Writing Book Club Questions for Your Novel

Even if you haven't finished yet! Warning: it might be useful!

Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash

Some time in the spring, my novel BLUE HOURS will be released. I’d like to include Unschool reader-writers in useful pieces of the last steps of writing process.

Late last week, the managing editor sent me several mock-ups of possible layouts for the cover. I’m supposed to offer feedback… not easy, because I like all three! In the meantime, she’s sent them off to the sale rep for thoughts. This is how it goes.

At the point I see the cover—the actual cover, not mock-ups—the book becomes real. Two weeks ago, I saw the designer’s work for what the pages will look like, a good start to “real.”

A Dozen Questions

One of the first tasks on my growing list of “To do for sending-out-to-the-world” is to come up with a dozen questions for book clubs. I’ve been part of a book club since covid, and one member of the group always manages to find such a list of questions somewhere. I think this has become a piece of launching a book, or at least books that by their nature lend themselves to conversation (and shouldn’t all?) Reading is solitary (or not necessarily!) but talking about stories is community-building.

In part what sold this novel was that the acquisitions team spent an afternoon discussing the story, asking questions and wondering. They had conversation about it—long and meandering conversation. This in itself—more than anything—convinced them it would be a good read; the story and characters got people talking.

When the managing editor shared this with me, I knew that coming up with rich questions for book clubs would be key, and a good challenge. (And wondered why I hadn’t done this with my memoir?)