Advice for authors-Libraries

A great move for published authors trying to promote their book and get it selling to readers and to book shops is to first try to get it into your local libraries, and I don’t mean tempt them with a free copy. You’re trying to sell them, right?

Libraries are great marketing tools – they let people read your book then hopefully tell others about it too. When this happens its popularity grows and with it the potential to get your book more ‘out there’ in the public domain.

Make sure your book is getting some promotion in whatever way you can, your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, anywhere available to you. When you approach your local library you can then let them know that your book is getting good reviews, being tweeted, getting likes on Facebook, whatever is genuinely happening.

The next step is to ask in your local library who their buyer is. Be polite and enthusiastic. Tell them you are a local author and would love to see your book on the shelves. Show them a copy so they can see how professional it looks and take a look inside if they wish. If the buyer isn’t available that day, try to get his or her name and email address. I have found library staff very helpful in this respect. In my case they ask what the book is about and seem really interested to know someone who has actually managed to have a book published. Feel proud, it’s a great thing to have achieved.

Whether you speak to the buyer on the day, or email them, be respectful and grateful for any interest they show in your work. Gently push the fact that you are a local author. This seems to go down well. Offer to talk about your book at reading circles or whatever in the library should they wish you to. I was lucky enough to get the buyer from my main library to order copies of my first book for all seven of the local smaller libraries!

Once your book is in there, promote the fact as much as you can. Encourage people to take your book out to read, it won’t cost them anything! Have a photograph taken holding your book in the library and write about it on Facebook. In any way you can, promote!

The procedure is much the same to try to get your book stocked by any local bookshops you might be able to approach. Concentrating on the fact you are a local author seems to work wonders in some cases … In my experience anyway.
Try it out, and best of luck!