Hi friends, readers, authors, and community members. Last year Steamy Lit Con hosted by our Steamy Lit Foundation (501c3) took a financial hit. We had 300+ less ticket sales, we were not able to meet hotel attrition, and we could not lower our F&B mininum. I had two options, cancel the event, and not be able to refund anyone, or take out a loan to pay off the hotel and be able to host the con.

I took out a quick loan for $114k, with a repayment of $158,460.00 and another for $20k with a repayment of $22,869.56.

I have been silently trying to figure out how to pay these loans back through my for profit business, Steamy Lit, and it is impacting our staff, our day to day operations, and overall our livelihood.

I have been able to pay back the 22,869.56 earlier this year but we are still working on paying off the 158k loan. Every spare dollar coming in we are funneling to this loan.

I am asking for your help to get us out of this hole. Unfortunately these quick loans are very predatory which is why even though we only borrowed 114k, we owe them 158k. The past three months have been really stressful, trying to not change staff pay but have had to downsize, not paying myself, and trying to do every pop up and event possible to drive more revenue. Since the foundation doesnt bring money in year round, this has been paid back through Steamy Lit (the bookstore).

If you are able to give anything or simply share with your community, my team and I, would really appreciate it. I understand this is so low on the totem pole of all the awful shit going on, but I had to at least try to raise funds so I know I did everything I could.

If you've read this far, thank you.

If you have no idea who I am, my name is Mel, I am the founder of Steamy Lit, a romance literature collective focused on amplifying authors part of marginalized communities. I am an immigrant, Latina, and a Navy veteran. I am also the founder of Steamy Lit Foundation, and our mission is to amplify the work of authors part of marginalized identities.

The funds raised here are going directly to our non profit bank account to help pay off this loan.