| Book Of The Month Club |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB | |
| direct marketing | |
| bertelsmann ag | |
| time warner | |
| companies established in 1923 | |
| book publishing companies of the united states | |
| entertainment companies of the united states | |
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The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc. That company merged with Doubleday Direct, Inc., a company owned by Bertelsmann , in 2000. The resulting company, '''Bookspan''', was a joint-venture between Time Warner and Bertelsmann until 2007 when Bertelsmann took over complete ownership. Approximately six weeks after it acquired complete ownership of '''Bookspan''', Bertelsmann initiated a major overhaul of the book club business, a process that will eliminate 280 positions, or about 15% of its workforce of 1,900. Many of the specialty book clubs such as '''American Compass''' are being eliminated. The company operates a number of non-general book clubs including:
MEMBERSHIP TERMS The most common terms of membership involve a "negative response" system whereby a member is offered a monthly book selection which will be mailed to them on a particular date if it is not declined before that date is reached. Customers typically have the option to respond declining the selection or opting to order another book or books instead. In addition, potential members are often offered a selection of books to select from at an arbitrarily low price (for example "4 books for $ 4.00 each") with the stipulation that once they have accepted this initial shipment, and decided they wish to join the club, they must then purchase a certain number of books within a certain period of time (for example, 2 books within the first year) to complete their obligation to the club. The Zooba format requires a 3-book commitment and allows the customer to build and manage a book list similar to a mail-order DVD rental queue. The customer is charged $9.95 monthly (plus any applicable taxes) and is sent the first available book on his or her list. Additional books not on the monthly cycle are also $9.95, and the web interface makes maintaining gift addresses easy. The service usually has an impressive selection of current hardcover bestsellers and is freely browsable to non-members. CLUBS OPERATED BY BOOKSPAN AND AFFILIATES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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