Guide · 3 minute read

How to run an online book club

An online book club lets friends in different towns, or different countries, read together. It also removes the thing that usually holds a book club together: sitting in the same room. Here’s how to make up for that.

Choose how you’ll talk

Online book clubs tend to work in one of three ways, and many mix them:

• A live video call once a month. It’s the closest thing to meeting in person and works best for groups of up to eight or so.
• Talking as you go, in a group chat or an app, with people sharing thoughts while they read. Nobody has to be free at the same time, which makes it ideal across time zones.
• Both: notes and reactions during the month, then a call to wrap the book up.

The mix usually works best. The monthly call gives the club a heartbeat, and the conversation in between stops people forgetting what they read three weeks ago.

Running a good video discussion

• Keep it to an hour. Screen fatigue is real, and a call that ends while people still want to talk is a good call.
• Have someone steer. On video, people wait for a gap that never comes. One person asking the questions and bringing in the quieter members makes a big difference.
• Go round once at the start. A quick “one word for the book, and a score out of ten” gets everyone talking early.
• Bring questions. Our list of book club questions for any book is handy when the conversation stalls.

Handle time zones up front

If your members are spread out, pick a call slot that rotates or that nobody hates, and say it in each person’s local time. Better still, lean on the conversation between calls, which works whatever the time zone.

Keep people reading at their own pace

In person you can see who’s still on chapter three. Online, people who fall behind tend to go quiet and then disappear. Make progress visible and normal:

• Ask everyone to share roughly how far they’ve got each week.
• Set a realistic finish date, and pick shorter books when life is busy.
• Make it clear that unfinished readers are welcome on the call.

Stop spoilers from ruining it

A group chat is a spoiler minefield. One excited message about the twist and the book is ruined for anyone behind. Agree a rule, such as always saying the chapter before you talk about something, or use a tool that hides notes until each reader reaches them. Our guide to running a spoiler-free book club goes into more detail.

Make choosing the next book an event

Without a physical meeting, the small rituals matter more. Taking turns to pitch a shortlist and voting together gives everyone a stake in the next read. See how to choose book club books for a few ways to do it.

Where Bookbunch fits

Bookbunch was made for exactly this. Each bunch has a shared pace track showing everyone’s bookmark, and margin notes stay blurred until your own bookmark reaches their chapter. There’s a daily question to answer, and presentation night lets whoever’s turn it is pitch three books live on everyone’s screen before the bunch votes. It works in any browser, with no download needed.