Last August, I walked into a shop looking for a t-shirt with a classic book cover on it. The shelves were nearly empty.

What little merchandise existed was all Romantasy. Sarah J. Maas quotes. Rebecca Yarros fan gear. BookTok trends plastered everywhere.

The wider classics? Gone.

I kept looking. Different shops, online stores, everywhere. The pattern repeated. If you wanted merchandise celebrating Austen, the Brontes, Hemingway, or Fitzgerald, you were out of luck. Most people would see empty shelves and think the market had died.

I saw something different.

The Street-Level Research That Changed Everything

I started paying attention to what people were actually wearing on the streets. Bookish apparel was everywhere. People were wearing literary merchandise constantly. They just couldn't buy it from the usual places.

Book sales told the same story. Print book sales rose for the first time in three years in 2024, hitting 782.7 million units. BookTok had accumulated over 181.7 billion views. This wasn't a dried-up market.

I ran the numbers through sales trend tools. The figures were off the scale. But much of what was selling infringed on copyright. Unauthorized book covers. Quotes from protected works.

As a author, that path was a non-starter for me.

The Ethical Choice That Shaped Everything

I understand what it feels like to have your work stolen. Every writer does. Meta douche, Mark Zuckerberg, has made no secret of stealing over 7 million works of pirated fiction and non fiction. The Labour government has supported him.

So I made a decision that probably seemed stupid from a pure business perspective: I would only use public domain classics and original typography designs.

No trending titles. No unauthorized book covers. The harder path, but the only path that aligned with my values.

This constraint forced me to understand something deeper about why readers and writers want to wear their literary identity.

What I Discovered About Literary Identity

Readers don't just consume books. They build identities around literary culture.

I kept hearing this phrase in my research: "literary tribe." People who love books want to signal their membership through what they wear, drink from, and hang on their walls.

For BookTokers, books aren't merely products but part of a clearly defined way of perceiving themselves. This isn't about showing off what you've read. This is about broadcasting who you are.

I realized I wasn't just selling merchandise. I was selling identity markers for a tribe that desperately wanted to recognise each other.

The Typography Advantage

Without access to trending book covers, I leaned into typography design. "KILL YOUR DARLINGS" printed on a hoodie. "UNRELIABLE NARRATOR" embdroidered on a baseball cap.

These phrases work because they communicate insider knowledge. If you understand what "kill your darlings" means, you're part of the tribe.

The vintage typewriter typography aesthetic reinforced this. Writers, authors, screenwriters, editors, writing students, and filmmakers bought these designs consistently.

The Dual Market I Didn't Expect

I thought I was building a business for readers. Then I realized I was running two businesses under one brand.

Readers gravitate toward colorful designs: book covers, bookshelf patterns on mugs. Writers want the insider phrases, the craft terminology. But here's what surprised me: the overlap is massive. To be a successful writer, you must be a reader first.

Why Mugs Became My Bestseller

Coffee and tea are synonymous with reading and writing. Book lovers get cozy in reading nooks with something hot to sup and writers brag about coffee being fuel for their craft. You can't wear a t-shirt every day. But a mug? That's a daily ritual object. Mugs also hit the perfect price point for gifts, affordable yet meaningful.

The Quality Decision

As a consumer, quality matters to me. Edgy, vintage, classic designs deserved quality products. Putting these designs on cheap apparel that falls apart after three washes would undercut everything the brand stood for.

My customers aren't wealthy, but they're prepared to spend money on good design and products that last. Mass market sellers on Amazon offer cheap apparel that doesn't survive over time. I priced everything within an affordable gift range but refused to compromise on quality.

The Author-Solopreneur Tension

The Untamed Chapter started as a side hustle. I would finish a full day of writing, then work on designs in the evening.

It became therapeutic, like crafting, only digital. It was also addictive.

Building a business as a solopreneur meant a steep learning curve. I'm not a natural businessman. My author mindset helped with research and writing product descriptions, but the rest? I felt like a fish out of water.

Every design is a gamble. Nothing is guaranteed to sell. But when designs do sell, the reward pushes me to do bigger and better.

Read Dangerously, Write Fearlessly, Dress Rebelliously

This slogan became the backbone of The Untamed Chapter's brand identity.

"Read Dangerously" is a direct reaction to the Banned Books campaign in the US. During the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America recorded 10,046 instances of book bans. Reading dangerously means reading what others want to ban.

"Write Fearlessly" is a personal mantra. Writers should never live in fear of their abilities or judgment from others. Fear kills more writing careers than lack of talent ever will.

"Dress Rebelliously" has always been with me. As a teenager, I went from make up wearing, floppy haired  New Romatic to gothic punk with a bleached blond mohican. Fond memories. I had to grow up and get a job. My hair became convential, but the rebellious side of me has never left.

Wearing a "KILL YOUR DARLINGS" hoodie or an “UNRELIABLE NARRATOR” beanie is in itself a small act of rebellion. You're declaring membership in a tribe that values ideas, stories, and the written word in a toxic world that increasingly treats reading as quaint.

What This Business Revealed About Book Culture

Hard copy books led the books industry with a revenue share of 78.19% in 2024. Despite every prediction about digital dominance, tangible reading experiences matter deeply.

People want physical expressions of their literary identity.

The market for book-centric merchandise has exploded. I saw this gap in August. Empty shelves where classic literary merchandise should have been, yet people everywhere wearing bookish apparel.

The opportunity was hiding in plain sight.

The Gamble That Keeps Me Going

I design for my brand with that "Read Dangerously, Write Fearlessly, Dress Rebelliously" slogan always at the back of my mind. Every design is a gamble.

That uncertainty could be paralyzing. Instead, it provides excitement. When a design resonates, it validates the instinct that led me to launch The Untamed Chapter.

The core insight holds: readers and writers want to express their identity through physical merchandise, and the market for quality, ethically-produced bookish apparel is far larger than the empty shelves suggested.

I built this business when most solopreneurs were chasing digital-first opportunities.

I chose the harder ethical path when copyright infringement would have been more profitable.

I bet on physical products when everyone talked about digital dominance.

And I'm still here, designing products that tap into a creative side of my brain that makes me happy, serving a literary tribe that wants to recognise each other on the street.

The shelves might have been empty last August, but the demand never disappeared. It was just waiting for someone to notice.

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