“A starting point for mutually beneficial conversations.”
The latest Panorama Picks have been announced by the Panorama Project, spotlighting notable recent fiction, nonfiction, and young adult ebooks with the highest hold ratios in United States public libraries. The nine regional lists feature 25 titles in each category—190 unique titles in total, including 76 which only appear on one region’s list—reflecting the diverse interests and unmet demand of avid readers across the country not always reflected in national bestsellers lists or big budget marketing initiatives.
“Across the United States, there are far more public libraries than bookstores, and they serve a more diverse group of readers with varied interests than the New York Times bestsellers list,” explained project lead, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez. “As a result, their holds and circulation data can help local booksellers identify relevant marketing opportunities to spotlight and sell more of those books, offer better read-alike recommendations, and host successful author events.”
“This data is also useful for authors and regional publishers who don’t have direct relationships with libraries,” said Gonzalez, “as a starting point for mutually beneficial conversations.”
The new lists measure public library activity from October – December 2019, featuring books published from January – June 2019.
Titles that were especially popular in multiple regions but had limited availability in public libraries to meet reader demand include two holdovers from Panorama Picks’ Q3 lists—Julie Berry's Lovely War (Penguin Young Readers) and Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism (Penguin)—as well as Denise Mina's Conviction (Little, Brown), Julia Phillips' Disappearing Earth (Knopf), Ramit Sethi's I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Workman), Simone Davies' The Montessori Toddler (Workman), Jennifer Donnelly's Stepsister (Scholastic), and Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell's Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (First Second).
“These are mostly titles that have moved past their publishers’ initial promotional windows but have some momentum and are still in-demand in public libraries,” said Gonzalez. “Some appeared on a bestseller list and aren’t terribly surprising, while others flew under the national radar but found a notable audience in a specific region or two. Sometimes, authors are driving that interest by doing events with their local libraries, and sometimes the libraries are doing it themselves through various readers’ advisory initiatives. In many cases, publishers are unaware of this demand, or misjudge it as a threat to consumer sales.”
Among titles that were notably popular in a single region, Avery Flynn's Parental Guidance (Entangled) topped the Great Lakes list; Sheri Dew's Insights from a Prophet's Life: Russell M. Nelson (Deseret) was tops on the Mountains & Plains list; and Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw's Kiss Number 8 (First Second) was #2 in California, just behind the nationally popular Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me.
“One of our main goals for Panorama Picks is to encourage deeper relationships between public libraries, local booksellers, and individual authors—to help the publishing industry better understand and measure the value of library access in the discovery process, as well as in driving sales. If Panorama Picks can help booksellers and authors enhance their understanding of what local readers are looking for at their libraries, that’s actionable data they can both use to drive more effective marketing and additional sales across the board.”
To access the full Q4 lists and more information on Panorama Picks, visit: panoramaproject.org/panorama-picks