Taylor Swift writes a lot – she writes poetry, she writes lyrics and songs, and I would also assume that she’s a major journaler. It’s not a stretch to believe that Taylor would quietly write a memoir at some point. Especially these days – Taylor has spent the past six years or so mastering the art of selective hibernation. She goes away for months, works on her projects in almost total privacy and then gives her fans a finished product with very little notice. If Taylor were to publish a memoir, that’s exactly how she would do it too. Hence, the Snake Fam believes that Taylor has a memoir coming out in July.

The formula to a bestselling book is a mystery publishers have wrestled with for centuries. Now they may finally have their answer: encourage Taylor Swift fans to believe she may have written it. An untitled book, known only as “4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023” by a yet-to-be announced author has shot up sales charts in the US, after “Swifties” pieced together apparent clues and came to the conclusion that it could possibly be a memoir by the 33-year-old singer, who is known for peppering her songs with easter eggs that reward devout fans.

The mystery book from Flatiron, an imprint of publisher Macmillan, is available for pre-order for US$45 and has been hovering in the top 10 of the Amazon book sales chart, rising as high as No. 2. It is also currently No. 1 on Barnes & Noble’s pre-orders chart.

The pre-order rush began when a document purported to be from Flatiron began circulating on social media, which said that the title and author will be revealed on 13 June. The book is also said to contain 544 pages; and while that would make for a hefty memoir, Swift’s fans have noted that 5 + 4 + 4 = 13. Thirteen is – common knowledge among Swifties – the singer’s lucky number.

The mystery book was described in the document as a “biography or autobiography” that would feature 40 colour photos. It will have an initial print-run of one million copies and a global release date of 9 July: the huge number and short lead time suggest it will be a famous author.

The 9 July release date also matches the date mentioned in the lyrics of Swift’s song Last Kiss, a track on her third album Speak Now. Swift is set to re-release that album on 7 July, as part of her “Taylor’s Version” project to rerecord the six albums she made for the Big Machine label headed over by music executive Scooter Braun, a man whom Swift despises. Fans are also speculating that Swift’s decision to use “dear reader” in her announcement for the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was a clue that a book would follow.

On Tuesday, Variety said it “can report for certain that this mystery author is not, as rumoured, Taylor Swift”, adding that it was unlikely anyway given she is in the middle of a huge US stadium tour and about to release another album – “an excessive exercise in synergy even for someone as capable of project-multitasking as a Taylor Swift”, Variety’s Chris Willman wrote.

[From The Guardian]

Honestly, given Taylor’s love of Easter eggs, I’m actually convinced that this IS a Taylor Swift memoir, or at the very least, some kind of mild book she’s put together for fun. It all lines up and I trust that the Snake Fam has been making diagrams, keeping notes and putting all of the clues together. While it’s not my cup of tea, it’s amazing that Taylor encourages her fans to become amateur sleuths, Miss Marple-style, of all things in the Swift Cultural Universe. And really, if this isn’t Taylor, who else would justify a million copies of the first print??? Who has that kind of clout? Oh, sh-t, is it the Duchess of Sussex??!?!?!?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.