Maria Garbutt-Lucero – Between Two Books
Florence Welch Book Club
- 2020 Maria joined and Terri-Jane Dow came on board to do more content beyond main book
- club book
- Book club pick runs 2-3 months and that’s when they pose questions for community
- 250 thousand followers
- Big international following, UK US South American New Zealand. Books need to be
- available for everyone
- Also do side recommendations alongside main titles
- Diverse writers, women, queer, alternative, mystical
- Everybody Scream new album coming on Halloween so they are currently looking for
- Halloween reading – now is a good time to suggest books
- Mostly contempory writers but also like classics
- Like Shirley Jackson ‘haunting is hill house’
- Graphic novels, poetry art book, some non-fiction, essays, books on music and creativity
- B2B presents – short reading videos with an author reading a short extract from their books.
- Have previously had Julia Armfield a repeat person. Patricia Lockwood. Patti Smith.
- Lead-time fluid good to know 2-3 months in advance. Short pitch and press release is fine
- We can get a quick handle on what would work
- Age late teens to early 40s
- Instagram based book club but not doing events
- Did do live Q&As but haven’t done for a while
- Could maybe do an author event online but needs more planning
Yes to indie press. Not self-published
Samantha De Haas – Service95
Dua Lipa’s book club
- 2023 started
- Dua’s Monthly Lead – released as audio-vision podcast available on podcast platforms and
youtube - Have big international fan base. Main markets UK and US.South American, France and
Germany key markets - Dua likes gripping dark reads that deal with trauma and grief immigration and justice
- Dua not fan of fantasy and magical realism
- Outside monthly reads have teen reads. New releases every month will talk about new
books people should be reading. Fiction, non-fiction, manifesto, memoir. - Non-fiction examples ‘this house of grief’, ‘say nothing’, ‘just kids’
- We pay attention to books – we try and share diverse global voices, wide range of voices
- We keep a library of all the books in the office so having proofs and press releases are filed
by month. We can then tackle per month. Only 2 or 3 reading regularly so can be hard to get
through - Book club director Maria based in Hay on Wye and creates a library at home
- We prioritise what is best for month and then Dua will read.
- Monthly read is Dua’s choice
- Monthly read 3-4 months in advance released as a podcast so have to book in time with
Dua’s diary - For Teen reads (??) – 1-2 months in advance, trying to keep on top of books send in
- Happy to meet people to coffee if time allows. Mondays and Fridays best days for us. Rest
of week heavy meeting - Any advance list you can send are appreciated
2 of us reading - Maria Paget, book club director
- Samantha, creative production manager
- 2 monthly hyper-specific lists, productivity or starting a new adventure
Last 6 months doing book tasting events. Pair 4 drinks with 4 books. Backlists or new
release. Present people a taste of a book with a wine or a cocktail. Creating sense of
community amongst us - Age 20 – 35
- Do go outside of London – did New York. Global audience. Do have big audience.
Next aim is to do more events in Europe and US
Monthly interviews all filmed remotely. Online events, don’t do but might do some in future
Yes to indie press. Not self-published
Lucy Ellis – Lucy’s Book Club
- September 2023. On holiday and for ages wanted to join a book club. Decided to start her
own one! Instagram story to friends. Then next day 1000 people! - Booked café at tate modern. Reading ‘The List’. 17 at first and then 45 then 90! Growing
since then! - Just Lucy who runs Instagram and venue booking, book reviewing, emails etc.
- She has a lot on!
- Books are varied. Personally loves contempory modern day. Tries to change genre every
month. 2 books never done, thrillers for October - Recently started a fantasy book club, very popular. More spread out.
- Personally doesn’t enjoy fantasy but knows there is a love for them. Alongside the team at
Hodderscape. Planning another book club soon - Non-fiction book club every now and then, want to do more next year.
- Choosing non-fiction book will be something that can help audience – self development and
mental health. Try to keep prices low in London. - Like it when you have an author who could be beneficial for younger audience. Men come to
non-fiction too. Especially if author can come too. - Most popular – people similar to me, 20-35 bracket. They come to the book club. Love more
contempory novels, thrillers and romances. Personally not a big romance fan unless Taylor
Jenkins Reed style. - Culturally relevant, thriller in autumn
- Under-rep voices, keep it diverse
- Pay attention if it’s books Lucy will enjoy. Make us think, a twist but not too literary. Not an
intense hard read. Make reading accessible thing. - Proofs are amazing. Happy to have proofs. Will message author personally if she gets a
proof - Everyone is book world is nice! Feedback from audience is
Two venues often do. 50 to 200 people. If Lucy picks a book, you have a guaranteed
audience and authors are grateful. If authors can come and speak about their book readers
will value it. - Did an event at publishers and it sold out. Readers think publishers are untouchable so
they’re excite to come into their office. Always popular with her communities - Lead-times, it’s just Lucy! Paperback books are popular with her audience. If there is a big
paperback. - Lead-times – tries to choose 3-4 months in advance. Picks books in advance.
- If there is a book which is popular with my demographic let her know
- Very useful to meet publishers in real life. Coffee or going into offices. Gets more from face
to face relationships, hearing more about the excitement. - Work freelance Tuesday – Wednesday. Best to meet on Monday, Thursday, Friday.
- Lives south west London. Can go on a zoom.
- New books or old books!
- 18 – 35 but does change all the time
- Sales in person: works with a bookseller at events. Often has authors come to the events.
- Fiction authors also come to events. Different booksellers. Some people who come to book
club. Well-known London booksellers likes supporting indie bookshops. - Would be helpful to order from publishers
- Put next months book at previous book club
- Currently planning Manchester based events in a new year – would love to take book club
elsewhere - Having an author in-person is important. Does depend on the author. Bigger authors draw in
a bigger crowd, people do tend to love hearing authors. - Like having book club without an author too so it’s more of an open discussion
- Online events, would like to do more online interviews, a zoom call, remote interviews
- Yes to indie press. Not self-published
Omma Ahmed – The Candid Book Club – Omma standing in
- Started 2016. Almost 10 years.
- All women of colour
- No one works in publishing or English degree. All genuine readers trying to encourage other
people to read. In adulthood, know people are busy - Monthly book clubs at waterstones piccadilly.
- In September do candid book club festival, 2 years so far. No sponsorships but will be
looking for sponsorships. - 4-5 events. Debut novelist panel. Want to champion brand new voices in the space. read
diverse, from contemporary fiction, bit of everything. Memoirs. And fiction. - Have sports fanatics, F1, tennis
- Enjoy cooking. Haven’t reviewed any cook books but would enjoy reviewing them.
- Stories we enjoy – good talking points, lots of our readers are form diverse backgrounds,
stuff they can relate to, motherhood, childhood, immigrating - Enjoy YA books. Romance!
- A historical fiction readers in team. Books set in other countries
- Best way to approach us. Email and DM. Catalogues can be overwhelming. Can be helpful
but individual pitches with info is more useful. - Coffee mornings, would be interested in that. Can get better sense of the book and
enthusiasm. - Lead times – don’t have set lead time, min a month or 2 months. Give readers at least 3-4
weeks to get and read the books to have time to discuss it.
5 of them, read stuff they enjoy and then will add something in - Helps if author is available like to have the author present. Talk about the content itself not
‘inspiration for the book’, hear readers reactions. - Happy to be invited to showcases and speaking to people in the industry
- Dedicated audience and following
- Don’t have recording days. DM and email best way. All check the account and all 5 will
check it - Omma enjoys romance, YA, contempory fiction.
- Along with book club also do book reviews on tiktok
- If know that one person would enjoy a book – you can send it to someone specific, nice to
show you’ve taken time to research the account - 25 – 44 age majority
- Events mainly in London
- Not doing online book clubs as much, like doing face to face events
- Have done a few online book clubs with authors outside of the UK
- Yes to indie press. Not self-published for book club if they aren’t’ available but have reviewed
self-published in past - Don’t do events specific for YA but did an event for Waterstones BookTok festival. Don’t
have a YA specific book club
Kim Carker – Bookscape Books
- Molly is overarching “mother” started Iin 2020 as an online book club to beat lockdown
loneliness - Kim joined in 2021 to support Molly and grow community.
- Big thing for them is an author engagement – send questions to an author to join a zoom call
or an in person event - Not based in London, throughout the UK
- 5 in-person book clubs. Kent, Manchester, just opened in Liverpool and Leicester. All
homegrown. The hosts are part of the online book club and sharing with local communities. - Age of members, 20 – 60 year-old women. No men in book club groups!
- Run by women.
- Molly and Kim both work full time so this is an evening/weekend job
- Do host book events in person and online. Chris Carter – did a read along with the online
community - Paint and book events. An in-person book club but doing craft at the same time. helps new
people joining to break the ice. Also silence book clubs – come together and read quietly!
Enjoy reading a variety of books. A mix of genres., stick with fiction. Non-fiction quite
personal choice. Like contempory romance, just started a romance only online book club
with Hodder & S - Thrillers and psychological. Seasonal picks.
- Avoid literary fiction
- Prefer paperback books. Less than 400 pages. Need shorter books. Like lesser known
authors, debuts. Like to support those books and avoid bestsellers. Members are
bookworms so will read the bestsellers - Love summaries of books, short and snappy.
Instagram best place to contact them. Love an email as well. - Molly parametric and does shift work. So responses may vary
2-3 months lead time, to help them advertise in advance. - We post them out to the members so they don’t need to source themselves
- Haven’t met publishers before in-person. Use to remote conversations over zoom. Instagram
and email best. - Author availability like to go for evenings, lots of parents in group and they want to wait until
kids are in bed - Age online 20 – late 30s
In person varied, mid-20s – 59! - Kim based in Manchester and Molly outside London. Cover both
- Host online zoom call every month and try and have the author involved – big and smaller
authors. Like supporting indie press authors - Yes to indie press. Not self-published
- Send the books out and cost