Dreamland Community

☆Book Club Guide

So, you're interested in the book clubs? Well, we are happy to hear!

If you are interested in joining any of our book clubs, what you must do is read the information chapter, do anything extra it may tell you to do, and then proceed to the forms and fill one out.

We have a variety of book clubs, and we do strongly suggest checking them out for yourself to evaluate if it is a place for you. However, we have put together a guide giving an overview of each club (not a replacement for the information chapter), then a list of pros and cons. You can find this list below.

Dreamland Exchange (formerly known as Dreamland Book Club)

This club places you in a pairing every week, running from Sunday 5 PM EST to the Sunday at 12 PM. You read four chapters from your partner's book within that time span, and on each chapter leave an extensive outline comment (7+ lines on desktop, 12+ on mobile). The exception to this is you leave 4+ quality inlines or if their book is bolded in the chapter, meaning they have less than 1k words in at least half their chapters. We also have a Golden Dreamer, which updates every two weeks. Basically Book of the Biweekly, best commenter of that biweek is chosen, all members have to read and comment on two chapters, leaving 5+ (desktop) / 9+ (mobile) line comments per chapter. So, over the course of two weeks, you read 10 chapters (four from each weekly update, two from Golden Dreamer)

Pros: You get extensive feedback. You get to give us preferences and avoidances so we can try to place you with favorable books. It is the most popular book club which means it can give you a wide amount of community, the largest outside the discord. Great commenters are rewarded as best as we can reward them. We have a re-pairing/permanent pairing system that lets you stay with a certain person if you really like their books or commenting style.

Cons: It is the most work heavy of any of our clubs. You have to read four chapters of a book you may not love. Getting extensive comments on the first four chapters over and over can get boring and useless. You may get a partner who nitpicks and is just a butt but you have deal with having comment on four chapters. Again, MOST WORK HEAVY CLUB.

Dreamland Workshop

Important beginning note: stories must have 10+ chapters to join.  This club updates every two weeks.  We place you in a pairing, though you can select to be part of more than one pairing. When we update, we place an inline comment for conversation to start, then the rest is up to you. You guys say you are there and ready to begin, you guys report to us if people aren't doing as they are supposed to, you just... You guys are a mini-critique pair which we form and enforce.  You must leave 5+ inlines and a 6 sentence outline comment per chapter.  You and your partner decide how much to read per week.  You stay with this partner until one of you finishes or one of you asks to leave the pairing/club.  Outside of your partnership work, there is also a Chosen Book, which is like book of the biweek, where almost everyone has to read a single chapter from this book.  You choose when you sign up if you will participate in Chosen Book.  If not, you do not have to do it, but you cannot be Chosen Book.

Pros: You are with a pairing where both of you are dedicated to reading and growing your stories over the course of your stay in Workshop. You are given a lot of control and are left alone for the most part as long as you communicate effectively with your partner. You can vary how much you read as long as you speak with your partner. We do our best to put you with a partner we believe you will fit well with.

Cons: We aren't always right about you fitting well with a partner. Sometimes there are sprees where we try to create a pairing for someone and their partner just keep ditching. If we cannot find a match for you, you can be in the waiting list for a decently long time.

Dreamland Rush

This book club updates twice a week, once on Monday at 5 PM and once on Friday at 5PM. Each week is separated into two updates per week: Dream A and Dream B. We do this because there is a book of the week you must read, which you have the two updates to finish. Along with this, Rush works on a grouping system: Group 1 and Group 2. Each group gets featured book(s) every update. There are two featured books for Group 1 and one featured book for Group 2. This club only works by inlines, so for each book featured in your group and for the BotW, you have to leave 7+ lines. Overall for this club, if you're in Group 1, you read 5 chapters per week (2 for update A, 2 for Update B, and BotW), for Group 2 you have 3 chapters per week (1 for update A, 1 for Update B, and BotW), or 7 for being in both groups (3 for update A, 3 for Update B, and BotW).

Pros: When you are featured, you get a lot of comments. Comments tend to be more relaxed and just "let's read" based with the occasional criticisms thrown in (not mandated, just how people have done it from what I've seen). It may seem like a lot of chapters, but inlines are much easier to deal with than outlines. If there is a book you don't like, you only have read it occasionally. People read further into your book than for some other clubs. 

Cons: You aren't always featured, which means you can go a few weeks just reading for others and not getting reads. May not be the place for more critical reads. People do get through your book, but it takes time. Groups only really change much when there is an imbalance or I split groups up, which means if there is a member you don't feel like being with... You're stuck with them for a good while.

Dreamland Hunt (formerly known as Dreamland Book Exchange)

We have a list of everyone in the club each update. The assignments are a month long but we update every Friday to keep up with new members and update the points list. To gain points, you read from other members' books. The amount of points you get for the read varies based on who it is, with the point system detailed in the book. You have to leave 10+ inline comments, and if you cannot, leave a 5+ sentence outline comment. You are free to read as many or as few chapters per month as you want, as long as you read four chapters. There is also a Book of the Month, which is whoever had the most points the previous month. Everyone reads two chapters from this book.

Pros: You may get a lot of reads from this. You can use the system to best benefit you to accumulate more points. People can read very far into your book. You can create good relations with others. You can utilize the partnership mechanic to ensure people read back for you. We have a system in place to help people who got few reads but did work get attention/reads. Because you choose what books you read, you can bail on ones you don't like and read a lot of ones you love.

Cons: This is a very big *can* club. It can work wonderfully for you, but it can also end up stinking. Partnerships may guarantee people focus on reading back for you, but it does not mean they will read the same amount. So much of this club is based on what you make of it with little control from us.

Dreamland Raid

This book club will update every Sunday around 5 PM EST. You have until Sunday 12 PM EST to finish your assignment. We put you into a pairing every other week, and you have to read and comment on one chapter for them. Along with this, we will have one Undiscovered Author Book and one New Author Book (or two of one or the other), and you must read and comment on one chapter of their book. Basically, we be helping you find awesome new books to read with this club. You need to leave 5+ inline comments OR a 5+ sentence outline comment on each chapter you read.

Pros: You will get the chance to find new good books to read. You will help boost new and undiscovered authors' confidence and help them get more attention. You will also get a partner every week to read a chapter of your book and leave comments.

Cons: As this book club is mainly about discovery, you will not be getting a lot of reads from this book club. 2/3 of the people you will need to read for aren't a part of the club so you won't be getting reads back from them.