Does the Library Request need spin?
May 6th, 2007In Nolan Lewis’s comment on my Library Request Form post, he said, “I live in a very small town (400) in a county with five towns (three smaller than mine) and a total of about 12,000 people. We have a library system with four very small libraries including the one on the reservation. They stock all three of my books as a local author.” I think he mis-understood — the form isn’t filled out by the author, but by his readers.
I responded to Nolan, “Sounds to me like the Library Request Form would be a great thing to put on your website. Then people all over the country could fill out the form and take it into their local libraries. You could even do something like Jeff Markowitz is doing — trying to get his book in at least one library in every state” (see the Library Campaign portion in Jeff’s article).
I checked this morning for the phrase “library request form” and got 85,200 hits. The concept is neither new nor am I crazy.
In spite of the ease with which an author can add a Library Request Form to their web page, I suspect that there will be reluctance, maybe even resistance, to doing so. I can hear it now. “But I want to SELL books, not have people read them for free!”
Well, friend, how do you think that the books get into the library system? Someone BUYS them. Duh!
The problem might be that the concept needs spin. Something along the lines of, “Want to share your copy of My Wonderful Book but don’t want your friends slopping coffee on it? Request a copy of My Wonderful Book be purchased by your local library. Click here for a form you can hand to your librarian.”
Alternately, “Buy one for yourself. Have your local library buy one for everybody else to share.”
Okay, so maybe the person who bought the book might be able to convince their friends to buy it. Swell! But that still shouldn’t stop you from trying to sell more copies to libraries.
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Why spin an effort to get your book(s) into libraries? It’s a no-brainer: (1) Libraries are book buyers; and (2) If your book(s) aren’t in libraries, they aren’t going to sell.
Posting a library request form on your website is an excellent idea. But you don’t even have to convince library patrons to go into the library. Many of the bigger libraries today have online request forms. All you need to do is send a link to that online request form to a patron of that particular library.
Let’s face it, libraries won’t order self-published or POD-published books, or even most small press books, unless the author is proactive.
And getting your friends, family, fans, etc. to make such a simple request to their library actually works. About six months ago, I started what I called My Library Project, which was a concerted effort to get my book into libraries. At the time, it was only in about 6 libraries. Now it is in at least 15 that I know of.
How can you tell if your book(s) is in a particular library? Simple: Go to http://worldcat.org and type in your book(s) into their library search engine. You’ll immediately see how many libraries are holding your book(s). It’s not a perfect search engine. I know that my book is in one library and it doesn’t show on WorldCat, but it is a pretty great tool and a good indicator of how many libraries have your book(s) in their stacks.
Comment by Randy Richardson ? May 6, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
And don’t forget that there are those of us who have read library books, and then went and bought the book because it was that good.
Comment by Shawna R. B. Atteberry ? May 7, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
Wow! Some folks who agree with me — a pleasant change! You’re right, Randy, this is a no-brainer. I couldn’t believe people on the forum didn’t even want to discuss it. I think that Mary Ellen Waszak (www.ChicagoWriter.com) is right on target.
And Shawna, thanks for reminding us that many of us fall in love with books from the library and end up buying them.
Comment by Cheryl ? May 7, 2007 @ 2:57 pm