Got Your Library Card?
I hope you haven’t stopped going to your local public library. It’s an experience unlike browsing online, clicking on Amazon, or even retail shopping, where the bookstore has morphed into a commercial push to buy snacks, knick-knacks, toys, and games. Nothing wrong with those activities, but it’s NOT the same as a visit to the sacred rooms of a library. A library is unique, a place to become instantly immersed in deep and quiet seas of knowledge, with infinite opportunities to discover surprises among the books and more books.
All of those books you see, as well as millions you don’t because they are the library’s digital title books (yes, you can check out e-books and audio books for free!)—all of those books were purchased through the library’s annual budget, whose fund depends on the size of the library.
How do libraries decide what books to purchase every year? One main way is the American Library Association holds a conference (full of publication exhibits) every summer. I suppose this makes it easier for school and university librarians to attend. In June of 2025, the convention is in Philadelphia and 14 thousand are expected to attend. They will have the good fortune to be introduced to our client Clark Dean’s book, Five Friends Discuss Global Warming, published February, 2025. A physical copy of the hardcover edition will be displayed, as well as an excerpt from the e-book version on an exhibition monitor. The catalog for the conference has optional full-page ads, so we secured one for Clark since the catalog stays “active” for at least a full year.
Marketing to libraries works better for some books than others, and we thought that since his nonfiction book is science-heavy, schools, scholars, and universities should be made aware of its existence. Visibility is always a worthwhile focus for book marketing, particularly visibility to your target audience.
Clark’s book is available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other sites, and now we have our fingers crossed that it will be featured in many libraries in the future.
