As is going to become abundantly clear, I did not plan on starting a book subscription service.
At the start of 2019 I went in search of a gift for a book friend. There were quite a few bookish boxes to choose from but none of the UK ones were adult romance, the only adult ones I could find were in the USA. Which meant that even the best priced boxes had shipping charges on top, sometimes it doubled, or more, the price of the box.
So I asked around.
I asked with my blogger friends, I asked in book groups and reader groups; does anyone know of a UK Adult Romance Book Box? While there were YA boxes and other fantasy based boxes I couldn’t find anything dedicated to my love of adult romance. What a bummer!
But, people were interested, other people wanted this too, it wasn’t just me!
So, I set up a group to chat about what other people might like.
What would you want including?
How many books?
Would bookplates be okay for international authors?
I asked any and everything I might need to know and I started to build a picture.
I reached out to authors I knew and loved and worked out a line-up that I thought looked good and asked the group. Who would be genuinely interested in purchasing one of these new subscription book boxes? People asked for a surprise, so I kept the authors and their books a secret and did teasers for everyone.
I compiled something, liaised with authors, made swag and labelled books and put it all together and shipped them.
It was a moment… a real moment of discovery for me.
When those first dozen boxes were loaded up in to the car and my husband drove away with them I had a moment of complete panic. What if people didn’t like them, what if they thought the books were awful and they figured out that I had no idea what I was doing?
And then, I had to wait… it took three days for most of the boxes to arrive, although some arrived as quickly as the next day, and then the responses started to come in.
There were a few hiccups with this one, the boxes weren’t as great as I was hoping, some things got damaged and replacements were sent. But it was a learning curve and new boxes were sourced, different packing trialled and one of the items became an RRBB UK staple and is featured in each quarterly box.
But people liked them!
They liked them so much that the next order was bigger again; more items, more authors, more interest. A Christmas novella box was done at the end of 2019 and at the start of 2020 we added in Love em or Hate em trope; Marmite Boxes.
From there I have grown to include more options and different themes each quarter, a special Christmas Box and even more. Each book is a special edition to include our own formatting and we have at least one exclusive cover per quarter with more excitement planned.
Charity anthologies, anniversary boxes, Christmas count downs. So many amazing things created and planned.
As I head into the third year I hope you all like and enjoy the things I have put together, I’m loving doing it!
I’m just a reader making something for herself, that others can share in.
I try to make sure that there is the opportunity for as many people as possible to partake and have options for all budgets (where I can).
Thank you all for joining me on this journey
Heather 🙂