As I continue my adventure as a published author (I do a happy dance every time I say that), I’ve been exploring ways to get my book into as many peoples’ hands as possible. I’ve taken classes on marketing and advertising. I’m running ads for my books and audiobook. I’m participating in free promotions.
But it dawned on me that when I was growing up, I got all of my books from the library. So why aren’t my books in the library? (Insert head slap here!)
Being able to check something out from the library has a couple of advantages.
1. It is free. A reader doesn’t have to pay anything to check out an e-book from the library. Of course, the reader needs a library card and some sort of e-reader to put the book on, but that’s it. Disclaimer: the book’s author sometimes receives a small payment when an e-book is checked out. A possible win-win for everyone.
2. It is clutter-free. No physical books to fill your bookshelves. If you’re like me, you may be at the stage in life where you want to get rid of the stuff, not keep collecting it (although this excludes my pig collection – I may never stop collecting those).
3. It broadens your horizons. Since there is little downside to borrowing a book, check out a genre you’ve never read in or a new author someone told you about. Instead of spending money on a book you might not like, check it out from the library. (This would be a perfect way to do the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge I mentioned last week.)
My Best Mistake – Tasha’s Story is available with two different vendors that serve libraries: Overdrive and bibliotheca. If your library uses either of these vendors, you can request that the book be added to your library’s e-catalog. To help the librarian, be prepared with the author name, book name and ISBN (also known as the International Standard Book Number). For example, if you’d like to add my book to the library, you would need to tell the librarian Carole Wolfe, My Best Mistake and 9780999358207.
With this information, the library can find the book and determine if they want to add it to the catalog. I can’t promise it will happen, though. Librarians have the final say on what books will be included in the library’s catalog, and there are always budget constraints, but it is worth a try.
Feel free to use this same technique for any other books you’d like to see in your local library.
Let me know if you request any books and how it works out. Send me an email at carolewolfeauthor@gmail.com or comment below.
Until next week…
Photo by Hope House Press – Leather Diary Studio on Unsplash