Netflix Book Club
Netflix, a megalith in film and television and a pioneer in the digital streaming space, has decided to dip their toes into the literary world. Netflix announced in November the launch of Netflix Book Club with Uzo Aduba, an actress known for her role as Crazy Eyes in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. According to their website, Netflix Book Club, “seeks to provide you with the depth you’ve been looking for” when it comes to your favorite book to film or TV adaptations. Aside from providing a monthly recommendation for a book that will accompany Netflix releases, Aduba is set to host a series airing on YouTube called But Have You Read the Book, hosted by both Netflix and Starbucks. Aduba will interview the “stars and storytellers” involved in both the original work and the Netflix adaptation and guide viewers on the process of translating a story from the page to the screen.
Aduba’s first selection for the book club is Passing, the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen about two Black women who grew up together, one who “passes” as white and the other who lives with her dark-skinned husband and children. The film adaptation of Passing was released on Netflix on November 10 with director Rebecca Hall and stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson. In the first episode of But Have You Read the Book, Aduba interviews Hall, Negga, and actor André Holland about the process of creating the film, but also some of the deeper themes within the novel and film.
Netflix is certainly not the first book club of its kind. Book clubs have made a comeback in recent years, and companies like Book of the Month have made a fortune by curating a selection of books for their subscribers. Despite a common narrative that the domination of streaming and social media has led to a decline in reading, thanks to the pandemic, book sales are actually higher than they have been in ten years. The pandemic also proved quite profitable for Netflix, who added 36 million subscribers in 2020, exceeding expectations. With the concurrent success of both the publishing industry and streaming services in the past year, it really is no surprise that Netflix ventured into an arena where they can combine both media.
Furthermore, it helps that some of Netflix’s most popular and streamed titles are literary adaptations. Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit, You, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Aduba’s own Orange is the New Black are all based on books, and make up some of the most streamed titles on Netflix. Adaptations have proved to be one of Netflix’s biggest moneymakers, and it tracks that they will foster this by encouraging viewers (and readers) to get involved with the source.
It will be interesting to observe how this will show up in sales for the selected books. Whether the series will encourage viewers to buy the source material remains to be seen. Historically, the release of a film, television, or video game adaptation tends to boost book sales, as was the case for Bridgerton. It is common to see integrated marketing campaigns for literary adaptations with new versions of book covers with the movie poster, which bring renewed interest in not just the adaptation but the book itself. It will be interesting to look for a pattern with Netflix and prominent publishing houses as the Book Club turns out, to see if there is a correlation or consistent relationship with some over the others.
In addition, we could look the other way and observe whether this book club is an attempt by Netflix to develop a stronger partnership with authors and publishers which have proved to be so profitable for them. Perhaps this is their way of showing their support and care for adaptations in an attempt to nab the most promising properties away from other studios and production companies.
Bidding wars for successful books are very common among production companies, and like Netflix, other studios and streaming platforms end up very rich thanks to these acquisitions. Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company, sold for $900 million earlier this year, known for their adaptations of female-written works like Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere. Hello Sunshine also operates Reese’s Book Club, which aside from curating books and providing additional content on their app, acts as a powerful stamp of approval on the selected books. Every time Witherspoon selects a pick for Reese’s Book Club, massive sales follow, similar to the effect of books chosen by Oprah Winfrey, whose eponymous book club has been shaking up the publishing world since 1996.
Perhaps Netflix thinks it can follow in the footsteps of Witherspoon and Winfrey and make their influence known within the publishing industry. Perhaps the collaboration with Starbucks for Aduba’s series will initiate a return to the coffeehouse hub centered around books and conversation. Maybe this will replace Netflix’s current brand as the place to binge hours of content alone in the dark, giving us a new definition of “Netflix and Chill”.
