Announcing The Listener Book Club - in association with Booksellers NZ

23 Feb 2012-  Booksellers NZ today announce a bold new initiative

Everyone wants to join a book club – so Booksellers NZ and the New Zealand Listener have created one. The Listener Book Club will have an in-store, in-print and online outreach all in one package. It launches on Friday, 2 March.
“Begin a book club” was on the to-do list when Megan Dunn began as Projects Manager for Booksellers New Zealand in mid-2011. “We had support from Creative New Zealand to create a book club platform on a national scale that would increase conversation and engagement about New Zealand and international books,” she explains.

Megan approached Listener Arts & Books Editor Guy Somerset (pictured right) late last year as a possible partner for the venture, and discovered he had been gathering ideas for the magazine’s own book club using its website.
Now Megan and Guy, Booksellers NZ and The Listener are ready to announce the multifaceted Listener Book Club.
Think, talk, tweet!
Working on a four-week cycle, one book each month will be discussed in a variety of ways: the Listener will kick off with a lively interview in the magazine and online with the author of the selected book.

IMAGE: One of four Listener Book Club bookmarks.
In week two, a podcast of three booksellers talking about the book hosted by either Guy or Megan will be available online. The podcast material will live on The Listener website, but Booksellers’ site will carry links.
Carole Beu, David Hedley and Kiran Dass (Unity Wellington) are lined up for the first discussion.
That’s followed (week three) by online written conversation and commentary from a real book club.
The last week sees a reviewer’s take on the book, both in the magazine and online, plus reader comment and reaction on Twitter, other social media and the Listener Book Club webpage, hosted by The Listener with Booksellers New Zealand input. It’s a chance for readers to have a say!
Also in week four, the cycle begins again, with the announcement to the public of the next book club title... and the author interview the following week starts week one of the next month’s activity.

Our book club has big difference.
Unlike similar book clubs run by newspapers overseas, which feed sales of the book club choice to their own linked e-buying set-ups, the whole emphasis of the Listener Book Club is to encourage people to buy the book selection from their local bookstore.


Full details including the first two title selections at Booksellers NZ

Love these retro graphics. 




Note to visitors to blog - this report is from the Booksellers NZ weekly newsletter to their members so naturally is giving advice from their perspective. There will be further and full information available to prospective club members in the upcoming issue of the New Zealand Listener.
Also see their Facebook page.
The Bookman has long proclaimed that all NZ book lovers should subscribe to the New Zealand Listener; here is another reason to sign up now!