Sourcing Books

Print, ebook, audiobook for additional circulation

Library events often drive additional circulation for featured authors’ books, and can also have an impact on discovery and circulation of related titles. Once you’ve identified your topic and author(s) for an event, be prepared to take advantage of demand that will be generated by your marketing by acquiring additional copies of the authors’ books, as well as promoting relevant readalikes to absorb any unmet demand.

Examples

  • Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL-OH) offers an extensive physical and digital collection which is specifically engineered to respond quickly to trends and news cycles in anticipation of customer demand.  CCPL’s “Prime Picks” collection features copies of bestsellers and intriguing high-interest titles in large quantities to ensure that customers are surprised and delighted by the ready availability of top titles.  CCPL also responds to customer holds with aggressive fill rations in order to satisfy increased demand quickly.  In order to create customer interest for author events, CCPL purchases multiple copies in advance of an author event in both physical and digital formats.  For both online and in-person events, CCPL will work with local independent bookseller Mac’s Backs on Coventry to obtain copies to be sold either at the event, as a package included as part of the ticketed price, or virtually.

  • Henrico County Public Library (HCPL)’s Collection Management Coordinator helps determine what copies are available through our vendors as part of the author selection process. We consider it a plus if paperback copies are available. We typically have leasebook copies, and purchase permanent collection copies, and book club sets for our book discussion groups.

  • St. Charles City-County Library (SCCCL)’s Collection Development librarians attend regular (bi-weekly) Marketing/Programming meetings (forthcoming event schedule document on display) and are also notified of new author events made at the last minute, so they can order copies (or additional copies) in all formats prior to the event date(s).

  • Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) does our best to make sure selections are available in as many of the world languages we collect in as possible, as well as in large type and audio. For large scale events, we budget for giveaway copies to make available at our kickoff.

  • Twinsburg Public Library (TPL) in Twinsburg, Ohio frequently relies upon the McNaughton Lease Subscription Service that enables TPL to readily obtain multiple copies of titles to promote at events or to meet short term surges in demand for specific titles. During 2020, demand for new, bestselling frontlist titles has been considerable. As a member of the CLEVNET consortium, TPL enables its patrons to borrow ebooks supplied by OverDrive from any public library that belongs to the consortium. Similarly, TPL is able to share its ebook collection from OverDrive with patrons from other libraries in CLEVNET. TPL also broadened its digital collection to include Hoopla whose lending policies make titles "always available" to the patron regardless of the number of checkouts.

Print for sale at events

Book sales are generally an important part of any event, so be prepared to support that via a bookseller partnership, direct orders from the publisher or your wholesaler, or setting an author up with a merchandise table and a volunteer to help sell their books. Some authors will prefer to sell their own books, especially if they are independently published or with a small press.

Before pitching major publishers or bestselling authors, be sure to confirm whether or not your bookseller partner is a New York Times-reporting outlet. If you don’t have a local bookseller, you may be able to work directly with the publisher to source copies for sale.