Silent Book Club is a global community of book lovers and introverts who enjoy reading with friends. We have more than 2000 chapters in 65 countries around the world.
As cofounder and CEO of Silent Book Club LLC, I oversee global operations, business partnerships, content, growth, and Reading Retreats.
Laura Gluhanich and I started Silent Book Club in 2012 as two friends reading together in a San Francisco wine bar. The idea spread through our social circles, and soon we were helping friends in Brooklyn and Los Angeles spin up bicoastal outposts of SBC. In 2015 we launched a website and dedicated social channels to promote the concept and help people organize their own chapters.
By the end of 2018 we were managing more than 50 chapters in half a dozen countries. We incorporated as an LLC and hired a designer to update our branding. Along with a new logo, website refresh, and merchandise, we created an extensible design system to unify our brand and connect chapters around the globe.
To scale our operations, we worked with a web developer to build an interactive map to help readers connect with local chapters. We trained a team of 6 moderators to manage and review content in our Facebook group, and created updated community guidelines to reflect our values as an antiracist organization.
Early in the pandemic, with bookstores shuttered and book tours canceled, we quickly launched a series of virtual events to connect authors directly with readers in their homes. We moderated discussions, promoted the books on our channels, and published the recordings on YouTube.
Horrified by the outcome of the 2016 election and the rise of hate speech, we committed to using our platform for activism. We launched fundraising campaigns for nonprofits including the Southern Poverty Law Center and American Library Association, and drove voter registrations for the 2020 election.
Each month we send a Silent Book Club email newsletter to 43K subscribers. The newsletter includes a personal message from the founders along with links to literary news, sponsored giveaways and promotions, local chapter highlights, and featured products from our online store.
