The Bright And Darksides of Running A Book Club
Book clubs are so much more than an assembly of book nerds geeking over literature.
Through analysis, members strive to achieve divers goals. Communally they navigate aspects of life, explore existential concepts, and disassemble academic topics with books.
They’re fun, intellectually stimulating, and full of positive social interaction. With thought-fueling snacks, imparting books, and deep conversation, book clubs offer a great number of benefits.
However, there is a unique set of demands that book club administrators manage that makes balancing between a hobby and a financially stable endeavor like walking on a tightrope.
Book clubs can help pay bills, pay off debt, bring in attractive income, and become an endeavor you are financially proud of. But without effective monetization strategies, they can also build debt and bring financial loss.
Honorably, financial gain is not the popular motivation behind starting a book club. They’re often established by genuine book lovers who want to share with others the beneficial aspects of literature, intertwining book themes with lessons with real-life elements.
Still, club costs and finances are unavoidable. Even if the goal isn’t to become a millionaire, book club administrators should consider the many ways book clubs can at least pay for themselves.
Approaching Book Club Monetization
Start by asking questions. Point out an aspect of your club and find ways that it can make money…
- How can your club make money from your members & audience?
- How can you monetize your book expertise & club conversations?
- How could you make money from products your club uses?
- How can you make money from access to your club and its resources?
- How can you make money repurposing information from your book club for audiences on other platforms to enjoy?
Like any business, you want to look for profitable areas within your (one) book club to create multiple channels of revenue. Club-like businesses, primarily use their members to generate income. Combine that with the technology growing today and the possibilities for member-generated income not only grows but diversifies.
9 Ways to Make More Money With Your Book Club
Online Methods
1 Blog
A blog has the potential to be the most fundamental tool for your book club. Simply because it can service and grow all club aspects. Imagine a blog as…
- The online address/home of your book club
- A place to record and expand on book club conversations.
- The main platform to keep members updated on book club meetings, events, important dates, books to buy & other happenings
- A platform to publicize book club recommendations reads, and ratings
- The place to market your club and invite new members to join
- Your administrative assistant: awake at all hours to accept club membership payments, and manage new or exiting members.
2 Podcast
Bring club conversations to a much bigger audience and monetize recycled club content with a podcast. Podcasts popularly make money from ads, sponsorships, listener support/donations, and affiliate marketing.
Extending your club in this direction allows you to monetize your club in ways that are specific to the medium and boost club discussions.
3 Book Club With Video
If you have got lots of buzz and people waiting to join your club, include online members through video. You can stream or pre-record your club meetings live for online members to participate. Or you can alternate the days you hold in-person and online meetings.
This opens up the possibility for you to influence the book club industry by reaching a local and/or international audience.
Proper software is going to be essential with this strategy. Choose software that makes it easy to manage online membership and payments, and show club material.
4 Podcast
Social media platforms pay successful creators (who are influential and consistent) to create content. If your followers and book club members are highly active and involved, you already have an audience for a social media side hustle that benefits your book club financially.
Social media is also great at spreading the word about your club. Having an active online presence, you can attract more members. Which indirectly improves the financial growth of your club, if you charge a membership fee.
5 Newsletter
A newsletter can be useful for strengthening the relationship with current members while appealing to new ones. With text-based content, you can expand on club discussions, and offer exclusive information and perspectives from authors, writers, other book clubs, and publishers.
Newsletters mainly make money through subscriptions, sponsorships, and ads. The more people interested in your club’s newsletter, the more financial growth for your club.
In-Person Methods
6 Membership Fees
Membership fees are one of the most common ways book clubs make money. This strategy brings profits through access to your club.
There are 3 ways you can do this:
- Offer a one-time fee for people to join your club.
- Offer monthly or yearly fees for people to remain members of your club.
- Tier your membership access and fees. Charge top-tier members access to all basic and premium features for higher fees. While allowing basic members access to basic & sampled premium features for small or no price.
7 Book Club Events that include authors, publishers, or industry leaders
All the days of club meetings don’t have to take place in the same spot, going through the same conversation structure. Spice things and plan events collaborating with authors, vendors, booksellers, publishers, and thought leaders that your book club members will be excited to see, hear from, and chat with.
8 Donations
Don’t be shy about accepting donations from community businesses, former members, current members, and so on. Allow people to support what you do through donations. And use those donations to make your club better.
9 Book Selling and Re-Selling
Books are the #1 necessity for a book club. Turn that necessity and fundamental aspect into cash. Work with authors, and publishers to sell and recommend books that your book club will read or recommend. This can be done face-to-face with your members or through one of the online strategies: a blog, podcast, or newsletter, where you can reach a much larger audience and motivate more sales.
Online recommendations for these books can be done as affiliate marketing.
Tips for Running Your Book Club
For most of these methods, you’ll be running a new kind of book club. One that’ll make your tightrope walking a lot easier. Choose one method, two, or a few. Whether you run a small or huge book club get creative with how you make money and take advantage of today’s technologies. Happy book clubing!
Don’t just be a good writer, be a great one!
Until my next words (on here that is),
Christa
[…] There are many ways to make money with a book club… […]
Thank you for this post, it has a lot of great ideas. I never thought of the podcast idea and it sounds like a fun idea!
People are becoming more and more open to connecting through various types of media. With so many platform options there are tons of new ways to discuss books. You’re welcome!
Information was very helpful thanks
Great article! I found your tips on making more money with a book club extremely helpful. The idea of hosting exclusive author events and charging a nominal fee is genius! It not only provides a unique experience for book club members but also offers a great opportunity for aspiring authors to network and gain exposure. Your suggestions are practical and well-reasoned, making them easy to implement. Thank you for sharing your insights and expertise! Best regards, Alex Cool.