Library and indie bookstore acquisitions help

December 2, 2009 9:32 AM

Library and indie bookstore acquisitions -- help? Tell me how new titles are chosen and if this plan might work.

My colleagues and I write books on a popular (though niche-y) topic (fiber arts/knitting), and many of us have started publishing our own books. One of us who never went with the big publisher system is now making more annually with her self-published knitting books than I have earned over 10+ big publisher advances combined. It happens to be a book category that is easy to do well as a small publisher, and has a large built-in audience. All good things.

I would like to approach both large library systems and smaller, independent bookstores about stocking our respective books. If you work in library acquisitions or at an indie bookstore, can you tell me more about how the acquisitions process works for you?

Would a well-written letter with relevant information get tossed on the junkpile or...? We're thinking of making it a group presentation akin to this form of cooperative knitting magazine advertising, but in letter format. So...

* intro, who we are
* what's on offer -- info on the individual books
* format info -- print or, in some cases, digital options
* how to order/get additional information

I hate the thought of being overly cheesy or sales-y, I just love libraries and small bookstores, and think that some of the traditional means of distribution leave a lot to be desired (though we of course have access to those, too).

Is there some secret formula to get the acquisition department's attention? Would we be better served doing an ad in a library trade mag (or a combo of all of the above?)

Thanks in advance.

posted by bitter-girl.com to Writing & Language (16 answers total)

When I did it, we got cards from ALA, I think it was, with the new titles and a blurb. Used them at several places. Get on one of those cards and you're doing fine for libraries, at least.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:43 AM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: Are they actually from ALA, Ironmouth, or another company? I've seen ads for companies that purport to get info on your book to libraries but seriously, for what they charge, we'd be better off sending first class letters to every public library in America! (Only half joking there, too).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:55 AM on December 2, 2009

Best answer: We're a small corporate library so we lean more specialized than public libraries do, but I read Library Journal for the book reviews, and do my ordering from a lot of those. They do larger speciality review sections on topics fairly regularly, and have done one on crafts in the past - and then they have a more regular "crafts" column (Like This.) You can submit your books for review online.

Also, have you already done outreach to your LYS? As a knitter, I find myself just as likely to buy a knitting book from my LYS as I am the bookstore. (Though I admit, since I've got self imposed strict rules about what knitting books I buy I always get them from the public library first.)
posted by librarianamy at 10:03 AM on December 2, 2009

Best answer: For many academic libraries, you'd want to hit a specific librarian responsible for that subject area, rather than someone generic in an acquisitions area. For my library, for example, we have a Visual Arts Librarian who collects in many arts areas, including fiber arts. This strategy would work particularly well at a place with a strong textiles or fiber arts program.

Academic librarians also often belong to subject-related associations. In your case, ArLiS would be relevant. Getting a table or booth at their annual conference, or one of the smaller regional conferences, with sample books, discounts for conference-placed orders, etc, might cost you a bit upfront, but could be worth it for the exposure.
posted by donnagirl at 10:13 AM on December 2, 2009

Also, if you're willing to do a little more legwork - there's a librarian's group on Ravelry with over 1700 members. I'd suggest joining and getting a feel for the group, and asking this there as well (they're your build in audience - librarians who know or are acquisitions librarians, who already do fiber arts).

I've got a core group of good friends from library school, and almost all of us knit/crochet/spin - and those who are in public libraries also have public fiber groups at their libraries. Having a "famous author" on site for one of those meetings would go over big, I would suspect. I know that our indie bookstore scoffed at us when we told them they didn't have enough seats for Yarn Harlot, and then were STUNNED and totally overwhelmed at the turn out (and know have a monthly knitting group on site).
posted by librarianamy at 10:34 AM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: Librarianamy -- yes, of course. Hell, I've got a database of 2000 yarn shops sitting right here. Problem (and this is not just a perception thing, this is from talking to shop owners all over the country): they can't compete on price with Amazon et al, so many have stopped stocking books or ordering new ones altogether. And -- not a diss on libraries in the least! -- a lot of people are doing precisely as you do, getting them from the library first. All the more reason to make sure we're in the libraries, right?

Thank you for the ArLiS link, donnagirl. If there is any similar subject-related association or publication in the public library world, that'd be fantastic, too. (I once wrote an article for YALSA's magazine on starting teen knitting groups, and even have a section on my site for librarians...though I really should update it!)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:37 AM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: (Isn't that funny, librarianamy? The social sciences librarians at Cleveland Public's main branch are all avid knitters and -- for example -- knew well enough to lock up all the copies of Alice Starmore's books in the "need a librarian to fetch it for you" locked area so they wouldn't get stolen...and I've been at a bookstore where they underestimated the Harlot factor...oh, have I. Took Stephanie out to dinner afterwards and just marveled at the persistent refusal of shops to get extra chairs).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:39 AM on December 2, 2009

Best answer: Small independent bookstores want to carry your book. Make it easy. Be really businesslike, and be prepared to accept returns of unsold books. Offer to do a signing/demo and sell books that day. I used to be a bookseller, and self-published books had to have a spine, so that if spined-out, the title was still visible, be an ordinary size that would fit on bookshelves, and the seller had to be able to write a proper invoice, and respond to business mail. Many self-publishers have no business sense at all, and were impossible to deal with. In their case, I would only do consignment. Your track record as an author is very much in your favor.
posted by theora55 at 10:42 AM on December 2, 2009

Best answer: For many academic libraries, you'd want to hit a specific librarian responsible for that subject area, rather than someone generic in an acquisitions area.

This is also true in many medium and large public libraries. You can call and ask for the "crafts selector" (although you may want to start with the person who oversees the acquisitions operation and find out how they handle selection -- they can refer you to the proper person). At our library, selection responsibility is broken down by call number range -- so for instance, the Dewey number for knitting would be 746.43 so you'd want to talk to the librarian who selects for the 700 range.

I would also highly recommend submitting your book for review at as many trade magazines as possible.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:53 AM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you, theora55. I was thinking much the same thing -- the others I'd like to team up with on this are also established "big publisher" authors, so we have a track record at least.

Do you think it would be wise to point out (in a nice and professional and non-ranty way, of course) that we're looking to sell at the indies because we, too, believe in supporting small businesses and prefer to do business with them than, oh, slap something up on the Amazon Kindle store for 99 cents? It's true, but I wouldn't want to sound too pander-y!

Direct mail to these libraries and the bookstores was our first choice because it seemed..

a. it might actually get into the right hands and then potential for yay!
b. we aren't equipped to personally contact every single one, unfortunately...much as I would love to sit on the phone and talk to book-loving people all day!
c. at least SOMEWHAT personal if written well -- I'm more likely to read and consider an interesting mail out of the blue if it does have a real story attached and isn't just a generic "hey, we're sending you this random thingy because you have a business address."

though of course ArLiS & the other ideas here would be fantastic, too. (I was talking with someone from one of the library journals about doing an article on small publisher works like ours...editorial, of course, always being more effective than any ad).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 11:00 AM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you, rabbitrabbit (cute bunny, btw!). Which trade mags do you read the most, oh librarians? (or would you reckon the target audience would be most likely to read?). There's the obvious ones like Library Journal, of course, but I'm thinking smaller/niche-ier.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 11:26 AM on December 2, 2009

Here's a link to a blog post written by an independent bookseller about how she prefers authors with self-published books to handle things.
posted by cider at 11:28 AM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: That's a good article, cider, I think I saw that once before. One of the other things I would like to put in any potential direct mail piece would address some of the things she brought up re: reading copies, etc. It's simple for me to make a downloadable PDF reading copy of any books on offer -- that, I supposed, would make it more likely they'd order a copy instead of doing so sight unseen.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 11:40 AM on December 2, 2009

Best answer: These are the trade mags I use in selection (academic librarian here):
Library Journal, Booklist, Choice (mainly academic), Publisher's Weekly.

Other good ones are School Libary Joural, & Horn Book, both geared towards preschool-high school, but kids love crafts.

I also read review blogs like bookslut, and the reviews section of the NYT and Guardian.
Subject specific-specific journals are a great source of specialized reviews, for me, that equals Shakespeare Quarterly. For you, the Interweaves (Knit, Crochet, Spin-Off, Piecework), Vogue Knits, and online publications like Knitty.

I do take requests from patrons, faculty, staff, and students, so don't underestimate general publicity. As a library patron, I've made such requests to my local public library.
posted by bryghtrose at 12:22 PM on December 2, 2009

Best answer: Do you think it would be wise to point out (in a nice and professional and non-ranty way, of course) that we're looking to sell at the indies because we, too, believe in supporting small businesses and prefer to do business with them than, oh, slap something up on the Amazon Kindle store for 99 cents? It's true, but I wouldn't want to sound too pander-y! Honesty will work. Be sincere, and they'll believe you.

Are you going to team up with other craft authors as a small publishing consortium? If so, you might be able to interest a book sales rep. I used to have some reps that carried a number of smaller book publishers. Make as many personal visits as you can. A flyer in the mail, no matter how charming, is still limiting. It's hard to order, sight unseen, enough books to justify the cost of shipping.

Booksellers, although possibly an eccentric lot, are also business people. Add numbers to your pitch:
Bitter-Girl's last book, Crafty Bitterness sold x copies, and, combined, her books have sold x copies. Specify the terms available. 1 - 5 copes X% discount, etc. Good luck.
posted by theora55 at 5:23 PM on December 2, 2009

Response by poster: For this plan, theora55, the thought was, yes, team up with a handful of other related authors (to split the associated costs, etc) and make it easier to one-stop-shop / order from all of us at once. It's not that I can't get a book sales rep -- I can. I met with one of the larger independent distributors a year or two ago and they would happily distro my stuff. But their schedules are out of whack with what our readership expects -- the lead time is so long you might as well not even bother.

In the amount of time it takes them to get a book and turn it around to their accounts, we could have sold thousands directly to knitters online, so what's the point of holding it back? That's some of the reasoning behind going straight to the library/indie market ourselves. It's somewhere our customers are already reading/shopping offline, and no middleman to keep the book tied up for months/year+ while we wait for them to go through their traditional processes. Thanks again!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:14 AM on December 3, 2009