Julie Broad walks through how independent authors get their books into US libraries. You need a Library of Congress listing before publication, which requires meeting three eligibility criteria. A PCIP data block costs around $100 and makes it easier for librarians to catalog your book.
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Imagine your book in the biggest collection of work in the US if you want to see your book in libraries across the United States and in the Library of Congress, stick around. I've got the things you need to know. Hey there. I'm Julie Rod with book launchers.com maybe you've been focused on getting your book in bookstores or worrying about what it's going to look like on Amazon, but you might not want to forget about all of the libraries. There's over 100,000 libraries in the United States now. If you want to get your book in libraries, there's a few things that you can do, but one of the most important is getting that Library of Congress listing. You want to know how? There's three criteria your book must fit in order to qualify for a Library of Congress listing. And that doesn't necessarily guarantee you'll get the listing, but it's where you need to start. The first thing is your book can't be published yet. Very important. If it's already published and you haven't got your listing, it's not going to happen. Number two is it has to be published in the United States. And on your copyright page you need to list the address of your office in the United States where they can send inquiries. Number three, your book must be available in print, so ebook only. Not eligible. So assuming you fit those three criteria, here's what you need to do. You're going to head to this link. Let me show you. You're applying for the pcn, which is the pre Assigned Control Number program. It's the only option available to indie publishers. Now that link that you're heading to, that's the link for the Library of Congress Pre Assigned Control Number program. Now when you get there, click this to open an account. Make sure you qualify. So give all this exciting text a read to to make sure because there's some exclusions like mass market trade paperbacks, textbooks and magazines and such. Assuming you qualify, go ahead and complete the application to participate. Now you'll have to enter information like the publishing house, your ISBN number, and the contact details of the person in charge. By the way, have all this information handy because you're going to need it when you go to get accounts with CreateSpace or IngramSpark or other print on demand providers. So just keep it by your desk for the next little while because you're going to be asked for this information a lot. It doesn't guarantee a listing, nor does it ensure libraries will carry your book, but because you have to do it before you publish. If you think you might want library distribution, this is what you need to do. Now you're done that part. You may want to take a final step and invest $100 to get a PCIP data block created. So what is all this? Well, David Wogan has a great book that will help you with all all this riveting stuff from ISBN numbers to copyright to registration. And it explains clearly what this PCIP block is now, just because I didn't know what it was at first either. This is the PCIP block and basically if you get this, you'll have to spend about $100 to have somebody who knows what they're doing craft that block of numbers and letters. When you have that, it puts your book on the online database for librarians to access and they'll know what it all means. So if you haven't published your book yet and you're US based, I highly recommend you at least do the free portion of this. And if library distribution is really important to you and something you're going to pursue, then go the extra step. Spend the hundred dollars that it costs typically to get your PC IP and get your book listed in libraries so you can access that huge extra distribution market. If you like this tip, give it a thumbs up. It makes me happy. If you've got questions, go ahead, post them in the comments below and I just might shoot a video to help you out or I'll type an answer in reply. I'll see you in the next video. Hey there. I'm Julie Broad with Book Launchers Dot com. Maybe you. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. I'm talking about libraries, so I'm supposed to be more energetic. Flapping bird. Okay.
