The Buying Power of Libraries and How Your Local Choices Matter

Those of us who work in libraries often forget how much a part of the business of books we actually are. We overly focus on how our services are pre-paid for our patrons. How when they come in to use our services, they do so without a cost besides their tax dollars. (Remember, libraries are not free, they are pre-paid.)

But real talk here. There are around 17,00 public libraries in America. There are more public libraries than there are McDonald's.

An author like Stephen King, his books are bought by just about every single public library in America-- and many of those libraries buy more than one copy. And for libraries who have any author on "auto buy" he is one there as well. Meaning, no one even has to think twice about King, knowing that he will be on their shelves.

In the current funding crunch, things that the federal dollars were paying for have been the first things to go. For example, lots of continuing education and in some places ILL.

Now, many of you are saying, yeah that sucks but they didn't touch our book budgets.

Well you are wrong. 

You see, as administration and department heads have been navigating the money they have lost, they have also realized they cannot simply cut off the services they allocated that money to. Rather, they need to redistribute the dollars. Meaning....they are coming for our book budgets. 

Now Stephen King, he will keep selling books, but it is the new voices and midlist authors who we will have to not buy. This is bad for so many reasons, but the biggest problem is that libraries buy the books of midlist authors at a higher rate than anyone-- even book stores. If those authors don't get into libraries, they will not only not make as many sales, but they will also not be discovered by as many readers.

Both of those things lead to them not getting new book deals.

This is the entire reason why LibraryReads was started by the way-- to give libraries a way to flex their buying power muscle. It is also the reason why most publishers invest in a library specific marketing staff. 

As we see cuts to library budgets all across the country, I am surprised it took this long for publishers to start publicly calling out how much this will hurt their bottom lines. But they are speaking out about it now.

[Related, I am not sure how this is going to help our fight to stop the eBook and eAudio price gouging, but one topic at a time.]

Now, I need you to understand that when the publishers start to speak out, it is not to help us. It is to help their bottom lines. They are just looking for an excuse to publish fewer new voices. They are also looking for an excuse to charge more per book.

Be aware of your own budget cuts, but also stand your ground with publishers. Our buying power matters. And we need to make sure we are still buying books in all genres and for all voices. 

On your end, don't cut that new voice when your dollars go down. Start with the biggest name authors. Buy fewer copes of them. Yes your patrons will have to wait, BUT you will be sending a message to the publishers that you need and want books for every reader not just the best sellers. 

We all lose when new voices are not given a chance. We don't want a monoculture of options from the major publishers. And we don't want everything interesting and new coming only from small presses because many libraries cannot buy from them and getting those books is a privilege. We don't want access to books to stop being available to everyone.

Stay vigilant and keep being a voice for inclusivity and a range of options. We do not need 5 James Patterson books. People can wait. Get 2 and buy 3 others books with that money (x like 5 times a year).

It will make a difference both in making your limited dollars stretch and it will send the correct message to publishers. 

Don't think you have no power here. You do. You just have to be willing to take a stand.