Book Club Exchange: John Shors & Giveaway

Yesterday, I reviewed a very touching book called DRAGON HOUSE by John Shors. I was so excited when Mr. Shors agreed to write a guest post for Book Club Exchange. I can't think of many authors who spend more time involved with book clubs! I hope you enjoy his essay as much as I did. Make sure you read the entire post because Mr. Shors has a special treat for Booking Mama readers!

My Connection to Book Clubs

Happy holidays, everyone. I thought readers might be interested in how and why, over the past five years, I’ve spoken with about 2,200 book clubs.

In 2004, the hardcover version of my debut novel, Beneath a Marble Sky, was released. I was blessed because, over the next year, Beneath a Marble Sky did quite well—garnering wonderful reviews, winning a national award, and attracting significant interest from Hollywood. Due to all of these events, I was able to quit my day job and become a fulltime novelist.

I was grateful to readers for their support, and decided that I wanted to do something to support readers in return. So, when Penguin released the paperback version of Beneath a Marble Sky in 2006, I decided to add a letter to the back of the book that invited book clubs to invite me to their evenings (all they needed was a speakerphone). I included my email address.

Well, due to the novelty of what I was doing, my book club program started to get a lot of media attention, and was featured in Newsweek Magazine and on The CBS Evening News. I wasn’t sure what kind of interest the media coverage would generate, but now, about three years later, I am happy to report that I’ve spoken with about 2,200 book clubs. Most of these clubs were based in the U.S., though I’ve spoken with groups in Canada, France, Columbia, and Kenya. I’m fortunate in that readers enjoy Beneath a Marble Sky, and are therefore happy to talk with me about it (I spend fifteen minutes with each group). This simple fact allows my program to flourish on many levels.

During the past three years, I’ve learned a great deal from readers. For instance, some clubs have said that they would have liked a map to be included in Beneath a Marble Sky (which is based on the story behind the creation of the Taj Mahal). And because of that feedback, there is a map of Vietnam in my new novel, Dragon House (which is set in modern-day Saigon, but also features other parts of Vietnam).

Talking with up to eight book clubs a night hasn’t been easy, but it’s been important. I’ve done my best to give something back to the readers who support me. And in this age, when books have so much competition with other forms of entertainment, I feel that authors need to go the extra mile to encourage reader/author interaction. I’m trying to get other writers to create similar book club programs, as my experience has been so positive.

I continue to do book club calls, usually several each day. I have also created three videos on YouTube that readers can access. This way, people don’t have to be in book clubs to see and hear me answer questions about each of my novels (Beneath a Marble Sky, Beside a Burning Sea, and Dragon House).

If readers, librarians, booksellers, or authors are interested in my book club program, I may be contacted through my web site at www.dragonhousebook.com.

I wish everyone the best.

John Shors

*****

John Shors is an internationally bestselling author, whose books have won multiple awards and have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

I am so thankful to Mr. Shors for sharing some information about his book club experiences with us. If you are interested in participating in a future Book Club Exchange, please contact me at bookingmama(at)gmail(dot)com.

Mr. Shors has been gracious enough to offer a copy of DRAGON HOUSE to one very lucky reader. To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment (with your e-mail address) telling me why you want to read his novel. To increase your chances, you can blog and or tweet about this contest with a link back to this post. This contest is open to those of you with a U.S. or Canada mailing address only -- no p.o. boxes please. I will accept entries until December 20th at 11:59 p.m. EST, and I will notify the winner the following day. Good luck!