Business of... Community Book Clubs

Before we made the decision to start our own publishing press, we researched the different ways communities were using literature to engage with each other given the lockdown and global pandemic. Our aim with this project was to find out what worked well when creating a community literature project and what didn’t, and how ethical issues fit into this. We found a wide variety of projects that had some sort of ethical issue in mind that drove the aims and outcomes of the project. In one instance, we sent out a survey on social media asking people about how their book clubs functioned before and after the lockdown. We received 13 responses from females aged 46+. Some of the key trends we found were that book clubs often act as a way for people to meet up and socialise, i.e. over dinner and drinks. A key difference between before and during lockdown is that while meetups are easier to schedule, the conversation isn’t as free flowing as before, but the content and liveliness of the discussion hasn’t changed. Despite the success of online book clubs however, most people would go back to doing physical meetings

Even though we had a small sample of surveys to work from, it became evident the literature was an imperative aspect in bringing communities together and helping people find a sense of normalcy in their day-to-day lives. People used their book clubs as a way to socialise and bring people together despite not being able to physically meet up. In one of the interviews conducted, a book club member talked about ‘the importance and influence women’s literature can have on the reader and how they need to be supported in this time, so we have tried to focus on empowering women as the focus of the novels we choose.’

All of the research and interviews conducted massively informed our creative process in developing our anthology. We centred our anthology around the lockdown; focusing on how people were using the lockdown to develop their creativity, or write about any themes related to the lockdown, such as isolation or family. Our key aim was to be able to provide a platform for people to share their incredible pieces of poetry and find some positivity in an otherwise less-than-ideal situation. By sharing poetry, conducting interviews and reaching out to people on our Instagram and Twitter, we wanted to create our own digital community of poets, book-lovers, and readers and bring them together through literature.

To submit a poem for our anthology, or get more information about our project, please email: businessofbooksg6@gmail.com