Book Clubs

In a new Kensington Publishing contest, your book club could receive a Skype visit from four authors who focused on World War II in their books.

The following authors have agreed to participate in the online chat: Kristina McMorris (Bridge of Scarlet Leaves), Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray), Jenna Blum (Those Who Save Us) and Sarah McCoy (The Baker’s Daughter). The party package includes up to 25 copies of each of the authors’ novels (depends on how many members there are in the winners’ group) and several WWII-era items.

Follow this link to enter the contest. Simply submit your full name as well as the name of your book club, a cell phone number and an email address. A winner will be randomly selected on February 28th. All four authors have agreed to join a book club on March 10th.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

The Huffington Post unveiled the HuffPost Book Club this week. Starting on January 3rd, the club will feature 10 books next year. The online group will use Twitter, Facebook, Instagr.am, YouTube and Flickr to share reading experiences.

On the Morning Media Menu today, we interviewed Huffington Post Books editor Andrew Losowsky about the new venture, finding out how writers, publishers and readers can get involved.

He explained how writers and publishers can submit: “There are a panel of people internally who are choosing the books. But I would urge anyone to get in touch. Obviously, we’re going to be leaning towards books that have a nation-wide distribution, something that would be available in library systems in different states and people would be able to order. People can email us at HPBookClub [at] huffingtonpost [dot] com. That will go to our team, and we will take a look at everything we get.”

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Popular culture has taught us that book clubs should be divided by gender. HarperPerennial and Plume hope to encourage co-ed book clubs with the “Ultra Violet Reading Challenge.”

To support Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman and The Violets of March by Sarah Jio, the publishers are encouraging co-ed book clubs to host violet-themed book parties. Follow this link to sign up on Facebook–co-ed clubs can win prizes and interact with the authors online.

Jio gave this statement in the release: “I know very few women who read books with the men in their lives, and zero women who go to co-ed book clubs. I found that Domestic Violets and The Violets of March share themes that men and women can all relate to: loss, the complexities of marriage, trust, forgiveness, finding our way, and so much more. We both write about the male and female experience from two different perspectives.”

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You can read all the online book reviews in the world, but nothing beats real-world conversations between readers, and authors. To help our community grow, we will host our second West Coast edition of the Mediabistro Book Club tonight (October 11th) in Los Angeles.

Follow this link to RSVP for the free party at the Viceroy Santa Monica Hotel. The book club will feature loads of free books, short readings by four authors, and the chance to meet editors from The Los Angeles Review of Books, Slake and GoodReads.

The slate of featured authors includes: Joseph Mattson with The Speed Chronicles, Grace Krilanovich with The Orange Eats Creeps, Richard Grossman with The Animals and Sanjiv Bhattacharya with Secrets & Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy. Read more about the books below…

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Simon & Schuster has launched a book club site on Facebook called “Something to Read About.” The club will open on October 12th with a discussion on Jaycee Dugard‘s memoir, A Stolen Life. Readers can join in from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

Follow this link to browse the site. Here’s more: “This new page is designed to enhance readers experience with books and authors by featuring a variety of activities and events including a spotlight ‘Book-of-the-Month’ title, moderated conversations about favorite books, a listing of authors from all Simon & Schuster’s imprints who are available to call into reading groups, favorite book club selections, and daily updates. Fans of the page will also have direct access to videos, photos, a book-specific discussion forum, and excerpts as well as opportunities to interact with some authors and enter contests for free books.”

October’s book-of-the-month title will be Alice Hoffman‘s The Dovekeepers. Jodi Picoult‘s Sing You Home will follow in November and Kathleen Grissom‘s The Kitchen House in December. The site also has two book club samplers available with excerpts from popular authors including Phillipa Gregory, Chris Cleave and Samuel Park.  What do you think?

Bible study leaders Chuck and Stephanie Fromm were fined $300 this month for hosting a Bible study at their home in California. According to the City of San Juan Capistrano, the couple needs a “conditional use permit” for churches to host the study and would face $500 fines for future events.

ABC News interviewed the Bible study leaders about the case. The nonprofit legal defense fund Pacific Justice Institute has appealed the ruling and will represent the Bible study participants.

Here’s more from the Pacific Justice Institute: “The Bible study group, which met on Sunday mornings, until the City threatened further fines, was perfectly suited for his home, said Chuck Fromm. There was no noise beyond normal conversation and quiet music on the home stereo system. They met inside their family room and patio area. Many neighbors have written letters of support, denying they were disturbed by the presence of the Bible study. The group is not affiliated with any particular church, nor is it seeking to establish a church in the home.”

You can read all the online book reviews in the world, but nothing beats real-world conversations between readers, and authors. To help our community grow, we will host our second West Coast edition of the Mediabistro Book Club on October 11th in Los Angeles.

If you are an author or publicist looking to participate, you can follow this link to apply. The deadline is September 5, 2011 at 11:59 PM (PT). If you are a reader, mark your calendar–the next installment of our free book club will feature four authors from different genres, tons of book giveaways and plenty of practical conversation. The location will be announced soon.

East Coast authors can sign up for the November 17, 2011 edition of the Mediabistro Book Club. Follow this link to apply.

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Skype made book club headlines today as one author used the video chat service to visit book clubs around the country.

If you want to have an author speak to your book club through video chat, check out our Authors Who Visit Book Clubs list to find nearly 1,000 writers–simply explore the “Video Chat” category to find a video-friendly author in your favorite genre. Read our Host a Virtual Book Club on Facebook, Skype or Google article for more tools.

Here’s more from Reuters: “Nine book clubs across the United States took part in an hour-long discussion earlier this month with Meg Wolitzer, the best-selling author of the ‘The Ten-Year Nap,’ in what is thought to be the first coast-to-coast virtual book club with multiple participants.” (Image via)

Jacket Copy broke the news today that BookTour.com will close. Since 2007, the site has helped authors, publicists and readers connect through book tours.

Site manager Kevin Smokler wrote an email about the closure: “Fewer author tours and changes in book marketing budgets have made our company financially unviable. And while we would like to continue providing the valuable service that is BookTour, everyone here has families to feed and bills to pay.”

In this new environment, book club visits could be the best way for writers and readers to connect. Check out our Authors Who Visit Book Clubs directory and invite a nearby author to visit your group. Follow this Google Docs link to explore (and sort!) the genres, websites and contact information for more than 500 writers around the world.

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Goodreads has partnered with First Book, a charity group whose mission is to make sure children who reside in low-income communities are able to have access to books. Together, these two organizations will be fighting illiteracy using the Goodreads Book Club.

Every time 10,000 Goodreads members add A Visit From the Goon Squad to their shelves, the organization promises to donate 1,000 books. So far, 25,000 members have added the book. If another 5,000 members follow, then Goodreads will provide 3,000 books.

Here’s more from the site’s blog post: “Our initial goal is to donate 5,000 books—which means we need 50,000 people to add A Visit From The Goon Squad by August 2, when the Book Club concludes with a live video chat with author Jennifer Egan. If more than 50,000 people add the book before the end date, we will honor our pledge and donate up to 10,000 books!”