Episode 22: How Libraries Increase Sales

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Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be. Today, I am super excited. I’m talking about one of my favorite topics in the whole wide world. Libraries. Yes, it’s finally here, the library episode. I don’t know why I’m like, yes, it’s finally here. I keep meaning to talk about libraries. And it keeps getting bumped for other topics, because I try and make it topical based on like, what people are asking me about, and like what people were authors or the general public is asked me about. And that sometimes changes things. And it doesn’t seem like people have asked me about libraries a lot. But I want to talk about them. So I’m going to because I love them. So libraries are awesome, for three reasons. One, they provide access for people who may not have money to buy books, or may not have access to internet, they provide internet and books and those sorts of things for people who can’t afford to buy them, too. And this is something I think doesn’t get talked about a lot but CW talked about in her interview is that CW and a lot of other people sorry, CW Fe feel like I’m singling you out. It just really resonated me with with me when you talked about going to libraries and checking out a book to determine whether or not you wanted to have it in your home as part of your personal collection. That really spoke to me, because in Japan, what I will bring into my home is super limited because we have very limited space. And we have very limited bookshelf space, because we have the length of one wall for our bookcases. And it’s the length of one wall and the height of about half the wall because there’s a window on that wall. And those are all the books that we keep in our house. And we have to recycle them. And then at the cinnabar moth offices, we have room for a lot more books. But those spaces on the shelves, I really earmarked as spaces for books we love, but more so for books we publish. And I hope to fill up the space, I want to be two in three deep, because we’re using to Tommy clauses which are very deep closets because they’re made for a folded up to Tommy bed, which is half the size of a futon mattress and the yes, if you have a futon couch that folds out into a bed and you cut that in half. That’s the average size of a futon in Japan. And those beds are meant to be rolled up and put in the closet. So having that space and re imagining it made me really think about libraries and how much I do depend on libraries for the books that I read. And for so I go through different moods, like there are moods and phases where I want to have a physical copy of a book to hold and read. And then there are amusing phases where I want an E copy of a book. And I want to download it and have it on my tablet and I want to read on my tablet. And then there are moods where I want an audiobook because I just feel like kicking back chillin and listening to a book. And I want all of those needs met. Every single one of them. I think it’s really cool that you can get every you can borrow every single one of those from the library, at least here in Japan, you can. And I know for a fact in the US, you can check out audio books. And you can also add some libraries, not all checkout ebooks. And I think that’s cool. And the reason I know that is because some libraries have access to our ebook. And I think that’s really cool that you can check out check out ebooks. So for me deciding on whether or not I want to buy a book is basically do I want to reread it? And in what form do I want to experience it. And a library lets you date a book without having to marry it. It doesn’t have to be your forever book. And I think that that’s really cool. And we sell our books at a discounted rate to libraries because we want to do everything we can to support libraries and

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help them have access to them. And that includes school libraries. And so for me libraries are an integral part of our marketing plan. And if you publish adult wi A, or middle grade, or even children’s books or pictures, books, any kind of book you publish, including erotica, if you can get that into a library that’s exposure to that book. And that, and this goes for erotica, too.

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If a if it’s in a university’s library, in their catalog, then that allows professors to determine whether or not they want to teach a course on that book. And to show you that a university course can be taught on anything. I know a professor that taught a entire course on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and still does to this day, and thinks it’s an important, really important to American culture, and has all of these reasons and things why they teach on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I’ve never seen a single episode, but for them, it was a deeply important part of their life. I think the same thing can happen with books, I know that with one of our books that actually got picked up as part of the curriculum, and as part of the required reading for a university book. And that was really exciting. And that’s because it was in the university’s library catalog. And that made the professor interested in it. And the professor listened to it on their way to and from work for a couple of days. And they were able to listen to the book and get through it. And they were like, Yeah, we want to add this to the curriculum. So for me, if that is, I know for a fact, if that book hadn’t been in that catalog, that that professor in particular would have probably never heard of it, and would not have signed it for their class. And if you’re looking at why a and younger, think about the power of the school librarian, right when it comes to determining what teachers have access to. And because a school librarian makes the school catalog, and I know this because I used to volunteer at our son’s library. And I was really, which is just like a lucky handsome happenstance, like being a page and library when I was 12. I just love libraries. And as a, I didn’t know I was going to be a publisher never being a publisher was absolutely not on my radar 1516 years ago, I guess it’d be like 18 years ago now was definitely not on my radar 18 years ago, when I was volunteering with at my son’s school, and it was at his elementary school in the library and the librarian and I became really good friends. And she was like, Hey, look at this catalog with me, and what books do you think we should include and exclude because the library only has so much physical space in it, right. And there are some books that don’t age as well as they should. And times change. And there are some books that just aren’t as popular and aren’t getting checked out. And that’s how the librarian makes their decision on which books to pull. And which books to put on the shelf, which books to have physical copies of versus which books to have on the suggested reading list where it’s not in the library, but they suggest you go and buy it kind of thing. And that whole process was really interesting to me. And now from the publishing side of it, it makes me realize that wow, that librarian really sets the tone for reading for every single English teacher at the school. And it was the same when I was volunteering at the high school, I would volunteer at the elementary, the junior high and the high school library, because I didn’t volunteer every day. So I would just rotate through them. And all of them had their own processes and their own reasoning. And I found that really interesting talking with different librarians and also talking with them about their conferences and being the guest librarian at the time, like I would take over and run the library for them. When they would go to conferences, and they have different conferences for different age groups. And then they have whole school conferences, and they have national, local and at these conferences, the libraries talk to each other about what which books are resonating with their students and resonating with their teachers. And which books they’re shelving which books they’re pulling off of their shelves, and which books are only offering at the catalog. And all of that process was really exciting to me getting into it and understanding it. And even if I don’t agree with how a librarian is doing things, it might pique my curiosity. And I might want to check out a book.

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And for me, as a librarian, I would want to see if it’s in my local library, and I would know, I could request it. And that’s what the librarian would do. She said, you know, hey, I came back from a conference, and everyone’s buzzing about this book, and this series, and I’m curious about it. But my local library doesn’t have it. So I requested the series, and they’re gonna order it for me, and put it on hold. And she came back and was like, that’s a big no for me. But she went to another library to check it out. And it may have been a yes, you know. So I think that that’s superduper. Important. And I think that libraries are superduper important in the process of selling books. And having like, a really weird sense of deja vu, if I’ve talked about this topic before, just know, I’m serious about being passionate about it. Because I don’t run through the list I just talk about, I sit on the mic, and I talk about what I want to talk about, because, you know, I have to talk for 30 minutes. And I want it to be interesting. And I think if I’m interested, it makes it more interesting, if that makes sense. So that’s one of the ways that libraries sell books. And another way that libraries sell books is through awards. There are a lot of awards that if your book is not in a library, the award won’t even consider you. And they don’t say that on the awards thing, which I was tripped out about. Like why wouldn’t you say that? Why would you let somebody, like, pay your fee that feels so wrong and dirty to me? Like you’re letting them pay the entry fee. But you know, one of the things you’re going to do you to check and I’m doing air quotes, the credibility of their book and the literary merit of their book, is to see if they’re in libraries. I feel like that should be upfront. Because if I’m not in libraries, why should I pay you 200 bucks to apply for your award? If soon as you can’t find me in a library code in a library catalog, you’re not going to consider my book? Yo, like, tell me that right away? Don’t let me spend my hard earned coin on this. And I think that is so unfair. And I think that’s such an unfair metric for like, what is a viable literary book? Are you kidding me. And that, to me goes into part of the problem of publishing. And part of the problem of awards is that the system is rigged, like Scholastic, come on now, and penguins Come on. Now you can’t compete with their library, accessibility and contacts if you’re a small press or an independent press. And we’re really super, super fortunate to have our books in libraries as an independent press. It’s not an easy thing to do. And one of the reasons why we’re able to do that is because since July of 2020, all of our books have the US Congress, Congress, the US Library of Congress number, which puts them in all of the catalogs that go out to all of the libraries. And plus we send them a physical copy of the book. So there’s a physical copy. In the US Library of Congress, I don’t know if it’s on the shelf, but knowing that they have it, and it might just be sitting in storage. I know that we send them copies, I don’t know what they do with them. But that puts us on the radar of librarians and having that it’s really tricky, really tricky to get. We were super, super lucky that not my ruckus. Librarians ate it up. They absolutely loved not my ruckus. And I was surprised because around the office, we nicknamed that book, The trauma book. And on my personal account when friends say that they bought my husband’s book, I tell them, you can go ahead and yell at him if you need to. Because there’s like seriously because even our beautiful Narrator IV was like I had to take a break. I was so mad at Chad. I was like, Why aren’t Why did you do that? And everybody has those spots in the book where they’re like, why Chad like kind of thing. But the librarians really ate that book up. And it’s stocked in libraries around the world and

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they That was surprising to me, because in countries that I don’t think of as non English, like think of as non English speaking, it’s really popular in those libraries and in the English book section. So that is, that’s the book that we sort of rode the wave on and was able to get into the Library of Congress with was based on that books, distribution and libraries. And here’s the catch 22 of it, that book can never have a library of congress number, because you have to get the Library of Congress on or before the book is published. And that breaks my heart, because without that book, we couldn’t get a Library of Congress.

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Number. So that means that that book, because it’s in libraries, it got invited to some awards, which were very happy, thank you for the invitation. But there are other awards that goes strictly based off of the US Library of Congress. And I’m not I’m not naming awards, because I don’t do the name and shame. I think everyone should tell their own stories. And I, it’s not written anywhere. This is what I know from talking to people who are on committees for these awards. And to name these awards. I feel like we put my connections in jeopardy with these people. So I just want to say clearly, I’m not going to name who I got the information from, don’t DM me, don’t send a message. I’m never ever naming one because that these people, several people are friends of mine. And if I name one person, that’s a violation of our friendship, they told me this in confidence. When I told them I was going to do this podcast, and talk about this topic. Specifically, they said, I’m cool with that. Don’t name our award. And don’t name me. And unlike right on, I can totally follow both of those rules. So how do you get your name? How do you get your book in libraries, if you’re self published, or if you’re a small press, and I say call up everyone, you know, that lives in a different city than you and have them go get a library card at their local library. And when they get their library card, request your book, because when they request your book, the library is honor bound to get that book for them. And so maybe that they’re only able to get the audiobook, because that’s a different price for libraries than having a physical book, or they may only get the ebook, but no matter what form your book is n, it will be in that library’s catalog. And then once you hit whatever number the Library of Congress is putting out this year, because the number changes every year, you can go on to the US Library of Congress homepage. And they’ll tell you how many libraries you have to be in. But people you know that live in a different state, use your network and put out on Twitter, hey, if can you please request my book, because there’s nothing dirty and asking people to request your book at a library, you can’t do it yourself. Because if you get caught doing that yourself, you’ll be banned. So seriously, do not go around to different cities do not call up different cities, make sure that the person requesting the Book One has a library card from the library that requesting a book from and two is not you, they can be your spouse, they can be your child, they can be related to you, they can be a friend, they can be another publisher. And that again, ties back into a few months back, I talked about collaboration, you can reach out to everybody who works at a different price and say, Hey, if you do this for our books, we’ll do this for your books, and it’s not a big deal. And then check it out. Once you request it. That’s the other part of it, you have to check it out. You can’t just request it and not check it out. Because the library, the librarian keeps track of who’s requesting books, and whether or not they check the books out and you have to return it on time. So it’s a multi step process. One you have to have a library card for that library, to you have to check the library out, I mean the book out, I mean, two, you have to request it, then three, you have to check it out, then four, you have to return it on time. Because then you’re a good library patron. And every library, everybody with the library card, they have a rating at their library, whether you know it or not, on whether or not you’re a good card holder and what scanning your library card. And, and so for us our local library, I haven’t used my card and a year or two. I live in Japan and their English Speaking section is really small. Most of the books in that section I donated to the library. And I’ll be honest since starting the press, I haven’t practice my Japanese at all, which means I haven’t Been library probably in over a year, probably a few years, has Yeah, longer than that, because it was pre COVID was last time I went to the library.

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And people will ask me when I suggest books for their kids here in Japan, is that in the library, can I find that in a library, and I’ll tell them your name, and terms of our local library, I know really well. But getting the so that’s libraries in the United States, libraries outside of the United States, libraries in Australia and Canada tend to really favor books by Australian and Canadian authors, the same in the UK, the rest of the world seems to not have that bias. But if you can get in libraries, and Australia, which we’ve been fortunate enough to get not my rackets into libraries in Australia, it does a lot. Australia does a lot to support their library system and promote and give awards to books in their system. So Australia is definitely one to bite the bullet, fill out the form and request that they carry your book. For a lot of libraries, you can go to that country’s website for their national library system, and apply to have your book put in the system. And I would say it is so worth it. It’s so nerve wracking, at least when I did it, it was super nerve wracking for me. But it’s just paid off such great dividends. And I’m just so so happy with it. Because there are so many book awards out there. And I think, for me, as an American, I was really focused on getting awards from American publishing awards that are based in the United States. And when I pull back, and an opened my view and expanded my my worldview to I was looking at our awards given to English language books in Japan. And there are awards given to books written in English in Japan, which I was surprised to find. And I was like, this was cool, didn’t know about this. And there are English language books award in Book Awards in almost every country. And I was really surprised by that. Because I, I was like, Huh, I wonder if there’s books for other languages. And I found out for most languages, most countries have an award for that. And looking at those award processes, because I was looking at submitting our books for awards, and doing the math. And you could literally blow a million dollars on just a word fees on just application fees for awards. Some awards to apply for them are over two grand to enter. I was like, I felt like huh, huh? Because you can find out like what it did, you know, 12 years, five years, six years, 10 years, by just going back and looking at what book won this award 10 years ago? And did they get $2,000 worth of stuff for winning? And I was like, No, they did not from my perspective. I didn’t see there are some of the books like the award, nothing came of it like the book, you wouldn’t even know that it was an award winning book. And when your book wins an award, if it’s a prestigious award, you have to reprint your book to put the two and have the cover redone, to put that award seal on it if you want to. If it’s going to be a stellar, like if you’re doing children’s books and picture books, and you want to call the cart Caldecott Award, you know, you got to put that seal on it right. So looking at, at Book Awards, and looking at what you get, I look at value added, like, does the award have a seal? And if it has a seal, can I put that seal somewhere? And some of the other high end Book Awards do trophies? And it’s like, Hmm, do I want trophies? Like? No, I want increased visibility. And so if it comes with a trophy, but no promotion, I’m less inclined to put one of our books forward for that. When I look at in terms of awards that I put our books forward for is what are the what are the requirements and looking at the people that I know that sit on boards, and sit on governing boards for libraries and our librarians and all of those types of things, bringing it back to libraries. I talked to them about it and being able to talk to a librarian and say, What do you think about this award is priceless For me,

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I seriously, I’m just so honored and humbled and grateful to my friends that are librarians and I asked them, Is this something that if you knew the book won this award that would make you more inclined to read it, and more inclined to stock it in your library. And I was surprised that by going down this list, I had a list of like, 100 awards I was asking about last year, and thank you, that person he went to went through it with me. And they were like, the little dip down from 100 awards to three. And I was just like, wow, really, just three, and no, I’m not gonna say which three, because this was just one person’s opinion. I then did a list of 20. And sent that out, because I only did the list of 100, with a good friend, they knew would like tolerate that kind of those kinds of shenanigans from me. But the other was, I pared it down to 20. And I found out that nobody picked the same, that they are picked about five. So from the list of 100, it whittled down to be about 15 awards, that looking across the spectrum of all the librarians I talked to. And I think that that’s a benefit if you’re a publisher, I think as publishers, a lot of people are afraid to promote themselves. And you know, y’all know, I believe, a closed mouth, don’t get that. And I’m hungry. I am shameless. The worst thing that can happen if somebody tells me No. And that no is to me is so worth the risk of the Yes. And going to a library and saying, Hey, can I talk to you about the books that you stock? And do you have time for me to talk to you I’m, and you know, introduce yourself to say who you are. And they might say yes, and they might say no. And I found that for me, I’m more successful, if I’ve been a good card holder, like if I go to the library a lot, if they see my face a lot, and they get to know me, then that librarian is more likely, when it’s dead. And they’re sitting there like, Sure, I’ll talk to you about books, and enjoy the conversation. And so I encourage every author, and I encourage every press to get to know your local librarian, and get to know the ecosystem of your local library, and go and kick back in your library for a day. I absolutely love our local library. And I love that they have quiet rooms that you can rent and go sit in. And they also have, which I think is really cool. They have movie rooms. So you can check out at least nine libraries, I don’t know what the library system is like in the US with regards to movies that are at our local library, you can check out movies. And that’s super fun to go sit in the movie room and have like a private theater experience is just me sitting alone in that room, that very comfy room, watching a movie, which you know, I haven’t done in a while. But it’s like a mini vacation and, and loads of fun. And not doing those types of things where you partake everything that the library has to offer. And like really walking through your library and looking at what is on the shelves, and kind of interacting at least for me, I interact with why this book. And I’ve seen books I love on the shelf, which I’m really excited about. And I’ve seen books I hate on the shelf and I think I hate this book. Why is this? What is this book doing here doesn’t belong here. And it’s really rare. And it’s usually an old book that’s considered a classic that I don’t think is a classic. I’ve certain authors that are like on my banned list. I don’t like seeing their books anywhere. And I don’t think any of them are there’s a few they’re living a couple that are living, if you want to know who just scroll through our Twitter feed, and you’ll see who I like and who I don’t like and why. But I don’t feel the need to put them on blast on the casks and not about spreading hate about spreading inclusivity and diversity and welcoming everybody to the party. And I think that’s what libraries are about. Libraries are about diversity inclusivity and welcoming everybody to the party. They’re open to everyone in the public and everyone who has an address that they can use. I think some places don’t require it address. I do think that I do know, at least when I was living in the United States that if you were homeless, you could use

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homeless shelters address as your home address. I don’t know if that’s still the case. So for me, that was a lot of inclusivity that the homeless population and reading and access to Wi Fi. And literature is something that we don’t talk enough about. I know in Japan, you do have to have an address. I don’t know if you can use a shelters address or not. But for me, I feel like it’s more inclusive than bookstores than having to be able to pay for the price of a book. And books are expensive. So, yeah, that was my love letters to libraries and the benefits of being in a library and how libraries so how libraries sell books. I have a speech impediment, I really do. So I say I know I say like very libraries, libraries. Anyways, I hope the I hope all of our beautiful cinnabar moth enjoyed this week’s the writers triangles talking about libraries. If I say really carefully, I can say that correctly. And you can be any kind of mock you want to be and like I said every week you can even be a butterfly but I’m not really carrying. I’m not trying to bite her thing. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye.