Former Chicago Bookseller Launches Lit Circle to Promote Book Events Nationwide
Rebecca George, a former co-owner of Volumes Bookcafe, has launched Lit Circle, a free digital platform designed to help readers find author events, literary festivals, book clubs, and other book programming at independent bookstores and literary organizations. The service is live in Chicago and Philadelphia and is set to expand to more metro areas in the coming weeks.
Rebecca George, who co-owned Chicago’s Volumes Bookcafe for more than a decade before it closed in January, has begun rolling out Lit Circle, a digital platform built to connect readers with bookstores and other venues hosting literary programming.
A new event-finding platform
Lit Circle is currently available in Chicago and, as of today, Philadelphia. The free platform has been in beta testing in the Chicagoland area this summer and is expanding ahead of a Philadelphia metro-area book crawl on August 22. George says the plan is to “open the gates” in the coming weeks and add metro areas across the country.
The platform’s database is designed to track author readings and signings, along with book clubs and literary festivals nationwide, and to alert readers to events happening nearby. George built the project with Patrick DiMichele, a technology consultant and longtime Volumes customer.
George has said she wants Lit Circle to become for books what BandsInTown is for music: a central place where readers can discover what is happening around them. Her experience as a bookseller hosting frequent author events shaped the project, particularly as publicity for literary programming has become harder in recent years.
She has pointed to the decline of local print media and the shrinking of book coverage in newspapers of all sizes as major obstacles for bookstores and literary organizations trying to reach audiences. Lit Circle is intended to help fill that gap by making upcoming events easier to find and promoting attendance at live literary gatherings.
Independent booksellers will be able to connect author events directly to their own websites or to affiliate links at Bookshop.org and Libro.fm. After that function is fully in place nationwide, George says the platform will broaden to allow publishers to promote author tours and other relevant events hosted by independent bookstores and literary organizations.
The platform’s long-term listings will also include festivals, conventions, comics bookstores, and libraries. Events at corporate-owned chain bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and BAM will not be included. George said those stores already have their own large online customer systems and “don’t need us.”
More features are already planned, including a mobile app, a passport system that lets readers track visits, events, and tickets, dedicated email blasts promoting upcoming author tours, and added editorial content such as articles and book reviews. George says she hopes the service will encourage users to return to familiar bookstores while also discovering independent shops they never knew were nearby.