By Ingrid Süßmann
Image from dtv Facebook page
With this service, dtv offers additional content and supplemental material about their books aimed specifically at book clubs. Available as a PDF download for select dtv books, this content includes background information, discussion questions, notable quotes, and literary themes.
The portal also offers contributions from authors, translators, and publishers, as well as downloadable info sheets for booksellers.
In addition to offering readers additional information about each book, this portal also serves as a tool for dtv to market its backlist titles. Nine out of ten titles currently in the Book Club Portal are from the backlist, with further titles to follow soon:
- Arno Geiger: Der alte König in seinem Exil (The Old King in his Exile, Restless Books)
- John Williams: Stoner (Stoner, New York Review Classics)
- Muriel Barbery: Die Eleganz des Igels (The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Europa Editions)
- Stefan aus dem Siepen: Das Seil
- Dorothy Baker: Zwei Schwestern (Cassandra at the Wedding, New York Review Books Classics)
- Lizzie Doron: Who the fuck is Kafka
- Jasper Fforde: Der Fall Jane Eyre (The Eyre Affair, Penguin Books)
- Karen Köhler: Wir haben Raketen geangelt
- Celeste Ng: Was ich euch nicht erzählte (Everything I Never Told You, Penguin Books)
- Colm Toibin: Brooklyn (Brooklyn, Scribner)
Claudia Baumhöver, editor-in-chief at dtv, says: “The large number of book clubs is a manifestation of people’s desire to discuss literature together. The Book Club Portal is the right idea at the right tie. It’s also a great service for booksellers and a fantastic opportunity to connect with customers.”
Dtv is a Munich-based German publishing house. Founded in 1960 as a joint paperback publishing house for eleven German publishers, dtv soon outgrew its planned potential and now also publishes original and first editions as well as its own hardcover program.
With 125 employees, dtv publishes around 500 books each year and has a backlist of around 7,000 titles. In 2015, dtv reported revenues of 65 million euros (ca. 73.5 billion US Dollars).