For a place with a small footprint, it makes big waves—New York Times bestselling and indie authors flock to their locations for in-person events; queer authors are not just welcome, but thriving, inside their walls. And while many independent bookstores struggled post-pandemic, more than 100 eager fans showed up and waited in line for the soft opening late last year.
On that sunny but chilly morning on Dec. 1, the vibes were immaculate: prosecco flowed, the line outside snaked around the corner, and people were chatty and buoyant. Inside they snapped up books, tote bags and other branded merchandise, shopping the carefully-curated shelves for every type and subgenre of romance on offer: from romcom to fantasy to edgier “dark romance” by an incredibly inclusive roster of authors. By close of business, Steamy Lit Tampa had sold nearly 500 books in the first hours of operation.
Steamy Lit
The kind of rapid-fire success Steamy Lit enjoys doesn’t just happen; it’s worth unpacking. There are three distinctive parts to the story.
First, Steamy Lit is also part of a bigger trend—Ripped Bodice, the first romance only bookstore in the United States opened its doors in 2016 and after several headline making successes and romance titles often dominating the best seller lists, independent, romance-only bookstores are popping up nationwide with two new ones opening their doors for the first time in Orlando and Cambridge within a month.
Second, this is a very online-savvy literary juggernaut. While the GenZ-driven social platform of TikTok gets all the glory (and heat), Tampa’s new haven for romance readers was conceived and cultivated in the grassroots, cross generational online book circles of Instagram. Before the brick-and-mortar and the sold-out conventions and even the online store and book boxes, “BookstaGram” was where founder and owner Melissa Saavedra’s tight knit romance reading community gathered to talk about sex, love and representation.
Last, though community centered, Steamy Lit is the passion product of its fiercely driven military veteran founder, whose influence flows through everything they do. Speed and nimbleness aren’t traits for which the book world is known, but that’s very much this organization’s style and hers as well. When I spoke with Saavedra on a chilly January morning, snug in the pink velvet armchairs of her Tampa store, energy and clarity of her vision seemed to emanate from her in waves.
A 30-something former Navy service member with a stylish sneaker game, she was wearing crisp black and white Air Jordans when we met—with and an impatient and indomitable work ethic, Saavedra divulged two things about herself with some sheepishness.
First, her persistent, instinctual internal mantra remains “Go big or go home.” While she now thinks may need to try to “unpack that” someday, a relentless action orientation is working for them. The ideas for new projects spark in rapid succession. She says if a project idea is living in her mind, sooner or later (mostly likely the former), then inevitably “it’s happening.“ And while she caveats that by saying “it’s probably one of the things my staff hates,” it’s clear that this relentless drive has served them well.
Saavedra’s success turns on a series of conscious decisions to be “very intentional” about listening and building community. The business idea was born in one of the lowest and least connected points for many of us, the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, Saavedra, who earned a degree in sports management from the University of Florida, was married and living in San Diego California (she’s since divorced and moved to South Florida where she opened her first book store).
Given that her job then was to manage travel for collegiate sports teams, which were on hold during lockdown, she had a lot of time on her hands. A lifelong reader, she took refuge in books, and specifically, in the literature of love in that tough period, becoming increasingly active in the virtual communities that thrived in this time of social distancing. It was in those social media conversations that the idea for the “Steam Box” initially took hold.
So many of the exchanges Saavedra took part in involved bemoaning the lack of diversity in the books that were regularly on display in outlets like Barnes and Noble and big box stores. Not at first but eventually after a period of high volume reading and talking about romance, it struck her how market-driven (and overwhelmingly white) her own reading seemed to be despite often feeling out of step with her life.
It seemed to Saavedra that there wasn’t much consciousness in choosing the books they were reading, and ultimately, that didn’t sit well with her. Often she wasn’t even aware of alternatives to the big, predominantly white authored books that publishers and the big box retailers tended to push. Many of the readers she met online felt similarly. And then, through those online networks, she started to discover Black and brown authors like Kennedy Ryan, Adriana Herrera, Alexa Martin, and Peruvian writer Melissa Rivero whose books and stories better reflected her own experience as a South Florida-raised, Peruvian-born Latina woman.
The budding book influencer soon gravitated to reading, writing, and talking about those previously unknown to her authors of color. Then Saavedra began reaching out and asking to interview them. In an isolating time, many of the romance writers she reached out to were enthusiastic yeses. Those online conversations were fuel, propelling Saavedra to make the leap from recreational Bookstagrammer to business owner. By the end of 2020, Saavedrea’s first major initiative, The Steam Box, was in the works: a subscription pairing monthly romance novels, often by and centering underrepresented groups, with self-care and adult items (like vibrators). The idea of Steamy Lit the Literary Collective grew from the desires and common cause Saavedra found in community with her fellow readers online: to amplify underrepresented voices and celebrate “self-love through storytelling.” “I was really intentional about community and how we continue to create spaces where Black, Brown and Indigenous people can have a safe space to talk about our stories and just create a platform.”
Reflecting, the bookseller says that from the start, “I was really intentional about community and how we continue to create spaces where Black, Brown and Indigenous people can have a safe space to talk about our stories and just create a platform.”
Within a year both the growth of the book subscription box and the evolution from Steam Box to Steamy Lit “took off” organically, driven by glaring gaps in the romance book market, and the desire to act as a conscious counterpoint to the dominant but invisible hand of big five publishers of which most readers aren’t aware: “I think, when you’re just a casual reader, you don’t realize how much marketing dollars can go behind what is at a Barnes and Noble’s table.” Saavedra had been just that reader so she relates, “You’re not thinking twice about it. ButI wanted to be able to just provide a service where you go, you have no excuses.I’m handing the books to you of different lived experiences.”
Even then Saavedra was thinking about how to do more. In 2021 she confessed to a friend that she would really also love to create a book convention that would reflect the same values and goals driving the Steam Box. Soon she was plotting the next big move. As before, the vision was clear: “I wanted to create a convention that, again, focused on our mission, which was diversity and romance and amplifying BIPOC authors.”
Still, the finances and logistics of launching a convention were daunting. In a matter of months, Saavedra, still living in Southern California at the time, heard that one of the most vocal and respected authors of modern romance was coming to her hometown for San Diego Comic-Con. They met and they vibed. That connection was the second big spark the nascent entrepreneur needed to know her dream could actually work.
As Saavedra recalls, over lunch Adriana Herrera told her, “ ‘I think there’s a need in the space. If you want to do it, I’ll fully support you.’” That, Saavedra says, was it: “I think I just needed to hear that there was someone within the community that obviously has years of experience, that is well known in the community, to kind of get me to pivot forward.”
True to her word, Herrera became Saavedra’s biggest supporter, and she was right about the market. A month later, the book entrepreneur was touring hotels and signing contracts “like it was a done deal.” Others have business loans, family funding or Shark Tank. Saavedra has the incredibly online and supportive ecosystem of romance readers, authors and media informally known as Romancelandia. That community became the foundation of the funding for the convention: “That first year was incredible to see the relationships I had built. I don’t think I had realized till that point how many people had trusted me.”
Learning that the initial hotel deposit would exceed $600,0000, she was unsure of whether they would be able to raise the cash. But they made their case and promised to refund authors who signed up if they were eventually unable to get fully-funded. To say that the romance community was thirsty for what she was offering is an understatement. She reached out to 300 authors; over 200 signed up. She raised another $200,000 through Kickstarter and negotiated the deposit. The rest is history.
The transition to physical locations was another natural step in its mission. While the first shop in Deerfield Beach attracts a carefully cultivated, solid and steady customer base, in founder Saavedra’s words, “Tampa’s been insane.”
Now Steamy Lit is expanding its footprint to the entire space in March and throwing a grand opening party featuring some of their most beloved authors.
Local book lovers, stay tuned for the next chapter.
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This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2025.