Everything you want to know about Book of the Month (BOTM)

Book of the month:

Pricing: It is $14.99 a month which is taken out at the end of each month. You then get a credit to have your BOTM book when the new books drop at the beginning of the month. You also can choose 2 add-ons every month as well. Add-ons are optional and cost $9.99 per book. You will also get a bookmark each month and occasionally stickers.

You can pay monthly which is above. But you can also pay and save money by doing it yearly. It is 12 credits for $149.99 that is only $12.50 for each book. You will save $30 per year this way.  

Cancellation: You can cancel at any time. Cancelling is not hard to do. Customer service is pretty good at doing it! You can call customer service or you can cancel on the website under your account.

Can you skip? You can skip a month. Your credit for the month carries over to the next month. You will not be charged for that month. It will take out of your credit card, but it carries over for the next month. When ordering, you can go into your cart and click skip this month.

Selections:

1. With your credit, you can pick between 5 new books each month.
2. They include new add-ons as well. But you must select one of the 5 main selections to pick an add on. You can also pick one of the 5 main picks as your add on after already selecting one for your main pick to use your credit.
3. If you decide to skip a month, you can add that main pick the next month as an add-on.
4. Genres- There are a lot of different genres to pick from (YA, thriller/mystery, romance, rom-coms, non-fiction, memoirs, literary fiction, etc)
5. Debuts- They have debut books by new authors
6. Early releases- sometimes you get books that are released earlier than in stores
7. There are 100s of books to choose from with their add-ons.
   1. You can save ones that you want. There is a little flag beside the books when you click on them to see what they are about. They get added to a wish list in your account!

Challenges

1. Challenge. Each year a new challenge starts. You rate books as you read them and they count toward three categories. If you are able to complete this challenge, they will send you a candle. You need to view this on the app and not website. You must rate the books in order for the books to count in this challenge. You can find this in the app under your account. The challenge for 2021 is:
   1. Book boss: where each review counts as 1. You have to read 12 books this year.
   1. Genre genie: you need to read 5 books of different genres
   1. Debut Darling: you need to read 3 debuts. These are labeled as debuts on the site.
2. BFF– once you get 12 boxes sent to you, you are now a BFF. If you skip a month, this does not count. When you become a BFF, you will unlock:
   1. You get a Tote bag sent to you.
   1. The community picks 5 books of the year. At the end of the year, you will get a free book to pick from these books added to your book for the month and 2 add-ons (if you want them).
   1. On your Birthday, you get a free book!

Referrals: You can refer people to the BOTM club. You will get pins and they will get their 1^st book for $9.99. Sometimes, you will get entered into a raffle to win bookish stuff! You must send YOUR referral code to the person and the link for this to count for both of you. You can find this in the website under “Refer a friend” tab.

App: The only main difference is to do your challenge which is located at your bookshelf.

Customer service: They are very good at what they do. You give them a call about anything, they will replace a missing or damaged book, help with answering your questions, etc.

Community: I really like the community aspect of this book club. There are groups on Facebook and Goodreads. But there is a section in the website where you can chat or create a group to discuss the books!

Shipping: It is typically fast for me. I get the book(s) within days. They ship in a sturdy box as well. I have never had damaged books. The shipping is included in your price. So no worries about extra fees tacked on to that fee each month.

Jenna’s Book Club from the Today show has an agreement with BOTM. Typically, her books are one of the 5 selections. These are not labeled as Jenna’s picks though.

Rate books: You rate your books on the website or app. This counts towards your challenges for the extras as mentioned above. But you can also see what other people rated that book. It will also keep track of your ratings as well. You cannot make a long review though.

Gifts: You can send a gift to someone as well. This would be a one time selection for them. It will not be a full account. You can do yearly, monthly, etc.

Selections are normally picked 2-3 days before the beginning of the month. You can wait to pick your selection, but book get sold out sometimes quick. They do replace the sell outs with other books. If a book is sold out, they tend to re-stock by the next month as well. This happens but not often.

Every month, I will have a list of the BOTM selections and new add-ons. I am also working on a check list of all the BOTM selections to date. This is taking me a lot longer than expected though. So watch out for it soon. This will end up being updated monthly.

Personal take on BOTM:

I love my subscription. I think it is worth the price and the community is awesome. I enjoy guessing the selections. One thing that I wish would change is having Kindle books instead of physical books. I have no room for all these books. I read so fast. But I like being able to get new books as soon as they come out. Their selections are awesome. Out of 9 months, I skipped only twice. I have gotten countless books from there. I would recommend this club!

Happy reading, Book Nerds!