Q&A With Ashley Lewis

I have the honor and privilege of doing this Q&A with social media assistant & writer at Bookstr Ashley Lewis. Ashley and I crossed paths on LinkedIn when she posted about Bookstr having opened applications for Editorial & Social Media Interns. I applied for the Editorial Interns since that job is what I basically do on my own blog reviewing books and doing Q&AS with authors and different people. 

Q: Ashley, would you like to tell the readers & I a little bit about yourself? Where did your passion for books come from? 

A: Hi! I’m Ashley, born and raised in Ohio. I recently graduated from Marietta College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and History. I love my coffee (with a little sugar and some Italian sweet cream). I always say I was a little late on the reading scene. I read the Rainbow Magic series by Daisy Meadows as a child (it was more skimming for the hidden letters than actual reading). But I never fully got invested in reading until Junior High or High School when I read The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Ever since then I’ve just always been reading. I’ve slowed down in recent years but interacting with books in other ways has continued to keep me interested in them. My go-to genres are mostly Young Adult Fantasy, Contemporary and Sci-Fi!

Q: Ashley you are a social media assistant & writer at Bookstr! It sounds so impressive! Would you please tell the readers and I what exactly those roles entail? 

A: Mainly I’m in charge of managing Bookstr’s LinkedIn page, doing things such as captioning posts and training interns in how to schedule and caption. I also help with our Facebook and Twitter pages, mostly by editing captions to ensure consistency and fix any grammatical errors. Lastly, I also help with outreach to authors/publicists, bookstores, bookstagrammers for projects we’re working on.

Then when I can I also write articles for Bookstr’s website! I’ve covered a variety of historical related pieces such as the literary legacy of Jack the Ripper and books about the Tulsa Race Massacre, and some funner pieces like the references in Alice in Wonderland and graphic novels to read this summer!

Q: How long have you been working at Bookstr for? 

A: I started at Bookstr in October 2023 as an Editorial intern. Since I was halfway through my college semester and working on a major final project, I wasn’t really able to fully engage with the company because I was so busy with school, so I decided to stay on after graduation and now I’m a full-time team member!

Q: Would you like to tell the readers & I about the different positions at Bookstr, & what advice would you give anyone wanting to apply for a job and work there?

A: We currently have three major departments: Editorial, Graphics, and Social (Social is also broken down into other “departments” like Outreach, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, etc.)

It’s kind of hard for me to offer advice on this but I do know that the hiring manager wants people to be able to get experience, I think it’s part of the reason why we have so many interns. So, all I can really offer is that make sure you read the job application and hone your resume on the skill set required for the application. Editorial and Social are heavy on blogging so familiarity with WordPress and social media sites would be something to highlight. And for Graphics, knowing how to use Canva, Photoshop, etc. would be important to note. And interns are allowed to bounce around the departments to get a fully rounded experience! And in your cover letter, I personally mentioned how this internship would better my own blogging experience so something personal like that may also help! Personally, I was originally hired for the social media internship because I run my own Bookstagram page and Bookstr does a lot of work with Bookstagrammers. I also noted that I was on influencer lists with some major publishers.

Q: If you were to write a book, which genre would you write in and why?

A: Funnily enough there are a couple of stories I’m dabbling with (there nowhere near complete and are basically just skeletons) but I’d place two of them in the Young Adult area, specifically Fantasy and Contemporary. Then a third is in the post-apocalyptic genre. I’d write YA because that’s the genre I read most of all so I’m familiar with the type of action and content those books usually have. It’s my comfort zone essentially.