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During, and following, COVID many things that once were in person had to pivot to become virtual. And some of these things stayed that way, or opened up a new door with countless possibilities. One of these things was the transition of book clubs from gathering in person to online. This certainly presented challenges but also allowed people who maybe never have been to a book club to go from the comfort and safety of their own home, and meet some wonderful people from around the world.
I’m fortunate enough to be in a book club and actually run one with a wonderful group of men and women, primarily along the East Coast of the United States. It’s certainly not big, which is how I like it – kind of cozy and intimate like a real book club. But it afforded those older an ability to have a community during the trying times of COVID and also exposed me to some incredible pieces of literature and interesting perspectives.
During my time in the book club, co-moderating, and now running it, I’ve learnt a thing or two about how to successfully run a book club and wanted to pass on some tips and tricks if you wanted to start your own – either with strangers, you blog followers, or friends and family!
At a high level, this is what you need!
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Now to get into the down and dirty with a bit more information and examples of how I run it!
1. Choose your platform to host it on wisely.
There’s a lot of great places out there that you can host on – I know there’s some in Discord for example. But for me personally, Facebook groups was the way to go. We needed it simple for those less technologically inclined and something which was accessible to many without needing to make a new account. If your group is older, or mixed, some of these fancy new apps and such may not work.
2. Decide if you will make administrative decisions or want the group to vote!
Some groups like to vote on everything. Others like to have the leaders make the choices. I personally enjoy doing a mix because it lets people be involved, but makes sure things get done. An example is, I will have people suggest monthly themes and I collect them all and then I choose what month they will occur on and try and get in as many as I can that were suggested! I’ve tried the collection of themes and having people vote on when they wanted it and let me tell you, it got messy. Sometimes as a moderator you need to just make decisions on your own.
3. Decide how many books you want to read and organize, organize, organize!
Some book groups read one book a quarter, some only a couple a year and others one a month. We are the latter so we get through a lot of book which is fantastic. But it means there is a lot of planning. How many books you want to read will determine how many themes you will need for the year. And this will also dictate when you need to be collecting and posting what people will be reading. You need to make sure to leave enough time to get the book – whether that be buying it or getting it from a library. Make sure you know what is happening when before you start.
If it’s friends it’s a little less informal and you can go with the flow, but if it’s strangers you want to put a good foot forward to have people engage and want to read the books.
4. Make Themes!
Themes are a great way to make sure that you have an array of books (you can see an example of what I do to the left). This is particularly important if you plan to try and read a lot of books. You can make your book club have a theme if that is your desire – so you are a classical book club, or a sci-fi book club. But, if you just want to read anything out there, start with making themes. Before January (or whenever your “new year” will start) it can be smart to know what your monthly themes will be.
How I’ve run mine is that end of November or early December I do a post in the Facebook group and ask my members for theme suggestions. Suggestions can be super specific or very general – but you want the themes to have enough clarity so people know what kind of book to suggest.
Once you collect all the theme suggestions, I’d recommend making executive decisions on what month will be when, and try and be logical! Maybe keep spooky themes to October, travel reads to the summer (or maybe the winter to escape the cold!)
5. Decide on your schedule.
You need to decide what is going to be happening when so people know what to expect. For example in my book club, during the month of January, the first of the month I post what our February theme is. People know what the theme is already because there’s a pinned post so they know what is up and coming and that is decided every year for the following year.
But, I’ll do a Facebook group post stating the theme for next month and asking for suggestions of books. I’ll usually leave that open for a week and choose the date I will accept suggestions until. Then on that date I collect everyone suggestions and do a poll! This allows members to vote on what they want to read – this will be open about a week too. Whatever has the most votes at the end wins! If two tie, then I’ll usually make an executive choice. By about the third week of a month, for this example in January, we’ll have our book for the month of February and we’ll post the winner!
The month of February is for reading and also choosing when we discuss the February book I recommend setting that in stone for your group if you can – i.e.: the first Sunday/the first Friday or a month we will meet to discuss. My group likes to be a bit more flexible so we vote on which of the first two weekends in the following month (so for this example, the following month is March) works best.
So for one book for one month, there’s about a 3 month timeline. It’s a lot of work and a lot of organizing but once it’s set and flowing, it’s worth it! That being said, you can simplify it absolutely! This is just how mine works, and sure it is complicated sometimes, but we have it down to a fine art after many years!
After that, you just have to have fun and be flexible! Book clubs should be a social time so it is entirely up to you how you want it to go. Having some structure can help it go smoothly, but if you want to just go with the flow then that is okay too! Just be open to some feedback to best suit it for your group! That being said, if you have a huge virtual book club then organization will be key!
Book clubs are a great way to be exposed to more books. I’ve definitely read books I’ve disliked or never would have read but ultimately I’ve enjoyed the process and community! Also with virtual it means you can possibly meet people from around the world. Starting small is great and growing your community from there is key!
Do you have any tips or tricks on how to run a virtual book club that I haven’t mentioned here? Feel free to share in the comments!
