My book club was supposed to meet up in March but we ended up canceling our meeting and I suspect we won’t be meeting in person for some time. We are currently trying to set up a virtual hangout so that if we can’t all be in the same room together, we can at least see each other’s faces.
Maybe your book club meetings have also been canceled because you’re social distancing, maybe you have long-distance friends that live in different areas of the country or world, or maybe you just don’t want to leave the comfort of your couch. If these situations apply to you, a virtual book club might be the perfect solution.
Here are some tips for hosting a virtual book club:
1. Decide what type of book club you want to have.
Do you want to host a book club with just your closest friends? Do you want to have a public book club where anyone, anywhere can join? There are pros and cons to both and it’s important to decide which type of online reading group you want to start. A book club with just your friends might be easier to coordinate and get going, but a public book club could introduce you to new readers all over the world.
2. Pick a “place” to meet.
Technology has made it so easy to connect with people. The “place” you pick to meet up with your book club really just depends on your preference, as well as what kind of book club you are hosting. If you are meeting up to chat with your friends, you could have a video meeting on Zoom, Skype, or Google hangouts, to name a few. If you are hosting a public book club with many many people, you might not be able to video chat with everyone but you could set up a page on Goodreads or Facebook where everyone can post their thoughts about the book. You can also create your own Twitter hashtag and members could post their thoughts on Twitter as well.
3. Invite people.
Decide on the number of people you want to invite. The best thing about a virtual book club is that there is no limit to the number of people that can show up. Plus, you don’t have to worry about cleaning your house or worry that everyone is going to fit into your living room.
4. Pick a book.
It is important to have a system for picking your book club books in place at the formation of your club. There are a bunch of ways you can choose to pick the next book you read. You can vote on books from a list, you can have a poll, you can hold a Facebook discussion, you can trade off and a different person picks the book each time. However you decide to pick the books you read, just be consistent and use the same system each time.
5. Pick a date to meet.
If you are having a virtual meeting, pick a date and time to meet. Remember to account for time zones if you are in different areas. If you are holding a discussion on Facebook or Goodreads, pick a date for members to start posting their thoughts about the book.
6. Have some etiquette rules.
If you are chatting over the phone or on video, sometimes it can get overwhelming if everyone is trying to talk at once. You can come up with some way to indicate when you’d like to say something such as waiving your arm, giving a thumbs up, or writing something in the chatbox. It might be beneficial to have a moderator whose job it is to look out for these things or stop people from talking over each other.
7. Stay in touch.
Decide how you are going to communicate with your book club members about the schedule and discussions. Whether you meet once a month or every other month, you should have regular meetings and let people know the schedule as far in advance as possible. You can also send a reminder maybe a week before the meeting (in case people have not started reading the book yet) and another reminder the day before, especially if you have a public book club with many members.
I hope these tips can help you if you want to start a virtual book club. Don’t let social distancing get in the way of book, friends, and of course wine!
Leave a Reply