The Publisher Perspective: October 2021

by Jay Hartman

Q: I see my local library offers eBooks to patrons. How can I go about getting my library to carry my title? R.S., Salem, Oregon

A: 2020 saw a huge surge in eBook purchasing by libraries as physical locations were shutdown due to quarantine measures. EBook lending numbers skyrocketed. That really hasn’t slowed down much in 2021.

The great news is most public libraries need to use part of their yearly budget on patron requests, meaning library patrons can suggest titles to carry, and the library (or the library consortium, depending on your city/county/state) will then make a purchase.

The majority of eBook programs for libraries both in the United States and internationally are covered by Overdrive. There are a few other library subscription models such as Hoopla, Freading, Biblioboard, Bolinda, Gardners, and others. Some focus on specific countries, others focus on continents. Some only do educational libraries, and some only do public. The easiest way to find out who takes care of your local library is to head to their homepage and see who it says provides the eBooks. Again, most of the time it’s Overdrive.

For a library to purchase your ebook, it must be available via distribution to them, and that’s going to rule out a lot of self-published authors. Those of you in Kindle Select won’t be picked up by any libraries, because at this time Amazon does not offer a library program that’s of any particular use to libraries worldwide. Titles in Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited aren’t part of the current program. Amazon has made it incredibly difficult for libraries to do business with them. There are rumored changes to the program to happen in the future, but nothing concrete. Smashwords offers distribution to Overdrive and Gardners, but not to Freading, Hoopla, or any of the other major library players. Keep in mind there are currently no library eBook vendors who contract directly with a self-published author for distribution.

So, let’s say you know your title is available through Overdrive. Is there an easy way to get them to carry your title? Well, perhaps not easy, but you can help give the sale a push by following these instructions:

1. Log into your library account. You MUST have a library account for this process to work. Same thing if you’re going to have others request the title.
2. Once logged in, do a search for your title. If it comes up…congratulations! It means your title has already been purchased by your local library and is available to patrons.
3. If your title didn’t come up in the results, you should now be provided with a message similar to “we couldn’t find any matches” with typically 3-5 covers displayed below that with a note that says something like “didn’t find what you’re looking for?” If your search has been successful, one of those covers should be the title you’re looking for…yours!
4. You’ll notice the covers in the bottom results all say NOT OWNED, and will have a blue link under the cover that is labeled RECOMMEND. Click on that.
5. That’s it! Your request has been sent to the library as a purchase request. If the library chooses to purchase it, it will automatically be checked out to you once it’s in their system and you’ll receive a notification.

That’s essentially all you need to do! If you’re an author with a newsletter, make sure to share this information with your readers to get them to do a grassroots campaign with their local libraries to carry your titles. If you’re with a small pub/indie pub, make sure they distribute to Overdrive or recommend they sign up with a distributor who will get them in (for example our company, Untreed Reads, distributes to every library vendor in the world and we distribute many other publishers as well).

Remember, your success in publishing relies on two major factors: visibility and availability. Be where your customers are and in the formats they need. Living in the library ecosystem definitely help that process.

Jay A. Hartman, editor-in-chief at Untreed Reads Publishing, founded Untreed Reads to promote ebooks with an emphasis on independent authors and publishers. He’s written about the ebook industry for fifteen years and previously served as content editor for KnowBetter.com, one of the internet’s oldest sites reporting on ebooks and epublishing.