I hope it is ok if this post is a little vulnerable. Because honestly, I am working through a lot of emotions here in real time.

I have spent the last six months very focused on growing this community here because I knew that there was a chance that TikTok would be going away, and my hope was that we would have built a strong enough community to be able to sustain our work through any growing pains on whatever platforms we collectively move to. Now, here we are, a month out from the deadline congress gave TikTok, and to be honest… I am a little nervous.

I’m not scared that I won’t be able to build a platform somewhere else. Even though TikTok makes it very hard to advertise other platforms, I am confident that if and when this app actually goes away, plenty of my current followers will look for me elsewhere. Not to mention, I am friends with plenty of creators who will gladly share my content and help my community to find me again. So I think that ultimately, it will be a few months of really hard work, but we will rebuild.

But here’s the hard part… TikTok was not just a community base. It was also a significant source of income for myself and many many others.

I can’t help but think about the millions of small businesses that are in the black because of TikTok. Not only because of the unique opportunity TikTok shop provided, but also because TikTok’s algorithm enabled them to put their businesses, their vision and the products in front of millions of people. And other platforms, while great in their own right, just don’t provide the same access.

With the loss of TikTok, millions of bussinesses will be negatively impacted. And not just businesses. Also the creators who worked with them to generate that income.

Myself included.

My platform is almost entirely about championing Black and brown authors. That is no secret. It’s also no secret that I have built a brand that is not particularly safe or appealing for large corporations. Which means that no matter how large my account has gotten, I have never attracted many brand partners. My focus is on bringing change to the publishing industry, and the way I have been able to dedicate so much of my time to that work—which does not pay very well—is by partnering with the small businesses and indie authors I love to promote their products/books for a small commission.

I’ve been open about that. Y’all know exactly how the tiktok shop works. But the part you probably don’t know, is that those small commissions—and they are small. I have never once asked a business to give me more commission than they can afford to lose—make up a significant chunk of my income while I am building my publishing presence. I sell hundreds of books a month. Books I would have sold anyway, but instead of directing people toward Amazon, I’ve been able to direct them toward the TikTok shop, where I make a dollar, sometimes two. And while that is not a fortune, it has been enough to enable me to continue pouring all of my time and energy into helping authors, building this publishing community, and working toward change.

And so here’s where I am now… I know I will be able to rebuild on different platforms. But I will still be building a brand that is not particularly appealing to large corporations. Only now, I will be doing it without the ability to work with small businesses and authors as effectively. Because even though I have bookshop.org and a storefront on amazon, it is infinitely harder to get people to use your commission links if they have to leave the app. Which means, I will likely be continuing the same work I have already been doing, but with almost no supplemental income from it.

So yeah… suffice to say, I am a little upset.

I will continue to do all of the work I am doing now, and I will figure it out. I’m not scared. There are options. I can always pull back from the work I do here and go back to my corporate position if I have to. But that is not my first choice. I believe in the work I am doing here and want to continue pouring the time and energy into it that I am now. I want to continue producing the amount of resources I am now, and championing the amount of authors i am now. I am passionate about this work and intend to put as much of myself into it as I can. And I assure you, it IS work.

So here is my plan currently.

I am going to build this community as large as I can over the next month and see where that leaves us.

As you know, half of the money from my paid subscriptions goes directly into a fund to help produce our publishing projects and the other half goes to me to compensate me for the amount of work I put into this community. I also make 100% of the commissions from any books that you buy directly from the links on my Bindery posts.

So here is the plan… I am going to attempt to grow my paid subscriptions large enough to fully make up for what I will probably be losing when and if TikTok goes away, so that I can move forward with this work uninterupted.

I am currently at a little over 170 paid subscribers. To hit sustainablility with this platform along, I need that number to hit closer to 500. I make the majority of my income through ghost writing, sensistivity reading and other editorial services from time to time. I am not looking to replace any of that here at the moment, because i can manage all of that on top of what I do here. But I do want to attempt to mitigate what I will lose from TikTok going away.

So yeah… you are going to see me shifting my focus on TikTok to almost exclusively trying to grow my paid subscriptions. Please forgive me! lol.

But also, if you are already subscribed, consider upgrading to at least the $5 tier.

Like I said, I will figure it out no matter what. But the best case scenario here, is that I am able to meet this goal and continue the work I am doing at the same pace. And for that to happen, I am going to need to build those subscriptions, and I'm honestly going to need to do that fairly fast. So if you are able to join at that $5 or $12 tier, it will make a massive difference. (No shame if you cannot or just do not want to.)

Thanks for listening to me whine here. And know… I plan to continue posting a TON of bookish content here. So don’t you worry. Even if TikTok and every other platform go away, I will continue doing this work! This industry NEEDS CHANGE. And I’m not going anywhere until it gets it.

If you are reading this from an outside app and don't want to subscribe at a paying tier, please subscribe for FREE. It will only take a few seconds and it will make a difference in helping this community meet our goal! Thank you.