Which Reader Community Should You Build?

There are at least 8 different ways to build a community around your books — newsletters, social groups, paid memberships, and more. This quick quiz points you toward the one that fits your goals, audience, and bandwidth right now.

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Your Best-Fit Community Types

    These recommendations are a reasoned starting point based on the 8 Ways to Build a Reader Community talk at the Create Expand Prosper Summit*, not a scientifically validated instrument; treat your result as a strong hint, not a verdict.

    See Specific Platform Picks for Your Type

    • Want a peer/social layer on top of the list → Substack
    • Want mature email-marketing automation and tagging → ConvertKit or beehiiv
    • Want a robust self-hosted solution with the opportunity to build a community behind it → WordPress + FluentCRM plugin
    • Already active on Instagram → Instagram Broadcast channel
    • Already active on Facebook → Facebook Group
    • Enjoy creating short videos → TikTok (BookTok), Instagram Reels (Bookstagram), or YouTube Shorts
    • Want real-time chat or a gaming-adjacent audience → Discord
    • Write romance → Ream
    • Write progression fantasy / LitRPG → Royal Road
    • Already serializing there, or want the Substack social layer too → Substack
    • Everything else, or want the most reader-trusted checkout → Patreon
    • Already on WordPress → Fluent Community plugin or SureDash plugin
    • Not on WordPress, want maximum control → self-hosted Discourse or similar
    • Want the largest possible reach → Goodreads
    • Want a smaller, more intimate club experience → StoryGraph
    • Want a listening post for deals and discovery sentiment, not discussion → BookBub

    This type works best as a seasoning, not a foundation; layer live events on top of whichever type won your main result above rather than treating it as its own destination.

    • Want tight, pace-based cohorts with high completion → Skool
    • Want a clean membership layer without a course-marketplace feel → Circle
    • Want deep community and course integration in one → Mighty Networks
    • Want the most control over the tech and costs → WordPress + Fluent Community Plugin
    • Want the broadest reach and lowest signup friction → WhatsApp
    • Want to manage a larger group with bots and automation → Telegram
    • Audience skews professional or already tech-comfortable → Slack

    *This referral link is to the free summit series; purchasing access to replays or other services could lead to a small commission for us at no additional cost to yourself. Blaine will be presenting his talk during the Expand session that takes place between July 22nd and 25th, 2026.