Upgrading Book Riot: A Practical Guide
Book Riot has been a daily stop for readers since 2011, serving up newsletters, podcasts, and listicles that celebrate everything bookish. But if you’ve browsed the site recently, you’ve likely hit a paywall or seen a banner nudging you toward “Book Riot Upgrade.”
The Upgrade is the site’s membership tier, and it’s been rolling out in phases. If you’re weighing whether to subscribe, here’s what the Upgrade actually includes, what it leaves out, and how to tell if it fits your listening and reading habits before you spend a cent.
The Perks, Itemized
Book Riot Upgrade launched as a way to fund the site’s independent coverage without relying on display ads. The membership is currently priced at $6 per month or $60 per year, and it unlocks a specific set of perks that sit outside the free content stream.
The full list includes:
- The Upgrade Newsletter: A weekly email covering publishing industry news, author moves, and commentary that doesn’t fit the site’s free content model. It runs roughly 1,500 to 2,000 words and is written by the Book Riot editorial team.
- Bonus Podcast Episodes: Extended cuts and bonus episodes of the flagship Book Riot podcast, which normally publishes twice weekly.
- Community Access: A private Discord server with genre channels, scheduled group reads, and voice chat events, moderated by Book Riot staff.
- Exclusive Giveaways and Discounts: Periodic member-only contests and discount codes for bookish products.
- Ad-Free Reading: Display ads are removed from the website when you’re logged in.
Notably absent: early access to articles, exclusive written content, or any ebook or audiobook bundle. The Upgrade is a community-and-newsletter play, not a content vault.
How to Verify It’s Worth It Before You Pay
Before subscribing, check whether you’re actually the kind of reader who will use the perks. The fastest way to test this: look at your current media habits.
If you already skip or delete the free Book Riot newsletters in your inbox, the Upgrade newsletter will likely suffer the same fate. If you’ve never joined a Discord server and don’t enjoy that format, the community perk is effectively worthless to you. If you listen to the Book Riot podcast on a delay or only occasionally, the bonus episodes won’t change your engagement.
The practical test is to subscribe for a single month at $6. That gives you access to the Discord, the newsletter, and the bonus episodes long enough to judge whether you’re opening them or ignoring them. If you’re engaging weekly, the annual rate of $60 is a fair price. If you’re skipping the newsletter and lurking in the Discord, cancel after the first month.
How It Stacks Up Against Book Subscriptions
To figure out if the Upgrade is worth it, stack it against what else $6 a month buys you in the book world.
Audible Plus runs about $7.95 per month and gives you access to a rotating catalog of audiobooks, including originals and exclusives. If your goal is to listen to more books, Audible Plus delivers far more listening hours per dollar than Book Riot Upgrade ever will.
Everand (formerly Scribd) is around $11.99 per month and offers access to a large catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, and documents. Again, this is a content-first subscription that directly feeds your reading habit.
Book Riot Upgrade, by contrast, doesn’t give you any books. It gives you talk about books. If you’re already getting recommendations from podcasts, Goodreads, or your library’s Libby app, the Upgrade’s value proposition gets thinner.
Try Audible Free for 30 Days — Start your free trial on Amazon and get two free audiobooks.
The Discord: Where the Community Value Lives or Dies
The Discord server is the Upgrade’s most tangible ongoing benefit, and it’s worth examining closely because it’s the feature that either justifies the membership or makes it feel like a donation.
The Book Riot server is moderated by staff and organized into channels by genre, reading format, and topic. There are scheduled group reads, voice chat events, and a tone that mirrors the site’s editorial voice. For audiobook listeners specifically, the audiobook channels let you discuss narration quality, compare narrator performances, and get recommendations from people who actually listen rather than just read.
The catch: the server is only as good as the community’s activity level. Book Riot’s Discord has a few thousand members, which is active but not overwhelming. You won’t see the constant chatter of a large fandom server, but you also won’t drown in noise. If you’re looking for a low-key book community with professional moderation, it delivers.
The mismatch risk: if you’re not a Discord person, the community perk is dead weight. That leaves the newsletter and bonus podcast episodes as your only ongoing benefits, which makes the $6 monthly price feel steeper.
The Newsletter: What You’re Actually Getting Each Week
The Upgrade newsletter is the most consistent perk. It lands weekly and covers publishing industry moves, author news, and analysis that doesn’t fit the site’s free content model.
For example, a recent issue broke down the shifting landscape of audiobook exclusivity deals, explaining why certain titles vanish from library apps like Hoopla and Libby and end up locked into Audible’s catalog. That’s the kind of analysis that’s genuinely useful for audiobook listeners who’ve been burned by starting a series only to find the sequel is exclusive to a platform they don’t use.
The newsletter also includes a “what the team is reading” section, which functions as a curated recommendation list. If you’re a time-pressed multitasker who wants someone else to do the filtering, this is the most efficient part of the membership.
The limitation: the newsletter is email. It’s easy to let it pile up unread, and if you’re already drowning in newsletters from Audible, Libro.fm, and your local library, one more might just add noise. If you’re the type who marks newsletters as read without opening them, this perk won’t change your behavior.
Who Should Skip the Upgrade
If you’re a genre devotee who reads 50+ books a year and gets recommendations from Reddit, Discord, or niche fandom communities, the Upgrade’s community features will feel redundant. You already have your people, and they’re free.
If you’re an aspiring non-fiction learner who uses audiobooks for professional development, the Upgrade offers almost nothing for you. There’s no career-focused content, no study guides, no actionable takeaways. It’s a leisure-reading membership, not a growth tool.
And if you’re primarily concerned with getting more books into your ears, your money is better spent on Audible, Everand, or a library card. The Upgrade doesn’t put a single audiobook in your library, and no amount of community discussion changes that.
Who Should Upgrade
The Upgrade makes the most sense for a specific type of reader: someone who reads widely across genres, enjoys the Book Riot editorial voice, and wants to support independent book journalism. If you’re already a daily reader of the free content, the Upgrade is a way to get a bit more of what you like while keeping the site alive.
It also works for literary connoisseurs who value community discussion. The Discord’s group reads and author Q&As offer a level of access that’s hard to find elsewhere for $6 a month.
And if you’re an audiobook listener specifically, the bonus podcast episodes are worth a look. The Book Riot podcast regularly features narrator interviews and audiobook production discussions, and the bonus episodes go deeper into those conversations than the free feed allows.
The Decision Framework
Book Riot Upgrade is a patronage model with perks, not a content subscription. It doesn’t compete with Audible, Everand, or your library because it’s not trying to. It’s a way to fund a media outlet you like while getting a modest amount of extra content and community access in return.
The clearest way to decide: subscribe for one month, then check your behavior. If you’re opening the newsletter, participating in the Discord, and listening to the bonus episodes, the annual rate is a fair price. If you’re not engaging with at least two of those three perks, cancel.
For audiobook listeners specifically, the Upgrade won’t replace your listening subscription. But if you want a thoughtful, independent voice in your ear about what’s happening in the publishing world, it’s a reasonable add-on—just don’t expect it to feed your listening habit on its own.
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