Reviewing the Book of the Month Club

If you hang out on Litsy or in other bookish places, chances are good you've seen a lot of swooning over "BOTM" at the beginning of every month. BOTM is the Book of the Month Club, a monthly book subscription service that first started in 1926 and relaunched in 2015 in a modern, online-based format. I got worn down by all the shiny posts and enthusiasm I was seeing about BOTM and finally subscribed last summer. Now that I've been a member for well over six months, I thought I'd write up my experience for anyone considering a membership.

How It Works:
Membership in BOTM is $14.99 per month, for which you can choose any one of the five selected books for the month (announced on the first of each month). Membership also allows you to choose up to two extras per month (from previous month's selections) for $9.99 each. BOTM will never ship you a book you did not choose. If you don't want any of the five selections for the month, you can skip the month on the website; doing so means you will not be charged for that month and nothing will be sent to you. If you do not choose a book but don't actively skip the month, you will be charged the $14.99 and will receive a credit that you can use at a later date for any book on the site. (There's a small catch to this bit, which I will discuss in my cons section below.)

The Books, Content:
BOTM books are recently released titles (often within a few weeks of the date they first become available at BOTM; sometimes a book is available at BOTM before its publication date, in which case BOTM members who select that book will usually have it before it is available in stores.) The books include fiction and nonfiction, and there is usually a good diversity of genres within each month's five selections. In my experience, the books are typically mysteries/thrillers, literary fiction, "beach reads," and general nonfiction. Occasionally I've seen a sci-fi or fantasy selection, but never a romance (some "woman's fiction" (picture the face I'm making at this term, go on, picture it), which often shares some tropes and plot expectations with romance, but). Most of the genre fiction, though not all, at BOTM is of the type that comfortably crosses over, at least a bit, with general fiction. They are usually books that you will be hearing people talk about in the weeks to come (although to what degree that, itself, is attributable to them being BOTM selections, I don't know.) They will be good books, and mainstream books, is what I'm saying, but mostly of a few types.

The Books, as Objects:
When I was a kid, there were a number of Book of the Month Club editions kicking around my parents' and grandparents' houses, from much earlier incarnations of the club. They were easy to pick out because they were special editions for the club and their format (and often cover design) was different from the edition of the same book you could have bought in a bookstore. This is no longer the case with BOTM titles. They are special editions printed especially for BOTM, but their overall formatting and design is nearly identical to the edition of the book you would buy from B&N, Amazon, your local independent, and so on.

The minor differences between a BOTM edition and editions sold elsewhere include: 

*The coloring on the boards (all BOTM editions are hardcovers) of the books themselves may be slightly different from editions in stores. My BOTM edition of Circe has black boards with a vertical orange strip encasing the spine. The edition in stores does not have the orange strip. All of the BOTM editions I have received have two-toned boards like this; I can only specifically comment on the comparison to store editions for Circe, as it is the only title I've seen in both editions. But at a guess I'd say the two-tone boards are a feature of the BOTM editions.

*BOTM editions carry dust jackets in the same design as books appearing in stores except that the BOTM logo appears in the upper right-hand corner of the front of the dust jacket and on the top of the spine of the dust jacket. BOTM editions also carry no paratext on the back of the dust jacket (no blurbs or descriptions, as might appear on the edition sold elsewhere) and instead say "I love BOTM," with "BOTM" appearing inside a heart. The month and year that the title was a selection on BOTM are listed underneath this inscription.

*The BOTM logo is embossed on the front board and any embossing that might usually appear on books by the publisher of the title will be missing. The BOTM logo is also embossed on the top of the spine.

*BOTM editions feel light for their size. My guess is that they are printed on thinner and/or lighter weight paper than most hardcovers. The paper does not, however, feel cheap. It is certainly  not noticeably thin to the touch. The ink does not come off on one's fingers, as often happens with cheaply printed books, such as some mass market paperbacks.

Overall, BOTM editions are pleasing objects. They also look nice lined up next to one another on a shelf.

Pros of Membership:
Overall, I'd say my experience with BOTM has been positive. As I see it, these are the highlights of Book of the Month as a subscription service:

*The books are inexpensive. Barring special deals or promotions, you're going to have a hard time finding a brand new hardcover for $14.99 anywhere else. Prices on Amazon are rarely that low for hardcover new releases (in my experience, new books priced in the ~27 dollar range don't usually go lower than ~17 on Amazon in the days right around the release). The same hardcover at B&N, if it is part of their 30% off new releases program and if you are also a member (10% discount) and if you have a good coupon (20% off) and if you have their credit card that gives you a 5% rebate on your bill, that $27 dollar book, after tax, would come to ~$13.75. So if the stars align, you might could do better on price than BOTM, but it's not super likely. 

*The website is slick. It's bright and pleasant and really easy to use. It's completely intuitive how to add books to your box, how to ship the box, and how to skip a month. It's also pretty user friendly for finding answers to questions you might have, including how to "unskip" a month if you change your mind. The website works equally well on a computer and a mobile device.

*The books arrive very nicely packaged. They come in an instantly recognizable flip-top box and the book/s inside are shrink wrapped for protection. I have never had a BOTM book arrive with a squished spine or a torn dusk jacket. (These days, it's about 60/40 at our house whether books from Amazon will arrive at least mildly damaged, so this is a bit of big deal for me.) Each order comes with a BOTM bookmark. If you're into that kind of thing, you can very easily make opening your BOTM box a small event. Especially if you're using BOTM as a kind of treat for yourself, this is a nice touch. The boxes are also great for storing small items under a bed or in a closet and are the perfect size for sending books through the mail. (Natch, as that's what they were designed for.) If you frequently send books as gifts or exchange reads with friends or family members, a small perk of your BOTM membership would be this monthly supply of the perfect boxes for winging those books on their way.

*The BOTM website has a forum for discussing each of the selections from every month. I have not used this feature, but if you want to discuss your book after reading it, that element is there. There's also a pretty active contingent of BOTM members on Litsy who share about their BOTM picks. If you're looking for an online social aspect to your reading, BOTM could help you find it.

*The books are titles people want to read. Obviously no selection of five books is ever going to please everyone every time, but the BOTM picks are never dregs or strange outliers. You may well come across a book you otherwise wouldn't, but I never feel like the selections are poor.

Cons of Membership:
It's not all rose hips and juniper berries at BOTM. I have almost cancelled my membership a handful of times--mostly for personal, idiosyncratic reasons--but here are my top bugaboos about BOTM:

*I don't love to read hardcovers. BOTM books are always hardcovers. *shrug* I mean, it is what it is, and most books come out in hardcover first. If you want a new release while it's still a new release, hardcover is usually what you got. But I prefer paperback so much and I have so many unread books in my house that I often find myself considering canceling BOTM just because the books aren't in the format I prefer. This one is really down to personal taste, but I'll give you this to chew on too: they're new release hardcovers but they aren't first editions. If you like hardcovers and any part of that has to do with collector-y interest in first editions and/or first printings, your BOTM membership isn't going to help you out there. A BOTM edition is its own separate thing in that sense.

*If you want to skip a month, you have to hit that "skip" button on the website by a certain date (usually the sixth of the month). If you don't do that, you get charged for the month but get no book. That charge gets you a credit you can use later. That's fair enough, I guess, although it used to be that simply not choosing a book skipped the month for you and you didn't get charged. That extra step seems to be designed to net BOTM some cash from forgetful members, especially if they keep forgetting and never use those credits. 

*Every month you have the option of adding up to two extra books to your box at a discount ($9.99). This is a great deal dollar-wise. But there's a small catch. You can only add "extra" books if you choose one of the five books selected for the month. If you don't like any of the five for a given month, there is no way to choose an older book instead. You can only snag those older books as add-ons when you pick a selection of the month. I really wish you could just pick any available book (from the current selections and past selections) for your $14.99, but alas.

*Sometimes I go months on end without seeing a book in the monthly selections that I want. This is all about personal taste, of course, and I can just keep skipping months until something shows up I'm excited about, but it can be a bit of a letdown when all five picks make you go, "Bleh."

Who Should Join BOTM?
I think BOTM is an excellent subscription service for the right kind of reader. I'd recommend BOTM to anyone who would like to keep up with new releases without have to keep up with new releases. I'd also recommend it for anyone who likes to read (or maybe who used to and would like to get back into it) but isn't sure what to read or where to start. BOTM will drop five new releases into your email on the first of every month and boom! you have suggestions for your reading for the next few weeks. For anyone who is looking for a low-key, online book club vibe, BOTM might scratch that itch. It's pretty much guaranteed that a decent number of other people will be reading the same thing you are at the same time you are, and between the BOTM forums and BOTM members on other bookish websites, you should be able to find those people easily. Also, anyone who just loves book mail should enjoy BOTM. If you fit any of those descriptions, I think there's a strong chance you'll fine BOTM worth your time and dollars.

I don't recommend BOTM to readers who are trying to reduce their TBRs (BOTMs will pile up unread just like any other book purchases), anyone who strongly prefers reading in paperback or ebook, readers who are likely to forget to check the BOTM selection and hit that "skip" button if they don't want a book that month, and folks who prefer to read mostly in a genre not strongly represented at BOTM (such as romance, sci-fi, fantasy, specific nitty-gritty nonfiction topics, and cozy mysteries).

If any of you decide to try BOTM (or if you're already a member), let me know how it goes!

My BOTMs, showing the features of BOTM editions as discussed above. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and The Stranger in the Woods are shown naked with their dust jackets attending. (Click photo to embiggen.)