You may recall that in November we released our study Reading Together: Book Clubs in Canada, and we shared some of those stats in a previous blog post.
This time, we thought we would shift the focus to some takeaways for librarians, booksellers, and publishers. What tips and insights did we glean from the report that might help each reach more book club members?
Libraries
Libraries are where many book club members find their books: 48% of book club members acquire their books from public libraries, which is tied for first with chain bookstores. They’re also where many book club members who suggest books to their clubs (44%) hear about their picks.
The discovery piece goes both ways, as we discovered in our earlier study Borrow, Buy, Read: Library Use and Book Buying in Canada. We found that 6% of book borrowers discover the books they read from book clubs and 4% from reading groups.
Libraries also play host to many book clubs. It was the second most popular in-person meeting place reported in our study at 29%.
Though book club members do make use of the library for recommendations, book acquisition, and as a meeting place, we found that most book clubs do not borrow book club kits from public libraries. Perhaps this is because it’s difficult to get the desired book at the right time? Or maybe the organization required to distribute to the entire club is too onerous. We didn’t ask why clubs don’t use the kits. Perhaps that’s an avenue of exploration your library can undertake.
Bookstores
Bookstores and book clubs have a symbiotic relationship. As we found in our What's in Store: The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada report, 67% of booksellers reported a positive return on investment for book clubs, though 43% did not host an on-site book club at all.
When we asked book club members where they held their meetings for our Reading Together report, 17% said they met up at bookstores. So while it’s not a very popular meeting place for book clubs, booksellers are generally positive about hosting them.
Bookstores are also very influential when book club members are deciding which books to suggest to their clubs: 49% of book suggesters heard about the book they suggested from a bookstore.
When it comes to purchasing the book for the meeting, 48% of book club members bought their copies from chain bookstores, while 21% bought from indie bookstores.
Publishers
While there is lots of information in the report that will help publishers reach and engage with book clubs, perhaps one of the most direct takeaways for publishers would be members' desire for extra materials.
Roughly a third (32%) of book clubs use some sort of discussion materials or prompts for their meetings. Those could be author interviews, reading group guides, or discussion questions. And 19% of the book club members we surveyed invited the authors themselves to participate in their meetings either in person or online.
Publishers have an opportunity to keep a list of authors who are willing to do book club appearances and to promote that list and those authors to clubs who might want to invite a guest speaker. There’s also an opportunity to produce more discussion materials for the clubs that use them, and to make the two-thirds of clubs that don’t use any materials aware they exist in case that’s the hurdle stopping them from integrating discussion questions into their meetings.
There is so much more to learn from the full report:
how book club members find out about their book clubs
how often they meet
whether they use supplementary materials for their meetings
when they make their book club picks
how they choose their book club picks
where they get their books
their format and genre preferences
and more!
Take a look for yourself in this short sample and then purchase the entire thing at booknetcanada.ca/reading-together. If you're a SalesData subscriber, you can find a complimentary copy in the SDA Research Portal.
What did BookNet read in 2024? We’re sharing some tidbits of data about our team’s reading habits this year.