We here at OverDrive love supporting digital book clubs by providing flexible access models to enable our library partners to engage with thousands of new and existing users. The Book Club model offers libraries a choice of Simultaneous Use (a flat fee for an unlimited number of readers for a set period of time) or a per-unit bulk discount for their featured title. Special sale pricing meets the needs of library budgets and puts authors’ works in the hands of more readers.

Many of our library partners have seen tremendous success through digital book clubs. One of these recent success stories is the Shanghai Library, which recently hosted our first-ever digital book club in China. The titles offered for the book club were Class Pet Mess by Dan Gutman, Rappy Goes to the Library by Dan Gutman and The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes. For the entire month of August, all three of these titles were available to Shanghai Library in simultaneous use, meaning no waitlists or holds for readers.

Some statistics illustrating the success of the event:

  • The library had 7,053 checkouts in one month. That’s 3.6 times the circulation of the previous month
  • Number of unique users went from an average of 300 per month to 2,097 unique users
  • Number of new users went from an average of 100 a month to 1,749 new users. That’s 9.5 times the number of new users over the previous month
  • Circulation rate reached a height of 1,034%

Well done, Shanghai Library!

Digital book clubs are a wonderful way to engage with your community and reach more users by providing a selected title in multiple formats, including ebook and/or audiobook. If you’re interested in seeing how OverDrive can help support your own upcoming book club, please reach out to your Account Manager.