BOOK CLUBS ARE EVOLVING: As an Author or Reader Are You?

 

By Lisa Malice, Ph.D.

For a crime fiction author, one of the greatest thrills is hanging out with book clubs, discussing the characters, plots, and twists of our books with readers who love mystery, suspense, and thrills just as much as we do. Such interactions are a special thrill for readers, too, as few ever have the chance to meet and talk with the authors of the books they devour.

Since the launch of my debut thriller, LEST SHE FORGET, my readers and I have had the pleasure of meeting up all across the country. How? Admittedly, I have enjoyed book club outings in the most traditional setting. I always try to set up in-person book club gatherings where I live (Tampa area) and whenever I’m visiting family in Minneapolis or Atlanta. An evening of food and wine with new friends and old is always an added treat when doing a Q & A about my book and my author journey. 

But book clubs are evolving to offer both authors and readers new ways to connect. The times and the technology are advancing, using the power of Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms to connect with readers and authors. My first foray into online book clubs was in 2018, when I created a new Zoom-based program for my Atlanta Sisters in Crime chapter, simply titled, Virtual Book Club. Although its program title has evolved over its seven-year run (currently called “Murder by the Book”), this monthly online program has brought together dozens of authors and their fans. The small group setting offered an intimate experience for all.

(Above) This Facebook post highlighted that Hank Phillippi Ryan, a great friend of SinC Atlanta, was the first author featured for Virtual Book Club in 2018.

My first experience as an author meeting up with a book club virtually came about after promoting myself and LEST SHE FORGET through my college women’s fraternity, Chi Omega. I was broadcast into the Huntsville, Alabama home of an alum surrounded by the other members of her book club.

(Above) Meeting up with Chi Omega sisters living in the Huntsville, Alabama area to discuss LEST SHE FORGET.

Fully virtual book club meetings allow readers and authors from all parts of the country—or the world, for that matter—to share their thoughts and discuss the ins and outs of a thrilling tale. My encounter with the alumni of Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity was set up by my daughter, Olivia (bottom row, second from left). Because readers were scattered throughout the country, our book club meeting was scheduled a little later in the evening to accommodate those members living in the Pacific time zone.

An online search of book clubs offered an unexpected surprise -- businesses in the business of book clubs, such as BookClubs.com. These are companies that help readers start or manage book clubs, or even find one to join. These companies help clubs select books, offer discussion questions, manage calendars, and more. Partnerships with publishers and self-published authors keep the library well-stocked with a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. Digging a little deeper, I found their clients hail from myriad of organizations, from colleges and their alumni groups, corporations, churches, nonprofits, and more. 

As a virtual program, THE BACK ROOM (see promo below) is even more ambitious, though it doesn’t necessarily follow the book club model in which participants read and discuss books. Created during the COVID pandemic by a pair of bestselling thriller writers, Hank Phillippi Ryan and Karen Dionne, The Back Room brings together four authors to meet up and engage with the readers in the audience. As previously noted, a particularly fun aspect of this format is that authors really have hailed from the proverbial four corners to the world. I’ve talked with authors struggling to stay awake in England for the Sunday evening program, as well as writers just rising with the Australian sun.

One of my biggest thrills as a reader was the night Lisa Scottoline, one of my all-time favorite thriller writers, was a featured guest of The Back Room because these encounters are face-to-face. We corresponded the next day about Lisa reading my book toward the possibility of  offering a blurb (the short deadline my publisher gave me to collect blurbs didn’t work for Lisa). Even so, when Lisa came to town recently to promote her latest thriller, I was quick to buy my ticket. After her talk was over and books were signed, Lisa spent ten minutes talking with me, writer-to-writer, after everyone else had left. Had I not had my encounter with Lisa in The Back Room, I would have just been another reader to Lisa.

Meeting up with Lisa Scottoline at the Oxford Book Exchange in Tampa during her book tour.

But that in-person engagement is just what virtual book clubs can’t fully offer. That being said, the traditional book club is small, tight, restricted, usually set up by a group of friends looking to get together once a month to eat, drink, and share stimulating conversation. Few readers have a base of friends who share their enthusiasm enough to start-up and maintain a book club. Moreover, authors are rarely part of the party (unless a virtual book club plans its meetings to include authors).

Given these constraints, the natural evolutionary path is to bring authors and readers together in-person in an open, unrestricted setting.

It’s precisely for those isolated readers and authors that my Sisters in Crime (SinC) chapter will host its inaugural book club, MURDER IS MY CUP OF TEA, at The White Heron Tea & Gift Shop on Wednesday, May 21 (in my town of New Port Richey, a suburb of Tampa, Florida). This monthly event will celebrate mystery, suspense, and thriller authors and their books in a local tea shop setting. Anyone can join in the fun for one party, a few here and there, or all of them, if so desired.

LEST SHE FORGET will be the first featured Book of the Month that, for only $8.95, includes a menu of tea (specially selected to complement my book), scones, clotted cream, and strawberry jam (Yum! My mouth is watering already!). A second SinC author, the following month’s featured author, will serve as host and moderator to promote the next book club meeting and sell books to interested readers.

My SinC chapter is spread out more than a hundred miles along the Florida Gulf Coast, allowing our members to set up similar book club programs in their areas. I’ll keep you posted on how it pans out.

In the meantime, whether you are an author or a reader, have you participated in a virtual or open book club? Do you know of any other book club formats that stray from the traditional setting? Do you have a favorite book club memory to share?