The Rise of the Black Book Club

Given that the publishing industry has a tendency to flail when it comes to marketing research, here’s a heartening consumer trend: The Wall Street Journal has reported that book clubs targeting African-American readers have exploded in popularity, even while traditional book clubs are foundering. As of December, the Black Expressions book club had 460,000 members, a substantial rise over the famed Book of the Month Club‘s 345,000. A book club primarily for black readers would only work, of course, if blacks and whites had very different preferences — which, as we’ve seen with TV viewing habits and baby names (to name a few), they plainly do.