Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Ever wonder how a book ends up on a library’s shelf? Ever wonder how your book could be on lots of libraries’ shelves?
Books & Such Literary Agency, in conjunction with library market expert Judy Gann, announces Library Insider, a website that offers two unique marketing tools to reach libraries:
1) a password protected, searchable database, called Library Locator, of acquisitions librarians in 2,500 public libraries and library systems nationwide; and
2) coaching, which we’re calling Behind the Stacks, on how to take advantage of the database.
Why Libraries?
Why should authors and publishers market to libraries? Consider these facts:
- Libraries spend more than $1.6 billion on books every year.
- Libraries are not in competition with bookstores. Think of libraries as an additional market for your materials.
- An entire segment of the population that regularly visits the public library never enters a bookstore.
- With independent bookstores closing, libraries are a much underutilized market for publishers and authors.
- Library sales are final: no returns!
- Libraries are not as focused on short-term results: longer shelf-life for materials.
- Libraries buy multiple copies of books and buy books to replace frequently checked out books.
- Library use skyrockets during tough economic times, with more people borrowing books from the public library rather than purchasing them.
- A 2010 Harris Poll showed that 65% of Americans used their library in the past year either in person, by telephone, or by computer.
- A 2008 CNN/U.S. News poll found that Americans make 3.6 billion visits to the library per year; 80% borrow books from the library on a regular basis.
That’s why we’re launching Library Insider–to provide information that facilitates placing your books in libraries.
The idea formed a few years ago when a client of ours, Judy Gann, who also is a longtime librarian and library market expert, began to collect the data necessary to contact every librarian who acquires books for the major public libraries and library systems around the country. My nerve ends tingled when Judy explained to me that the database she was creating was one-of-a-kind–no other list is as comprehensive as Judy’s. I realized that our agency and Judy could offer to authors and publishers a unique way to sell books to libraries. Thus began Library Insider.
Each day this week I’ll explain some aspect of what Library Insider has to offer you–and I want to hear your feedback.
The Grand Prize
To celebrate Library Insider’s launch, we’re offering prizes throughout the week, starting tomorrow. So check back to see what you could win. Our grand prize will be awarded on Friday, but I’m telling you about it today because you need to submit a short essay to win.
You probably have a favorite memory of a library. Maybe you met your spouse there; or you studied for your Master’s degree mostly in a library; or a librarian introduced your child to a book that became a favorite. Write an essay (or a short story or a poem or ????) telling us of some significant way a library touched your life.
Submit your creative effort to this address: mary@booksandsuch.com. Use the subject line: “How a Library Touched My Life.” We’ll need your entries by Thursday at 8 A.M. CST to give us time to pour over them and decide who wins.
The prize? 50% off a three-month subscription to Library Insider. A subscription gives you unlimited use of the database.
To get a clearer grasp of what Library Insider has to offer, check out the website here. (Pulse Point Design designed the site, which I can only describe as a thing a beauty, easy to navigate and user-friendly beyond what I could have imagined.) Let us know what you think after you’ve taken a gander.
And check back tomorrow to see what bookish prize we’re offering and to find out more about Library Insider.
This sounds fabulous! I checked out the website. The pricing on the unlimited access would not allow me to take advantage of it, but I could swing the A La Carte prices.
I better get to work on my essay. 🙂
One question, which it’s possible you will address this week. My publisher is a small press that publishes books in eBook format, with a POD option. They are not a vanity press or POD publisher. Would this be a stumbling block in pitching my book to libraries?
Thanks. Very excited to read the rest of this week’s posts.
One word: WOW!
Beautifully done, and what a fantastic resource this will be!
Wow. Looks very comprehensive and easy to navigate. Not there yet, but very exciting prospects for those who are. Wonder how this will work for e-books.
Greetings! I’m Judy Gann, the librarian behind Library Insider. Thanks for your terrific response!
Cheryl, libraries purchase e-books through distributors, as they do with books. Overdrive is the e-book distributor most used by libraries. Check with your publisher to see if your book is available through Overdrive or another e-book distributor.
This looks incredible! I can’t wait to hear more about especially with my first book coming out. I just asked my library to order my book last week.:)
Thanks Judy. That doesn’t sound familiar to me, but I will definitely check it out.
Regarding Lisa’s question about how this will work with e-books, one of the elements of the database Judy worked especially hard on is a column that indicates whether that library buys e-books. And one of the great aspects of Library Locator is that Judy will update all the data monthly.
Wow, this looks fantastic! I can’t wait to hear more about it throughout the week! Seems to be pretty awesome and a good way to learn about how to get our books out in the library! Very exciting!
What a great idea! Thank you, Judy, for setting it up.
I have a question about the contest. Is it okay if the article has been previously published?
This will be an amazing resource. Thank you for providing it. The site is terrific.
Wow, what an exciting marketing idea. Fantastic!
I’m not quite to this stage in my journey yet, but can I still enter the contest? I think I feel a short story churning…
And this is one of the reasons I am so loyal to your blog.
Thanks again for another wonderful peek inside the industry. Your efforst to aid writers and help mold them into authors is commendable and invaluable.
So timely. I’m not kidding when I tell you that I wondered, just last week, how libraries purchase books and how a local author could be sure hers was shelved. Providence!
Thanks for this resource. I can only imagine the hours and detail this project required. Looking forward to knowing more.
Janet, if you’ve already waxed eloquent about a library, feel free to submit your published article. (How easy is that?!)
Lindsay, I like your positive attitude–planning ahead for the day you’ll need Library Insider. Yes, do enter. Should you win, we’ll talk about how to work out a fair deal, okay?
Carrie, the good news regarding Library Insider is that it offers you a way to place your books in so many more libraries than the ones in your neighborhood or even in your city.
What an exciting resource and the web site really is beautiful! Can’t wait to learn more about it this week.
I agree with Lisa – the website is very clean, beautiful, and easy to navigate. I’m definitely looking forward to learning more about it from your posts this week.
As a few others have commented here, I’m not at this stage in my writing yet, but it does look like a fantastic resource. I’m quite interested in the “Behind the Stacks consultation.”
This is great! Thank you, Janet, Judy, and team. This is such a fantastic resource for authors and publishing houses alike.
Thanks so much for pursuing this and making it available to us all. I can’t wait to spread the word to my author friends!
I am so excited about this resource. Thanks to Cat Woods post on her blog, I found my way over here.
Libaries are one of my target audiences for a book I’m hoping to publish this year. GUARDIAN CATS and the Lost Books of Alexandria has libraries as its very heart and soul.
I’ll see if I can come up with a short essay.
~rahma
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