Julie Broad walks through how self-published authors get their books onto library shelves. Start by researching local libraries and their programming, then propose an author event tied to the book. Have library members request it, and bring a sell sheet and event plan to the conversation.
Questions this video answers
November 9, 2021.
Publishers Cataloging in Publication (PCIP).
Five or more libraries.
Chapters
Wondering what it takes to get your local library and other libraries to carry a physical copy of your book on their shelf. If you've been wondering that, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad of book launchers. We're your professional self publishing services team. From writing the book all the way to getting that book into readers hands, which includes getting that book into libraries. Now there's another video on this channel that is titled get your book into libraries. And that video title cause some confusion because that video is really all about getting your book into the Library of Congress. And while if that happens you're likely to see library listings, the Library of Congress typically accepts like a quarter or maybe even less of the books submitted to them. And not being listed in the Library of Congress does not mean you won't get library shelf space. So let's talk about what does work for getting shelf space. Part of the bonus of getting that Library of Congress listing is that they will automatically create a PCIP or the CIP data created for your book. This will be a value to the libraries when you approach them or when you have library members approach them. So the pcip, which is the publisher's catalog in publication, is a catalog cat. It is a cataloging cataloging block. PCIP Publishers Cataloging in publication is a cataloging block created by a trained cataloger. Its main purpose is to help librarians catalog books faster. This means improved service to library users be librarians, and it makes a book appear more professional. Here are two examples from the Library of Congress website. So you can see what I mean. Kind of looks like my 4 year old typing on a laptop, but it is meaningful data to the library. The CIP data is printed on a book's copyright page and it includes the author's full name, subject headings, Dewey decimal classification numbers, bisect codes. We've talked about those before. And publisher information, really this is about getting your book on the right shelf in the right section, which is, which is why it's so important for libraries. Your book can be carried by libraries without it, but it's sure useful if you plan to make library listings part of your book promotion plan. I highly recommend you create this block of data if you don't get that LOC listing. Now let's talk process and procedure for that library outreach. Here we go. Number one, make a list of five or more libraries in your driving area. Now how do you find them? Well, this is as simple as going to Google with your location services on and typing libraries near me see, this is what I did. Once you've got that listing, hit up their websites, which is step two. Research each library and understand what they're doing for programming. You might be surprised at how robust and varied the programming is. I'm prepping this video shoot in October while Halloween is the hot topic, but there's plenty of other things getting covered. Get a sense of what kind of programming the library likes, themes they may have coming up, and figure out what your book might be a good fit for. Then, once you've got that step three, approach the library about their upcoming programming. If you can, suggest a programming idea or suggest how your talk or your panel, your reading or your event might tie into what they've already got going on. And of course, emphasize how you're going to promote it locally, like posters, your network, groups, email lists, socials. Try to get at least one local library event rolling. If you have multiple libraries in your area, why not try to do a few different things? If you know other authors in your area, doing events together could be a great idea. Libraries are interested in doing all kinds of things to get people in the door, and many libraries have great rooms for workshops or other sort of events for their membership base. All right, now that you've got that rolling, it's time to get people requesting your book. Number four is to send an email to your book army. Recruit friends and family. Basically anybody that has a library membership. Get them going to their local library or going online and requesting your book. The key is this person has to be a member of that local library. Now, unlike Amazon, where there's not much a friend or family member can do to help you, the author. Libraries aren't caring if it's a relative or friend of the author requesting the book. They only care about serving their membership. So these requests can come from family or friends or some other library friend. The goal is that you have to get your book listed in as many libraries as you can by member requests. Ideally, you're told what libraries were approached so you can check to see if it worked. Once your book is carried in a few regions, explore worldcat.org and ensure everything is correct. If it is time for step five, create a cool sell sheet and a standard list of offerings for events if you're interested in doing more at local libraries, and then start approaching more and more libraries to continue to get the book into more library shelves. The good news is, if you're a book Launcher's client, we're bringing all of this back into our process. Now that the US Is open enough and we have a clear process that works. We'll do a lot of this work for you as the author. How cool is that? I'm really excited for this to come back. Now, I know you're wondering what to do about a sell sheet, and I'll shoot a YouTube video for that, so make sure you're subscribed to the channel with the notifications on so you catch that video and all the other cool ones that'll be coming out between now and then. Whew. That was a big one. Now, I'm excited to hear about your new library listings, so be sure to chat about it in the comments below. And of course, when you comment the day a video is released and you get entered to win some of our sweet noboringbooksssssswag or our oh so soft Journal. Now, you might be wondering about that Library of Congress video I mentioned at the start. Here it is for you, right here. And if you're struggling with selling your book, check out this video on the five Reasons Nonfiction Books Don't Sell. Either way, you're really fun and I'm excited to spend more time with you. So I'll see you on the next.
