For people with eyesight problems, reading can be a taxing and, consequently, frustrating pastime. Dealing with those small sized fonts most publishers choose to print their books in is a struggle rather than fun. Solution? Large print books, of course. Trouble is, those can represent quite an assault on your budget, since not even the largest online retailers offer a discount on each and every large print book – if they carry the title you want at all.
Doubleday Large Print Book Club was founded in 1985 with the exact purpose of catering to the people with less than stellar vision. The idea was (and still is) to take the current top-selling titles and reprint them in a clear, easy-to-read 16-point typeface. The club relies on 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 myriad of reading choices.
Like all Booksonline book clubs, Doubleday Large Print 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
To potential members, Doubleday Large Print offers quite an extensive assortment of best selling fiction and non-fiction in an easy to read, large print typeface, spanning a range of categories: mysteries, thrillers and romance books are a dominating presence, but there is also a decent choice of books on self-help and health, diet cookbooks, christian books, true stories, and even a small collection of reference books (dictionaries, encyclopedias and such). The accent is on current bestsellers: at DLP you will find the majority of titles currently reigning the bestseller lists and the ones that have done so in the past few months.
That said, there is also plenty of somewhat older titles by many of the widely popular contemporary authors such as Danielle Steel, Sandra Brown, John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, Sylvia Browne – to name just a few. An added attraction is, most of these books aren't available in book stores – not the hardbound large print versions, anyway – and, what's more, they often go for bargain prices ($9.99 or even $7.99).
It is worth mentioning that DLP also features a sizable selection of regular print titles; these would make a nice gift to your non-visually challenged friends or relatives.
Member Selection
Members have a much wider selection of books to choose from. They have access to all the books carried by other Booksonline.com clubs (over 70,000 titles), including Book-of-the-Month Club (for a bit more "literary" selection), Doubleday Book Club, The Literary Guild, 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, Black Expressions (books by, for and about African Americans), 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 Doubleday Large Print Book Club 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 DLP extends a great introductory offer: 5 books of your choice for 50¢ each. 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 continue shopping for another one. You are also offered an opportunity to buy one more book for $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 Doubleday Large Print Magazine approximately once every 3 weeks. Each issue of the Magazine features two Main Selections, new books chosen by DLP's editors as the must-reads of the moment. In addition, there is over 120 other books for you to consider.
The Magazine offers real value. There are masses of books being published each month (yes, in large print too), and the editors have to cut through a lot of titles to come up with the ones you should consider. So, the Magazine provides a great way to keep current with the happenings in the literary world, 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 Doubleday Large Print 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 “Featured 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 Doubleday Large Print 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 Doubleday Large Print deserves much plaudit: 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 DLP's entire library and place orders.
You might also want to participate in DLP's online community, where you can share your own book reviews and recommendations with other club members. This is also the place to find exclusive interviews, read profiles of your favorite authors and excerpts from their latest books.
Once your commitment (4 books within 2 years) is fulfilled, you are free to cancel your membership at Doubleday Large Print Book Club. 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 DLP's 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 finicky 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. However, there might be an even better way to do it. If you don't cancel your e-mail subscription as well, you are likely to receive periodic invitations to rejoin the club; 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 (no shipping on introductory books, for example).
From the great introductory offer, via club discounts to various special offers, savings are undoubtedly one of the best things about Doubleday Large Print 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.
If you are a book enthusiast with a penchant for latest bestsellers from a variety of genres, and have difficulties reading small-font text, then joining Doubleday Large Print is certainly worth a serious consideration. You get first five books for next to nothing, up to 65% discount on all subsequent books you purchase, plus a shiny magazine in your mail every three weeks or so with book reviews, author interviews, and book-industry related articles.
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 DLP 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 to take action if you don't want to take action – that is, buy the proposed book. In our opinion, however, just getting a free magazine with recommendations on what to read outweighs this inconvenience by a hefty margin.
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 $2.50 if it tickles your fancy. How? Join, take care of the commitment at once and cancel. You can walk away with 9 hardcover large print bestsellers for less than $90, and that includes shipping charges. Hardly a deal you will find anywhere else.
