BCA

About BCA

BCA (Book Club Associates) was a British mail-order book club company, set up in 1966 as a joint venture between W. H. Smith and the American publisher Doubleday. It sold club editions of popular books to members and failed in 2012.

BCA recruited members through newspaper advertising, especially in the Sunday supplements. In the 1970s and 1980s it was one of the biggest book clubs in the UK, with reported membership above two million. It ran a family of clubs, among them The Mystery and Thriller Club, Just Good Books, The Softback Preview, The Fantasy and Science Fiction Book Club and The Military and Aviation Book Society. By 2008 it was down to seven clubs.

Club editions were produced by arrangement with the original trade publisher, which is why so many popular titles of the period, from fantasy series to thrillers, also exist in BCA form. Collectors on specialist forums regularly ask whether a BCA copy is a first edition, and the answer depends on recognising the club version.

From 2005 onwards BCA drew criticism over its complaints handling and debt collection. Bertelsmann sold the business to the German investor Aurelius in 2008, and Aurelius sold it to the Webb Group in March 2011. The Webb Group went into administration soon afterwards, and BCA became insolvent in 2012.

How to spot a BCA first edition

BCA books are book club editions produced under licence from the trade publisher, so they are distinct from that publisher's own first edition.

• The copyright page or title page names BCA (or Book Club Associates) together with the trade publisher, for example "Book Club Associates in association with Jonathan Cape" or "published ... by BCA by arrangement with Hodder & Stoughton".
• The jacket usually carries no printed price.
• Each BCA title has a catalogue code beginning "CN" (for example CN 6682), which collectors use to identify the BCA version.