Library Distribution: The Sweet “Shhhh” of Success

When you write a book, getting book distribution is an important component of publishing success. Getting the widest possible distribution for your book should be your primary goal. Once you’ve gone to the trouble of writing down your best ideas and posting them, you want as many people as possible to engage with you.

As a publisher, several of the authors I train come to me with many misconceptions about book distribution. They think all they need to do is publish their book on Amazon Kindle and they’ll have a bestseller on their hands.

Actually, Amazon represents a fraction of the book market. Of the dozens of methods to distribute your work, online retailing is just one of them. Likewise, there are many lucrative derivatives for your work. Ebook sales included just a fraction of the revenue you can earn when you publish smart.

Having a publisher on your side will help you navigate the maze of details involved in getting your book to market. A good assisted desktop publishing company will have access to hard numbers that you may not have even considered before as an author. They will also have internal connections that you simply cannot take advantage of in any other way.

Shhh! Libraries are publishing’s best kept secret

When you publish your book, one of the best ways to ensure you have a captive audience is to distribute your book through the public library system and a corporate library network. For you as an author, this could mean having a printed volume of your manuscript available in every town and city in the country. There’s nothing sweeter than that sweet “Shhh” of success when you show up for the book signing.

Libraries provide large quantities of books all the time. Why not yours? To get started, you’ll first need to understand how they shop and what influences them in making those buying decisions. Once you know this, you can sell untold volumes of your book (pun intended, sorry).

The reality of this distribution tactic depends on how popular your book is to begin with. Unless you have a team of vendors promoting your book to libraries through their own catalogue, your book will need to be immensely popular to stand out above the noise of the crowded book market.

On the other hand, having a sales team promoting for you is not a pipe dream, as many might expect. For the authors I work with, it is a reality.

Almost everyone agrees that library distribution sounds like a great idea. But how do you make it happen? To get the answer, let’s take a quick look at how today’s libraries got to their current circulation system.

How to take your book to libraries

At one point, Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in history. He made huge amounts of money in the steel industry and became famous as a philanthropist. In fact, he spent the first half of his life making money and the second half giving it all away.

Carnegie was influential in promoting lending libraries in the US. The story goes that he approached cities and towns, chambers of commerce, and local fraternal organizations with an offer to help them build a library. He would put up half the money for the library if the townspeople put up the other half through taxes or other fundraising. This meant a boom for the existing library system, and the result is what we see in the US today.

To put books in the branches, the committees discuss the topics and authors that people most want to read. The library commission meets regularly, usually once a year, to generally decide what should go into the library. Libraries can request books for their patrons and often keep track of the most requested books.

There is also an interlibrary loan system. If you order a book from your local library in Seattle, your precious volume can be brought to you from as far away as Boise, Idaho. The Internet has changed a lot in the way libraries work, including speed, but the concept of lending remains the same.

Each library has an acquisitions officer who decides which books to buy to put on the shelves locally. If there is enough demand for a book and they have the budget, they will buy it.

On the other side of this equation, publishers have teams of salespeople who meet book buyers at libraries and library conventions, convincing them to order the books in their catalogs.

Many libraries will only work with a restricted number of catalogs. This means that if you’re a lone wolf trying to get your foot in the door of your local branch, you may have a bit of a hurdle to get over. The place to start is the procurement office at district headquarters.

An author created a children’s musical theater production to promote his children’s book, complete with 5 actors and dancers. The author took his company on tour to local bookstores, libraries and schools to present a live musical featuring characters from his book “The Boy with the Red Mustache.” Parents of the children who attended the show lined up to buy his book, as did the librarians who organized his events.

Having a publisher do the legwork for you is ultimately the easiest option for increasing your book’s distribution. This is true not only for getting your book into libraries, but also for getting it into many other outlets clamoring for new books to lend or sell.

With the right kind of push, you could be hearing the sweet “Shhhh” of success!