A done-for-you walking book club
Bring the whole town through your door. Do (almost) none of the work.
The done-for-you walking book club that runs itself. You print a map and hang a flyer. After that, it runs on its own.
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"It started in my own library. Now it's one of our most popular programs. And I swear on my library card all I did was hit print."
You did not take this job to wrestle borders onto bulletin boards.
You took it for the books. The people. The magic of a building that is gloriously full.
But the job had other plans. The budget. The grant. The board packet. The printer that jams out of spite. The patron negotiating a late fee from 2019 like it's a peace treaty.
And the magic? The programs that make kids squeal and grown-ups sigh? Still sitting on your Someday List. Because between you and that program stands a mountain of cutting, laminating, bagging, designing, scheduling, and training — and your day ends long before you reach any of it.
Book Walk™ is that magic. Already built, already running, asking you for exactly one thing: a printer with toner in it. (Ambitious, I know.)
What it actually is
On paper it reads like a fever dream someone had at a library conference. Stay with me.
Your patrons read the month's featured book. Then they follow a map — a route that loops out from your front door and back, with eight stops along the way. At each stop, a QR code. At each code, a question about the book.
Not "discuss the author's use of light and dark imagery." (I would sooner eat my cardigan.) More like:
Would you have trusted him? One squat for yes, two for no, three if you're honestly still not over it.
Honk like a goose if you saw the twist coming.
Everyone in your group must now address you as Captain until the next stop.
Wave frantically at the next car that passes. It doesn't matter whether you know them.
It's a book club for people who love books and cannot survive one more evening of Sharon explaining what the author "was really trying to say." You bring the friends you like. You leave the Sharons at home. You get some steps, a good laugh, and a legitimately good book — and your whole town turns into a game you can play whenever you want.
That's your patrons' side. It's a delight. Here's yours.
You create a map of your route. You print eight made-for-you stop signs and hang them up. That's it. One hour, one time — and then never again for as long as you live (or stay subscribed). Everything past that point is mine.
One hour. One time. The single hardest thing you'll ever do for Book Walk™ is hit print.
You are not required to remember any of this exists. Remembering is my job too.
Want people through the doors? Book Walk™
Want to look like the most inventive director in the state? Book Walk™
Want your board to swoon? Book Walk™
Want to make magic? Book Walk™
Need a purchase order or invoice first? Request one here →
The first of the month, from your chair
You open it. The Book Walk™ number went up. You didn't touch it. You'd frankly forgotten it was happening. Up anyway.
You paste that number into your board report exactly as-is, because it needs no help from you.
Two weeks later you're at the desk and you overhear one patron telling another they have to try "the walking book thing." The second one says "the WHAT," and you get to stand there sipping your coffee like a woman who has it completely together, watching your program roll through your town with your name on it.
Your route. Your book club. Your numbers. Your quietly magnificent idea. Your secret. (I'll never tell.)
Don't believe me
This is a real, live Book Walk™ stop. Pull out your phone and scan it exactly like a patron would. If it made you grin — congratulations, that was market research. Your patrons will grin too.
Book Walk™ · Stop 3
Point your camera here 👆
My favorite kind of customer. There's a library running Book Walk™ on a $10,000 budget and one running it on a $12 million budget, and they run the exact same program. Book Walk™ doesn't care about the size of your team — on account of your team not doing anything. That's me. I'm the team.
You'll never touch a single piece of the tech. I build the codes, host them, monitor them, and fix them before you'd notice a hiccup. Your whole relationship with technology here begins and ends at "printer."
Good. That's exactly what I want for you. Set it, forget it. The email finds you every month with your numbers and everything to print. Forgetting is allowed. It's practically the point.
I'm so glad you brought up your board. Because I already wrote your pitch. One page. You print it, carry it in, and set it on the table — what Book Walk™ is, what it costs, what it saves you in staff hours, and the participation numbers, in calm, board-shaped language. You don't build the case. You hit print.
Real things people said when I described this out loud
"So it's a book club, but you have to exercise?"
"Wait — you whistle?"
"Who's going to want to spin around in front of the neighbors?" (Everyone. The answer, delightfully, is everyone.)
"That is either the dumbest or the best idea I have ever heard." (Why not both.)
"I need that. Email me."
Who's behind Book Walk™
And I mean I run it: the story time, the budget, the grant, the summer reading program, and — on one memorable occasion — the toilet. I know exactly what it's like to want to make something wonderful and have not one hour left in the day to make it.
So I built the thing I wanted and couldn't find anywhere. Then I built the whole machine behind it — the codes, the hosting, the automatic monthly reports, all of it — with my own two hands and an alarming number of late nights, so the magic lands for your patrons and for you, and neither of you ever touches the hard part.
I'm not a consultant in a blazer who has never worked a desk. I'm a director who got sick of the magic living only in her head, and did something impossible about it. I build the programs I wish I had.
Book Walk™ started in my library, on an are-you-kidding budget, in a town that had never heard of a walking book club. Now it's one of our most popular programs.
About that $49
$1.63 a day.
Half a coffee. Or one patron's late fees.
Now tally up the last program you built from nothing. Supplies. Lamination sheets. Design hours. The staff time to prep it, run it, and reset it every single week, forever. Add all that up with a straight face, and $49 stops reading like an expense and starts reading like the cheapest hire you've ever made: one who works nights, never calls in sick, doesn't need a chair, and turns in your numbers on time without being asked twice.
One flyer of effort. A whole program of results.
Every month you wait is another month you walk into that board meeting holding the same flat numbers you held last time. Your other options:
Build something yourself and lose your whole fall to it, on evenings you don't have.
Hire a beige consultant and pay a lot more to end up looking like every other library.
Or — hear me out — sign up for Book Walk™.
The second you say yes
Your welcome email hits your inbox, and I get busy building your QR codes.
You map your route, hang your stops, and print one desk card. Book Walk™ is officially live.
Your first monthly email lands with the new book and everything to print, and you're rolling.
It keeps going while you do nothing. New book, new questions, new numbers. Nothing new on your plate. Ever.
And if the day ever comes when it isn't right for your library, you cancel. No contract, no awkward phone call, nobody guilting you. I'd rather you stay because it's working than because leaving is a pain.
If you want a book club that gets your town outside, a program that runs itself in the dark while you sleep, and a participation number you can set on the board table without flinching —
if you like your library warm, your patrons quacking, and your workload suspiciously light —
then Book Walk™ might just be your new favorite thing to take credit for.
All you have to do to make magic is hit print.
You could read the books, write the questions, update the page, wrangle the tech, automate the system, crank out the social posts, design the flyer, build next month's poster, and collect the data. Every month.
Or you could sign up for Book Walk™, and I'll do it for you.
Ready when you are
Same program either way — new book every month, everything done for you, cancel whenever. Just pick how you'd like to pay.
Monthly
$49/month
Billed monthly
Start today and keep it flexible. No contract — cancel anytime, right from your emailed receipt.
Start monthly →Annual
$588/year
$49/month, billed once a year
One payment, one invoice — the easy pick for a single budget line and one purchase order. No monthly charges to track, same great program.
Start annual →Board needs to pay by invoice or purchase order instead? Request one here →
Next month's book is already picked (and it's a good one). Cancel anytime.