172: Sensitivity Reading, Diverse Characters, and Content Creation with Marines Alvarez

 

We have a guest on the podcast this week! Marines Alvarez is a book content creator, reviewer, and sensitivity reader. We chat about what sensitivity reading really is, what kinds of feedback she regularly gives clients, and her advice for writing diverse characters outside your lived experience or identity. Marines has been creating bookish content online for years, so we also discuss her approach to content creation and her involvement with Bindery Books - a new publisher that has a really exciting business model.  Enjoy! 

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Sensitivity Reading, Diverse Characters, and Content Creation with Marines Alvarez

Welcome to your big creative life, a podcast for writers and creatives that helps you live your best, big creative life, whatever that means for you. I'm Katie Wolf, a writer, book editor and creator. Join me every week for tips and discussion on writing mindset, up leveling your life and anything and everything that will help you achieve your big, creative dreams. I'm so excited to be here. We have a guest on the podcast today, which almost never happens, and I'm super excited about this. I this is an idea that I've had in the back of my head. Is an episode for a while. And I'm so, so happy that our guest today agreed to be on the show and talk about sensitivity reading and content creation and all the things. So Marines Alvarez, welcome to your big creative life.

 

Do you want to go ahead and just introduce yourself? Tell people you know kind of what your deal is, what you create content about, and then we can get into everything after that, of course.

 

Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. As Katie mentioned. My name is Marines, and I have been creating content online for over a decade now. I started in the blog sphere. I'm an elder millennial, so I started with personal blogging, and since then, I've done YouTube, Tiktok, wherever there's been a major platform. I've been creating content around books and other media, and that has also been a gateway for me to get into the world of freelance editing and sensitivity reading. And most recently, I have launched my very own publishing imprint with bindery books. So I'm also now acquiring books to publish. So I've touched a little bit of everything under the sun when it comes to books and publishing. So I'm happy to chat with you all today.

 

That's so exciting. Okay, we definitely have to talk about that, because that's new and exciting. And I thought you acquired your second book recently. Is that we have two books publishing this year with a third maybe in the works. So exciting. Okay, we definitely have to talk about that. I would love it if you could just share kind of how you got started in the content creation space, what sparked you to want to create content around this, and then also what led you to want to start sensitivity reading and offering these kinds of editing services.

 

Yeah. So I actually like the impulse to start creating content was in my early 20s, right? I had come out of college, high school, college, and I realized that I was at a point that I didn't have any creative outlets like you have kind of built into some of those experiences, right? So I was on the newspaper team in high school, and I did yearbook and, you know, musical theater, and I suddenly here was, like, post college, supposed to be a grown up, and I, like, was sitting here thinking I didn't have anything, like, any outlets where I could just do any of that creative work anymore. So I with a friend, we were having this conversation. And you know, as you do in like, some of these situations, we just had that light bulb moment of like, well, we should start a blog. And so the blog just was the launch of everything, where I started talking about my life. And then, of course, because I've always been a reader, then I started talking about what I was reading. And it just kind of kept evolving that way. And because, as I, you know, took on more and more in terms of reading and reviewing and creating content around all of that.

 

My whole sort of, like, you know, mission, or my Project Online, has been critically reading and reviewing, right? And so, like, really thinking about the media that we consume, and that really naturally led to people reaching out to be being like you read, you know, like you're you, I love the way you review, you really can get to, like, the meat of what makes a book work. Would you consider reading my work? So it kind of, it kind of came out of that. I, like I mentioned, I worked for a newspaper all through college. My majors and communications. My day job is in HR, so I didn't, I wasn't necessarily doing anything with that, with that skill set. But because I was in this book space, it kind of naturally came about that people were reaching out to me and asking me if I would work with them. And here I am.

 

Okay. So I imagine being in the content creation space, space and kind of the evolution of book, social media and blogs and everything like, you've seen such an evolution in the way that people talk about books, in terms of the platform, the method, the content. Like, I think it's, it's awesome that you have all of this experience, all these different iterations. If you this is probably a hard question, or maybe, maybe not, if you have, if you had to use a favorite, like of the platforms, what is your favorite method to create content or to talk about the things that you talk about?

 

Yeah, for a little while in the beginning of the TikTok days, I was, like, really, really enamored with the platform, and it really let me grow my audience in a way that, like. Weather platform has. But like, that was only a little window of time where it was like, you know, the honeymoon phase with Tiktok. But like, looking at my entire sort of content creation, you know, journey, I would have to say it is YouTube. It is because it's long form content, because it allows, I'm a yapper, and it allows me to kind of express myself in detail. I love making videos. I love being able to talk to people more in detail, and like YouTube comment sections and things like that. So I'm a YouTube girly. I love that.

 

Yeah, it's, it's, there's something challenging too, for the kind of analysis and reviews that you do about, like, Oh, I've got to think about the algorithm. Like, trim this down to be 60 or 90 or, you know, it's hard to do that when you talk about certain things, and that makes sense. YouTube gives you the ability to just really get into a topic. And you have a lot of followers on on all platforms. We have like 38,000 on YouTube, which is amazing. So it sounds like, you know, it's clear that people are like, loving your analysis and your reviews and that long form content. So that's awesome.

 

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. So I would love to pivot and just kind of talk about sensitivity reading as a whole. One of the like I mentioned in the beginning, one of the reasons I wanted to do, I've had this idea to do an episode on sensitivity reading for a while, because it's something that comes up occasionally with my editing clients, and it's not a service that I offer. And occasionally I'll get, occasionally I'll get asked about, you know, people who can provide the service, or how to find people or or people to have questions about what it is. And I think there's a lot of like, maybe not so great information on social media about what sensitivity reading actually is. So can you just kind of tell someone who's new to writing, new to the book space, like, what is sensitivity reading? What does it entail from a high level?

 

Yeah, I think that it's best and easiest to think about sensitivity reading as an extension of editing, right? What you are ideally looking for is a sensitivity reader who is an editor, who is going to be able to provide that kind of feedback for your work, but specifically with an eye towards their own, hopefully lived experiences, and reading your work for really trying To get to like the the they're an expert, right? They're sharing their expertise with you, specifically for certain, you know, lived experiences or identities. So it really is how you if you think about it in terms of how you would approach anything you didn't know about that you were, you know, going to write about with research and with maybe reaching out to experts, and with double checking. That is the same thing with sensitivity reading, except for if you're writing, you know, a police procedural, and you're thinking about how the courts work, you're also writing a character who's maybe outside of your identity, then you would also want to speak to somebody who has that experience, who is an expert in sort of that realm, that could inform you or help you, sort of guide your your work in that direction.

 

That is such a good explanation, like it's just part of the process, part of the writing process, part of the research process, part of the care involved in telling a story, writing a book. And are there certain So, what certain kind of areas do you sensitivity read for?

 

Yes, so I am Afro Latina, so I can read for Black experiences, for Latina experiences. I also have generalized anxiety disorder, so I'm can read about anxiety if you're worried about portraying like mental health issues in a careful way as well. So those are the big three that I typically take on. And do you work in certain genres, or is it any genre of fiction? I will do mostly any genre of fiction. My one little caveat is that I'm a big chicken, so if it's a horror, I just have to make sure that I can, I can read it, but otherwise I will read across most of the genres.

 

That's totally fair. That makes sense. Yeah, I'm kind of the same way too, if it's, if it's a real graphic horror novel, like I might not be the best editor,not the best fit? Yeah, so when we're talking about sensitivity reading, something I really wanted to kind of pick your brain about, is just common. If you look over the course of the clients that you've worked with that you sensitivity read for, do you feel like there are kind of similar or common pieces of feedback that you give to authors, or you notice common issues popping up in their manuscripts?

 

Yeah, I think this might overlap a little bit in terms of like how I approach sensitivity reading as well, and what I am ultimately hoping to deliver to my clients. So I think that there are three. Main things here that are like three buckets of like feedback that I usually am talking about. One is instances of things like, we're talking line level, sort of like a moment or a thing that you've said that maybe isn't the most sensitive, or that is inaccurate, or something along those lines, and those are the things that you are most likely to get called out for when a reader notices because it is easy to spot these things right. It is on a line level of like you said something that was maybe insensitive. Then the second thing, though, is patterns. And so I patterns is usually the thing that trips my clients up because they're not noticing it. They themselves are like, well, there's nothing line level here in my work. And when I go into it, what I typically notice is a pattern and a very like, easy example.

 

Or what I always tell people, sort of like, you know, kind of free advice, if you're trying to do the first round of this yourself, is to think, maybe list out all of your characters, and then think about, like, how you've described them all. Think about what they are all doing, what are all of their careers? Because what I will mostly find is stuff like, Okay, you have three, you know, black or brown characters, and they're all servants. And you did not notice the pattern of like, they are all doing one thing. And so, you know, that's the kind of thing that kind of trips people up, is that they don't realize that they've put all of a their category of a kind of character into one bucket. And then the third thing that I'm usually looking for is messages, right? And so, you know, there are fiction can tackle anything, right? And it can tackle, you know, it things like racism, right? You can talk about those things in your work, for sure, and it is not, I am definitely not here to say that you can't have a character who is racist, and that is kind of like part of what you are depicting, or who is, you know, any number of things. But what I'm ultimately looking for to give my my clients feedback is like, but what's the overall message, right?

 

And so what, what did you ultimately say through the story and at the end, right? If your character starts here with these flaws or experiences this are, were those things countered on page sufficiently? What is the reader walking away with? What you think, what they think you're telling them through the message of the story. So it's usually one of those three things that I'm kind of you know, or I'm organizing my feedback into those three sort of buckets of looking at instances that use feedback, that could use feedback, or patterns that could use feedback, or messaging in the book that could use feedback.

 

That is so helpful and so interesting that it's not always the line level, like very obvious things, but sometimes it's like, Hey, did you realize that you were doing this? You have this pattern creep in that I'm sure people are like, Well, I I would guess maybe people are like, oh yeah. Most of the time, it's like I did not realize, right? Because it part of, part of editing too, is that when it is so much easier for somebody else to look at your work and sometimes see those things, because you're so close to it, right? And you have your intention in the back of your mind that you're not necessarily seeing like, how it on like root and root to get to that, to that intention, or the thing you want to create, like the the patterns that you've made along the way.

 

So and just on the practical level, do you write comments in the manuscript or do a letter? Or how do you how do you organize the feedback for the client?

 

For me, myself, I do both. I find it really helpful to do in line comments, just so that, especially because sometimes I will have a question, or I'll be like, hey, the you know, I'll just mark like, I've had this thought here, and that might be something that the author resolves somewhere else in the manuscript, but I still think that it's really good to highlight those things for the author. I think it's interesting for the author to see what me as a reader like what I'm thinking at certain spots, and if I'm asking myself questions. Is that a question you intended me to ask at this moment? Or is it something that you thought was clear, maybe that you need to fix? Or, you know, that kind of inline comments, those kinds of inline comments, I think are really helpful to to measure pacing and to measure those sorts of things. So I will go in and I'll add comments, and then at the end, I'll have my, you know, my editorial letter, which is sort of like the high level feedback on everything.

 

That's what I do, as well as having both, because I think it's helpful when you're reading someone else's work, is to, yes, give the the kind of editor or the sensitivity reader like that feedback, but also like, Hey, here's my reaction as a reader. I felt frustrated at this part, or I wondered if this was intentional, or I'm asking these questions and just letting them know, and like you said, so they like, is this intentional? Should I be wondering this here? Do you resolve this later? Or so?

 

Yeah, I think. Both are helpful as well, agreed? Yeah, all right. I'm just looking at my questions here. One thing I wanted to mention. I mean, this is a massive topic, and, you know, new sensitivity read for certain areas, so But I'm curious if you have actually a video that I found you for. I found you on Tiktok was you were doing? You were making fun of, like, Latina, I think this was the first video I saw of yours. It was a parody of, like, how you see characters written, and it was just like pulling in every stereotype, every caricature of a Latina character in fiction. And it was so funny, but it was really well done. So do you feel like there are just on a broad level, like, maybe tips that you can give for, let's say, like Latina characters in particular, or Black, I guess, however you want to take the question, what direction tips for writing a character that is outside of your own identity or lived experience?

 

Yeah, so I think it's the there's like, a big question when you're writing outside of your experience, and the question is, why, what you're trying to achieve with the characters, right? Because I think that, you know, authors should be able to write outside of their lived experience, especially when they're trying to create diverse worlds, right? And that's going to mean that you're you're at least encountering side characters and things like that that are outside of your experience. I think it becomes the answer to this question becomes a little bit different when you're like, why is not only to populate your story with a like, diverse set of characters, and if you're specifically trying to tell a story about a black or Latina experience, which I think invites lots more questions about the why you want to be in that lane, and whether or not you are the person to be in that lane, which, you know, I'm not going to blanket, no, I'm going to, I just invite people to kind of consider their reasons for why they would want to tell a Latina story or a black story, or something outside of their experience. So I think the answer to that question is a little different, if that's what you're attempting to do, but if you're attempting to just populate your world with diverse characters, because we live in a diverse world, and that's important to you, then I know that this is like, the like, you know, baseline sort of advice, but it is the thing that I find most true, and that it is you approach writing those characters how you would approach writing any characters, because ultimately, those are still characters depicting humans with like human emotions, like there's nothing, sort of, if you go into it, trying to, sort of alienate your own characters. I think that you're already sort of stepping off on the wrong foot.

 

Now, there might be additional information you might need to think about in terms of this character, or you know, or their lived experience or their context, but I think starting off with not thinking well, how do I write a Black character? And instead going, well, a Black character is a character. How do I approach writing my characters? What do I need to understand about this character in order to do them justice and to make them feel three dimensional, right? I think that that's the best place to start. And if you kind of like I said, approach it from that perspective of like, well, this is different. That's where I think people can get hung up, because when we start pulling from those stereotypes that we know of or like the things in media that have been reinforced in us, of like the the way that we've always seen these characters portrayed and that can get you into some trouble.

 

That's such good advice. Lovely how you frame that, if someone is actually just thinking about that, I was curious about your experience with with clients, or clients you've worked with, or people who, if you talk about sensitivity reading or diverse characters on social media, if you ever get pushback from people who are like, it's censorship, and you know, all these like dramatic things, do you do get that pushback from people on social media and or clients who have that kind of view?

 

Yeah, I think not from clients. If they're coming to me, I think that they're aware enough of like my work and who I am, and at the at the point that you're reaching out to a sensitivity reader, you're at least know or at least invested enough to feel like this is a worthwhile service. So my clients are typically in obviously, when you're working with a client, there is always like the the navigation, again, sensitivity, reading is editing, and all edits are suggestions, ultimately, for the author, and the author can decide what to do with them. And especially working as a freelancer, I really have no power after I give my edits, like, in terms of what the author will accept, and sometimes there's a little negotiation, right? The other client will come back and be like, well, that's not what I meant. And you know, it's important that I have this and there's that moment of negotiation which I'm happy to sort of like i. Kind of lead my client through in terms of some of the thinking, but ultimately, like I said, it's their decision to to accept the edits or not.

 

But social media, for sure, has like a very contentious relationship with sensitivity readers. I think that there are people who sort of resent it, and I think that there is some of that idea that this is censorship in a way. But again, my my positioning, is always that you would go to an expert to learn more about anything you did not know about, whether it was you know something about your world, your character, the setting, or whatever it is like people accept that research is a part of writing fiction, and that is no different than like, researching and using experts for things that have to do with your character's identity, especially when you don't have the basis of knowledge to sort of fill in those gaps.

 

Yeah, yeah. It's, it's, I always include when I'm doing a manuscript evaluation, which is my form of developmental edit. Like, hey, yes, I'm basing this off my experience as an editor, but ultimately, like, this is your book. You could take suggestions or leave them, you know. And it really is that handing it over, yeah, it's like, here's my suggestions for you. It's up to you, what you do with all these things. Correct? I'm just providing information, observations, suggestions for you, you can take it or leave it.

 

Yeah, and editing, I mean, I have a lot of sympathy, because editing and getting edits and getting feedback is really hard. It can be very difficult, especially if you spend a lot of time with a work. And again, authors have all of their own context and their intentions really close. And so when you hear somebody has processed something differently than what you intended there, there is that knee jerk, sort of defensiveness. I think that comes out sometimes. And you know, so I have a lot of sympathy for authors who have to go through any level of editing their work it. I understand it is very difficult, but yeah, ultimately, what we can do is, you know, present as much as we can in terms of, like, here's all my feedback, here's my reasoning, here's my thinking. You know, I that's, I think in line comments really help with that as well, so they can kind of see where I'm coming from. And then, you know, it's ultimately your your work and your decision to, you know, decide what's going to make it the strongest possible?

 

Yeah, yeah, it really is a vulnerable thing to open yourself up to feedback. And I, at least in the editor writer relationship, I've been on both sides, and I know like it's scary and I have that knee jerk defensiveness, but yeah, this is what I meant, and this is what it's really saying. And I always have to, like, kind of coach myself down, like, no, like, be open to this. Okay, so, yeah, it's, it's tricky, but I will say it gets easier over time. For on the writing side, it definitely gets easier the more that you get feedback. It's like, it stings a little bit less every time, and you have the less of that defense than this pop up. Yeah. So if, okay, let's say someone's listening to this and they're like, sensitivity reading. Yes, need it. What qualities do you suggest that someone look for? Like, if they're looking for a sensitivity reader, for certain things, where do they start to find someone to help them?

 

Yeah, there are a lot of lists available, like resources in terms of, like, you know, sensitivity readers. I think that my one big sort of suggestion is that if you can find a sensitivity reader that also has editing experience, that will go a really long way it is, it is not necessary. I think that we're seeing more and more, you know, sensitivity readers that are that started. I mean, again, I this is how I started. I was a reviewer first, and I was giving all of this feedback, and then people reached out and were like, Have you ever thought about doing this, you know, like, on an individual level? So I don't begrudge anybody who starts that way, either. I did have editing experience prior, and I just think that there is, it is very helpful to have that frame of reference of like, how you give feedback and how you edit a work when you're also working with a sensitivity reader.

 

But beyond that, if you're working with somebody who maybe is just a sensitivity reader, if they have reviews available online, if you can see, talk to past clients for like testimonials and things like that. I think that that's really helpful. I tend to like to if I can do like a first chapter and give maybe some feedback on a first chapter and give that back to the client, just to make sure we're aligned in terms of, you know, my style and their style. Things along those lines, I think are really helpful to make sure that you've got a good match between yourself and that person. And one more practical question I was just thinking about, I meant to ask this when we were talking about how you organize your feedback, but. What is your kind of average turnaround time for a manuscript? Does it just depend on workload and other things, yeah, workload and the length of the manuscript, right? So depending on how many words, and also, this is not my day job, so I'm usually again freelancing. It depends, right now I am between jobs, so I'm doing more of freelance clients. So things are moving faster. So it really just depends, but that's part of like, what I quote people when they reach out to me is like, hey, you know, here's the price and here's how long I think it will take me before they accept.

 

Gotcha, that makes sense. So is there anything else before we shift over and talk about social media and content? Is there anything else about sensitivity reading that you feel like it would be helpful for anyone listening to know that we haven't covered.

 

Not that I can think of. I know it probably well. As we keep talking, we're gonna be like, oh, man, I should, yeah, right now I think that nothing else comes to mind.

 

Okay, well, I'd love to talk just a little bit about social media kind of content creation, because we talked about the different platforms you're on and how you've been creating content in this space for years. But how do you approach this with because in the past, having a day job doing this inside is freelancing like, how do you I guess I'm asking what your workflow is like if you create a one platform first and then repurpose or what your what your process is there? Yeah, I think is, I get asked this question a lot, and my answer is always pretty unsatisfying. I feel like, but it does remind me when I'm speaking specifically to writers, right there is this, also this question of, like, you know, do you write full time? Do you write if you have a day job? Are you writing in the morning after work? Like that. That is always sort of like the negotiation of creating anything, right? Is, where do you fit it in with time? And for me, the reason that I've been able to do this for over a decade, and like, you know, I I'm still kind of doing it, and, you know, taking on new projects and things, is that I've always given my myself permission to kind of go how I feel and when I want to create, I do, and if I'm not in the mood, I don't. And like that is that has been I take breaks when I need them. I have seen so many of my peers and my mutuals burn out and are no longer making content, right? Because they got into this, and they were making three videos a week and every week, and that's how they did it. And then they burned out, whereas I started, and I was like, when I'm gonna make a video, I will, and if I'm tired, I'll take a break, because this, again, is supposed to be fun. It started as a hobby. It is in between the things that are paying my bills, so I've always had to navigate it that way. Now, like lar, you know, more specific, I guess, to how I content create. I have a running list of ideas that I am usually like keeping track of, that I can do on the go, but I do use notion to kind of organize those ideas. And if I've had, you know, and I, right now I'm working on it, started with this idea to talk about the adaptation for HBOs, Like Water for Chocolate. And so I had that, and then the more that I thought about it, it has now become a video essay about, like, the book and its adaptation. So that's going on YouTube, and I can sort it into my YouTube thing. So it starts with idea. I kind of from there, decide what the platform is, and then keep going. And then once I have like, okay, let's save that video, then I start thinking, Okay, can I clip it for Tiktok? Can I clip it for Instagram? Or do I just need to take the script that I've already written and maybe do like, a two minute version that I can put on Tiktok so it kind of it goes by levels. So I know there are lots, lots of people who are way, way, way more organized with it, and they have to be, because it is their full time job, but I'm very much a mood reader, a mood content creator. You know, I kind of let the spirit guide me on that.

 

I love that so much. As someone who I'm a full time editor and book coach, and content creation is part of my business, but I'm also such a mood creator. Yeah, I'm like, What do I want to talk about? Like, what do I want to do? I want to do a podcast today. No, okay, I'll push it off and batch a couple next week when I feel like it well, that's really key, is that I find that when I'm in the mood, I'll just batch. Like, I want to do this right now. So I'm like, boom, boom, boom. Crank them out so that next week, and I don't want to comb my hair right and put some lipstick on to record. I have some things in my pocket or whatnot, so I, if you for a long time, I tried to fight against that, and I tried to make myself like fit into a really rigid schedule. And it was not working, because we work in creative fields, right? You have to have. The creative well, sort of full before you can pour out. And like trying to force myself into working in ways that didn't work for me meant I wasn't doing creating content anyways, so I sort of had to give myself permission to work in the best ways possible for myself.

 

And this has worked, like I said, for over 10 years. I just kind of like, go with the flow. Create when I feel like it, let myself be inspired, and let that inspiration be the thing that leads my content. And there's such a difference in your content that people can feel if you're like, ugh, gotta record a video. Like, I'm not feeling it, but let me just get on here and say something. Like, people could tell in the energy. So I'm all about the mood creation. Okay, so tell me about tell me about the books that you have acquired. Tell me how all this came to be in these few books, because this is really exciting.

 

Yeah, so bindery, I heard about it like everybody else did when they launch, so it's a new company. And basically they're, they've got two branches, right? One is sort of like a Patreon, which is like a membership service where book ish content creators can create platforms where people can subscribe, like a Patreon. And so there's different tiers, and you get perks for, you know, supporting creators membership, and so that was that's one part of it. And then certain communities that, if they grow enough and they have enough support, they're converting them into publishing imprints. And so the Creator then gets to act as an acquiring editor, review manuscripts, pick a book and bindery as the publisher brings that book through the publishing process. It's through wide release, right? So these are books that are going to be available at your local bookstore, at Barnes and Noble, you know, on shelves everywhere. So I heard about this, and I had a lot of questions. I was very, very like, sound like, it sounds a little too good to be true. Like, I'm very hesitant, and because I had a lot of questions, and being the person that I am, I reached out to them, and I was like, hey, you know, a few of my mutuals are participating, but I have a lot of questions about this business model and, like, the way that you're approaching and the CEO, Matt, was so kind. He was like, of course, I'll jump on a call with you. And we just chatted. I had my pink notebook full of questions of like, well, how are you handling this? And you know, what kind of books are you crying? And he just answered them.

 

And you know, I had a really great chat with him. Matt has been in publishing, worked at Patreon, has worked in publishing, so just like the crossroads of, like, making this bindery, just from, you know, great experience that he's had in the past. And after we had that chat, he kind of looked at me and was like, Well, so do you want to join or so I joined their membership platform, and my community was so supportive of me, and it grew so quickly that they, you know, converted me over into an imprint, and I have now acquired my first two titles. One the end mapping is coming out June 3 of 2025 and orange wine is coming out september 30 of 2025, and I'm in the process of acquiring my third title, and that one's kind of hush hush, hush hush.

 

No guarantees yet, but I'll put all your social media, all the links in so people can stay too for for updates on that. That's so exciting.

 

Yeah, it's really an interesting, you know, not to be too salesy about it, but, you know, I think that this is something on the mind of like, all writers and authors, is like about, how do you get your book into the hands of readers. And how do you use social media in order to have like those viral moments, right? And how do you get people to organically want to promote your books, especially as we're kind of seeing that traditional publishing is doing less and less of that, and there's this kind of expectation that you are not only the author, but you're a promoter of your work as well, and that it's really helpful for you as the author to be online. And so bindery had this idea of, like, pairing a content creator with an author, letting the content creator be the one to pick the book that they want to publish and then become a champion of that book. And so you get all of the traditional sort of, like supports of marketing and PR, but you also get this content creator who is the cheerleader for your book, so that takes that like extra burden away from the author. And then you get this additional avenue of marketing, which I think is just a really smart sort of approach to, you know, online bookish spaces. So that's what bindery is doing.

 

That is a really cool model for that awesome I'm gonna put, I'll put the, yeah, like I said, I'll put all the links and everything in the description to episodes ever you can go check that out. So do you want to share just where people can find you online? Is your handle?

 

The same across all the platforms you can find me everywhere. Yeah. Except for Twitter. I finally got myself off Twitter, but I'm at my name is Marines and so YouTube, Tiktok threads, Instagram, and then my bindery is called Marines, and my bindery page is marines.binderybooks.com and it's like a home page. So regardless of what platform you're on, I sort of cross post everything there. That's where my newsletter goes. That's where my essays go. So you can get, you know, all kinds of information there as well.

 

Great. And for the sensitivity rating services that's on your website, where people can go and just find information about that if they're interested in working with you?

 

 Yeah, so my name is marines, pretty much everywhere, and I've got my list of services and all my rates there as well.

 

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me and talking about sensitivity reading and content and all the things. I think this is going to be so helpful for people, both from a sensitivity reading angle, but then just content. Yeah, I think it's really it's there are, I think, just misconceptions that I'm happy to kind of talk to you about and clear some of those things up, and also just give people an understanding of what this is and why it's so important. So, yeah, I just really appreciate you coming on the podcast.

 

Of course. Thank you for all your thoughtful questions, and I had a blast.

All right, thanks everyone.

Katie Wolf