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.
