Should Your Book Be In Libraries?
Book Marketing Maven – “Some authors and publishers worry that having their books offered for free check out in libraries will hurt consumer sales. This is probably more of an issue with fiction than with nonfiction. But many people who check out fiction in libraries are voracious readers who get most of their reading material from libraries and don’t purchase many books.”
If people really like your work, they will be more inclined to purchase it. Maybe not right away (books–particularly new ones that only come in hardcover–are pretty expensive), but when a friend or family member has a birthday coming up, or for other special occasions. I did it with Laurie Halse Anderson’s book Speak–checked it out of the library and was so moved by the content that I purchased copies for three of my closest girlfriends that Christmas.
Also, had I not been turned on to the Harry Potter series thanks to my local library, I wouldn’t own copies of the books today. (In some cases, I own multiple copies.)
I totally agree! If I like a book that I checked out of the library, I buy one copy for myself and I will give my friend also a copy.
Besides that, libraries are MAJOR purchaers of books. In fact, many books wouldn’t sell nearly as many copies if libraries weren’t buying them!