How to: Finding Members for Your Book Club

For those who are looking to start a book club, I imagine that it can be quite the daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be. The great thing about book clubs is that the more you get members involved in the planning, the more invested they are going to be in the books and events. And creating a successful book club is really about getting people excited and involved. So you want to make sure you focus first on finding people and then work together to form the kind of book club that everyone wants to be a part of.

Finding members is the most obvious place to start and while if you have close friends in your area that are avid readers, than a lot of your work is already done for you. But for those of you who don’t (like I didn’t living in a new city), it becomes more challenging. Here are some basic tips to finding a good group.

Ask your close friends first (even those that don’t read a lot)

Regardless on if your friends are avid readers, it may surprise you that some of them are open to the idea of a book club. When you approach them, play into things you know they like. Recommend reading a book by their favorite author or in a genre they love. Or, think about their other interests. If they love theater, suggest starting with a play. If they love video games, ask them if they’d love to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Or, you know, another book heavily about video games). Do they love cooking? Recommend a book that has a heavy food theme and talk about the type of meal you could plan around said book.

The point is, if they are your close friends, you know those subtle forms of bribery to get them interested in something and don’t be afraid to use those tips for recruitment purposes. Maybe you agree to give their weekly dodge ball game a shot if they try your book club? This could be a win-win arrangement.

ALWAYS keep your eyes and ears open

Does one of your coworkers always have a mystery novel she’s carrying around with her? Does that girl you friended on social media at that one party often post quotes by authors? Or maybe that guy on the balcony next to yours often debates literary fiction with his friends on the balcony? Anywhere you go, be on the look out for people who might be interested in a book club. Plan on being in recruiting mode until you find a group that works and comes consistently.

This can be intimidating if you’re shy or an introvert, but it does get easier to promote once you realize it is a numbers game and that you don’t have to hard sell every person you meet on it. Just get in the habit of mentioning your book club whenever you talk to someone about books. A simple “hey, I’ve actually been thinking about starting a book club, have you ever been interested in joining one?” allows for a conversation about it to either open or close. If you ask this question (or similar ones) enough times, you will find other people interested.

Once you start a book club, don’t be afraid to carry your book club books around with you. When people ask about them, mention it’s your book club book and talk about your events. Sometimes when people have those gentle nudges the excitement eventually builds and they choose to join. But don’t force the issue too much. People should be excited to come to your event, they should not feel obligated to join you. And you’ll be pleasantly surprised when someone you hadn’t expected not only shows up, but becomes a regular!

Ask members if they know other people

If someone has joined your book club, odds are they have friends who like to read and might be interested. Or are at least vaguely aware of people who might want to join. If you get their friends involved, they will tend to be more excited about coming to events because they will know additional people at the group. If you get people invested in the success of the book club, they will probably help you in recruiting efforts as well.

Personally, whenever I’m at a party with people from my book club, inevitably the book club comes up. And then we all talk about how awesome it is and the books we’ve read. At first, I was always the shameless promoter, but as I’ve lead by example, I’ve seen my fellow members promote it as well. I mean, don’t make every party all about recruitment, but if the topic of books comes up, take the opportunity. When multiple people chime in about how much they love the same thing, outsiders pick up on that enthusiasm and get excited about it as well.

Social Media is your friend

While finding people that you know is preferable to strangers, do not be afraid to turn to social media if you are struggling to find people that you know interested in creating a book club. A love of books can be a strong binding tool in the friendship building process. We’ve had relative strangers (such as a classmate’s fiance that I had never actually met) start coming to our book club (on her own, without him) that now feel like family.

There are two real ways to use social media to develop a book club.

• Find people in your area looking for things to do and introduce books. Meetup is probably the most well known social media platform to do this. Meetup has the advantage of being in most cities of a relatively decent population. You will not have to convince anyone to meet others in real life since they are already actively looking to do so. And it serves as a way to set up events. Now, Meetup does require a monetary subscription to be an event planner. But I’ve been a part of a couple of Meetup book clubs and they work fairly well. These often go better if you have a specific mission in mind (for example I did a Mystery group and a Game of Thrones one). You’ll have less control over your members with a Meetup though, as you will not be able to get a feel for them before they are already at your event.
• Find book lover communities and seek out people in your area. Goodreads and Litsy are two examples of book related social media. Creating a book club on one of these sites might take a little bit more work and active recruiting than a meetup, but you have the advantage of curating your members more carefully. Litsy, in particular, fosters a social aspect so heavily that you can really get to know someone before approaching them about an in person book club. I would recommend using this as a way to pull in new members if you are already enjoying an active membership on one of these sites (or their counterparts). It may be more challenging to find people in your area on one of these sites unless you are in a larger city.

Things to know before you approach people

While I do say here that having members is the first aspect of your book club, having an idea for what book you want to read and what kind of event you want to plan is good to know in case they show more interest. Until you have people committed to that book/event, it is okay to be flexible, but once you have people excited about those items, you should not change them.

I will go into more detail on planning your first event in future blogs. But if you have any questions that you wanted answered in particular or any tips that you’d like to share, please check out our Contact page on how to reach out.