Book of the Month

Last updated
Book of the Month, LLC
Founded1926;98 years ago (1926) in New York City, New York, U.S.
Founder Harry Scherman
Headquarters
New York City
,
U.S.
Key people
  • John Lippman (CEO) [1]
  • Blake Orlandi (COO) [1]
  • Cris Vergara (CTO)
Parent Pride Tree Holdings
Website www.bookofthemonth.com

Book of the Month (founded 1926 [2] ) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members choose which book they would like to receive, similar to how the club originally operated when it began in 1926. Members can also discuss the books with fellow members in an online forum. [3]

Contents

In late 2015, in concert with the club's 90th year, the club announced a relaunch into its current iteration. Within two years, the club had grown its membership to more than 100,000 members, primarily millennial women, and the club's presence on social media grew to over 1.2 million Instagram followers. [4] [5] Approximately 75% of the club's titles are by up-and-coming authors, and 80% of titles are fiction. [4] The club has also worked with a series of celebrity guest judges who bring broader awareness to new titles, and continues producing its own versions of books that feature special endpapers and casings. [5] In 2016, the club launched a Book of the Year award. In 2017, the club debuted its first ever television advertisement called "Monthly". [6]

The club has a tradition of focusing on debut and emerging writers, and is known for having helped launch the careers of some of the most acclaimed authors in American literary history. In 1926 (its first year in operation), the Club's first selection was Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. It also featured, but did not select, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises in the Book of the Month News. In 1936, (its tenth year), the Club selected Gone with the Wind by unknown author Margaret Mitchell. Mitchell wrote: "I wanted to thank [Book of the Month] from the bottom of my heart for selecting my book. It was quite the most exciting and unexpected thing that ever happened to me." John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was selected the following year in 1937. In 1951 (its 25th year), the club distributed its 100 millionth book and selected J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye , which became both the most-censored and the most-taught book in America. In 1978, the Club selected By the Rivers of Babylon , the first book by Nelson DeMille, who later wrote: "I will be forever grateful to Book of the Month for ensuring that my first book, By the Rivers of Babylon, was not my last. When the Club selected Babylon in 1978, it reached hundreds of thousands of additional readers and became an instant best-seller." [7]

History

Harry Scherman was a copywriter for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in 1916 when he set out to create the "Little Leather Library". With his partners Max Sackheim, and Charles and Albert Boni, Scherman began a mail order service that offered "30 Great Books For $2.98" (miniature reprints "bound in limp Redcroft") and sold 40 million copies in its first five years. [8] Sackheim and Scherman then founded their own ad agency devoted entirely to marketing books.

The problems of building interest in a new book led Scherman to create, along with Sackheim and Robert Haas (son of Kalman Haas), the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1926. As Scherman explained it, the club itself would be a "standard brand". "It establishes itself as a sound selector of good books and sells by means of its own prestige. Thus, the prestige of each new title need not be built up before becoming acceptable," he explained later. [8] After starting with 4,000 subscribers, the club had more than 550,000 within twenty years. The size of the club did in fact create the Book of the Month Club as a brand. Being a "Book of the Month Club" selection was used to promote books to the general public.

Book of the Month Club was acquired by Time Inc. in 1977; Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications in 1989. [9] [10] The original judges panel was eliminated in 1994. [11] In 2000, the Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc. merged with Doubleday Direct, Inc. The resulting company, Bookspan, was a joint venture between Time Warner and Bertelsmann until 2007 when Bertelsmann took over complete ownership. In 2008, Bertelsmann sold its US subscription business to the private equity firm Najafi Companies. [12] In 2013, Najafi sold Bookspan to current parent company Pride Tree Holdings, Inc. [13]

Membership terms

The club operates a subscription program, similar to other box subscription services, where customers select a membership plan for a set period of time (3-months, 6-months or 12-months) and books are shipped to all members during the first seven days of the month. [14]

Historically, when the club operated through mail-order catalogs, membership involved a "negative response" system whereby a member was shipped the monthly selection on a particular date if the selection was not declined before that date. Members had the option to respond by declining the selection or opting to order another book or merchandise instead. No response was deemed acceptance of the selection.

Book of the Year Award

In late 2016, the club announced its first annual Book of the Year Award, the finalists for which are chosen by the club's members. [15] The award is called the "Lolly", in tribute to Lolly Willowes , the first book selected by the club back in 1926. "Lolly Willowes" was written by Sylvia Townsend Warner, who later went on to become a prolific writer and even wrote short stories for The New Yorker . [16] In 2017, the award added a $10,000 prize, and the winner was The Heart's Invisible Furies by Irish author John Boyne. [17] [18] In 2018, the members voted Circe by Madeline Miller as best book of the year. [19] In 2019, the members voted Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid as best book of the year. In 2020, the members voted The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett as best book of the year. [20]

Winners by Year

2016: Bryn Greenwood – All the Ugly and Wonderful Things [21]

2017: John Boyne – The Heart's Invisible Furies

2018: Madeline Miller – Circe

2019: Taylor Jenkins Reid – Daisy Jones & The Six

2020: Brit Bennett – The Vanishing Half

2021: Kristin Hannah – The Four Winds

2022: Gabrielle Zevin – Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

2023: Abby Jimenez - Yours Truly

Related Research Articles

Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897. By 1947, it was the largest book publisher in the United States. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Townsend Warner</span> English writer, poet, and activist

Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner was an English novelist, poet and musicologist, known for works such as Lolly Willowes, The Corner That Held Them, and Kingdoms of Elfin.

Pat Boran is an Irish poet.

The term middlebrow describes middlebrow art, which is easily accessible art, usually popular literature, and middlebrow people who use the arts to acquire the social capital of "culture and class" and thus a good reputation. First used in the British satire magazine Punch in 1925, the term middlebrow is the intellectual, intermediary brow between the highbrow and the lowbrow forms of culture; the terms highbrow and lowbrow are borrowed from the pseudoscience of phrenology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia House</span> Mail-order music club brand by Columbia Records

Columbia House was an umbrella brand for Columbia Records' mail-order music clubs, the primary iteration of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by Columbia Records, and had a significant market presence in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Strahan</span> Northern Irish-born Australian editor and publisher

Jonathan Strahan is an editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986.

The Literary Guild of America is a mail order book club selling low-cost editions of selected current books to its members. Established in 1927 to compete with the Book of the Month Club, it is currently owned by Bookspan. It was a way to encourage reading among the American public through curated and affordable selections.

Bookspan LLC is a New York–based online bookseller, founded in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Asher</span> American science fiction editor

Ellen Asher is an American science fiction editor who served as editor-in-chief of the Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) for thirty-four years, from February 8, 1973, through June 1, 2007. She grew up in New York City and began editing science fiction at New American Library from 1970 to 1972.

A book sales club is a subscription-based method of selling and purchasing books. It is more often called simply a book club, a term that is also used to describe a book discussion club, which can cause confusion.

Reading the Romance is a book by Janice Radway that analyzes the Romance novel genre using reader-response criticism, first published in 1984 and reprinted in 1991. The 1984 edition of the book is composed of an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion, structured partly around Radway's investigation of romance readers in Smithton and partly around Radway's own criticism. Radway herself expresses preference for reader-response criticism throughout the course of the book, as opposed to the popular new criticism during the 1980s.

Isaac Harry Scherman was an American publisher and economist, most notable as the co-founder of the Book of the Month Club. He also wrote four books on economics.

<i>Lolly Willowes</i> 1926 novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Lolly Willowes; or The Loving Huntsman is a novel by English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner, her first, published in 1926. It has been described as an early feminist classic.

<i>Memoirs of an Invisible Man</i> 1987 novel by H. F. Saint

Memoirs of an Invisible Man is a 1987 science fiction novel by H. F. Saint.

Herbert George Jenkins was a British writer and the owner of the publishing company Herbert Jenkins Ltd, which published many of P. G. Wodehouse's novels.

<i>Babylon 5</i> (franchise) American space opera franchise

Babylon 5 is an American space opera media franchise created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label in association with Straczynski’s Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a pilot movie, Warner Bros. commissioned the series as part of the second year schedule of programs provided by its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). It premiered in the United States on January 26, 1994 and ran for the intended five seasons. Describing it as having "always been conceived as, fundamentally, a five year story, a novel for television", Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes and served as executive producer, along with Douglas Netter.

The Little Leather Library Corporation was an American publishing company founded in New York City by Charles and Albert Boni, Harry Scherman, and Max Sackheim. From 1916 to 1923(?) the Little Leather Library Corporation issued 101 literary classics in miniature editions and sold over 25 million little books through department stores, bookstores, drugstores, and by mail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jahm Najafi</span> Iranian-American businessman (born 1963)

Jamshid Jahm Najafi is an Iranian-American billionaire businessman. He manages The Najafi Companies, a private equity firm, is vice chairman of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and McLaren Racing.

<i>The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo</i> 2017 novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a historical fiction novel by American author Taylor Jenkins Reid and published by Atria Books in 2017. The novel tells the story of the fictional Old Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo, who, at age 79, gives a final interview to an unknown journalist, Monique Grant.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an American author most known for her novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & the Six, One True Loves, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto is Back.

References

  1. 1 2 "Bookspan Company Profile | Financial Information, Competitors and Executives". DataFox. Retrieved May 5, 2017.
  2. ↑ Radway, Janice A. (1997). A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  3. ↑ "Discussion". Book of the Month. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 Charles, Ron (2017-12-19). "Review | What do women want? One company is betting it comes between two covers". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  5. 1 2 Brown, Ellen F. (2 December 2016). "It's not your grandma's Book of the Month Club". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  6. ↑ "This Delightful Ad for Book of the Month Makes a Bunch of Period Jokes and It's Actually Funny". Adweek. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  7. ↑ "Our Story". Book of the Month. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  8. 1 2 "Harry Scherman," Current Biography 1943, pp 669–671
  9. ↑ "Time+ Loves Book‐of‐the‐Month". The New York Times. 1977-07-10. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  10. ↑ Kaplan, James (11 June 1989). "Inside the Club". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  11. ↑ Carvajal, Doreen (1996-04-01). "Triumph of the Bottom Line;Numbers vs. Words at the Book-of-the-Month Club". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  12. ↑ Learmonth, Michael. "Bertelsmann Finally Ditches Book-Of-The-Month Club, Columbia House". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  13. ↑ "Najafi Companies Sells Direct Brands". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  14. ↑ "How It Works" . Retrieved 2015-06-22.
  15. ↑ "The Best Books of the Year – Book of the Month". www.bookofthemonth.com.
  16. ↑ "Introducing the Lolly!". www.bookofthemonth.com. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  17. ↑ "Book of the Month Members Select THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES as Book of the Year". penguinrandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  18. ↑ "Readers Picked This Title As Book of the Year". Real Simple. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  19. ↑ "The Best Books of the Year". Book of the Month. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  20. ↑ "Monthly book subscription box | Book of the Month".
  21. ↑ "The Best Books of the Year – Book of the Month". www.bookofthemonth.com.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.