Swoonstack at ScribeFest 2026
by Lauren
Swoonstack’s official debut at ScribeFest 2026 – here’s what Rebecca and Lauren got up to on the 28th June…
I set off at 6.44am with my snacks and Sleep Token tunes. I had promised Rebecca (the other half of Swoonstack) that I would try listening to my first audiobook on the way, but Spotify had other plans. It was just under a 2 hour drive to South-West Northampton to the location – The Barns at Hunsbury Hill. This is where Tamsin operates her dedicated business, Scribe and Sign. Her offices and library aptly named “Narnia” really was a sight to behold. I had been watching Tamsin’s live auctions and sales on Whatnot and Tik Tok from my phone for the last 6 months, so seeing it in the flesh was a dream come true. I touched a lot of sprayed edges and so did Rebecca.
We spent a good portion of the day ogling the special editions, but we had authors to meet and readers to chat with!
This was Swoonstack’s first official event, we even had the t-shirts made and we passed around goodies and flyers as we went. We were attending the event to get the word out about Swoonstack – our in-development romance book platform – and talk to romance readers and authors.
Iced lemon teas in copious amounts were essential.
To find out more about Swoonstack – a book discovery and reading tracker platform, built exclusively for romance readers, explore the site to find out more, or head over to our socials to follow our journey!
Authors and vendors were dotted around the site, some inside and some out, it was lovely to walk around the barns and spend the time talking to everyone there, and even if some books/authors weren’t specifically romance-related, we still were privileged to meet such an array of writers.
We were able to give live demos of swoonstack.com to authors and readers, met with lots of “oohs” and “aahs”. Authors were pleased to see a platform that will support them and help readers find their work, and the readers were excited to see a platform that really understands their reading lives.
The day was beautiful and, thankfully, the worst of the heatwave had gone, leaving us to bask in the gentle sunshine as Meg led the talks of the afternoon, asking insightful questions of the authors and engaging the audience in the discussions as well. We highly recommend you go follow her for amazing bookish content immediately. https://www.tiktok.com/@megthebookgoblin !
In between panels, we chatted with Meg about some ideas for how we at Swoonstack can support indie romance authors – so watch this space!
We had to visit the Vanishing Library, a gorgeous, hand-painted bookshelf where you could leave a book and take a book home. Safe to say the stack was huge!
Thank you so much to Tamsin for inviting us as ScribeFest Influencers on the day, we cannot wait to do it again soon, and please go follow Scribe ‘n’ Sign on socials to jump on a live soon. Tamsin is so passionate about authors and books, and her dedication to the industry shows with everything she does.
This event was so special and will go down in the books as our first, official event as Swoonstack! The feedback we had from readers, authors, and industry professionals was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. We made so many new friends that day and safe to say, we will be coming back next year!
Some of the amazing vendors we met:
