Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Thanks for the great responses this week! I love the easy marketing tips you added to the conversation. I’m also so glad that those of you who don’t have a book out yet are going to put these ideas to work in your book proposals.
One of the comments from two days ago brought up marketing to book clubs. Today, I’d like to invite you to discuss how you could market to book clubs.
How do you go about finding book clubs and presenting your book to them as a potential selection?
Could you write discussion questions or a reader’s guide for your book? How would you get these materials to the book clubs? Would it be best to offer it for free?
Would you be willing to do Skype or phone interviews with book clubs?
I look forward to your thoughts on this! I honestly don’t know the answers to all of these questions, so I hope you might have a little bit to offer either from experience or through research you have done–or from your book club’s experience.
I’m hoping there are some great answers to this too, though they don’t apply to me right now. I wouldn’t know where to begin finding book clubs, except maybe the Internet. Locally, I feel at a bit of a loss.
If applicable, I would definitely write up discussion questions or a reader’s guide for my book. I find many of my clients’ books have them included in the last few pages of the book or on their websites.
Skype sounds interesting. I haven’t used it yet, but I have participated in podcasts from time to time. I usually end up thinking I sounded like a doofus. 🙂
Great week of posts, Rachel. I look forward to today’s discussion.
Rachel, I’ve really enjoyed the blog topic this week. In the area I live in, many churches have book clubs as their small groups. I happen to love small groups, book clubs, and bible study, so my manuscripts all come with discussion questions. Something I would do is call local churches and find out if they have one, then ask if they’d be willing to read it. In return, I’d offer to join in on the discussion either in person, skype or phone–if it’s local I think going in person is the better route to take.
Some local book stores keep a list of book clubs in the area. Some may even meet at them. This might be another avenue to take as well as libraries. I know of 2 book clubs that meet at the local library here. Have a great weekend!
I’ve thought about this quite a bit. I used to run a book club and miss it. 🙁 And I’d love feedback on my idea–which I haven’t spent much time developing yet.
So the idea–nothing genius but what about having a contest for book clubs? Every book club who does your book gets put in a drawing for some prize, probably related to the book. My book is set in Chicago so I thought maybe I could ship the winning book club enough Chicago deep-dish pizza to feed them for their next meeting.
I think the one thing I’d have to figure out is the legality of something like that. I hear often from one writer or another that it’s not legal to have blog giveaways, even if it’s just a book. Rachel, there’s a topic I’d love to have deciphered!
I can’t answer any of those questions, but I’m learning!
Coming from the music business, this blog has been such a blessing to me. I’ve spent hours going through the archives trying to soak it all in.
Thanks to everyone for all the priceless information!
Jessica and I are thinking along the same lines with bookstores, church bookstores, and libraries. If you write for kids, you could check at schools — my kids both have book clubs at their schools (elementary and middle).
Another idea might be trying to find groups and connect with them through Facebook or Twitter. You can search for groups on FB; I’m guessing you might be able to on Twitter, but I still have a lot to learn about the Tweet world.
Happy weekend, and thanks for the great idea-brewing sessions this week, Rachel!
I offer to call book clubs when they discuss one of my books. The notice is on my web site, but it could probably be more prominently placed so they see it. Now that it’s been brought up, I wonder if my publisher would agree to include the offer in the book itself … As to actually doing the calls, I’ve found that it’s best to call about 1/2 hour after the meeting starts so that attendees have time to think/talk/prepare to actually have a meaningful conversation.
AND I have made discussion questions for my books available via my web site if they can’t go in the book. But it’s hard to get that information “out there” to prospective readers.
Since I know there are a few YA and sci-fi / fantasy writers here, a good way to find a book club for your work would be to look at the websites of universities.
Usually student book clubs are under a link for “student activities” or “student life,” which if not located on the main page might be on the student government section. From there you click on the name of the group and it should give you some contact information for either the faculty adviser or the students running the group.
YA has great cross-over opportunities for this demographic since most of them want a fun reading break after the heavy themes of their required reading; and for sci-fi / fantasy writers I know how hard it is to find an audience (especially for Christian sci-fi / fantasy), but this demographic is particularly special. For you are engaging a group of people (the college crowd) who are at a period of their lives where they are questioning things and searching for truth; so fiction which asks them to grapple with things they may not have bothered to consider is especially appealing to this group.
I really like what Rachel said about providing study material; especially if you provide it on your website you not only introduce them to your work but to your presence in other media. With such a tech-savvy generation, having your website or blog being one of the places they routinely visit gives you the word-of-mouth marketing that builds some of the most loyal readers you could get.
Try doing a Q&A where you select questions sent in from various book clubs who have bought your book. Not only does this foster the relationship between you and your readership, but it rewards those who have gone the extra length to truly engage, debate, and discuss your work amongst other readers. (Also, it might make other book clubs willing to look at your work if they know they can actually have such nice interaction with an author).
Cheryl, if I recall correctly your project is historical fiction? A good place to start would be to let various historical societies know about your book; these people obviously love history, and while not exactly a traditional book club, we must always be thinking about non-traditional ways readers associate. Some people cannot fit a book club into their schedule, and some people simply do not know where to find one. Yet even though they might not form a traditional book club, potential readers still bring up their hobbies amongst friends; getting your book to become part of those conversations is key to reaching an audience in the 21st century.
Thanks for all the great ideas this week, Rachel. I took notes.
Wow, Larry thanks for your insights! Very helpful. Stephanie, I love the idea of listing that you’re available for book clubs on prominently on your website with discussion guides.
Sally, I love the idea of doing a drawing for book clubs who read your book. I know there are websites out there that recommend and rate book club books and that might be a great place to advertise such a thing.
I’m not sure about the legality of the drawings and such either! I agree, that would be a great blog topic. Hopefully Janet, Wendy or Mary will be able to cover it soon!
Thanks for all of the comments this week! Happy weekend. 🙂
I love book clubs! I’ve been a book club member since 2004, so I strove to make my books as club-friendly as possible. I’ve included discussion questions in my books, plus I post them to my website. One page of my website is devoted to ideas for starting a book club, as well as an offer to meet/Skype with groups. One group conducted an email interview with me – they sent the questions beforehand so they could read them at the meeting. That was fun because the questions were story-specific.
A fantastic resource to connect book clubs and Christian authors is the Book Club Network (http://www.bookfun.org), which has 1000 members already. I’ve been contacted by several book clubs who read my book, and I sent them autographed bookmarks. Google Alerts notified me of a library group reading my novel, so I contacted the leader and sent them bookmarks as well.
I’ve met with a couple of local book clubs. I like to meet with them AFTER their discussion so they can discuss it openly and honestly 🙂
Hi, Rachel;
My husband and I are co-founders of The Book Club Network connecting Authors with book clubs and leaders to their books.
We are about to have our one-year birthday bash on June 13th authors are giving away over 25 books, over $200.00 in gift cards and our grand prize a Kindle. You can find us at http://www.bookfun.org or on face book under The Book Club Network.
It’s been great to see authors learning from book club about what discussions work in a group setting and which ones done, Other book clubs have been learning from one another about what books they are reading, their groups reaction and what fun things they’ve tried at book club to bring the book to life!
BOOK FUN BEGINS at The Book Club Network. Love for you all to check it out. Also looking to join a book club? We have a member map that shows where book clubs are located! We’ve only begin to discover how much fun you can have at book club.
Nora St.Laurent
The Book Club Network
http://www.bookfun.org
The Book Club Network unveiled our logo and are being interviewed on Seekerville blog – opportunity for book clubs or individuals to win 13 books. Check the interview out! http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2011/05/book-club-blowout-happy-birthday-tbcn.html
Nora 😀