How to Host an Audiobook Club

Your parents’ version of audiobooks — think bulky cassette tapes or pricey CDs — are long gone. The audiobooks we have today are significantly more advanced. From an audiobook’s production time to the number of books we can choose from to how we consume them, it’s no wonder these orally produced books have soared in popularity in the past few years.

A boring commute and mundane house chores are now a little less of a drag on our days because we can occupy ourselves by listening to a good book.

Considering that more people are reading books by listening to them, we’re now seeing audiobook clubs begin to take off. Starting an audiobook club still has a lot of the same steps as setting up a traditional book club, but there are a few differentiators to consider.

One thing to keep in mind is that with audiobooks you now have the opportunity to decide if you want to get together to listen to the book or if you still want to listen to the book on your own time and use the book club meeting to discuss the group’s thoughts on the material. Feel free to set your intention for the group when planning or take it to a vote once you’ve formed your group. Here are a few more tips to keep in mind:

7 Tips to Start Your Audiobook Club

1. Define your group’s focus.

With any size group, it’s best to have an intended genre focus. This way, you’re not jumping all over the place deciding what types of books to read. Narrow your club’s focus down to fiction or nonfiction.

Ask a few interested parties what they would be more interested in reading and use their feedback to guide your decision.

2. Ask people to join.

What’s a book club without participants, right? Ask friends and family members if they’d be interested in joining your book club. You can also have them extend an invite out to people they know.

If you’re looking to meet new people, you can use websites like Facebook and Meetup to find people in your area who may be interested.

3. Set your meeting frequency.

Once you’ve solidified your group members, decide how frequent you want to meet, and if you want to use the group to read the book together or simply to discuss what had been read. Some book clubs will meet twice about each book. This allows them to chat about the first half of the book, and then meet again to discuss the final half and the book as a whole.

Other clubs will meet once a month and everyone will have finished reading the book beforehand. Avoid meeting too often, however, so the club doesn’t become a burden for others to attend.

4. Set your meeting space.

Your meeting space can be in-person or virtually. If you want to meet in person, you can check with a local coffee shop to see if they’d mind if your group met there regularly or each member could take turns hosting the group.

If you want to meet virtually, take advantage of Zoom to bring everyone together on screen.

5. Delegate selecting books.

Choosing books can be done in a few ways:

• The leader can always choose the book.
• The group could vote on books.
• Each member could have a turn choosing a book.

However, you decide to make your book selections, make sure to build out your reading list three to six months out and share it with the group. That way, everyone knows the reading schedule and has ample time to procure each book.

6. Decide how to find audiobooks.

There are several great websites you can use to gain access to audiobooks. Libby, an audiobook app that connects to the library system, allows users to “check out” and audiobook through their library system. Keep in mind, you may still find yourself on a waitlist for an audiobook through Libby. Libraries are granted a specific number of “copies” and if they are all leased out to other users, you’ll have to wait for a copy to become available.

Another service, Scribd, is a subscription-based listening app that gives you access to books, magazines, podcasts, and more for $9.99 a month. This means you can listen to as many audiobooks as you want each month without having to spend more than $10. Scribd provides access to millions of eBooks, audiobooks, and more, but always be sure to double-check that the book you want is available through Scribd.

You can also always purchase each audiobook through a service like Audible. With Audible, you’ll subscribe to a plan that best suits your reading and financial needs. If you select the Premium Plus plan, you’ll receive one book credit each month and pay $14.95; plus, you’ll have access to stream unlimited from the Audible Plus catalog. 

7. Enjoy your reading!

It doesn’t matter if you have three people in your audiobook club or thirty people, the goal is simply to read great books and have fun discussing them with others. If you’re doing that, then you have a successful book club!

Want to learn more about audiobooks? Read our article “Why Every Author Needs an Audiobook.”