Book Clubs Under the Spotlight at BEA

Barbara Drummond Mead

Barbara Drummond Mead, co-owner of Reading Group Choices, will moderate the panel discussion "Book Clubs: A Panel" as part of the American Booksellers Association's programming on Thursday, May 31, at BookExpo America. Panel members will be Mark LaFramboise of Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C.; Jennifer Laughran of Books Inc. in San Francisco; Amy Baker, associate director of marketing for Harper Perennial and Ecco; and Roz Parr, sales and marketing director for Vintage, Anchor, and Everyman's Library.

Mead leads and participates in reading group panels in libraries, bookstores, and book festivals around the country. Previously, she consulted and/or worked for several independent bookstores, including Covered Treasures in Monument, Colorado; McIntyre's Fine Books and Bookends in Pittsboro, North Carolina; and Salty Dog Books and Music in Saint Michaels, Maryland. Her company, Reading Group Choices, selects books that lend themselves to discussion and produces an annual printed guide that is distributed nationally to libraries, reading groups, bookstores, community book festivals, and individuals. The Reading Group Choices website, www.readinggroupchoices.com, and its newsletter offer informative and interactive material of interest to reading groups and book clubs.

"The Book Club Panel will assist booksellers in creating or enhancing their reading group programs," Mead told BTW. "The two booksellers on the panel, Mark LaFramboise of Politics and Prose and Jennifer Laughran of Books Inc., will discuss their successful book club programs and share their traditional -- and not-so-traditional -- ideas for promoting their store via book clubs."

Harper's Baker and Random House's Parr will address their respective publishing houses' promotions and programs that support booksellers' book club programs.

Mead plans on providing tips for booksellers based on a recent Reading Group Choices Survey, as well as from her own experiences with book clubs and reading groups. The session will be an interactive program with the bookselling audience discussing ideas and concepts with the panelists and each other. Some of the suggestions, she noted, would center on Reading Group Choices statistics, such as 90 percent of book club attendees are women.

"Book Clubs: A Panel" will be held from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. and from 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, at Hotel ABA (New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge). --Karen Schechner