THE NOVEL STUDY BOOK CLUB
Read like a writer.
Study successful novels with a community of novelists and editors.
We’ll read and discuss a new novel every six weeks. You’ll get craft notes, story spreadsheets, in-depth essays, community discussion threads, and live discussions for every book. Relaunching January 2027.
Have you been searching for a book club that actually discusses the book?
Do you read with sticky notes, a pencil, and a notebook at your side? Do you finish a great novel and immediately want to begin rereading to understand how the author pulled it off?
The Novel Study Book Club is for book nerds of all stripes:
Novelists who want to see how successful authors solve the problems they’re wrestling with in their own drafts: pacing, backstory, point of view, openings, endings, and more.
Editors who want sharper ways to diagnose what a manuscript needs and a file full of craft examples to reference.
Serious readers who already read this way and would love company.
This is one book club where we really do talk about the book itself: how it’s built, why it works, and what tools and techniques you can apply to your own writing.
HOW IT WORKS
A new novel, every six weeks
Here’s how the book club works:
1
Vote. Members nominate novels, I narrow them to a ballot of three or four, and we vote well ahead of time, so there's time to request a library hold or order a copy.
2
Read together. Spoiler-free and spoiler-full discussion threads mean you can join the conversation whether you're on chapter three or you finished in a weekend.
3
Study alongside me. As I read, I share my chapter-by-chapter craft notes and my story spreadsheet, tracking intensity, chronology, story questions and more, so you can see what I'm noticing in real time.
4
Talk it through live. Two hour-long Zoom discussions per novel, one on a weekday and one on a weekend, with summary transcripts of both for anyone who can't attend.
5
Go deeper. For every novel I write three in-depth essays: on the opening, on a single scene, and on the novel's structure, with charts.
Also included: a standing “What else are you reading?” discussion channel, plus a January warm-up month and a December wrap-up (see the calendar below).
2027 THEME
The breakout novel
We’ll start the year with Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel. Maass describes breakout novels as books that “run free of the pack”: not just competent and salable, but absorbing, surprising, and impossible to forget. His craft advice pushes writers past choices that are merely good toward the ones readers can't stop talking about.
All year, we’ll ask of every novel: what makes this one break out? (Want a preview? Read my review of Writing the Breakout Novel.)
THE 2027 CALENDAR
January: warm-up month. We read and discuss Writing the Breakout Novel, get to know each other, and vote on our early picks.
February 1 – November 21: seven novels, six weeks for each.
Novel 1
Feb 1 – Mar 14
Novel 2
Mar 15 – Apr 25
Novel 3
Apr 26 – Jun 6
Novel 4
Jun 7 – Jul 18
Novel 5
Jul 19 – Aug 29
Novel 6
Aug 30 – Oct 10
Novel 7
Oct 11 – Nov 21
December
Wrap-up, no novel
December: no novel. Instead, a book-recommendation session (gift ideas for the readers in your life included), and planning for 2028, including choosing next January’s warm-up craft book. Paid memberships pause for December.
WHAT WE READ
Taking commercial fiction seriously
The Novel Study Book Club focuses on commercial fiction: the novels readers actually buy, borrow, and stay up late to finish. MFA programs often skip it, but it's where some of the most inventive craft choices are being made right now. We’ll also read at least one literary or crossover title, because the line between literary and genre fiction keeps blurring, and each side has plenty to teach the other. Everything we read is recent, published in the last five years, and some picks come straight off the current bestseller lists.
Reading in your own genre teaches you its expectations; reading outside it gives you new tools. Here are some of the genres we might cover, and what each can teach you:
ROMANCE
How to build suspense and stakes when readers already know the ending.
THRILLERS AND CRIME
How to time spikes of intensity, and when to lower the temperature.
MYSTERY
How to control what readers know, and when.
COZY MYSTERY
How to keep readers invested when the stakes are lower.
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
How to build a world readers have never seen without drowning them in detail.
HORROR
How to build dread, and what to show versus withhold.
LITERARY FICTION
How to break the rules on purpose.
SEASON TWO
What’s new in 2027
I ran the first season of the Novel Study Book Club in 2025, and I’ve kept what worked and improved what didn’t. What’s new in 2027:
More time to read. Six weeks per novel instead of four, so you can finish the book and join the conversation.
Two live discussions per book, one weekday and one weekend, so more members can make it.
A new community home on beehiiv, built for discussion instead of a creator feed.
A dedicated spot for book recommendations, a popular part of our live Zoom discussions.
WHAT MEMBERS SAY
Here’s what members of that first season had to say:
“The best part of the book club is that we actually talk about the book! Kristen does a wonderful job fostering a rich and engaged community of readers. I've also found that the book club has made me a more analytical reader. I'm paying closer attention to how a story works at different levels, even with books outside the club, while still feeling fully immersed in the reading experience. It's deepened my enjoyment of reading overall.”
Jennifer Yankopolus, editor
“I enjoyed seeing book club members during our Zoom meetings. The sense of community that evolved over the year was deeply gratifying. And Kristen’s in-depth analysis and thoughtful questions kept group discussions and meetings lively. The Novel Study Book Club introduced me to new authors and books I never would have discovered on my own.”
Kim Moccia, writer
“The book club has ‘forced’ me to read popular books I might not have read otherwise, and it's a great feeling to be better caught up on what's being widely read. The main benefit, though, is getting to see inside the mind of someone with a brilliant story brain. It's a rare (and thoroughly enjoyable) opportunity to learn from someone who knows story inside and out so that I can better develop my own story analysis skills. (And on top of that, the discussion among other members of the book club is enlightening and sheer fun as well.)”
James Gallagher, editor
MEMBERSHIP
Join the club
THROUGH TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 5PM PT
Join through the Bestsellers Kickstarter
The $110 tier includes the Bestsellers hardcover, digital editions of all three of my craft books, and six months of Novel Study Book Club membership, from the January warm-up through the end of our fourth novel in July.
I’ll open up the new community hub in November and you’ll help me select which genres we’ll read for the year and decide the first novel for the year. (These pre-season months don’t count against your six-month membership.)
Already backed at another level? You can switch to the Book Club tier until the campaign closes.
Join through the Kickstarter →STARTING JANUARY 4, 2027
Membership opens
Monthly: $10/month (monthly charges paused in December)
Annual: $90
Not ready to join yet? Add your name to the waitlist and I’ll let you know the moment doors open on January 4, 2027.
Already a subscriber? beehiiv will email you a quick login code to confirm it’s you. Enter it and you’re on the waitlist.
Frequently asked questions
When will the live Zoom sessions be held?
I will survey members before making a decision, but it’s likely meetings will be held on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 11am PT (2pm ET / 7pm UK / 8pm CET, and early the next morning in Australia and New Zealand), generally during the last week of the reading cycle. So, for example, discussions of Writing the Breakout Novel will likely be held on Tuesday, January 26 and Saturday, January 30 at 11am PT.
What if I can't make the live sessions?
You’ll get an anonymized written summary of both discussions, covering the main topics in a fraction of the time it would take to watch the videos. To keep the conversation open, recordings are used only to create those summaries and are then deleted.
Do I need to have read Bestsellers or Novel Study?
No. I’ll be drawing on many of the concepts and methods from those books, but you will be able to pick them up by noticing how they are applied to the novels we read.
Do I need to buy the books?
Members get their own copies however they like: library, ebook, audiobook, or print. That's part of why we vote well ahead of each cycle.
Do I have to finish the book before the Zoom discussion?
Not at all. Come as you are, on camera or off, ready to chat or just listen. If you haven't finished, just be ready for spoilers. This isn’t school, and nobody’s checking your homework.
Can I join for just one book?
Absolutely. Monthly membership is designed for exactly that. Because we vote on each novel well ahead of time, you’ll know what’s coming and can join for the cycle you’re most excited about. One six-week cycle usually spans two months, so two months of membership covers a full book, from the first discussion thread through both live sessions. Stay on if the next pick catches your eye, or cancel and come back later. If you plan to stay for most of the year, the annual membership costs less.
Is there a free tier?
Not this time. The Patreon version of the book club had a free tier, but in 2027 the book club is for paid members only. If you’d like to follow along for free, subscribe to my newsletter. It goes weekly again starting in January 2027, and subscribers can read every Novel Study post free when it’s published.
How involved are you in the discussion threads?
I check in on the current novel's community discussion threads a few times a week, and I lead both live discussions for every book.
Your guide
I’m Kristen Tate, the editor behind the Blue Garret. For over a decade I've helped authors write and publish the books that fulfill their dreams and delight their readers. I have a PhD in English from Columbia University, with a focus on the nineteenth-century British novel and publishing history.
The Novel Study series braids together the close reading I learned in graduate school with the practical knowledge I’ve gained guiding hundreds of writers through revision. The book club is where I get to do the same analysis in the company of other writers and editors.
Come read with us.
One novel every six weeks. A room full of people as eager to discuss the novel as you are.