A gaggle of writers and publishers gathered at the Small Press Center in mid-April to witness a lively panel discussion on the growing phenomenon of Reading Groups, aka the Other Book Clubs. PT attended the panel and then did follow up interviews with some of the panelists.
Organized by Mark Kaufman, Donna Paz Kaufman who run Reading Group Choices (www.readinggroupchoices.com), and Jill Tardiff, National President of Women’s National Book Association, the panel steered a course between talking about what makes a good book club, and defining just what a book club is. Some of the stats that were bandied about were pretty impressive: An estimated 20-25% of some bestselling titles (viz. Kite Runner, Secret Life of Bees) are bought by reading group members; More than 400 titles were mentioned by respondents to the Reading Group Choices annual survey and in 2004, 14 of the top 20 books are repeats from earlier years. The average book club member reads 36 books a year.
Carol Fitzgerald, President of The Book Report Network, which includes ReadingGroup Guides.com, says she has 2200 book clubs registered on her site and offers publishers the opportunity to pitch book club members on author telephone or online interviews, as well as offering ARCs for certain higher profile authors. When the chance to win ARCs is presented, as many as 350 groups will sign up. Among the trends Fitzgerald has seen is an increase in the number of book club members who choose audiobooks as their preferred method of reading. She also noted that in a recent survey, 48% of respondents say they choose their books 2-3 months ahead, while 16% plan up to 6 months ahead. Therefore, publishers need to alert book groups about new books sooner than they are currently doing.
Everyone noticed that hardcovers are increasingly popular with reading groups, though Barbara Hoffert, Editor of of Library Journal‘s book review, mentioned that libraries are as likely to buy trade paperbacks, for budgetary reasons. Libraries keep extensive lists of reading club books, which they recommend to their patrons. The Seattle Public Library keeps 24 copies of each of 400 titles that they consider premier club books. It hosts 30 of its own reading groups, with another 300 on file.
Adriana Trigiani, author of Lucia, Lucia, and the poster child for how authors can relate to reading groups, speaks to many of her groups by phone – though Donna Paz Kaufman claims only a fraction — about 1% — of the groups take advantage of telephone interviews. She also talked of the impact of appearing on B&N University which, she claims, resulted in 4000 emails from readers and fans.
Everyone had suggestions for publishers: Fitzgerald thinks reading group guides should be published before the trade paperbacks come out (not surprisingly, she suggests they be posted on ReadingGroupGuides.com), and that there should be more material in them, such as author interviews. Everyone – including HarperPerennial‘s David Roth-Ey — agreed that guides are often patronizing, or as Mark Kaufman explained, “like final exams in a graduate English course.” And Roth-Ey talked about Harper Perrenial’s PS Program, which he described as, “a reading group guide on steroids.” Again, everyone agreed that there is too little marketing clout behind the paperback publication of a likely reading group title, and in fact, too little marketing of backlist titles in general.
“Publishers need a marketing slush fund for backlist titles,” Fitzgerald said, “they’re so forward thinking, they’re missing the mark on these titles.”
As for the future of reading groups, look to October, which is National Reading Group Month. Oh, and Listen To Your Inner Critic Month. Really.
*Politics & Prose estimates that at any one time 10% of its 90 groups are currently reading The Kite Runner.
