How to Start an e-Book Club

Posted by Anonymous , 9/4/2007 Tags:StartBookClub
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How to Start an e-Book Club

Introduction

Wouldn't it be nice to have a book club with members from all around the countrya??-or even around the world? You could discuss great ideas and great story lines and characters with a wonderful and diverse audience. You could only do that on the World Wide Web, but first, you need to know how to begin.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Steps

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Step One

Decide on a theme for your e-book. If you don't go with a theme, it will be really hard to get people interested in joining your club. You can choose a theme where there's a different category each month as long as you know what categories you want to use. You could choose best sellers, mysteries, crime drama, self-help, science fiction, romance or whatever else you want to read and learn about.
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Step Two

Write down your goals for an e-Book club. How many books do you want to read each month or year? Say you choose a varied theme and one book a month. Number 6 or 12 lines and put in what books you'd like to read and discuss. (For example 1.Classics: The Scarlet Letter 2. Biography: The Diary of Anne Frank 3. Fantasy; The Hobbit 4. Horror: The Telltale Heart). Get a working list with your favorite choices so people who consider joining will know what they can expect.
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Step Three

Know what you want personally out of your club. Are you looking for new friends, for intelligent discussion about books only, for a social group who also reads books together? Knowing what you really want from this will help you decide all your goals, rules and guidelines for the club more easily.
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Step Four

Decide what members are expected to do. Do they need to make one post per book or just post whenever they choose to? Will it be a place to make friends or just a group of e-Book friends? People are very busy and they want to know what's expected.
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Step Five

Choose your content guidelines. Know up front what kinds of comments and language you want to allow. How much will you let members discuss besides the books they're reading? Will it be a space where they can talk about anything or only books or only the book you're currently reading? Groups can easily get out of hand on the internet so know what you want and don't want to be allowed in your group.
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Step Six

Advertise your new e-Book club on one or more public community websites. This is wonderful free publicity for you on large websites that are used by people all over the world. Write up an ad with your theme, the number of books per month or year members are required to read and a list of titles. Be sure to include your guidelines (For example-No cursing, no sexual content, no children under 13-a??or adults over 21. These are your rules and you will have to abide by them and enforce them so think them through.)
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Step Seven

Get a list of interested people and make a club roster with emails and user names. Decide when the first book should be finished and when everyone can start posting. Now relax and enjoy all the interesting people and new ideas you'll get to learn about.
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