months to complete the bookmarks needed for June’s Royalty box.”

In July, the Good vs. Evil box sold out several days before the subscription sign-up
period ended on July 20. The box featured V. E. Schwab’s This Savage Song and
items from Harry Potter, Star Wars, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s Mluminae, and
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. What made the box unique was that half of the
subscribers would receive a Good box with hero-related items while the other half
would receive an Evil box with villain-related items. The boxes were sent to subscribers
at random, so no one knew which box they would receive.

“| really loved the Good vs. Evil theme. It was so fun opening the box to see which
side | was on,” said Shannon Silvey, an OwlCrate subscriber who runs the Facebook
buy/sell/trade group OwlCrate Official B/S/T and Chat.

The group provides the OwlCrate community a friendly space to chat, as well as an
opportunity for members to buy, sell, or trade their items with other members.

“If you've been thinking about subscribing to OwlCrate, do it. You will not regret it,”
Silvey said. “If you ever receive anything that you don’t want or can’t use, I‘d be happy
to help you trade or sell it in the B/S/T group.”

On September 3, Ede and Madden started a Facebook group called The OwlCrate
Society, a space for OwlCrate fans to discuss their reading-related interests and
activities. Within a few days, the group already had over a thousand members, and
it continues to grow.

To encourage community involvement, Ede and Madden ran a photo contest in The
OwlCrate Society and on their Instagram account, @owlcrate, which has over 100,000
followers. The contest invited participants to take photos of the contents of the Fast
Times at YA High box that was sent out in August.

“It was a fun way to get people to use the items in their boxes,” Ede said.

The box included Kasie West’s P.S. | Like You, an OwlCrate original necklace of
Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park, a Rainbow Rowell art print, a Harry Potter art print
by Suzanne Draws, a Hogwarts button by Taryn Draws, a mini Decomposition Book,
Blue Star Colouring’s Adult Colouring Book, coloured pencils, a Chapter Raptor button,
a signed bookplate, and a letter from the author.

The first author letter to be included in OwlCrate was Julie Murphy’s letter in the
Leading Ladies box from September 2015, which included Murphy’s book Dumplin’.

“Harper Collins asked us if we wanted to include a letter from Julie Murphy,” Ede
said. “ Then we just decided that every box going forward would include a letter from
the author.”

“It's a great way to connect the author to the reader through the OwlCrate experience,”
Madden said. “Often the author will give some unique insight into their inspiration
to write the book.”

Inside the lid of an OwlCrate box, there is a Guide to Unboxing that includes three
instructions: “Photograph and film your unboxing experience,” “show off your treats
to the OwlCrate community,” and “snuggle up and enjoy your new book.” This has led
to a variety of photographed unboxings on Instagram, unboxing videos on YouTube,
and online discussions about subscribers’ favourite items.

In every box, there is an info card that states the box’s contents on one side and has
an illustration on the other side. To show their support of literary video bloggers who
film their OwlCrate unboxings, Madden and Ede chose four popular BookTubers and
had their likeness illustrated into the Fast Times at YA High info card illustration of
students in a high school hallway.

Since November 2015, the info cards have been illustrated by artist James Maxwell,
who worked at the toy store with Madden and Ede. Starting with the August box,
he will also be providing a collectible button in each box featuring an image from
the info card illustration. The August button featured a dinosaur reading a book
with the caption Chapter Raptor. Maxwell’s Myths & Legends info card from

the November 2015 box can be found on his Instagram
account, @spykles.

OwlCrate has even inspired members of their
community to create their own subscription
boxes, such as Craftedvan’s Read Happy Plan.
Craftedvan’s subscription box offers magnetic
bookmarks and various other goodies, such as
greetings cards and magnets. The theme for
the August box was ocean/sea.

 

“Running our own subscription bookmark business allows us to
be super creative. It pushes us to follow a theme each month and
creatively design bookmarks that support that theme,” they said.
“Working with OwlCrate taught us that we could be creative with
the theme. It also taught us the importance of adding as much value
and personality as possible into each package.”

Besides connecting with the online community, Ede and Madden
also enjoy connecting with OwlCrate fans at young adult literary
events, such as the American festivals YA Fests, YALL Fest, and
YALL West.

“We've only done a few shows so far, but we're enjoying actively
engaging in-person with our community,” Madden said. “There
are all of these online relationships, but to actually meet someone
in person is really great.”

OwlCrate’s September box has a Darkness theme and includes
items featuring Ransom Riggs’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar
Children, Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass, and Leigh Bardugo’s
Six of Crows. Being a popular theme, the box sold out before the
subscription sign-up period ended on September 20. The October
box has the theme Once upon a Dream and include items from fairy
tales and stories about dreams.

To learn more about OwlCrate, check out their
website at OwlCrate.com.