Ask Me Anything: Taylor Swift Style

How did you deal with writer's block? How did you decide what looks to include in the book? And many more q's!

We are officially, somehow, only two weeks (+1 day) out from the release of Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras. Ahead of publication — October 8, in case you needed the reminder and/or calendars are hard — I wanted to open things up and answer any of your most inquisitive questions about the book. 

There are so many moving parts involved in writing a book - somehow it actually felt like the writing of it was the easiest part! There were also a lot of emotional things about the process that I didn’t expect or anticipate. Every time I opened up a Frequently Asked Friday throughout the writing and pre-order process I would get so many DMs on Instagram about the book. 

There’s of course so much that I could dive into but top of mind for me is getting at the things that you want answered. Things like the writing process, behind-the-scenes questions, cover design, and why does publishing a book take soooooooooooo looooooooooooong. Not untrue! 

Feel free to comment any additional questions below and I’ll do my best to answer! 

But first! A sales pitch! 

Taylor Swift Style comes out on October 8. It is the culmination of 3 years of active research and writing, 13 years of blogging based on nothing but passion, and a lifetime of dreaming of the moment I could say I’m an author.  

When it comes to dreams, it feels right “Fifteen” days out from publication that I talked about a bigger dream of mine. A bestselling book. 

Did you know that an author’s best shot at a bestseller list is the first week of publication? It’s because all books sold during the pre-order period and all books sold during the first week of release count towards your first week of sales, which determines if your book makes it to a bestseller list. All those years down to one week of release. 

In terms of publishing, September and October are some of the most competitive months of the year. I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me. But what this does mean is that it makes it exponentially more difficult and tricky to land on a bestseller list. I know this by looking at the incredibly huge household names that my little book is in the same pool as. It’s an honour and a challenge. 

I think a lot about how throughout her career Taylor has always managed to do the impossible and set a new standard by paving her own path. One that is uniquely her own. I think even more about how I’ve spent my entire life having a lot of my interests made fun of or deemed shallow or silly and that this very book is the intersection of all the things I care most deeply about: Storytelling, style, and Taylor’s music I wanted to write a book that embraced fashion for how we can use it as a beautiful method of exploration, expression, and empowerment. In the same way that Taylor forced people to take the perspective of a teenage girl seriously, I wanted to write a book that treated a subject often looked down upon with equal earnestness. I think it would send a HUGE and powerful message for a book like this to land on the New York Times list in October.

I’ve always believed in the power of community and there is hardly one out there more fervent than Swifties. But I find it hard to ask for help. I guess what I’m saying is … this is me trying. Pre-ordering (the BEST) and buying (before Oct 12) Taylor Swift Style would help this audacious dream become real. 

Thank you, truly. Always.

And if you would consider helping to support, you can do so HERE.

Q: Sarah! Just wanted to congratulate you again on your book and let you know how excited I am for it <3 A quick question, mostly out of curiosity on the publishing side of things! Ofc, since you've announced your book, there have been many new iconic taylor fashion moments. Were you allowed to add some of them after the fact into new drafts of the book?

A: One of the biggest things I learned throughout this process is that publishing is a slow and languishing industry. Things. Take. Time. Most good things do, you could say. I first got in touch with my editor in March 2022. The book’s proposal was submitted a month later in April 2022. The first draft was submitted by the end of the year and the final manuscript was due in April 2023. That is not a typo. Basically a year and a half before the book was slated for publication I had to (mostly) finish writing it. I say mostly because there were some small tweaks permitted editorially once we got to the design pass - but not dramatic enough that it would significantly alter the book’s length or push text from one page to another. 

Things could look different from book to book, but a big part of why this book in particular took as long as it did was because the words I had written weren’t just translated from my Google Document and printed onto some paper. The book had to be designed first! There was such a huge process when it came to deciding the internal design of a book. In addition to the multiple passes on the manuscript from the editorial side, multiple passes had to be made on the design side once the book was actually put to page. 

What colours do we want? What font do we want? How do we want captions to look like? What design do you want for a pull quote? How are the sidebars formatted? How big do you want a photo on a page? … All of these needed to be determined and then designed and then re-designed. And on and on and on. 

All this is a very circular way of getting to your question which is: What about all of the things that Taylor has done and worn since you submitted the manuscript in April 2023? The most pressing thing I wanted to make sure was included in this book before it went to print in February 2024 (as I’m sure you can imagine, the printing process is another lengthy part of this whole journey in terms of size of print run, allocating paper and coloured ink and gold foil) was the Eras Tour. Which I’m delighted to say is in the book. I managed to sneak photos in from the tour and also provided my thoughts on all of the released Taylor’s Versions that have been released (Fearless, RED, Speak Now, and 1989). 

The rest of her iconic fashion that could not be included this go around, I suppose, will just have to be put into a Volume II. Should that ever come to pass! 

Q: Hi Sarah! Sorry if you’ve answered this but why do you always include ⭕️ when discussing your book? 

A: It's my emoji reference to the O on the cover that contains the book's subtitle Through the Eras. It feels right and symbolic for the journey and the evolution. The movement but also a recognizable sameness that is key to Taylor's art! ⭕️

Q: How did the German-exclusive cover come to be? Did you design it? Why do alternative covers for different countries happen?

A: Unlike the main cover that you’re most familiar with, I had nothing to do with the German-exclusive cover. Isn’t it neat? My understanding is that different markets have different ideas of what might resonate with their customers. I have a U.S.-based publisher (with a contract that also covers the U.K., Australia/New Zealand, and Canada) so the cover featuring the image from the 2014 Met Gala is the ‘primary’ cover. 

All other countries who wanted their own version of Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras needed to purchase what is called “sub-rights” to the book to sell in their allotted market. My guess is that those foreign publishers also have the opportunity to have the book translated or kept in the originally written language (English, in my case) as well as marketing decisions on how they wanted to package the book under their publishing umbrella. 

Sometimes authors can have a say on foreign covers, but oftentimes they don’t because the foreign publisher in question is designing something they think will work best for that market of which I assume the author knows nothing. Sometimes authors can note in their contracts that they do not want any alternative covers of their book to exist and they only want the one. 

Unsurprisingly, as someone who is a CD collector and loves having multiple versions of something couldn’t be more delighted by the thought of TSS variants out in the world. It feels like a fun challenge to me and I hope I can get my hands on the German copy! 

Q: Hi! I work in book publishing so TSS the book is extra exciting for me! Congrats on this and all your success! I do have a question - were you approached to write this or did you have a proposal done and worked with an agent to shop it around? Hehe I also used to work at the imprint you went with!

A: I was approached to do this! In a lot of ways, this feels like the culmination of fate and a literal lifelong dream. 

Q: I’m SO excited for your book! As a fellow writer, I’m very curious about your writing routine and how did the process even work haha. How do you deal with writer’s block?

A: To the surprise of probably no one but … I had a spreadsheet. I think the key to successful time management, especially for a gigantic project, is to separate it into smaller, more manageable tasks. Which is exactly what I did. 

First, I broke the book out into its parts and respective chapters. 

Then I estimated, based on my initial proposal, how long each chapter might be. 

Then I established a rough deadline for when I’d like each section complete by, with enough time tacked on at the end of each deadline for a few rounds of revisions with my editor. And also knowing that things would likely be added/shifted/continually edited once the full manuscript was written. 

Then I proceeded to overwrite and blow past my word counts. As I’m known to do. #instagramcaptionlimitWHY

This sort of set up generally worked for me and I found myself not only setting aside dedicated time to write these chapters but also finding ways to document my thoughts whenever inspiration happened to strike. Notably, in voice memos. As I shared for the debut and folklore/evermore chapters. 

When I did experience moments of writer’s block, they were often compensated by intense moments of inspiration and creativity. To balance the empty echoing chill that sometimes captured my brain, there would also be extreme stretches of focus and non-stop writing that often superseded normal functioning human activities like eating, sleeping, or walking. And even during those periods when words felt like they were failing me, I would still sit down to write and attempt to get something on the page. For me, trying to find a flow and getting a rough skeleton of ideas into words that I could rewrite and agonise over for hours later on was better than nothing. 

Q: How did you go about choosing the outfits that ultimately ended up in the book? 

A: Many moons ago, before the book was publicly announced, I actually sneakily asked the TSS community for the outfit they thought was most iconic from every single era. The results of that form went on to become the must-have outfits to include in every chapter in the book. Almost immediately after I posted the poll, someone asked if I could share the results and I said, “Yes eventually.” I just neglected to mention that the terms of that ‘eventually’ would actually mean two years later and that I’d be telling you through a beautifully bound, gilded-edged book that I hope you display with pride on your coffee tables or shelves. 

I’ve said it often and will say it many times over that this book is a love letter to Taylor and her fashion from a fan, for other fans, supported by fandom. I may have written it, but I hope you feel that this book is for you. 

What other questions do you have about Taylor Swift Style?