Yes, please.

I’m delivering books to the library next week. Taking my kids along–it’s going to be cool. Thanks for the inspiration!

The one exception to SPL’s “Buy Anything That Susan Chick Requests” rule seems to be the obscure titles I use for research, but that’s what interlibrary loan is for…

Austin Public Library has 1 copy of TSL and 4 of MLAS. I believe the latter was reviewed in PW?

Anyway, you need to hit the folks at your library over the head about the Reading List win and tell them that TSL needs to be in every town lib’s core collection, even if it is small and snooty, uh, intellectual. :-)

Hi Sherry,

That was an incredible article you posted on Dear Author! I was so glad to see someone linking sales to library use. I know, personally, I have found many authors (both new and “new to me”) by checking things out from the library. I may not have bought them on a whim from a bookstore, but libraries really are no risk endeavors. I didn't recognize your name, but when I went to your webpage and saw the cover of your book (Private Arrangements), I realized I have it sitting on my coffee table right now. I checked it out at the end of March (!!!!) and haven't started it yet. I'm not sure what made me pick it up, whether it was a recommendation from someone, or blog chatter, or what.

As far as ordering goes, it all starts with money. It took me a long time to understand that, but nothing like a recession to drive that point home! I have a very healthy budget this year for print fiction. With that budget comes an amazing amount of freedom. I do realize that and I am grateful for it. It does, however, make it hard for me to understand the point of view of other libraries and how they select.

For Romance, I select from many sources. Romantic Times is the best, not for their reviews but because it is a comprehensive look at the industry. There are author interviews, many of which list older titles by an author or readalikes for an author or books in the same sub-genre as the author. There are ads, and not just from big publishers, but small ones as well. I may not heed the content of the reviews, but the fact that a book title & author is listed is priceless. I don't care if they gave 2 stars to an author, the fact that you mentioned it is one more title I see & can potentially buy. 80% of these titles would not be noticed if not for RT. Baker & Taylor's Forecast and Ingram's Advance are wonderful and I use them as well. But they don't come close to the depth. June's Forecast had 46 mass market romance titles. June RT had 74 titles in the series romance category alone. I check each title in RT and see what the author has done before to base the number of copies. If their past books have done well, then I might increase the number of copies. If their past books haven't done well, then I might decrease the number. If the author is new, then I take a closer look at the description. If the plot centers around something that patrons are interested in (re: paranormal) then I'll buy it. I'll take a closer look at the review, and generally won't buy it if the review of the writing (sentence structure, etc) is bad. If the reviewer simply didn't like that the person used first person, or hated the hero or heroine, I'll probably still buy it. That is too subjective a reason to deny a book. But if there are serious problems with the writing, I will take that into consideration. If it isn't in RT or in Forecast or Advance, then I rely on patron requests and websites. RT does review some Ellora's Cave titles, but not nearly enough to sustain the love our patrons have for them. I go to their website and go through the same process. Check to see if we have other books by that author. If so, how have they done? If not, and there are no reviews, then I hit Amazon to see what other people are saying about it. Because this a process that is repeated for science fiction/fantasy, mystery, general fiction, literary fiction, genre specific magazines really help bring titles to my attention in a convenient way. If it wasn't for RT, I don't know that I would buy as many romance titles as I do.

Patron requests: We limit our patrons to 5 requests per week, per cardholder AND to books that have already been released. What this does is stops the requests for things we are already going to get (the new Nora Roberts) and lets other things through. It was through patron requests that I discovered our patrons love of m/m romance. RT does not review this with any kind of consistency, but patrons still wanted to read in this genre. Some of these books are available through Baker & Taylor (our main vendor) and others we buy from Amazon or wherever we can find it. For the month of March, 30% of my requests were for romance books. A number of them were out of print, a number were things that were already in the catalog by the time I got around to look at the requests and the patrons requesting already had a hold on the book. Some of them were e-books which we have not started collecting in any sort of coherent manner. Some were for books in other formats (Large Type, Audio, Downloadable Audio.)

Blogs and Demand: Seeing what people are buzzing about is key to determining the number of copies of things we might need. It doesn't always equate, of course, but it helps with trends. If everyone is talking about Laurell K. Hamilton and how they are not going to buy her next book, then I know I need to buy more because people are going to come looking for it at the library. (Skin Trade currently has 95 holds, which is way up from Blood Noir.) Or when authors switch from mass market to hardcover (JR Ward) there is also an increase in library circ for a title. I bought 30 Lover Enshrined and I bought 50 Lover Avenged. I bought 100 of Vision in White and there are 267 current holds (with all copies currently checked out) and I probably should buy more. We aim for a 2 holds to 1 copy ratio, but that is a very flexible guideline and becomes 3 and 4 holds/copy the more the budget shrinks, with an “understanding” that we don't buy more than 300 copies of a title by any one author. A majority of those copies end up in our booksale when the initial rush is over. I feel better making people wait their turn and using that money to buy new authors, more copies of mid-list authors, and filling in the backlist. James Patterson doesn't care if I buy 200 or 300 of his six(or more!) titles per year. But to a mid-list author the fact I can buy 20 instead of 5, or a new author that I can buy 5 instead of 2 (or none) can make a big difference. I'd like to believe there is a balance there that goes beyond just mere numbers. Yes, Finger Lickin' Fifteen has 540 holds, and we only have 200 copies on order which is over our standard ratio. But the people who come in the library looking for their little known mass market mystery or romance author can also find titles they like on our shelves. I'm sure Janet Evanovich won't mind us helping out up and coming authors. I feel that is one of the great things that libraries can do and I try to spread our money around as much as possible.

A little bit about our library system: we have 22 branch locations plus a Central library. Our patrons are very loyal and pretty understanding. They don't mind waiting for big titles, and we hear from them both when they're happy about what they find in our catalog and when they aren't happy. The only thing I wish we had was a more comprehensive e-book selection, but I am keeping hope alive!

Thanks again for bringing up such a great blog topic!

Thank you so much for the kind mention of The Spymaster’s Lady as an example. I am utterly delighted to think of TSL in libraries all over the world.

Now, TSL is not in my own small town library system.
They will neither buy it nor accept it as a gift.
I am considering blackmail options.

Looking through the catalog here in small-but-intellectual-ville …
I find we have 4 books by Julia Quinn. (Yeah!) And a similar 4 for Eloisa James. Jo Beverley, 10. Mary Jo Putney, 9. Laura Kinsale, 2. Mary Balogh, 8. Patricia Briggs, 2. Rachel Gibson, 3. Sherrilyn Kenyon, 8. J.R. Ward, 1.

OTOH, we have 15 titles by Francine Rivers and 18 by Wanda Brunstetter.

These last two are Inspirational Romances, acquired, largely, in hardcover.
So possibly a perception of ‘wholesomeness’ helps an author get placement in my own particular library system.

And we have 36 copies of Marion Chesney’s works.
While Chesney is, of course, a lively Romance writer, she’s better known for writing mystery, as M.C. Beaton.
So maybe another way for a Romance author to get on the shelves is to . . . write Mystery.

I’m sending you an email.

Right now, as a matter of fact, I’m having a contest on my website where I ask people to check their library for my book, and if it’s not there, to request it.

LOL, it was you! When I got to the Arboretum B&N I saw that they had 6 copies laid out for me at the help desk, instead of 7 as they told they had. The bookseller said you’d just picked one up. She made an announcement in the store hoping you’d come back. And I was awfully sorry to have missed you–not knowing who you were–because I’d forgotten my lovely gel pens at the previous store and went back to get them.

But since it’s you, we’ll hook up and I’ll somehow get my John Hancock in your NOT QUITE A HUSBAND. (Why does it sound naughty to me?) :-P

Robinb,

I would love to know how your title-selection criteria. Do you base it on popularity? Patron requests? And how do you decide which new authors to acquire, when they do not have any circulation numbers etc to back up their selection?

SonomaLass,

Wow, I need to write a thank-you card to the fiction selector of your library for introducing me to you! <3

I have so many other examples of library reads leading to purchases. I have yet to buy an Ariana Franklin book for myself, but I did buy City of Shadows for Janine, after getting it from the library and loving it.

Julia Quinn,

When you find a library that wants Slovak romances, let me know. Maybe they’ll want my Slovene editions too!