The emergence of black readers as an economic force has been one of the more refreshing phenomena in the publishing industry in recent years. Among the first to recognize the trend was Bookspan – the largest book club association in North America – and thus Black Expressions, a book club committed to celebrating the voices and visions of African Americans, was founded in 1999. The club reached a respectable number of 150,000 members in a single year, a model example of people responding quickly and in vast numbers when someone meets a perceived need. Today, Black Expressions boasts over 400,000 members.
Like the majority of its siblings from the Bookspan family, Black Expressions relies on what could be referred to as a standard operational procedure for book clubs: an enticing introductory offer is combined with an obligation to buy a certain amount of books within a certain amount of time at a discounted price, and spiced with an attractive catalog that helps the members wade through the plethora of reading choices.
Let's see how this works in more detail.
Black Expressions Book Club actually features two different selections. Initial selection is intended for prospective members: it is available for everyone to search through and browse. This is where you choose your five introductory books from. Member selection expands on this inaugural library significantly, and is accessible to active members only.
Initial Selection
Black Expressions Book Club focuses on contemporary black fiction. Mystery and erotica, romance and thrills, historical and christian novels... all the best that African American scene has to offer is there. Sizzling sex novels set among black professionals by bestselling author Zane; steamy suspense of Eric Jerome Dickey; the gangster tales by Chunichi; confessions of Karrine Steffans, the famous video vixen; thrilling, romantic, erotic fiction by Nikki Turner, Donna Hill, Teri Woods, Omar Tyree, Valerie Wilson Wesley, E. Lynn Harris, Francis Ray, Walter Mosley, Noire, Risque, and many more.
Although Black Expressions also touts good representation of classic African American authors, the truth is, their offering in that particular area leaves quite a bit to be desired; most likely due to the omnipresent supply and demand law.
There's plenty of stuff in the non-fiction domain though. You will find a wealth of books from an African American perspective in areas such as heritage & culture, inspiration/religion, kid's books, health and beauty, relationships, cooking and home, career and personal finance, reference, biography, self-help and more. Let Bishop T.D. Jakes teach you how to reposition yourself, fight failure and enjoy your accomplishments; learn how to make money, take care of your money, reduce debt and – why not – get rich, from the best African American financial experts; discover the keys to the healthy, loving relationship; uncover all the details from the lives and career paths of Morgan Freeman, Luther Vandross, Barack Obama, Kanye West, George Foreman, Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, R. Kelly, Angela Bassett and other more or less famous African Americans.
Not to confine its members solely to African American point of view, Black Expressions Book Club also offers the best work from such renown authors as Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell, Danielle Steel, John Grisham, Dean Koontz and many others.
Member Selection
Members have a much wider selection of books to choose from. They have access to all the books carried by other Bookspan clubs (over 70,000 titles), including Book-of-the-Month club, (for a bit more "literary" selection), Doubleday Book Club (strong on women's literature), One Spirit Book Club (spiritual and inspirational books), The Good Cook, Science Fiction Book Club, Rhapsody (romance books), Mystery Guild, Children's Book of the Month, History Book Club and many others. Note that all the same rules apply to these books (a purchase counts toward member's commitment obligation etc).
Joining
Joining Black Expressions is quite easy: it takes only a few minutes and can be done on the club web site. Not even a credit card is necessary. To each new member Black Expressions Book Club extends a great introductory offer: 5 books of your choice for $2. Simply start shopping and add five books to your cart. When done, you will be taken to a page where you can review the contents of your shopping cart. At this point you can still remove an item if you change your mind and go back and shop for another one. You are also offered an opportunity to buy one more book for just $5.99 (look in the upper right corner) and thus reduce your commitment right away. It's a fair offer, so you might want to take it.
At the next stage you will need to enter your personal information, which includes your name, shipping address and e-mail address. Phone number is optional. That done, you will be prompted to choose your billing method. You can either pay by credit card, or select the “Bill Me” option in which case you will be sent an invoice to the address you provided on the previous page.
The last step requires you to set up a password which you'll need to access the members only area. Setting up the password will also confirm your membership. And that's it. You're in.
Modus Operandi
As a member you will receive the free Black Expressions Club Magazine approximately once every 3 weeks. Each issue of the Magazine features two Selections, new books chosen by Black Expressions Book Club editors as the must-read of the moment, plus over 180 other books for you to consider.
The Magazine offers real value. There are many books by African American authors being published each month, so the editors have to cut through a lot of titles to present you the ones you should consider. Hence, the Magazine provides a great way to keep current with the happenings in the African American publishing market, find out about the latest titles from your favorite authors, or discover some fresh new talent. Many people actually keep memberships in different book clubs mainly for this reason: to receive recommendations on what's hot.
The current Main Selections will be sent to you automatically, unless you tell the club otherwise. You can do so online, via the club web site, or by returning the Member Reply Form (included with the Magazine) through regular mail. This practice is known as “negative option” or “advance consent” marketing and it has been utilized by book clubs such as Black Expressions for more than eight decades. Some people consider it a nuisance, a relic of the past, others find it convenient.
While we are inclined to agree with the former group, in all fairness it needs to be said that these days the hassle really is reduced to a minimum: it's just a matter of logging in to your account on the club's official web site, selecting the “Main Selections” tab and clicking on the “Don't Send” button. And that's it. You're done. It only takes a minute or so of your time once every three weeks. The important thing is not to forget to do it, and Black Expressions Book Club will even assist you in the matter by sending you a reminder e-mail before the Selection is shipped.
Finally, if you do happen to forget to cancel the Selection, you can always send it back if you really don't want it. You won't even have to pay for the return postage so long as the package was not open.
Managing Your Account Online
In this respect Black Expressions Book Club deserves only praise: the web site makes it easy and convenient to manage every aspect of your membership online. View detailed order and payment history; check the account balance, remaining commitment, and the shipping status of all recent orders; respond to the current Main Selection or view older Selections; change your billing and shipping address and other personal details including payment method; choose shipping method, and, of course, browse or search BE's entire library and place orders.
You might also want to participate in Black Expressions's online community, where you can share your own book reviews and recommendations with other club members.
Once your commitment (4 books in 2 years) is fulfilled, you are free to cancel your membership. The process, not surprisingly, is a trifle more difficult than joining. You don't have an option to simply close your account online, but instead have to send an e-mail to Black Expressions Book Club customer service, or a written cancellation request to the Member Service Center. A bit of a complication, in our opinion not entirely necessary. But then, perhaps we are being too critical here. It is, after all, just one simple e-mail.
It goes without saying that you will always be welcome back should you decide to rejoin. You can do so simply by visiting the club web site and enrolling again, as described earlier in this review. Alternatively, you might want to wait for Black Expressions Book Club to invite you to rejoin (it routinely happens after a period of time); usually there is a special offer attached to such an invitation, and these offers are often even more advantageous than the standard one available on the web site (lower commitment, for example).
From the great introductory offer, via club discounts to various special offers, savings are undoubtedly one of the best things about Black Expressions Book Club and for many probably the #1 reason to join. This being such an important subject, we have put together a separate page with detailed information on it and a real-world example.
Shipping Rates
A word or two on shipping charges as they are somewhat complicated. With the initial order the cost is $5.74 for the first book and $1.99 for each additional book. Somewhat high, but we suspect this goes some way toward recouping the loss Black Expressions has to be generating by giving you first 5 books for practically nothing. With subsequent orders the charges are $3.99 for the first book and $2.49 for others. If your total order exceeds $25, Black Expressions Book Club will charge you $2.49 flat shipping rate for the whole package.
Free shipping would have been better; it certainly has a nicer ring to it, plus all decent online book shops are offering it. That said, with online retailers not each and every item is usually eligible for free shipping, so you might end up having to pay for it anyway. Black Expressions Book Club, on the other hand, will ship you everything you put in your basket for $2.49 as long as the total of your order exceeds $25. So, all things considered, this is not a bad deal.
For credit card orders, Express Delivery is available. Express orders incur an additional $5.99 per shipment. State sales tax will be added if shipped to NY, PA, IN, TX, TN, NJ, or SC.
Payment
Black Expressions Book Club gives you an option to pay by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express), or be billed later. If you choose to pay by credit card, you will be charged when your order ships. Otherwise, the bill will arrive with the shipment and you can settle it either by using your credit card, or by sending in money order or check.
In order for this to work, the club grants you a certain amount of credit. Each time you pay on time, your credit increases, up to a maximum of $500. Note that you might be charged a late fee (approximately $4), if your bill is not settled on time. However, this fee can usually be removed by giving a call to customer support and explaining why the payment is late.
Billing methods are part of your profile and you can add or change your preferred method as you like. You will also have a chance to change the method during the checkout process. If you don't, the method specified the last time you ordered from the site will be used.
If you are a book enthusiast with a penchant for African American fiction and nonfiction from pretty much any genre, joining Black Expressions Book Club is certainly worth a serious consideration. You get five books for next to nothing, up to 40% discount (or more, with special offers) on all subsequent books you purchase, plus a shiny magazine in your mail every three weeks or so with book reviews, author interviews, and articles related to African American publishing scene.
Since you are not required to part with any money up front, joining is completely devoid of risk. If for whatever reason you don't like the introductory package, or if you simply change your mind, just return the package to Black Expressions Book Club within 20 days and that's that. No strings attached.
The only real downside to the whole deal is the somewhat awkward business model the club employs, which requires you decline the monthly selection if you are not interested in buying it. In our opinion, however, just getting a free magazine with recommendations on what to read outweighs this inconvenience.
Good thing is, even if you feel the practice is an absolute deal breaker, you can still take advantage of the incredible introductory offer of 5 books for $2 if it tickles your fancy. How? Join, take care of the commitment at once and cancel. You can walk away with 9 hard bound African American books for less than $65, and that includes shipping charges. And, what's more, the procedure is repeatable. Hardly a deal you will find anywhere else.
