#43: What Heated Rivalry Revealed About the Bookselling World
4/23/202642 min
This week on Off The Shelf, Morgann sits down with Indigo romance buyer Kaitlynd Carmichael to break down what actually makes a romance book blow up. From BookTok’s influence to spotting trends before they hit, Kaitlynd shares how books go from shelf to sold out. They also dive into the rise of dark romance, slow burns, and why emotional love stories might be the next big trend, plus favourite reads and what to pick up if you’re new to romance.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Introduction
1:00 - What Does a Romance Buyer at Indigo Do?
4:55 - Behind The Scenes at Indigo When A Book Gets Popular
9:40 - How Has Heated Rivalry Impacted Romance as a Whole?
12:30 - How Much Does BookTok Influence What Sells?
16:10 - How Has Romance Changed Over The Last 10 Years?
18:42 - Romance Trends
30:35 - Kaitlynd’s Top Books of 2025
36:00 - Indigo’s Book Boyfriend List
38:30 - Kaitlynd’s Writing Journey
40:25 - Most Exciting Upcoming Release
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Hosted by: Morgann Book
Created by: Bookish Media, Morgann Book, and Thomas Johnston
Executive Producers: Morgann Book & Thomas Johnston
Produced by: Stefanie Macchiusi
Associate Post Producer and Editor: Ricki Biramontes
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Caitlin Carmichael· Guest0:29
[gentle music] I had invested into the Heated Rivalry books before the show came out- Wow ... because I saw the teasers and I'm like, "This is gonna be huge."
Morgann Book· Host0:39
Yeah.
Caitlin Carmichael· Guest0:39
And I'd been telling everyone at work, like, "Heated Rivalry is coming out tonight. Like, go home, watch Heated Rivalry." At this time, I didn't know how spicy it was. [laughs] And so I, I came in on the Monday and I had to look everyone in the eye, and everyone's like, "Yeah, we watched Heated Rivalry," and I'm like, "So did I."
Morgann Book· Host0:54
[laughs] [upbeat music] Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Off the Shelf. Today's guest has one of the dream jobs in publishing and book selling. I am joined by Caitlin Carmichael, a print category manager at Indigo who specifically works across the romance genre. Caitlin helps shape what readers see in stores, which books get spotlighted, and which trends take over the romance space. Caitlin, welcome to Off the Shelf.
Caitlin Carmichael· Guest1:24
Hi, Morgan.
Morgann Book· Host1:25
Thank you for coming in.
Caitlin Carmichael· Guest1:26
Thank you for having me.
Morgann Book· Host1:27
Of- I'm so excited ... of course. Now, I wanna talk about what