Summer is in full swing and readers all over are polishing off novels, digging into magazines and bringing their tablets to the beach. Ever wondered about the numbers behind summer reading season? Take a look at our new infographic!
How did your reading stack up this year? Let us know your favorites on Twitter—and don’t forget to share our stats with a friend who loves to read on holiday.
If book clubs were previously considered old-fashioned, they have recently experienced a resurgence, as you can see in our infographic. So what is the difference between classic and online book clubs, and why should you use Calaméo and digital publishing to enhance your members’ experience? We’ll explain it all!
Simply put, it’s the gathering of people who love to read and discuss books. Generally, the club reads the same book at the same time and meets monthly to discuss their reading. They meet at one of the members’ homes or in public places like a café or library.
With the successive lockdowns due to Covid, there was a big jump in online book clubs these past couple of years. In fact, because of more time at home, there was a convergence of phenomena: classic book clubs that already existed turned to the web to be able to continue to gather, and many people found a new passion for reading while at home. The Internet has therefore enabled many reading groups to form and meet, especially on social networks and on video conferencing platforms such as Zoom.
The classic book club is somewhat limited, with membership generally capped at about ten members because they meet in person. The online club, however, allows for a much larger number of members. For example, Belletrist, actress Emma Roberts’ online book club, has over 268,000 subscribers on Instagram.
Whether book clubs are online or in person, they share the same benefits. It’s a good way to discover new authors, read books that you haven’t heard of, and discuss with other book lovers. It’s also a good way to maintain social ties and avoid isolation. Book clubs are therefore very beneficial for their members.
Whether your club has existed for 10 years or hasn’t even started yet, digital publishing can be a great way to facilitate interaction and enhance your members’ experience.
🔎 READ: Is digital publishing right for you?
You will be able to use Calaméo two different ways: as a reader and as a content creator.
As a reader on the Calaméo platform, you have many possibilities. Here are a few that your club members might find useful:
💡 TIP: Even though you don’t need a Calaméo account to read on the platform, we suggest that you create a free BASIC account for each member so they can add publications to their Favorites list, plus much more!
If you would like to use our digital publishing platform to store and share your content with your book club, here are some ideas of what you can put online with Calaméo:
💡 TIP: Choose the PREMIUM plan to unlock the “Subscribers” feature, which can be useful for restricting access to documents that are for your book club members only. Or choose the PLATINUM plan if you want to have access to all of our features.
There are numerous advantages to self-publishing on Calaméo. Maybe you have the beginning of a novel lying dormant on your computer that you don’t know what to do with. Or perhaps you’ve just finished a collection of poems that you’d like to share with the world. We will give you 5 great reasons why self-publishing your work on Calaméo is the solution.
Self-publishing means that there is no middleman. You are the one making all the decisions. No matter the subject or the form of your stories, self-publishing allows you to share all your original manuscripts without restriction.
You also decide when your work is ready to be read and shared. There’s no need to reach a certain number of pages, to have an impeccable vocabulary, or to confine yourself to one writing style or genre in particular. You publish what you want, when you want.
Self-publishing presents many advantages for amateur or aspiring authors (who want to gain some popularity before they venture into selling their publications, for example).
Create your Calaméo account in just a few clicks. Then, all you need to do is click on the “Publish” button and choose which file to upload to the platform. Yes, it’s really that easy! There is only one upload step, and your document is published.
No need to start from scratch each time you make a change in your novel: you can simply upload a new version. You can update your publication, and the URL and other enhancements (videos, links, etc.) stay the same.
Digital publishing’s main advantage over paper? The possibility of enriching your writing and turning your publications into real multimedia experiences! Adding internal or external links, images, videos, GIFs…it’s incredibly easy with Calaméo’s Editor tool.
By publishing your manuscripts online, you are making them visible and easy to share. With Calaméo, you can embed your publications directly on your website or blog. In addition, if you share the URL of your publication on social media, people can read it directly on your social media post. A great way to generate some buzz!
Because your writing will be free to read, you probably don’t want to spend anything to put it online. Start your self-publishing adventure by creating a BASIC account on Calaméo; it’s completely free! You can always choose to upgrade your account if you want to take advantage of even more features.
Finally, self-publishing could lead to publishing houses discovering your work. And who knows? You could become a published author after all!
