Book clubs across the country recently turned up the volume instead of turning the pages. Some 45 groups from 30 states participated in Macmillan Audio's first full-scale book club campaign. "It was a great way to spread the word for audiobooks with these close-knit groups in all different kinds of communities," said associate publicist Stephanie Hargadon, who organized the promotion.
Groups selected a Macmillan Audio
title, and each member received a copy. The top pick was Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf
Hall, with a four-way tie for runner-up: The Last Child by John
Hart, Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas, Heart of the Matter by Emily
Giffin (read by actress Cynthia Nixon), and Fireworks over Toccoa by
Jeffrey Stepakoff, who spoke by Skype and telephone with several groups.
The campaign began with six book clubs and grew to nearly eight times that number. After the promotion was announced in the Reading Group Choices newsletter, some 150 groups responded in the first week expressing interest. "That changed the whole dynamic," said Hargadon. "The intriguing twist was not the number of book clubs but that they were from so many different states and cities." The final list of participating groups, from the Boston suburbs to Kapolei, Hawaii, was geared toward diversity in geographic locale as well as factors like members' ages, professions, size and duration of the group, and reading preferences.
Some participants had previously listened to audiobooks, while others were new to the medium. "Much of our discussion was about how to listen," noted Denise Neary, the founder of a mother/daughter book club in Rockville, Md., that discussed Lisa Scottoline's thriller Look Again. "There was a generational divide--all the girls and a regular audio listener used iPods. Many of the moms used CD players in their cars or homes."
Kelly Schimmoller's book club in
Littleton, Colo., also read Look Again--the first time in the group's
decade-long history that the conversation centered on an audiobook and not a
printed edition. "It was fun to talk about how hearing a story is
different," Schimmoller remarked. Listening to Tom Perrotta's The
Abstinence Teacher "put more emphasis on characters' emotions,"
noted Teresa Steinert of Kansas City, Mo., and led to a lengthy discussion
about the narrator and his appeal.
Book clubs were asked to complete an eight-question survey about their experiences. Of those who have responded so far, 82% enjoyed switching to audiobooks for their monthly book club selection, 89% would listen to another audiobook in the future and 91% would recommend audiobooks to a friend. Participants also offered feedback on whether they would be more likely to purchase a CD or download an audiobook directly; answers were divided equally and the remaining 11% stating they had no preference. And what did they do while listening to the audiobook? Driving was the most popular multitasking activity, followed by cleaning and relaxing.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt