The 8-Week Launch Playbook
The six decisions to make first, how to find your founding six, what the first public meeting looks like, and how to keep it going without you.
One book a month, and a table that keeps meeting. Let’s set the first date.
Eight weeks of small, specific steps for starting a book club that is still meeting in a year. Nobody has to have finished.
9 PDFs + 2 editable docs · 54 pages · instant download
How to start a book club in eight weeks
Almost everyone has been in a book club that quietly stopped, and almost nobody knows what actually ended it.
It is rarely the books. Clubs die because one person hosted every time, or the pick was 700 pages in hardback, or two people finished and everybody else felt bad enough to stay home. All of that is a systems problem, and systems problems have answers.
The kit gives you those answers. Every choice comes with a recommendation marked DEFAULT, and a note on when it is worth doing something else.
Eight weeks of specific steps, written down so you do not have to invent them.
Get the kit, $29
7-day refund, no questions
A club is mostly the same table at the same time, often enough that people start counting on it.
The kit is built around that. It gives you the night to pick, the system that decides the next book, the thirty questions that work on any of them, and the ninety seconds to say before anyone opens theirs.
Every decision in the kit comes with a recommended answer, so you can start tonight.
Start tonight, $29
7-day refund, no questions
Real pages from the Book Club Starter Kit
These are real pages out of the kit, not mockups.
What’s inside: nine documents
Nine documents in the kit. Two meetings' worth of preparation, spread over eight weeks.
The First Meeting Script
A run of show built around the part most clubs get wrong: the first twenty minutes are not about the book. Plus the welcome, written out word for word.
Book Picking & Discussion
The ten-point standard for a pick that works on a group, three picking systems, and thirty questions that work on any book.
Group Chat Templates
21 messages you can paste straight in, including the hard ones: nobody has finished, someone is posting spoilers, someone talks over everyone.
Host Guide & Group Agreement
What a host is and isn't responsible for, a rota to fill in, and ten plain-language agreements the group actually signs up to.
The Bookstore Partnership Kit
Which door to knock on first, what an indie shop or a library can realistically give you, and the ninety-second counter script.
The Flyer Pack
Three print-ready US Letter posters with blanks to fill by hand, including a tear-tab design.
The Social Media Pack
How to write the bio, what to post before the club has ever met, and 15 captions ready to paste.
A club that shames the people who didn't finish has about four months to live. You come either way. That is the rule that keeps the table full.
What the Book Club Starter Kit costs
$29
Download it straight away and keep it. The license covers one club, including anything you print out or paste into your own group chat.
Instant download · No subscription · Single-club license
7-day refund, no questions asked
- 00 · Start HerePDF · 70 KB
- 01 · The 8-Week Launch PlaybookPDF · 133 KB
- 02 · The First Meeting ScriptPDF · 84 KB
- 03 · Book Picking & DiscussionPDF · 75 KB
- 04 · Group Chat TemplatesPDF · 78 KB
- 05 · Host Guide & Group AgreementPDF · 81 KB
- 06 · The Bookstore Partnership KitPDF · 81 KB
- 07 · The Flyer PackPDF · 46 KB
- 08 · The Social Media PackPDF · 111 KB
- Group Agreement (editable)DOCX · 37 KB
- Partnership One Pager (editable)DOCX · 36 KB
- 11 files · 54 pages832 KB total
Anything you want to ask
- What if it isn't useful to me?
- Email matthew@vulcanax.com within 7 days of buying and you get a full refund. You don't have to explain why.
- What am I allowed to do with it?
- It's a single-club license: use everything to start and run one club, print the posters, adapt the scripts, and hand the group agreement to your own members. You can't resell the files or run it as a paid product of your own.
- Does the kit tell me which books to read?
- No, and that is deliberate. A club that reads someone else's list stops being yours. What it gives you is a ten-point standard for what makes a pick work on a group, three systems for deciding, and a pick card to fill in. Example titles appear only as clearly-labelled examples of the standard.
- What if people don't finish the book?
- They won't, some months, and the kit is built on that. The default rule is that you come whether or not you finished, and the discussion questions, the run of show and the chat templates all assume a table where some people are halfway through. Audiobooks count as reading.
- Do I have to host at my house?
- No. The default venue is a cafe, a bar that takes a booking, or a library meeting room, precisely so that no one person carries the club. Document 05 covers the rota if you do want to rotate living rooms, and is honest about what that costs the host.
- I've never organized anything. Is this too advanced?
- That's who it's written for. Every decision already has an answer marked DEFAULT, so you can get through the whole eight weeks by taking the recommendation every time and changing your mind later.
- How do I get the files?
- Checkout runs on this site and the download link appears immediately after payment, plus a copy by email. You don't need to make an account.
Still deciding? The refund window is seven days and nobody asks why.
Get the kit, $29
7-day refund, no questions
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