How do librariand decide which books to stock?

Hi,

I hope this is OK to ask, but as an author who would love to see his book in every library around the world (!) I was wondering how librarians decide whether to stock a book or not? I realise that certain best selling titles are automatic, but how does the 'little guy' get his book included? Thanks for taking the time to listen and hopefully answer one of the 'little guys' :)

P.S. not sure what happened to my message header, but I hope you understood what I was trying to ask!

Can't speak for all locations, but here we use review literature and collection development policies to guide our selection. In addition, we look for titles with regional connections, collection relevance, and we also accept patron suggestions. Most of the staff have specific genres they like, so we also purchase some titles in those areas. Collection is also driven by Interlibrary loan requests, and because we're an academic institution, by curriculum.

I agree with #2. We use all of those guidelines. We are also somewhat limited to buying the bulk of our books through specific vendors. If you are a "little guy" I would focus on your local libraries first. Most public libraries are interested in keeping up on local authors. Since the books we carry are based on patron interest you may also want to focus on grassroots advertising like MySpace page or Facebook pages, blogging, or YouTube videos. Whatever works! Good luck.

As an academic library, much of our collection development is driven by professors and other faculty members. They read reviews of the books and then request that we buy the ones that they want. Our reference librarians request a small number of books for purchase when they determine that we don't have something in our collection on a specific topic.

Probably the single best way to get your book into more libraries is to get it reviewed in as many places as you can, which probably means sending out some complimentary copies. There are various professional publications that review books. Librarything also has the Early Reviewer program.

Thanks for the kind suggestions. I know The Magic Lands has been requested in several libraries, so the book is gradually reaching those shelves! I always feel especially happy when I hear that a library has my book because I hope it will have a longer lifespan that way.

Mark,
As someone who selects for a medium sized public library and then has to see if the collection development librarian can even find the book, I'd say that it's very important to have your book available nationally through a big jobber such as Baker & Taylor or Ingram. Many libraries can't purchase by credit card -- it has to be by invoice or purchase order -- and cutting individual orders take a lot of staff time that just may not be there. Having said that, I would agree that good reviews in the big media are important. Have you sent a copy to Library Journal?

Thanks for the reply dragonfly. Sadly I didn't send a copy of the book to Library Journal. I just checked it out and can see very well why I should have. Chalk that one down to inexperience :( Not sure I can do much about it now unless anyone has a suggestion?

Hi Mark,
One other suggestion. Check to see if there is a state book award program where ever you are. If your publication date qualifies, submit your book.
Selectors all over the state will request your book from jobbers and voila! You are included in some of the major jobbers catalogs. When I served as a selector in my state, some of the books I read were submitted simply because they would be read and requested by a large number of libraries and individuals.

Hi,

Thanks for that. I'm based in the UK so I'm not sure we have a system like that over here. But The Magic Lands is available in the US through Ingrams or Baker and Taylor. Big problem is that I've missed the boat on the publication date now, so it's going to be down to people requesting the book I think. I know that has already happened in a few libraries so that's a start :)

If anyone gets a chance I would really appreciate some feedback on the synopsis/cover of my book. How important are these factors do you think? You can check out mine at this link: http://www.freewebs.com/markhockley/

I would like to follow-up on the previous comments and ask two questions of my own. Although Library Journal and Booklist do not have an explicit policy like Publisher Weekly and Kirkus against reviewing self-published books, they rarely do review one. However, the biggest libraries like the New York Public Libraries almost certainly won't consider a book unless it has a review in one of those publication. A real Catch 22 situation for an independent publisher!

How likely is it for librarians to acquire books that they have seen in vendor displays at the ALA annual meeting and at state librarian meetings? Also, given that the ALA sells mailing lists of its membership, are librarians receptive to emails from authors telling about their books, or are they inudated with such emails?

>>How likely is it for librarians to acquire books that they have seen in vendor displays at the ALA annual meeting and at state librarian meetings?

I end up buying a dozen or so books every year based on PaLA displays, but the majority of these titles are specialty non-fiction that I wouldn't have been aware of through review sources.

>>Also, given that the ALA sells mailing lists of its membership, are librarians receptive to emails from authors telling about their books, or are they inudated with such emails?

I wouldn't say that I get inundated, but these get ignored. "Please buy my book" is not a good selection reason, and I can't take any review snippets seriously once they've crossed the line into PR material. (Especially... when you include... heavily edited.... blurbs... from obscure... journals.)

And when you pretend to be a patron requesting that the library buy the book, we can tell. We can tell.

Many thanks for your response. It confirms what I suspected.

There are a lot of companies out there that are more than happy to take authors' money to promote their books. Self-published authors and authors published by small presses are preyed upon by these companies which charge a high fee per title for book displays at library shows and book expos and for email newsletters aimed at librarians and independent book stores.

We paid about $500 to have my husband's novel exhibited (one of hundreds or thousands) in several library shows this year. It sold 2 or 3 copies at the most. Another wasted effort was an email newsletter that supposedly was sent to 45,000 librarians and 4,400 book stores. Only one of the 60 plus authors/publishers reported even one sale.

I guess that each self-published author has to be burnt at least once to learn that these promotions don't work. It sounds as if a lot of good reviews online and requests by patrons are the best ways to attract the attention of librarians to self-published books.

Yup, I suggest talking to Bloggers and LT (especially once they add the self-publisher author bit to Early Reviewers).

Also try your local BookCrossers for word-of-mouth publicity - you might think people sharing books is counterproductive but actually BCers buy a lot of books, especially those recommended by other BCers...

LyzzyBee,

I am a member of both BookCrossing and BookMooch. When you said that local members could spread the word, were you suggesting that I send messages via the BookCrossing web site to all the members living in my city? There must be several hundred.

KnowWhatILike - I suggest finding the most active BookCrosser in your area (look in members and order by books registered) and contacting them to see if they would like a copy to read and pass around. They shouldn't see that as spam (I certainly don't if it happens to me) whereas emailing everyone would be. Or try to find if there is a local BookCrossing Yahoo group (there is a place to find those on the BC site, I think) and if they have meetups, and offer to do a bookreading/signing for them - we jump at the chance for those in my group.

Send me a message via LibraryThing or BookCrossing (I'm LyzzyBee there too) if you'd like to talk more about doing that...

LyzzyBee,
Many thanks for your suggestions.

This is how you don't do things:

December 30, 2008 (huh?)

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please inform me of how I can get you to order this book for the four members of my book club who at present cannot afford to purchase a copy. From what I hear it's supposed to be one of the hottest, new books of the year and we are simply dying to get started.

The title is A Woman's Worth by Bertrand Brown and I believe the publisher

is AuthorHouse.com. The ISBN # is 1438922345.

Thank you,

Yvette Glover

I removed an excessive amount of extra line breaks from the message, but you get the point. (It also had no title and undisclosed recipients.) Now, I was rather curious, seeing as this is one of the hottest, new books and I've never heard of it.

Here it is on Authorhouse:

http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~56348.aspx

Hmm, not very informative. Guess I'll check Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Womans-Worth-Yvette-Glover/dp/1438922345/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?i...

Hmm, not much there either. Someone seems to have an interesting definition of "hottest" though (#892,393 in Books). Amazon also lists a different author. It looks familiar; I'm not sure why. Oh well, maybe someone in the county will end up ordering it, I'll see if Ms. Glover wants it put on hold:

Dear Ms. Glover,

If I had the names of the four people who want it on hold, I could put it into the system pending the book’s purchase, although I’m not sure you’ll be able to get four copies simultaneously. I could also put it on your card, but I can’t seem to find it. Do you have your barcode number handy? If not, I can look you up by phone or address to see if I can come up with it that way.

Happy Festivus

Hi, Mark--

I select most of mine from reviews and awards lists, but sometimes I'll find a book on Amazon that I like, and after I finish reading it I'll either donate it to my library or buy a fresh library copy. What have you written?

Hi Again, Mark--

Just found the link to your book cover and book info. I am not very impressed with the cover, to be honest. It leaves me wondering what age group you are writing for. The two figures in the center of the cover seem like intermediate to younger middle school age, but the rest of the cover (and the word "lust" in the summary) make me wonder if you meant if for older teens.

Hi furdog,

Thanks for taking the time to look. That was kind of you and I appreciate it. I actually agree about the cover. It doesn't really convey what kind of book The Magic Lands really is and does give the impression the story is aimed at a younger audience than it was written for. Also, I wish the word 'lust' could be changed to 'desire' which would be more suitable. But I guess these are things that you learn along the way. I would say that the book would be best appreciated by twelve year olds and up, but it is just as much for an adult audience.

Greetings!

I am a publisher based out of Washington D.C., and our novels are geared toward the hip hop generation. We receive many requests from readers for our novels for libraries. Most of our orders are filled through Baker & Taylor while others are filled via direct orders to our company.

However, some readers find it difficult to order our novels at their libraries at all. So...what I'd like to know is this...are there sections in most libraries for hip hop fiction, or do libraries steer away from our titles all together?

T. Styles
www.thecartelpublications.com

One way to not get your book into libraries is to harrass management at the library. We have an author who we have been told to keep an eye out for. We are not to transfer her calls to collections department or the manager. No one on staff wants to talk to her, and I hate telling her that staff are busy and will get back to her. We are now to tell her that her book is being reveiwed but it is a slow process.. I believe I looked up her book on Amazon and it is about rain water.

>23

I don't know about others, but where I work, those types of books are popular, but go missing very quickly (like after 1 circ). Which would make me a little reluctant to waste money on them, if I'm not going to get much circ. I don't do much of the ordering here, though, it's mostly centralized.

@24

Does anyone at the library realize that this could be stopped by telling her "no"? Telling her that people are going to get back to her when they're not, aside from being dishonest, only guarantees that she'll be calling again next week.

We were told to take a message.. and tell her there is a review process, so that's what I do.

Hey I don't think #28 is abusive - Mark posted above about getting his book into people's hands, he sent me a copy to pass around BookCrossers and has been very polite and non-pushy, pleased to get the reviews but not hassling for more etc like some authors do.

Just my penn'orth.

Yes, sorry if I've crossed the line. I just forgot myself and simply wanted to update my contact information for anyone who may be interested. Perhaps this wasn't the best place to do that. Apologies.

I don't see how #28 is any different than #10. We don't have a necromancy rule, do we?