Bestseller Book Clubs Compared

Trying to choose an appropriate book club to join, especially if you are doing it the first time, and especially if you are looking at general interest book clubs, can be a somewhat confusing task. There seem to be several offerings advertising quite similar features and benefits, so the question inevitably pops up: which one is right for you? Which one should you choose? Does it matter at all? Hopefully, this article will go some way toward answering these questions for you.

 

Our comparison entails the three largest bestseller and general interest book clubs. They are all part of the same company named Bookspan, which owns and operates more than 40 book clubs in the US with over 8.5 million members; undoubtedly, the clubs compared in this article are making a weighty contribution towards that number. If you aren't yet familiar with how each of these clubs work, we suggest you take a look at our summary pages to get a basic understanding of the features and benefits they provide.

 

The clubs compared here are designated as bestseller book clubs, and that is what they offer: today's bestsellers and tomorrow's discoveries hot off the press, as they like to advertise. All three clubs do a good job of covering a wide range of genres, however, they do have their small partialities: Book-of-the-Month Club, for example, is catering more towards the serious reader; it is stocked exceptionally well with biographies and memoirs, history books and even a small but refined selection of classics. Their fiction library also exhibits a certain sobriety; there is an evident "literary" aspect to it, an attempt to keep a little distance from purely mainstream releases.

 

Doubleday and The Literary Guild, on the other hand, are predominantly furnished with widely popular fiction titles. Doubleday offers a somewhat larger selection, and this is especially true for romantic books and women's literature in general: you could say this is their forte. The Literary Guild's stronger point are mysteries and thrillers, but if you're a science fiction fan neither of these two clubs will have much to offer you.

 

That said, when it comes to the very latest and most popular offerings – stuff that sells – each of these clubs holds its own equally well. When a hot new book comes out of print, chances are you will find it at each of the clubs regardless of its genre and what the club's stronger points might otherwise be. For example, if a bestselling new biography appears in the channels, you will likely see it at Doubleday and TLG as well, despite the fact that biographies could be considered BOMC's domain.

 

If you are interested in some numbers, at the moment of this writing Doubleday and Book-of-the-Month were carrying approximately 1800-2000 books each, while The Literary Guild lagged a bit behind with just over 1000 books in its catalog.

 

Important Note:

The numbers alleged above pertain to the clubs' initial libraries, i.e. they apply only to books that are available to prospective members through introductory offers. As a member, you will have access to a much wider selection of books: if the title you are searching for is not available in your club, the search engine will return the best matches from other Booksonline clubs (drawn from the library of 70,000+ books) and you will be able to purchase it at the same terms as if you were a member of that other club. In essence, this means that once you're a full member, the differences in selection described here become much less important.

Introductory Offer

With 6 books for 99¢, Doubleday unquestionably provides the best deal in this area. The Literary Guild with 5 books for 99¢ and Book-of-the-Month with 5 books for $1 are at a slight disadvantage here, but try to compensate this with a free gift (usually a tote). All three clubs also offer an additional book at a discount as a chance to reduce the commitment immediately, however, these offers are not identical: Doubleday and The Literary Guild will give you this additional book for a fixed price ($5.99), while Book-of-the-Month features a 50% discount. In the majority of cases, the low fixed price is better.

 

Discounts

We are now stepping into an area where things aren't as straightforward anymore. Let's see how the discounts are advertised:

At first glance it would appear that BOMC offers the best deal around with up to 80% discount on the regular retail price. TLG, with its 50% seems to lag at the rear.

 

If you look closer, however, you'll realize this isn't exactly the case. What The Literary Guild offers is a minimum 50% discount on each book; most often, at least so far as the latest bestsellers are concerned, this means that TLG in fact offers better prices than either BOMC or Doubleday.

 

Let's see how this looks in practice. At Book-of-the-Month, fresh new releases are rarely discounted by more than 30%. Doubleday goes a bit further and in most cases offers a 32-40% reduction on retail price. At The Literary Guild, as mentioned, you'll pay a maximum of half the publisher's price.

 

Or, if you prefer the straight numbers: a fresh new bestseller which retails for $25.95 will typically cost you $17.99 at BOMC, $15.99-16.99 at Doubleday and exactly $12.99 at The Literary Guild.

 

Things get a bit complicated with books that aren't in the center of the limelight anymore. In general, the prices at all three clubs go down as the book's tenure at the club increases. You can find plenty of older bestsellers by renown authors for $7.99, but prices can often go down to $4.99 and even as low as $2.99, at all clubs. With these somewhat older titles, however, there can be some pretty wide price discrepancies among these book clubs. A book that costs $7.99 at Doubleday can go for $11.99 at Book-of-the-Month and vice versa, which makes it difficult to single out any specific club as the best source for older titles.

 

Undoubtedly, Book-of-the-Month club sports the highest prices, however: it is the only club among the three who offers Bonus Points on everything you buy. Bonus Points are redeemable against books and can, in the long run, bring you some nice savings, thus compensating for the club's less attractive pricing policy.

 

The table below shows how membership at each club affects your bottom line as you buy more and more books. 30 titles are included, covering a wide range of genres. Out of 10 books in each round, we've included 6 newer fiction titles, 2 older fiction titles and 2 non-fiction titles (click here for a complete list).

 

To cut on shipping costs, we're assuming that each round of 10 books is shipped in 3 installments containing 3 or 4 books with the total value exceeding $25. This adds a total of $7.47 to each round of ten books and is included in the calculation, as are introductory offers and Bonus Points where applicable. So, what you see below is your total cost for 10, 20, or 30 books.

BOOK CLUB	10 BOOKS	20 BOOKS	30 BOOKS
Book-of-the-Month	$94.14	$247.01	$385.88
Doubleday	$68.14	$227.51	$380.38
The Literary Guild	$72.63	$200.50	$327,87

 

As you can see, for the first ten books the clubs featuring introductory offers hold the upper hand. This is especially true for Doubleday; its superb 6 books for 99¢ offer makes it possible for this club to provide the best short-term value, with The Literary Guild coming in a close second. Book-of-the-Month lags quite a bit behind.

 

Buying your 20th book, things will have changed significantly. The Literary Guild is in the lead now, while Doubleday and Book-of-the-Month are falling back.

 

With 30 books on your shelf, The Literary Guild has extended its lead; DBC and BOMC are even further behind. Notice how the difference between these two has all but melted, which is the effect of BOMC's Bonus Points kicking in.

 

Important note:

The figures above represent the maximum amount you will pay for these 30 books at these 3 clubs. In reality, the amount is likely to be somewhat lower: the clubs often feature special deals and promotions which include free or extremely low cost books; these can reduce your charges significantly. However, such offers are time-limited and vary from club to club, so there are way too many variables for us to be able to include them in this comparison.

 

Also, not incorporated here is the possibility of quitting and rejoining; while probably not for everyone, you can use this option to increase your savings quite a bit. Let's take Doubleday Book Club, for example. Although the example above states that the first ten books will cost you $68.14, with some care administered at shopping you can actually reduce this cost to under $60. At this point you are free to quit the club membership, but you can always rejoin at a later date and take advantage of the introductory offer over again and get another ten books for the same price. So, in this case, 30 books would cost you less than $180!

Recommending one particular book club is difficult. They all have their strengths and their weaknesses and it's really up to you to make a choice, according to your needs and preferences. Here are some pointers though.

 

Book-of-the-Month Club

The very first US book club, it's where it all started; being a member carries a certain prestige with it. There is a sort of, well, seriousness about it, which reflects in the club's library. They are the only club with their own publishing program in which they are bringing out sets of classics by celebrated authors, but are also committed to introducing up-and-coming writers. BOMC has the highest prices of the three clubs, but compensates that with Bonus Points designed to award members' loyalty: the longer you stay a member and the more books you buy, the more money you will save.

 

Doubleday Book Club

The most popular club with the largest membership body. Especially favored by women for its romantic and women's library. Features the best introductory offer and hence provides the best short-term value. If you are not really into long-term membership but don't mind snatching 10 bestsellers for $60 or so, Doubleday Book Club is the place to do it. That said, their frequent saving offers can also make a membership in this club a very rewarding experience for those who are in it for the long run.

 

The Literary Guild

Almost equally as popular as Doubleday and almost as old as BOMC. Features a diverse, all-round library. With the minimum of 50% off the retail price on any book, The Literary Guild offers the best deal on new titles among the clubs reviewed here. If fresh new bestsellers are your main interest, TLG might be the best club for you to try out.