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WHY DO I WRITE REVIEWS? |
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can help your favorite authors by... asking for their books at your local library! That's not what you were expecting, was it? At first glance, it would seem as though this is a crazy idea, but it works. John Grisham is a successful author today. Before his first book, A Time to Kill, was published, no one had heard of him, so publishers weren't interested in his manuscript. He published his book, on his own, and then traveled all over America, talking about his book and selling copies - a few at a time. Somewhere along the way, people who had read his book started telling other folks, who told other folks, etc. John Grisham worked very hard to promote his book, and then word-of-mouth advertising launched his storytelling career. Libraries can accomplish the same thing! When folks discover a book by a new author in their library, they tell their friends, and those folks tell their friends, etc. Most libraries will start ordering books by an author if they get a lot of requests for that author's books. Some libraries place "Standing Orders" with their distributors. From then, until the library rescinds the order, the distributor automatically ships certain books to a library. Annual reference books usually fall into that category - almanacs, travel books, etc. - but, fiction writers can also become standing orders. Libraries usually do most of their book ordering through a distributor such as Baker & Taylor. B&T, naturally do whatever they can to make it easier for libraries to order from them. B&T allow libraries to place standing orders for novels written by any of the 500 authors on a list called Automatically Yours. Each year, the list is a little bit different. Names are added and removed for a variety of reasons. Has an author died? Is there a lack of interest in an author? Have a lot of libraries started requesting a particular author? If enough people ask, an author has a good chance of being added to B&T's Automatically Yours list. Once that happens, your library can check off that author and then never have to go out of its way to remember to order that author's books again. B&T will simply send copies to your library whenever something is published by that author. How much easier could it get for them? It's a win-win situation for everyone. Plus, once your library starts carrying books by your favorite author, others will be able to read those novels, too. Perhaps one day your favorite author will become so popular that someone will want to buy the movie rights. Wouldn't that be nice? In many ways, reading books from a library is like getting a free sample from a manufacturer. Libraries offer you the opportunity to enjoy a free "sample" of an author's product. If you find you like it, you'll come back for more, and one way or another, that will put money in the author's pocket. That's important if you want an author to keep "producing" novels because there has to be a "reward" for spending so many hours working to produce a novel. So, if you ask your library to please get a copy of your favorite author's book... Of course, if you buy a copy of your favorite author's book, and donate it to your library, other folks will have a chance to read that author,too. Then, your voice won't be the only one asking the librarian to order your favorite author's books. Please, enjoy yourself while you browse 5 stars from gobbysreviews. |
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