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In 2008, Bertelsmann sold its US subscription business to the private equity firm Najafi Companies. The resulting company, Bookspan, was a joint venture between Time Warner and Bertelsmann until 2007 when Bertelsmann took over complete ownership. In 2000, the Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc. The original judges panel was eliminated in 1994. merged with Warner Communications in 1989.

Being a 'Book of the Month Club' selection was used to promote books to the general public.īook of the Month Club was acquired by Time Inc. The size of the club did in fact create the Book of the Month Club as a brand. After starting with 4,000 subscribers, the club had more than 550,000 within twenty years. Thus, the prestige of each new title need not be built up before becoming acceptable,' he explained later. 'It establishes itself as a sound selector of good books and sells by means of its own prestige.

As Scherman explained it, the club itself would be a 'standard brand'. The problems of building interest in a new book led Scherman to create, along with Sackheim and Robert Haas (son of Kalman Haas), the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1926. Sackheim and Scherman then founded their own ad agency devoted entirely to marketing books. With his partners Max Sackheim, and Charles and Albert Boni, Scherman began a mail order service that offered '30 Great Books For $2.98' (miniature reprints 'bound in limp Redcroft') and sold 40 million copies in its first five years. Walter Thompson advertising agency in 1916 when he set out to create the ' Little Leather Library'. Harry Scherman was a copywriter for the J. When the Club selected Babylon in 1978, it reached hundreds of thousands of additional readers and became an instant best-seller.' In 1978, the Club selected By the Rivers of Babylon, the first book by Nelson DeMille, who later wrote: 'I will be forever grateful to Book of the Month for ensuring that my first book, By the Rivers of Babylon, was not my last. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, which became both the most-censored and the most-taught book in America. It was quite the most exciting and unexpected thing that ever happened to me.' In 1951 (its 25th year), the club distributed its 100 millionth book and selected J.D. Mitchell wrote: 'I wanted to thank from the bottom of my heart for selecting my book. In 1936 (its tenth year), the Club selected Gone with the Wind by unknown author Margaret Mitchell. In 1926 (its first year in operation), the Club featured Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. The club has a tradition of focusing on debut and emerging writers, and is known for having helped launch the careers of some of the most acclaimed authors in American literary history.

In 2017, the club debuted its first ever television advertisement called 'Monthly'. In 2016, the club launched a Book of the Year award.

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The club has also worked with a series of celebrity guest judges who bring broader awareness to new titles, and continues producing its own versions of books that feature special endpapers and casings.

Approximately 75% of the club's titles are by up-and-coming authors, and 80% of titles are fiction. Within two years, the club had grown its membership to more than 100,000 members, primarily millennial women, and the club's presence on social media grew to over 1.2 million instagram followers. In late 2015, in concert with the club's 90th year, the club announced a relaunch into its current iteration. Members can also discuss the books with fellow members in an online forum. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members choose which book they would like to receive, similar to how the club originally operated when it began in 1926. Book of the Month (founded 1926 ) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members.