Get Into Libraries: Library Approval Plans
by Fern Reiss, PublishingGame.com/Expertizing.com
Library Approval Plans are a way to get thousands of libraries to buy your book—automatically. Here’s how it works: Many libraries today don’t make their own acquisition selections, or at least don’t make all of them. Instead, they subscribe to a Library Approval Plan which sends them a selection of books, targeted for the constituents of the particular library. The upside for the library is better discounts. In addition, the program also frees up the personnel budget, which would otherwise be spent on an acquisitions librarian (the funds for which can then be spent on books or other programs.) The downside, of course, is that it cuts out many independent publishers, who may find it difficult to get into this program (not, to a small extent, because they’ve never heard of it.) However, if you’ve got good reviews from major journals, you can get in.
The two largest and most important of the Library Approval Plans are those coordinated by Yankee Book Peddler and Blackwell’s.
YBP takes its inventory from Baker & Taylor. (You must be registered with B&T to get into YBP, but they don’t take all the books B&T carries.) YBP’s market is exclusively college and university libraries, so only presses with a focus on the academic market will be accepted, though their definition of academic is fairly loose; my first independently-published book, The Infertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage (http://www.InfertilityDiet.com), for example, made the cut. In addition, YBP only accepts presses that publish at least ten such titles each year; again, they are occasionally willing to bend on this point. Their core subject areas include:
- art, architecture, photography
- business, economics, management
- education
- fiction and poetry
- gender studies
- humanities
- law and criminology
- library science and reference publishing
- medicine, psychiatry, health sciences
- multicultural topics
- museums and galleries
- music
- religion and theology
- science, technology, and computers
- social sciences
Blackwell’s is not any more interested in small presses than YBP, and is even harder to contact except via mail. They also only accept academic presses doing more than a certain number of titles per year.
If your press isn’t eligible, you can still get into the system through the backdoor (of course!) Persuade a local librarian to request your book from one of the plans directly. That will force your book into the database, which will then permit other libraries to get it that way. In addition, write to both companies and tell them the details of your book—ISBN, author, price—and include information on good reviews you’ve gotten, particularly from library journals. Then ask to be put on the list.
You can get several more pages of information on Library Approval Plans in my book, The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days, available online at http://www.PublishingGame.com, or –-where else?—at your local library, or you can get more details on marketing to libraries in general (as well as finding a literary agent, self-publishing, and promoting your book successfully) at the upcoming Publishing Game Workshops on May 9 in Boston or June 6 in NYC. (http://www.PublishingGame.com/workshops.htm) For just the addresses and contact information for these Library Approval Plans, get a (free) copy of PublishingGame.com’s Hot Contact Sheet (http://www.PublishingGame.com/signup.htm).
So get busy! And start selling your book to libraries today!
Fern Reiss is CEO of Expertizing.com, a company that helps people achieve fame for their expertise and media attention for their business, and PublishingGame.com, which offers books, workshops, and consulting on how to find a literary agent, self-publish, and promote your book successfully. More information can be found at http://www.Expertizing.com and http://www.PublishingGame.com/signup.htm
Copyright 2005 Fern Reiss
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