Starting an in-person book club from the ground up
A practical guide
Running an in-person book club is not as easy as one might think. Running an in-person book club was not as easy as I thought.
Soft Cover isn’t a traditional book club, a few caveats: Soft Cover is not your average book club. I built Soft Cover Book Club to take the once-a-month cadence, fixed group of readers, and genre limitations off the table. This is a book club that hosts one to three events per month, with different readers able to sign up by event. We cover a range of genres including non-fiction and host our events at various indie bookstores, small businesses, and other unique venues in the Twin Cities.
We also try to give back with each event. The model is still evolving, but we were able to donate over $150 to mutual aid organizations in the Twin Cities at our second-ever donations-based event. Not bad.
Getting everything up and running has been a lot more work than expected and I wish I had a guide. At the risk of burying the actual recipe, here is my start-a-book-club-from-scratch framework:
Venue Selection
Venue selection happened in parallel with building the book club infrastructure (see next section). I wanted to bring members to places they might not have otherwise discovered in the Twin Cities which meant outreach. I was genuinely surprised by the warm reception from most local small businesses, many of which were happy to host during slower hours. Some had small minimums, but many were open to hosting for free.
In outreach emails, I emphasized the benefits to the business: social media features, foot traffic during off-peak hours, and that we handle all promotion and assist with setup and breakdown. You will get non-replies and rejections, but my cold email success rate has been around 80%.1. Infrastructure (deciding on an HQ, socials)
Niche note: Soft Cover hosts intimate small group gatherings and I’ve found that members are the most comfortable when there is a table to sit at together versus just sitting in a circle. There is probably something psychological here. Maybe its just that it mimics sitting at a dinner table together. Not every venue will have something like this but a note from the field.
Infrastructure (deciding on an HQ, socials)
Infrastructure is where your community signs up for events, gets updates, and forms their first impression of what your book club is about.
If you want something inexpensive and low-maintenance try third-party platforms like bookclubs.com which offers a plug-and-play solution: member sign-ups, email notifications, and a ready-to-go RSVP system.
I chose to build Soft Cover its own site with Squarespace. The reason was flexibility really. I wanted to offer free blog content and build in additional revenue streams like digital products and merch, which made more sense to establish early rather than adjust later.
Once your home base is set, build your social media presence to get the word out. If your book club is a closed group (i.e., friends, classmates, colleagues) then a platform like bookclubs.com alone may be sufficient. If you want to reach the broader community, you will need a social presence.
Book Club Model
This is the foundation of your book club. Consider the questions below when figuring out your book club model:
(i) What types of books/genres will your book club focus on (if any)?
(ii) When will your book club take place (i.e. every two weeks, monthly, quarterly?)
(iii) Who will be part of your book club (i.e. open to everyone or a specific group?)
One unique element I built into Soft Cover is giving back to the community. This has either looked like low-cost ticketed events where a percent of the revenue is donated to local orgs or a direct donations based model where members can donate what they can and just provide a receipt that they donated.
Book Selection
You have your venue options, you have infrastructure, you have your book club model. Now you need books.
There are a couple of ways that a book club could go about choosing the next book club book: rotating selection amongst members (for smaller book clubs), putting out a poll to vote, or letting selection be in the hands of a trusted few. Soft Cover has taken the latter approach (sort of).
This means that I do as much research as possible to find the right book with strong discussion potential. If you have a specific genre, era, or theme for your overall book club this is your starting point. For Soft Cover Book Club, I envision coverage of all types of lit fic, genre fic, non-fiction and therefore we need to narrow down our universe another way. I start with either a relevant theme or something current which could be anything from a current cultural moment like pride month to recent book award finalists announced or even the start of the season. For example, I thought it would be interesting to kick off our summer book clubs with a horror pick (Model Home by Rivers Solomon).
Once you get the picks down to a few, it is time for research. Refer to reviews on Good Reads and Fable, look at Reddit and Substack discussions, research the author (I like to see if there are any author interviews to listen to). Building a reliable list of sources that you can trust takes time.
Current example: Soft Cover just announced the Pride month event where we will be reading and discussing Stag Dance by Torrey Peters which was announced as a finalist for the Pulitzer prize. It is also a plus to try a book club event where we discuss a collection of short stories versus a novel.
Event logistics
This is the practical work of putting the event together: confirming the venue, setting the date and time, deciding on duration, and determining how many members can attend. For Soft Cover, logistics change with each event because we rotate venues which means this step requires consistent attention.
Practice note on book club size: I’ve been a part of book clubs that are so large it has to break into multiple groups. The room is loud. The stakes feel higher. For Soft Cover, I make a point to keep our groups small, about 10-15 members tops. This allows us to keep things intimate. Consider the feeling you want to have at your book club and how you want your members to feel.
This is also why Soft Cover may have more than one book club event in a month giving members more than one opportunity to join.
Once logistics are confirmed and the book is selected, you can draft and publish the event for member sign-ups and you’re ready to start promoting (see next section).
Promotion
This section applies if your book club is open to the broader community and you want to build attendance beyond your existing network.
Social media is the most effective starting point for reaching readers you don't already know. You do not need to be on camera or producing high-production content. Even simple photos with text overlays can generate early momentum.
Print marketing is worth doing and easier than it sounds. I designed and printed around 30 large postcard-sized flyers on Canva and posted them on free bulletin boards around the Twin Cities. One early lesson: if you include a QR code, make sure it does not expire.
There is much more that goes into promotion over time, but there is no reason to over complicate it at the start. A simple social page and some physical flyers are a solid start. I announced Soft Cover’s first book club event about 6-weeks out from the event and it took a little over the week to see sign-ups start coming in.
Facilitation
Gently facilitated book clubs work best. The goal is to keep the conversation anchored to the book while letting the room guide it naturally.
Practice note: This avoids a common issue with book clubs I have attended. There are long lulls in conversation, the group gets saved by an inconsequential topic like the voice used in the audio book, nothing is asked like a question and everyone only knows to prompt conversation with statements on what they thought. Prepared prompts and critical questions (done right) avoids this, takes pressure off the group, and can invite deeper discussion someone might be to nervous to start themselves.
For every Soft Cover event, I do a close reading of the book well in advance and build a discussion guide, typically around ten questions, that highlights critical elements while keeping the atmosphere relaxed rather than academic to act as a reference. This is not something to create rigidity.
About a week before each event, everyone who has signed up receives an email with parking information, logistics, and a confirmation request.
The discussion guide does most of the preparation work. By the time you're in the room, your job is to enjoy the conversation and refer to the guide when things lull or you think bringing up a critical question would only add to the ongoing conversation. Facilitation should be fun and the whole point is to create a great experience for the room, including for yourself.
One additional note: if you want to offer any event merchandise, this is the moment to prepare it. Soft Cover's primary member item is a members-only bookmark.
Bringing value beyond the events
If you are considering starting a book club, chances are you love books and love forming ideas about them. One of the best parts of building Soft Cover has been getting to write and talk about books, literary culture, and reading with a community that cares about this as much as I do.
This is where you decide whether you want to go further: a blog, social content, member communication outside of events. None of it is required but all of it is an opportunity to build community beyond each event.
It can also become a creative outlet that generates some revenue to sustain and grow the club, if that interests you. The possibilities are genuinely open. The only requirement is that you actually enjoy what you are doing.
This section could deserve its own guide and something that Soft Cover is currently growing too so subscribe so Soft Cover if you’re interested in that journey.
One final note. The best way to understand what and how you want your book club to operate is to attend and keep attending other book clubs too. I wrote this guide to be comprehensive but nothing can replicate your attending diverse book club events to inform your preferences. Have questions? Reach out to softcoverbookclubmn@gmail.com, questions, manifestos, dad jokes are all welcome.
