Doubleday Book Club(R) - the World's Largest Reading Group - Celebrates Seventy Five Years with New Features and Fabulous Rewards!

    NEW YORK, July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Best sellers at up to 60 percent off
 publishers' prices. Monthly giveways. Author interviews. Pre-ordering books so
 you can get them faster, exclusive video feeds featuring author interviews.
 All of this and more await the members of the Doubleday Book Club as it
 celebrates its diamond anniversary. Clearly, this is not your Mom's book club.
     The Doubleday Book Club, which began 75 years ago as the Dollar Book Club,
 continues to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Doubleday Book
 Club (DBC) now has nearly one million members, an impressive number
 considering the significant changes in the book buying arena.
     In fact, DBC's longest current member first joined the club back in 1959!
 One DBC member has purchased over 900 books from the club since 1985. That's
 loyalty and customer satisfaction.
     To reward members and to celebrate the anniversary milestone, Doubleday
 Book Club is rewarding lucky randomly selected members with giveaways each
 month, culminating with a Grand Prize of a diamond pendant and earrings set
 valued at $4,395 courtesy of Reeds.com.
     DBC's continued success as it celebrates its milestone anniversary is a
 story of how a book club remains relevant to its members even as they have
 many other alternative ways to purchase books. It is a story of loyalty,
 innovation and how a book club evolves to meet these competitive challenges.
     "Long before they were household names, Doubleday Book Club offered books
 by then-unknowns Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, and even J.K. Rowling of
 'Harry Potter' fame," said Sharon Fantera, DBC's Editor-in-Chief. "And we
 continue to discover and showcase authors. But DBC isn't resting on its past
 successes. We're continuing to discover new talent and to give our members
 innovative ways to see the books DBC offers."
     Among the new features Doubleday Book Club developed is a virtual catalog,
 in which members can view the actual club print catalog online, creating the
 same experience of flipping through the pages that they received from the pre-
 existing hard copy sent by mail.
     Doubleday Book Club can be reached on the web at
 http://www.doubledaybookclub.com.
 
     Doubleday Book Club serves an audience seeking escape and entertainment
 through the best in fictional thrillers, romance, how-to guides, cooking,
 celebrity biographies and more. DBC features a diverse lineup of titles that
 cater to its members' equally diverse tastes. And, the club recognizes that
 their members have numerous demands on their time and are looking not only to
 escape with a good book, but also for ways to make their lives easier.
 Therefore DBC also offers the best cookbooks, reference books (including up-
 to-date medical guides), self-help, and books for children.
     The three main attributes Doubleday Book Club offers its members are great
 prices (books are discounted up to 60% off publisher's edition prices),
 convenient home delivery, and superb editorial pre-selection.
     Some authors showcased by DBC before they became household names are
 Danielle Steel, Mary Higgins Clark, Barbara Delinsky, Sandra Brown, Nora
 Roberts, LaVyrle Spencer, Iris Johansen, Catherine Coulter Harlan Coben and
 Tami Hoag. Other bestselling authors currently carried by DBC are Dan Brown,
 Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, John Grisham, Dean Koontz, Kathleen E.
 Woodiwiss, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Sidney Sheldon.
 
     Here is a baker's dozen of this summer's hottest reads as recommended by
 Doubleday Book Club's Editor-in-Chief Sharon Fantera:
 
     -- SUMMER'S CHILD & SUMMER OF ROSES by Luanne Rice
     -- MIRACLE by Danielle Steel
     -- LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE by Barbara Delinsky
     -- KILLING TIME by Linda Howard
     -- THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova
     -- THE TRAVELER by John TwelveHawks
     -- RAGE by Jonathan Kellerman
     -- DANCE OF DANCE by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston
     -- ORIGIN IN DEATH by Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb
     -- THE NOSY NEIGHBOR by Fern Michaels
     -- A THOUSAND TOMORROWS by Karen Kingsbury
     -- BREAKING POINT by Suzanne Brockmann
     -- 1776 by David McCullough
 
     Doubleday also launched another increasingly popular book club: Doubleday
 Large Print.
     Doubleday Book Club is a reader's paradise, where members can find
 everything from the latest Sandra Brown and John Grisham to the hottest
 autobiographies from Hollywood's favorite stars. The club has both offered and
 discovered bestsellers for the past seventy five years and will continue to do
 so for the next seventy five, while keeping current by introducing new
 elements and incentives.
 
     About BOOKSPAN
     Bookspan is the premier direct marketer of general interest and specialty
 book clubs. With more than 8.5 million members, its book clubs include
 Doubleday Book Club(R), Book-of-the-Month Club(R), The Literary Guild(R),
 Quality Paperback Book Club(R), and more than 40 others. BOOKSPAN is a
 partnership between Doubleday Direct, Inc., owned by Bertelsmann AG and Book-
 of-the-Month Club Holdings LLC, owned by Time Warner Inc.
 
 

SOURCE  Bookspan