When you buy a book from an indie bookshop, where does the money actually go?

In this mini episode, which is also my first video episode, I turn the camera around and show you my side of the counter, real numbers and all. It cost me about $6K to open Casa Luna Books as an online-only shop.

On a regular $18 book, most indie bookstores clear a 2–3% net profit after rent, payroll, and inventory. That’s about the price of a gumball.

Online isn’t easier. Between roughly $5 in shipping on every order, Shopify fees, design software, and podcast tools, I start most sales underwater, and that’s before I count a single hour of my own labor.

Then we zoom out. France, Germany, Spain, and many other countries have fixed book price laws that stop giant retailers from undercutting small shops. Those laws weren’t written to protect profit. They were written to protect book diversity, indie and niche books that get squeezed off the shelf.

This isn’t a plea for pity. It’s about understanding the stakes, because understanding is its own kind of support. 🌙

• France’s loi Lang (1981 fixed book price law)

🌙 Casa Luna
Shop Latine, BIPOC & indie authors at Casa Luna Books: https://casa-luna-books.myshopify.com
Thanks for hanging out under the moon with me. Stay curious, stay in the know, and keep the light on for the stories that need it most.

What if you could hear color?

This week I sit down with Bay Area poet and educator Nisha Srinivasa, author of The Synesthete's Rainbow: Poetry in the Colors of Love.

We talk about what synesthesia actually feels like, why she built a poetry collection that reads like a story, and why narrating her own audiobook gave her back the voice she lost in those relationships. We also get into her hot take on how schools teach poetry, why rap is poetry, the teacher who saw something in her "sad girl poetry" at 11, and why poetry has always belonged to Brown, Black, and Indigenous cultures. As I put it on the mic: we don't just do it best, we did it first.

Plus: her year of reading only women authors of color, the publishing-marketing push, the poster her students made for her book launch, and a first look at her next collection: a book of letters to the grandmother she never got to know. 🌙

• The Synesthete's Rainbow: Poetry in the Colors of Love by Nisha Srinivasa. Get it at Casa Luna Books: https://casa-luna-books.myshopify.com/products/synesthetes-rainbow-poetry-in-the-colors-of-love
• Audiobook narrated by Nisha, on Libro.fm, Spotify, Chirp & Kobo
• Coming from Nisha: an untitled poetry collection of letters to her paternal grandmother (first look on this episode!)

Mentioned in this episode

• Wordslut by Amanda Montell
• Poetry Says It Better by Ellen Burstyn (audiobook, read by the author)
• Threads of Her Braid by Tanya Zuñiga: https://casa-luna-books.myshopify.com/products/threads-of-her-braid-tanya-zuniga
• Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Nisha's current print read)
• Fruit Fly by Josh Silver (Nisha's current audiobook)
• Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang (Nisha's next read)
• The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (my rec for Nisha)
• Poets & authors: Rupi Kaur, Warsan Shire, Nayyirah Waheed, Nikita Gill, Sandra Cisneros, Saumya Dave, Pablo Neruda, Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin

• Instagram & TikTok: @nishawritesstories (author page, behind-the-scenes)

• Substack: https://nishawritesstories.substack.com

• She Writes Press, Nisha's publisher, dedicated to publishing women: https://shewritespress.com

• Libro.fm, an audiobook platform that supports indie bookstores
• Can't find a book? Request it at your local indie bookstore. That's Nisha's favorite way to buy.

Shop Latine, BIPOC & indie authors at Casa Luna Books: https://casa-luna-books.myshopify.comThanks for hanging out under the moon with me. Stay curious, stay in the know, and keep the light on for the stories that need it most.

This week we’re stepping a little outside the bookshelf. This show has always been about more than books. It’s about who gets to take up space and build something loud and unapologetic on their own terms.

Melly sits down with Haley Escamilla, founder of Two and a Half Street, a Latina empowerment brand based in Mission, Texas. Haley started this long before “Latina power” became an internet trend. Haley shares her "Why" and encourages other Latinas to "Do it scared", encouraging them to take the leap and begin their own journey.

In this episode:

• Growing up on Two and a Half Street: paleteros, panaderos, tortillas sold out of a car, and what real community looks like
• Starting a brand in October 2020 to show the beauty of the Rio Grande Valley while it was getting so much hate in the media
• “Do it scared”: betting on yourself when you’re not sure there’s room for you (spoiler: there is)
• The first business lesson Haley’s dad taught her: being his daughter didn’t get her bumped ahead of his paying customers
• Knowing when to stroke an ego and when to rein one in with vendors, suppliers, and customers
• Size-inclusive from S to 4XL, with no upcharge for bigger sizes, and why the 4X sells out first
• Why Haley never broadened her niche, and why a kid seeing “Super Mijita” on a shirt matters as much as seeing yourself in a book
• Fashion as activism, and the meaning behind the new Love Thy Neighbor design: cacti for resilience, monarchs for the immigrant journey, roses for the beauty in all of it
• Melly’s story of finding community in Memphis through a car decal, and a prayer vigil that left her hopeful
• Haley’s advice for new entrepreneurs: be careful about giving product away for free, wear your products, and be proud of what you built

Chapters
00:00 Welcome + meet Haley
01:30 The story behind the name
04:00 Growing up on Two and a Half Street
08:00 Starting a brand in 2020
14:30 Doing it scared + family as first investors
20:30 Dad’s first business lesson
25:30 Learning business without a business degree
31:30 Egos to stroke, egos to rein in
35:30 Staying in your niche
42:30 Size inclusivity with no upcharge
51:00 Fashion as activism + Love Thy Neighbor
55:00 Finding community in Memphis
1:07:30 Advice for new entrepreneurs
1:13:30 What’s next for Two and a Half Street

Links
🛍️ Shop Two and a Half Street: https://twoandahalfstreet.com
📚 Casa Luna Books: https://casalunabooks.com
🤝 Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC): https://www.tirrc.org

The best way to support a Latina-owned small business costs nothing: share, follow, and tell your primas and tías.

Thanks for hanging out with us on Under the Moon. Stay curious, and keep the light on for the stories that need it most. 🌙