When you are a member of WNBA, you are entitled to receive WNBA Membership Benefits.
WNBA membership offers you a wide-range of personal and professional experiences, opportunities, and discounts.
A great thing to remember is that when you join WNBA through any of our 12 chapters, you automatically become a member of the national organization (aka WNBA-National) and not just a member of your chapter.
This means that the WNBA membership benefits listed below are automatically included in your membership, regardless of what chapter you join. Each chapter might have other chapter-specific benefits as well, so you can check with your chapter.
If you have any questions about a benefit, please email nationalmembership [at] wnba-books.org.
WNBA Member Benefits Overview
WNBA member benefits include a variety of opportunities for members to learn, be entertained, grow as a professional, develop new skills, be exposed to new books and authors, participate in programs and events, and so much more!
Quick Overview:
- Attend events including book discussions, author talks, webinars, panels, and more
- Participate in panels or talks
- Volunteer for an event, program, or committee
- Use provided discounts to further your knowledge or attend an event, webinar, or conference
- Share your bookish or professional knowledge through a webinar or by writing a blog post
- Have your news promoted through email, on our website, or on social media
- Win books or share your published book(s) through giveaways
- Get your book listed on Bookshop
- Get your blog listed on our website
- List yourself in our member directory
- Network with WNBA professionals around the US
- Use your voice to nominate or vote in certain elections or award programs
For a more in-depth look at the WNBA Membership Benefits you can expect as a member, keep reading!
WNBA Membership Benefits
Book Club Discussions
Chapters such as Metro Atlanta and Nashville often host book discussions, and many may be open to all WNBA members. Keep an eye out for upcoming discussions in our monthly Bookwoman Events & Opportunities emails.
Bookwoman Publications
The publications arm of WNBA-National is called the Bookwoman. We publish three types of emails and a blog. Learn about trends and issues in the book industry and literary world.
Emails
When you join WNBA, you automatically begin receiving our flagship publication, the Bookwoman Newsletter, which contains information about WNBA, our chapters, and our members.
You can opt-in to receive the Bookwoman Events & Opportunities, which includes a monthly newsletter that lists upcoming events and occasional event reminders.
You can opt-in to receive the Bookwoman Talks Books emails, which is launching in 2022 and will include information about books and the broader literary world.
Bookwoman Blog
The Bookwoman Blog is found on our website. It features WNBA news and items of interest, including member profiles and articles related to the book world.
Discounts
We offer a variety of discounts, including some that are available year-round, and others that are time- or event-specific.
More information can be found in sections below about the following discounts:
- Events
- WNBA events
- Industry events
- Writing conferences and workshops
- Subscriptions and Software
- JSTOR subscription
- Libro.fm subscription
- Scrivener software
- “The Hot Sheet” subscription
Events
WNBA hosts a variety of event programming, which includes author talks; game and trivia nights; industry panels, webinars, and workshops; lectures; literary museums and historical sites visits; professional development, and much more!
Events can be found on our Events calendar, in our Bookwoman Events & Opportunities emails, on social media, and through chapters.
All WNBA-National events are open to all members and are held online.
Many chapter events are also open to all WNBA members regardless of chapter affiliation, but please check event announcements. Chapters host many events online, but they also have in-person events too.
Many of the events produced by the WNBA are offered to members for free. When events have a ticket fee, members usually receive a discounted price.
We partner with other literary organizations to offer event-specific discounts for our members. For example, WNBA members received $100 off a ticket to Publisher Weekly’s 2022 Book Show in May 2022.
We often are able to work with writing organizations to get WNBA members discounts to writing conferences and workshops. For example, WNBA members received a discount to the Hollihock Writers Conference in 2020.
Giveaways
We often hold giveaways. Some are open to the public, some are open to anyone who follows us on social media or email, but others are members-only giveaways.
If you are a published author, you can submit your book for us to giveaway.
If you provide a service and would like to promote it, you can sponsor a giveaway.
Great Group Reads
One of WNBA’s most-respected programs is Great Group Reads (GGR), which creates an annual list of books we recommend for shared reading. Publishers and publicists submit books to our GGR committee. The committee reads the books between March and July and selects 20 titles for our annual list.
All WNBA members are invited to join the committee. You’ll receive at least 20 free books!
Member Directory
The Member Directory is available for each member. Add your picture, social media links, website, contact information and brief information about yourself. The Member Directory allows each member to customize your profile, displaying only what is desired.
Find editors, publishers, agents, libraries, speakers among our members.
This directory also enables members to contact and network with each other, one of the prime benefits of membership in WNBA. Traveling to a WNBA chapter city or region? Contact members to connect to the literary events of that community.
Member Promotions
General
Through the Bookwoman Newsletter and the Bookwoman Blog, you can:
- Share your news, including promotions, appearances, events, workshops, and writing
- Apply to write articles and blog posts or conduct interviews
- Ask to be interviewed or profiled
All members can have their blog listed on our website.
All members can offer WNBA members a discount on a course, program, workshop, webinar, or other service you provide.
Author Promotions — Free
We offer WNBA members who are published authors various opportunities to promote their work:
- List your blog on our website
- All WNBA members who are published authors can fill out a form that will provide us with information about your published book(s), which we will then add to our Members’ Books list on our Bookshop storefront
- You can submit your news, including appearances and book publications, to be shared
- You can apply to write articles that share your expertise
- You can submit your book for a giveaway
Author Promotions — Paid
While we offer several opportunities for free promotion, we do offer a membership add-on for authors where you can promote your work through the WNBA Promotional Program, which requires a $30 annual payment in addition to your membership.
The WNBA Promotional Program allows you to:
- Promote your book on the national website
- You can have one book cover image in rotation on the home page
- You can have up to three book cover images on our Featured Books page
Members with Businesses or Services — Paid
While we offer several opportunities for free promotion, we do offer a membership add-on for members who own businesses or provide services where you can promote your work through the WNBA Promotional Program, which requires a $30 annual payment in addition to your membership.
The WNBA Promotional Program allows you to:
- Promote your company or professional services on our national website by having your logo, URL, and description featured
Networking
The WNBA offer members so many opportunities to network. You can meet fellow members as well as industry professionals.
We regularly host networking events. You can join a committee or help with an event, which is also a great way to meet new people. You can contact fellow members that you meet at events or by reaching out to members on social media or through the Member Directory.
Whether you want to just meet general booklovers or you have professional contacts you’d like to meet, WNBA has plenty of opportunities to help!
Subscriptions and Software
When you are a member, you can access discount codes on the following subscriptions and software.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. If you are writing or researching, this resource is incredible helpful. WNBA members can get a yearly JPASS subscription for $149 — a 25% savings from the regular $199. The plan comes with unlimited online reading access to 2,000+ journals in the JSTOR archive as well as 120 PDF downloads. Members must use a special link to take advantage of this offer.
Libro.fm
Libro.fm is a monthly audiobook subscription service that works with indie bookstores in order for you to support your local bookstores. When you choose this ethical alternative to Audible, your purchase supports your local economy, can help create jobs, and makes a difference in your community because Libro.fm splits the profit from your purchases with your local bookstore.
WNBA members receive a free audiobook when you start a new monthly Libro.fm membership for $14.99 a month. Valid in the US and Canada.
Receive 2 audiobook credits for $14.99 USD with your first month of Libro.fm membership. Credits can be used on your choice of more than 250,000 audiobooks on Libro.fm. After your first month, you’ll pay $14.99 USD for one audiobook credit per month, and each payment supports local bookstores. Members also receive 30% off when buying audiobooks à la carte. Pause or cancel at anytime and keep your audiobooks.
Scrivener
Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by bestselling novelists, screenwriters, nonfiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators, and more. Scrivener provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing as it is a word-processing program with an outlining feature that is designed for writers. Users can organize what they write as well as organize documents and research, including PDFs, audio files, video files, and more.
WNBA members can receive a 20% discount on Scrivener for macOS or Windows.
The Hot Sheet
The Hot Sheet is a publishing industry newsletter for authors delivered via email every other Wednesday — published by publishing industry veteran Jane Friedman. The Hot Sheet provides subscribers with curated content and original analysis about trends, industry news, and market research. There is so much information within in the publishing industry, and The Hot Sheet filters through the noise so you don’t have to.
WNBA members receive a 20% discount off of the standard $59 annual subscription rate.
Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteering is the best way to network, learn new skills, or build up your portfolio or résumé.
WNBA-National and all of our chapters have volunteer opportunities available. You can join a committee, participate in an event, plan an event, write for the Bookwoman, assist with social media, and so much more. Grow as a leader, get to know members across the country, and feel good about supporting our wonderful organization.
Opportunities can be found on our website, in the Bookwoman Events & Opportunities emails, and by contacting WNBA-National or your chapter.
Vote or Nominate
There are several ways WNBA Members can exert their voices, and one of those is through voting and nominating for awards and positions.
Board Nominations and Voting
WNBA-National conducts elections for our Executive Board. All members in good standing are eligible to nominate, including self-nominate, and vote for those positions.
All chapters have their own boards and have a nominating period of time and require members to vote for key board positions.
WNBA Award Nominations
Every two years, we award the WNBA Award. The WNBA Award is given to a “living American woman who derives part or all of her income from books and allied arts and who has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation.”
When a call for nominations goes out to members, you can submit your nomination.
WNBA Writing Contest
When we run the WNBA writing contest, members receive a discount on the submission fee.
As you can see, with your membership, you receive benefits that can help you personally and professionally.
To Receive WNBA Membership Benefits
Join WNBA!
If you live in a city with an established chapter, contact them (refer to Find a Chapter). Those who join a location-based chapter also receive all of the WNBA membership benefits listed above.
Network Membership is open to individuals who do not live in or within easy commuting distance to one of our chapter cities. They enjoy all the WNBA membership benefits noted. Network Membership information and application.
