Partner Spotlight is a series designed to highlight the vendors that partner with ABA to offer discounted products, services, and business opportunities to ABA members. Each installment, we interview a different partner to learn more about their organization and why indie bookstores matter to them.
Tropetails is a woman-owned, specialty drink brand that offers drink recipe books, instant mocktail mixes, and more!
Bookselling This Week sat down with owner Margaret Beeler to learn more about Tropetails.
Bookselling This Week: Why don't we start with what led you to create Tropetails?
Margaret Beeler: I have always been a storyteller.
In addition to Tropetails, I write young adult fantasy, adult satire, and middle grade comics, so I've always been into storytelling. And I’ve always been into mixology and making fun drinks.
I live in Cincinnati, but I often visit my family in Chicago, and that’s a five-hour drive. On these drives, I always think about the ideas I have, and I've always thought it would be really fun to combine my two interests — making fun drinks and reading and writing.
It's kind of similar to when I'm writing a book. People ask me where these ideas come from, and I'm like, “I literally don't know, it's almost like a lightning bolt.”
That's the best way to describe it, it’s like being struck by lightning like, “Whoa. Literary cocktails. I'm gonna do cocktails based on tropes.”
I ran a Kickstarter for the first book back in 2024. It did five figures, which is pretty good for a Kickstarter campaign.
After the first book was published, I just started listening to my audience. They loved the books, but they didn’t always want to go out and buy all the ingredients and do all the work. That’s when the mixes came in!
BTW: At this point, you have several Tropetails books available, right?
MB: I have three: A cocktail book, a mocktail book, and a holiday book.
I'm actually working on a new book with all new tropes, which will probably come out sometime in 2027!
It's going to take me a little while to come up with 50 new drink recipes. Also, for this book, I've been involving my friends and family a lot more. It's been more of a collaborative experience — even with some of my readers, which has been really fun because they feel like they're a part of it.
BTW: Oh! I was going to ask how you come up with all the ideas or develop all these recipes.
MB: They're all based on the vibes I get of the trope.
For example, for the first recipe book, I made a lot of the recipes beforehand and then I paired them with tropes based on vibes.
One example is a drink called Lights Out, and it’s based on the trope of EMP strikes in dystopian novels. EMP strikes are when an electromagnetic pulse knocks out the power grid, so I was thinking this drink would have to be really dark and strong.
And I did that for all these tropes. Steamy romance is obviously going to be a pretty spicy drink. Dragon Riders feels light and airy, so that one's actually a mocktail.
BTW: It sounds like a lot of fun to sit there and pair them up. All of your products feel exciting and playful.
Do you want to talk a bit about the drink mixes?
MB: The drink mixes are not based on any of the drinks in the recipe books.
So if you want to make your drinks, you can do the cocktail book. If you want an instant drink, do the mocktail mixes.
The mocktail mixes come in a nice big 10-ounce bag, and there's 35 servings in each bag.
It’s great if you're going to be drinking with other people, like at a book club or other social event.
They’re based on genres, so I have a romance one, a fantasy one, and a horror one. (And I’ll probably branch into some more niche genres down the line.)
These flavors are also based off of vibes. So, for me, fantasy feels like an escape — like summer break — so that made me think of coconut and mango.
Strawberry lavender gives me a more romantic vibe. And cherry orange makes me think of fall, bourbon, more grungy energy, so that’s my horror flavor.
These are the flavors that make sense to me. I didn’t know if it would for other people. But I feel like they are getting it.
BTW: Are you the only person working on Tropetails? Is this a one-woman show?
MB: It's a one-woman-and-one-cat show, although my Chief of Chaos is not present in the office right now. He's probably sleeping on a job.
BTW: But he provides vital support.
MB: He does provide vital support! He always knows when I need a break too.
But yeah, it's just me. Though I have some good friends that sometimes come and help me pack up orders and stuff.
BTW: For a brand like this, partnering with bookstores is a pretty intuitive move.
Did you always plan for that? Were you always hoping to be in stores?
MB: I didn't. If you asked me back in January what my plans were, I didn't really know I was going to be wholesaling.
Originally, I was selling directly to consumers through my Shopify store. I was running ads. I was completely customer focused. Until someone reached out to me and was like, “Hey, have you ever thought about wholesaling?”
I had never really thought about it. I love going into bookstores and seeing all the sidelines and gift items — I’m a huge trinket goblin — and it just kind of hit me. This is a product for bookstores.
It speaks for itself. The branding is so eye-catching. But bookstores, they know the readers, they're going to be able to position this in the best way possible.
I started reaching out to bookstores on the side from February to April, and then I realized I wanted to go fully in on wholesale, because I loved talking with bookstore owners. They’re the same person as me, a crazy nerd! Building relationships with them has honestly been so fun.
It feels collaborative, like, “How can I help you be more successful in selling this thing I made?”
So, wholesale came about randomly, but now it's my whole business model. It's weird to see it flip like that, but now I can't imagine it any other way.
BTW: Is there a product that you’ve found is your favorite or that has been the bestseller?
MB: Honestly, I really like the horror bag the most — and it's one that I didn't think I was going to.
I have an illustrator, and when we were discussing the designs, I thought my favorite bag was going to be the romance one. But there’s something about the horror mix’s design — maybe it’s the contrast – I just love it.
It stands out so much and it's such a cool bag. It’s also my favorite flavor!
I have a friend who just drinks it casually all day and she says it helps her get her water in. And it has a lot less sugar than some of the hydrating powders on the market.
I would say my favorite drink from the recipe book is Stranded. I like a good, fun, summery drink.
BTW: I love how these products cover the range of how much effort you're willing to put in.
MB: Absolutely.
If you're having a party, sometimes you don't want to make a ton of drinks. And honestly, it’s not cheap to buy a lot of drink ingredients. That’s when you can just dump a mocktail mix into some water. Thirty-five servings in a bag.
It's just nice to have those options.
BTW: Is there anything else that you want to mention?
MB: I'm a more hands-on brand. I really want my retailers to succeed — I like to have fun and I want to make friends. If something's wrong, I want my retailers to think, “I'll just reach out to Maggie, because she'll make it right.”
They’re doing me a favor by selling my products and getting my name out there, and I know shelf space is very limited, so it means a lot to me.
To that end, I actually recently ran a store display contest. Booksellers could make a fun Tropetails display, post it, and tag me. The winning store (to be announced) will get $200 worth of inventory at wholesale price. The runner-up will win $100 of inventory wholesale price.
BTW: What should booksellers expect when ordering from you?
MB: For the discount or the ordering process, please make sure to use my direct Faire link. (You can find the link and discount code for ABA members on the BookWeb Business Services page).
That's the most important thing.
If people don’t use that link, Faire takes a much higher percentage from me for every order.
ABA members can receive 15% off orders over $120 and free shipping on orders over $180.