NYPL Researcher Spotlight: Emily Lynell Edwards

This profile is part of a series of interviews chronicling the experiences of researchers who use The New York Public Library's collections for the development of their work.

Emily Lynell Edwards is a Humanities Publisher with Springer Nature. Prior to joining Springer Nature, she served as an Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities & Educational Technologist at St. Francis College. Her research focuses on the intersection of digital platforms, culture, and communities. Her writing on topics including BookTok, internet trends, and celebrity vampires has appeared in Polygon, Hearing Things, Black Lipstick, and Typebar Magazine.

Tell us about your research project. 

My book examines how BookTok (a community of creators on TikTok devoted to books) and other algorithmic digital platforms are inaugurating a shift in reading and publishing. In my work, I look at platforms such as BookTok, Goodreads, Threads (Meta’s X-competitor), and Kindle Unlimited, examining how they influence the ways in which books are produced, marketed, sold, and commodified. Using data analytic methods I explore and historicize trends like influencer “book hauls,” the “tropification” of books vis-à-vis search-engine-optimized (SEO) hashtags, and trends like “bookshelf wealth.” In the project, I argue that in the algorithmic reading era, readership is becoming a consumptive activity and aesthetic brand. The main aim of my book is to document how the larger forces of algorithmic capitalism are making it harder for readers and authors to engage in practices of reading and writing which are non-commercial, coalitional, and liberatory.  

When did you first get the idea for your research project? 

I am a “BookTok girlie” and a Marxist, so I have long been interested in how reading and writing is performed and positioned as content on social media, whether that is through the “dark academia” trend or authors “romanticizing” a “day in the life” writing their novels. Last year, upon the release of Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Intermezzo, I started to see BookTok influencers posting the book as an accessory alongside make-up, perfume, and skin care products. Seeing those videos and images spurred me to examine more systemically how digital literary culture is structured via a platformed ecosystem that increasingly pushes readers into reviewers, authors into influencers, and books into content

What brought you to the Library? 

I was interested in joining the Library to become part of an academic community, because much of the research we do often is very solitary. My work also looks at and historicizes literary culture, focusing on authorial labor, advertising of books, and gender. Virginia Woolf is a touchstone in my project, so I was excited by the opportunity to engage with the Library’s collections of her correspondences discussing the business of writing. 

What research tools could you not live without?

I could not live without Zotero to organize my citations, Google Collab to write code, Gephi to do my data visualization, and OneLook thesaurus. And while not technically a research tool, I can’t write without music, so Spotify or SoundCloud are constant companions.

How do you maintain your research momentum?

Even though I find myself wanting to rebel constantly, I’ve religiously adhered to Wendy Laura Belcher’s prescription to write thirty-minutes a day, even when it seems like it’s impossible with my schedule. I’ve found that on good days I often get inspired to write more, and on more challenging days I still feel accomplished that I’ve made some progress, however little it moves my research forward. On super hard days I listen to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10-minute version)” on repeat until I hit at least half an hour.

After a day of working/researching, what do you do to unwind?

Even though a large part of my work involves reading and writing about books, I am a big romance reader. I am currently working my way through a backlist of gothic romances by Victoria Holt (pen name of Eleanor Alice Hibbert). 

Is there anything you'd like to tell someone looking to get started?

Often when I start a new research project it feels daunting; there’s so much to read or so much data to collect, clean, and parse. My biggest advice would be to just start writing even if you are still in the process of reading, completing your literature review, or collecting your data. You might not end up using any of it, your perspective or analyses may change, but simply writing alongside the discovery process can help you work out ideas and it might be useful to you later in unexpected ways.