Backlist Reminder

There is a lot of news about how this will be the busiest Fall in a long time. With so many titles pushed back from earlier in the year, it is going to be a crazy season. [And then again, I also saw that the printers might not be able to keep up and things will be pushed back. Who knows. It's 2020 anything can happen.]

Don't get me wrong, I know it is fun to get caught up in the new and shiny titles; however, I want to remind you that those new titles have their own marketing machine and they get their own shelf in the library [whether that is the physical new shelf or your virtual lists of the newest titles added to the library].

Where you can best assist your patrons is with "backlist you might have missed" titles.

You can use my backlist tag to get advice from me on resources that are good options for identifying titles.

But that's not why I am writing this post, to remind you of things I have pointed you to before. Rather I wanted to use it as a general reminder that ANYTHING that filled those best lists, seasonal preview lists, awards, etc... from the last 2-5 years are are an even better option right now. Why? Because you own the book, it garnered interest initially, but it is languishing on the shelf in obscurity now. 

Get it out of mothballs and into a readers' hand. 

But even more importantly, backlist options enhance our part in the interaction with patrons and right now we cannot work hard enough to enhance our importance.

Readers can find the new books suggested from a variety of places that aren't the library. They may be happy that they can come in to get the item from us, but is that all we want to be to our patrons, a pick up location?

The point is the backlist ALWAYS needs to be in the forefront of your mind. Find ways to make it  part of your routine, that when the new attracts you, think about the poor, neglected reads that don't get the attention anymore.

When you see the new shiny lists today for the "best" or "most anticipated" books for September 2020, resist the urge to suggest them all. Instead, do a Google search for something like, "most anticipated books of September 2017." Or whatever year. But you will be surprised by the excellent titles that pop up, titles you used to suggest all of the time, titles that made people happy.

I literally pulled 2017 at random, but when I did the search, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward came up on all the lists; a book I called "close to perfect"[review here]. And then it made me think of her excellent post-Katrina book, Salvage the Bones, and how people might be drawn to that with the 15th anniversary of Katrina just passing and the hurricane in a similar area last week. And then, the first article in that search led me to more lists below that list with links to a whole bunch more backlist titles. And each one of those linked lists had more recommenced lists at the end of them And on and on. And that was just the first resource. Pick another one from the Google search or pick another month or another year, or use an awards list from year's past or older best lists , and thenrepeat and repeat and repeat.

The point is that once you enter the world of the backlist, it opens a portal that keeps going and going. It will take you in directions the new lists will not. Not to mention that the titles will have a better chance of being on the shelf. You will find connections for your patrons to books they would not identify on their own; thus reminding them of how important you are as part of their experience. Their library service is about more than the transactions. You  know it, and so do they, but  in the mixed up reality that is 2020, they are losing sight of it. Show them how much you, the human matter!

And, you will get some of those great reads that would have gone unread, into people's hands. Everyone wins when you move the backlist to the front.