straub, who co-owns Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic, went all out with swag. Partnering with VistaPrint, Straub created promotional items tied to the novel’s theme, featuring things vacationers would need on a cruise, including a Boybands Are Magic hat (her favorite item), a water bottle, sunscreen, breath mints, and playing cards.What motivated Straub to get so extra with her offerings, an expansion from her previous swag? Partly, her past job working for the band The Magnetic Fields and seeing how eager fans were to buy merch, along with her bookstore experience, where merch has become more popular than she ever expected. Her history as a Blockhead (aka, a major New Kids on the Block fan) also played a role.In this episode of Finders and Keepers, Straub discusses her past novels and their attendant swag, and why American Fantasy, whose research included attending a New Kids on the Block cruise, is different, why she loves stuff that represents her interests (and which NKOTB items she still owns from childhood), and the larger rise of BookTok and social media influencers on book swag and merch. She also delves into the surprising role merch has played with regulars and visitors to Books Are Magic, thanks to the design skills of her husband, bookstore co-owner Michael Fusco-Straub.Visit the episode page at Open Secrets Magazine to read a transcript.Mentioned in this episode:VistaPrintThe Magnetic FieldsBoybands Are Magic hatBooks Are Magic hatAbout our guest:Emma Straub’s websiteEmma Straub’s SubstackInstagram: emmastraubTikTok: emmastraubwriterAmerican FantasyBooks Are MagicBooks Are Magic online merch storeInstagram: @booksaremagicbkFinders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. If you like the podcast, we’d greatly appreciate if you’d leave a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts and tell your friends about it to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepersFor more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit opensecretsmagazine.com/subscribe