Read together, at your own pace.

What a book club is in Papiro

A club is the group: its members, its plan and its meetups. Inside the club there are rooms, and each room reads one book at a time. So the same club can have, for example, a room for the novel of the month and another for a longer essay.

The book is split into milestones, stretches of chapters. Your progress marks which milestones you've completed, and that decides which part of the conversation you can see.

Where to find Clubs

Open Community and choose the Clubs tab. There you'll find your clubs, your rooms, the invitations you've received and the directory of public clubs.

Clubs works with your Papiro account, on papiro.store and in the app from version 1.32. If you already take part in a club, a shortcut may also appear on Home.

Joining a club

There are two ways: someone invites you, or you find a public club in the directory.

With an invitation

Accepting gives you access to the club or room from that invitation. It doesn't change anything else about your account.

From the public directory

1. In Clubs, go to Public directory and search by club name.
2. Open its page to see what it's about.
3. Join. Conversations are for members only, so you'll see them after joining.

Afterward: choose your rooms

Joining a club doesn't add you to all of its rooms. Go into the club and tap Join room for the readings you want to follow.

Creating your club

1. In Clubs, tap Create club.
2. Give it a name and choose an icon to identify it.
3. Decide its visibility (you can change it later).
4. Invite your first readers and create the first room.

Inviting readers

Whoever manages the club can invite in three ways: searching for the person by name in Papiro (if their profile is public), with a link or with a code. The link and code can be shared through any messaging app, expire after 7 days and you can revoke them whenever you want.

The invited person only needs a Papiro account, which is free. If they don't have one yet, they can create it and then open the invitation link again.

Rooms: one book at a time

To create a room, whoever manages the club chooses:

1. A name, like "October reading".
2. The book: one from the club's catalog, one from the Papiro Catalog or one you add by hand with title, author and number of chapters.
3. How progress is measured: by chapters or by pages.

When the room finishes a book, it can vote for the next one and continue with the same people. Progress resets to zero and what came before —conversation, goals and progress— stays saved under Books in this room.

Your progress and milestones

1. Go into the room and, in My progress, choose your format: physical, ebook or audio.
2. Enter the last chapter (or page) you finished.
3. Tap Confirm progress. The milestones you've completed get marked and that part of the conversation opens up.

Each person reads in their own format and at their own pace; progress translates to the same milestones for the whole room.

Can others see how far along I am?

Only if you turn on Share my progress with the room, which starts off. With or without that option, spoiler protection works the same way.

What if I made a mistake?

Confirm the correct chapter. If you lower your progress, conversations for milestones you no longer reach get hidden, until you get back there. Your history is kept.

Talking without spoilers

Every message is tied to a milestone. You only see messages for milestones you've already completed, so you can join the conversation without fear of being told what's coming.

Writing a message

1. Confirm your progress: it's needed to take part.
2. Write your message and choose from which milestone it will be visible. You can only choose milestones you've already completed.
3. Send it. Anyone who hasn't reached that milestone yet won't see it until they do.

You can also reply to a specific message and share quotes from the book, with its reference and the milestone from which they'll be visible.

If something isn't right

In each message's options you can report it for spoilers or inappropriate use: whoever manages the club will review it. You can withdraw your own messages and quotes whenever you want; withdrawing a message also hides its replies.

Goals and finishing a book

Every room's main goal is finishing the book. Whoever manages it can add intermediate goals at specific chapters, for example halfway through the book.

When you confirm your progress up to a goal, you can announce it: the room will see your name, the goal and when you announced it. Announcing it is optional.

Next book and meetups

In every club, the Club plan section gathers what the group decides together.

Choosing the next book

1. Interests. Each member contributes what they'd like to read. Contributions from at least three people are needed.
2. Ideas. With those interests, whoever manages the club prepares a list of possible books.
3. Voting. The vote is published and each person chooses their favorite. When it closes, the most voted wins; in case of a tie, whoever manages the club chooses among the tied books.

Meetups

Whoever manages the club can schedule meetups with a date and time, linked to a room if they want. They can be:

Turn on the reminder for a meetup and we'll notify you in Clubs as it approaches, if it changes or if it's cancelled.

Managing a club

Every club has three types of members:

These options are in each room's settings icon: Invite readers, Members and privacy, Room's book, Book goals and Club administration.

Archiving

Archiving a room leaves it view-only; the other rooms remain open. Archiving the club hides it from its members; its admins can view or reopen it from Settings → Archived clubs.

Privacy and etiquette

Leaving

Leaving a room keeps you in the club and its other rooms. Leaving a club removes your access to the club and all its rooms; your library stays intact. If you created the club, you first need to hand it off to someone else or archive it.