NYT Shares How A Book Gets on Our Library Shelves Considering Post B&T Collapse Issues and Why This is All Part of Our Inability to Communicate Who We Are and What We Do

I talk at length about how bad we, as a profession are at communicating with the general pubic. I have a longer, more general post about that here. But I also have a tag for "communicate better" because whenever there is a big library issue, we DO NOT GET AHEAD OF IT and that hurts us.

My most recent example (before today) is the eBook pricing issue that I have been working on fixing here in IL-- for years, but it is finally going somewhere. Click here and here for that. That second link includes my letter that was filed as part of our hearing for the House. We got through the IL House with a 99-0 vote and are awaiting the Senate to move on it. 

When we communicate our needs and how our processes work clearly, people listen. Even when they are frustrated. And today I have a perfect example, except it was not US who stepped up to communicate it was the NYT.

Let me back track. 

As we all know, last year, B&T imploded. Yes I know many of you were too busy scrambling to communicate what was going on to your patrons, even as it led to delays in books getting on the shelf. This was our first mistake, to not designate someone to get the word out far and wide using the same energy we use to get the word out about a program we want to succeed. This is our bread and butter. The books we collect on our shelves.

Putting that aside, even though I should not. I need to call everyone out a bot further here because every single one of us who used B&T has known for years that there were serious problems with B&T. Yes some was from when they were hacked during the pandemic, but they were doing badly before that and it never improved after. Yes it was shocking when they simply shut down and stop serving us with no warning...BUT, come on, it was not like they were fulfilling our orders in a timely fashion, and forget about seeing new books for months if you used their cataloging services.

We should have not only been ready for them to implode, but we should have also been hiring staff to help us process what books we did get and shed their shoddy service.

But I digress. 

Months later, many libraries are still struggling to fill the hole. And look, I am not trying to minimize how devastating this was to libraries everywhere and of every size. BUT we have stayed silent about what it looks like on the ground. As libraries are dealing with book challenges, a call to provide more and more community services, so many other things, our inability to get the bestsellers people want on the shelves- that we stayed silent about.

This was our chance to make it clear that we are doing our best, that what it takes to get a book from ordered to on the shelf is complicated. We did not do that, and as a result, people who would have been our supporters, have been angry that they aren't getting our books. BECAUSE WE STAYED SILENT. BECAUSE WE DID NOT TEL OUR STORY FOR OURSELVES. We lost a chance to garner more goodwill. 

But thankfully the book reporters at the New York Times worked with Iowa City Public Library to tell our story to a wider audience. 

Here is the excellent, clear, and full of photos article they published. I have provided a gift link for you all.

And the article goes above and beyond the basics. For example, they explain in clear and easy language, how B&T was not just a place to order the books, nor was it only the place to order and have things processed, but also many libraries used their suite of services to help them get the right number of bestsellers on the shelves, whether that was predictive ordering or even standing order author plans. 

When I did collection development we had the 250 standing order author plan. Those were 250 authors (we updated it each year) that I never had to even think about. Their books just came to my library. Now, libraries have to remember to order every single James Patterson, Stephen King, Nora Roberts etc...

I have heard library people tell me that some of these more nuanced things are too complicated to explain to the public. Well, this article just proved that argument wrong. 

Please, please, please...I am begging all of you, as a library, prioritize communicating who we are and what we do with your community on a regular basis. Share how the sausage is made. Make it a part of your normal marketing. Again, use the same strategies you use to get people to come to your biggest program. Be clear, open, and communicative with your community and they will be hairier with our services while we will get taken advantage of a lot less often.

Thank you to the NYT for telling a story all of us needed to be shared with a wider audience.

Tana French Readalikes From a Variety of Humans as an Example to Help you Find Readalikes for Any Author

Tana French is one of those authors we library workers love to suggest for a variety of reasons.

First, she writes well constructed, twisty crime stories with great characters. There are so many entry points where a reader will get hooked by her storytelling. This means we have a very wide swath of potential readers to suggest her books to. Seriously, when in doubt or when I am stuck, to the FRE shelf I go.

Second, this ability to easily suggest French is also aided by the fact that except for three books in the Cal Hooper series. All of her other books do not have to be read in any order. Yes the Dublin Murder Squad books are numbered, but they are all related stories in the same world, it does not matter in which order you read them. This means, most days you can confidently go to the shelf and find a Tana French book there for a new reader to discover.

Third, not for nothing, they are also always great on audio. Again, another place where you might find a book available immediately. For example, on my Libby, there are currently 8 French titles without a wait on audio. And one is the first Cal Hooper, the rest are various Dublin Murder Squad.

Over the years, I have not been alone in going to French when I needed a sure bet title for fans of crime, literary fiction, psychological suspense, thrillers, suspense and honestly, those who had no idea what they wanted to read as long as it was a "good read," especially for those going on vacation. The success we have all had suggesting French, means that we are starting to see readers who have exhausted all her title.

It is a good problem to have, right? We have helped to make her a must read author. 

Since the last Cal Hooper is out and there are holds lists everywhere, and because many of those on hold have already read everything else, today I am sharing some HUMAN created resources for you to use to find new pathways for French readers to follow. But I also want you to understand, these specific resources are here for you to use as an example of a pathway you can take to help any reader find readalikes for their favorite authors while they are waiting for a new title.

• Love Tana French? Read These Books Next via the NYT (gift link): What I love about this extensive list is that it probes all of the different appeal entry points who why a reader might like French and then provides books that will scratch all this different itches.
• Five Reddit lists of Tana French readalikes: Click that link and a google search will run of results from different Reddit threads across various Reddit boards. What I love about these threads is that the people all write about WHY they like French. You can really narrow down a great option for a variety of different readers.
• If You Like Tana French via Seattle Public Library: anyone can access the title list, but only their card holders can place a hold. Also this is a library example. There are many. Search the largest library near you to see if they have a list you can use to build tour own.
• Goodreads Members Who Read Tana French Also Read, a list: Not as nuanced a list but it is crowdsourced info from real reader habits. One thing I have learned, readers' brains do not follow a plot-able algorithm. Sometimes they just like what they like, and this list showcases that fact with suggestions I have not seen on other lists. Sometimes we can try to match appeal factors all day, but people just like what they like and seeing some data that supports that is enough of a reason to make the match.
• Tana French herself recommends: Author recs of other authors is one of my 5 Resources you cannot live without. Here is one example (via Elle magazine) which I found via a Google search for  "Tana French recommends"
• Click here for a Literature Map for Tana French. The closer someone's name is to hers the more likely they think it is the reader will like them. These maps are created by users in a Pandora style of gathering recs and clicks. I love to try the authors on the fringes in these cases because they are your wildcard options. There was at least one reader who made this connection. Why not explore that one with your patrons. It will give them an outside the box suggestion that they never could have found without your help. In this case, I really like the Celeste Ng option. I never would have thought of that, but I know more than a few readers who which it is SPOT ON.
• And if you have NoveList access, don't just pop the author's name in and go with only the readalike authors that come up first. (I mean you should do that first, but you can do more.) You should also play around with the appeal factors, click on a few, and see what results you get. This will expand the search from the top author hits. And then you can narrow down further from that expanded list as well.

This is just a short list of options, but I made sure to pull them from completely different spaces; from resources that use a different method, but all of which rely on human input. This way you can see the range of ways you can find readalikes as well as providing you with resources for French specifically.

Apply this logic and this breadth of human created resources to help your readers find a readalike for their favorite authors. 

Becky's Annual Year in Review Program is Today and Here Are the Slides/Resources for All

I have mentioned it a few times, especially toward the end of 2025, but each year I create a brand new program to debut in February where I compile all of the year end data, sift through it, and present it in a 60 minute program where I make some large pronouncements about the year we just lived through and help us move into the next year with educated guess predictions.

This program takes months to compile. Grabbing all of the year end reports is the easy part. It is figuring out how to narrow down the glut of information that comes at us at the end of the year to find the pieces that are most pertinent to all of us and then assess what they are saying when taken all together, that is where the work is. 

I have done this for over 10 years now, on different platforms. This year it is through PCI. Many library systems and state libraries offer access to their programs live and archived. It will have a very wide reach and for that I am happy.

This is also a program that I allow those I present for to keep up indefinitely. (Normally I require my presentations be taken down a year after the live event.)

Why?

Because it is when you can view a few years of these programs in a row that you can watch trends emerge and see how the situation we find ourselves in at the present came to be. Nothing looks like it "came out of nowhere" when you take the time to look back each year.

I love taking a moment with all of you, a few weeks into a new year, to look back together,

While I am paid to give this program every year, I would do this work for myself-- and all of you-- even without a presentation event. And that is also why I make sure that the slides are very text and link heavy-- so that the information for all of you is here and free. It is all too important to not get out to as many people as possible.

If you are attending the program, please note, I had to send in the PDF of the slides 2 weeks ago, but if you use this link to the live slides, you will get the fully updated version.

Click the image to access the slides

2025 Overall Book Sales Data

The last piece of the puzzle for me to craft my annual year in review program is now available. (Click here for a description via CA Library Learning but check your system's access to PCI Webinars.)

And that piece is the year end print book sales report. Click here to see the full list via Publishers Weekly. Please note, this is all print sales in one list with number of units sold. It is VERY important for us to see this data so that we understand exactly what sells regardless of where we would shelve it in the library.

If you subscribe to the Book Riot Newsletter you would have also received this in your inbox, breaking down the PW data:

Print book sales held steady in 2025

After peaking in 2021 with 839.7 million copies sold, print sales seem to have settled in at a new post-pandemic normal. Publishers Weekly reports total unit sales of 762.4 million in 2025, which is 0.3% higher than in 2024 but more than 9% lower than the 2021 high.

Mel Robbins’s self-help juggernaut The Let Them Theory topped charts with more than 2.8 million copies sold, followed closely by Rebecca Yarros, whose Onyx Storm moved a combined total of more than 2.7 million units across two editions, and Suzanne Collins’s latest Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping , which notched just over 2 million.

Other notable data:

👑 BookTok fave Freida McFadden takes home the crown for Most Popular, with three unique titles among the year’s top 20 bestsellers 👧 8 of the 20 bestselling titles are kids’ books 🐻 The oldest book to hit the top 20: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, originally published in 1967 💸 Bank on The Nightingale. Kristin Hannah’s four-quadrant hit, which hit shelves a full decade ago, sold nearly half-a-million copies. Also notable, though sadly unsurprising, is the utter lack of diversity among the year’s top sellers. Indeed, the last time an author of color appeared among the 20 best-selling titles of the year was 2022 (Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry). I will be using this list of bestselling books and comparing it to top library checkouts and best lists as part of my Year in Review program. Again those slides will be available to all on February 11th, but check with your library systems learning platforms to see if you will have access. I trained CT libraries yesterday and they get access. It means our 4 month contract comes with a 5th bonus trading.  One last book sales fact that PW noticed which I saved as part of my year in review resources, Bible Sale broke record sin the US and UK. Click here for the article about it. I am not sure how this will factor into my program yet, but it is definitely worth noting. More on all of this soon as I will begin building the presentation this week.

A New Best Seller List Featuring Black Writers and The Black Book Accelerator

Last week, I was alerted to a brand new bestseller list from a long time trusted resource-- African American Literature Book Club. AALBC has been one of go-to resources to find great books by Black authors since I became a librarian; they have been around longer than that! And have always done great work.

The resource is BLK Bestsellers List: America's Bestseller Books Written by Black Writers from January 2024 to the present, sortable by month

They use the following data and methodology for this list as clearly stated on the bottom of the page:

Sales Data Source: Circana BookScan, January 2023 – May 2025, U.S. print sales, from thousands of retailers including national and regional bookstore chains; independent bookstores; mass merchandisers (e.g., Walmart, Target); Online retailers (e.g., Amazon); and supermarkets and specialty retailers.

Methodology: Books are categorized and filtered for Black Authors by the African American Literature Book Club. This bestsellers list is a sneak peek into a much larger effort led by the Black Book Accelerator (Learn More).

Here is why I love this bestseller list as a tool for us to do our work suggesting books to readers AND as a way to be actively anti-racist. This is not a list of the best selling books by Black writers. Rather it is a list of books by Black writers which were bestsellers. 

In other words, this is not a list others can try to disparage or even ignore because it is WOKE. This is a list of straight up bestsellers that were bestsellers on the white dominated lists in the last 18 months which happen to be written by Black people.

So when people tell me and Robin in our Actively Anti-Racist Service to Readers training programs (click here to sign up up for the next live offering) that people in our town don't read "those books," or, well we only have money for the bestsellers and it is not our fault that those titles are overwhelming white, or....insert lame and useless excuse here-- well here is proof that every single one of those excuses holds no weight.

Public libraries always buy the bestsellers. It is the first thing we do. As someone who did collection development for a community of 60,000 people, I understood that my job was to maintain a circulating collection of popular fiction. That meant having every book on the bestsellers list. It also meant exposing my readers to books that they would not find without my help, but which I knew they would like, be that up and coming writers, mildest stalwarts, small press stars, or books just like the white bestsellers but written by marginalized voices.

This new list, showcases that Black books are for everyone (which, has always been true). However, it also showcases the years of work done by AALBC to promote Black authors, in particular the Black Book Accelerator. From their homepage:

Empowering the Black Book Ecosystem

 

Mission

The mission of the Black Book Accelerator is to strengthen the Black book ecosystem and measurably increase overall stakeholder revenue. 

The Black Book Bestseller list not only celebrates cultural representation but also influences market trends, empowers readers to support Black literature, and inspires emerging Black writers by showcasing successes that might not have otherwise received recognition.

Methodology

Our data is based on monthly print unit sales provided by Circana BookScan. You may read more about Circana.

Since the book publishing industry lacks a definitive source of data on how authors identify themselves, we determine books by Black authors using a combination of BISAC codes and manual research.

We are actively collaborating with organizations in the book publishing industry to improve how authors can share information about their personal identities.

Blackness

The primary requirement for inclusion on the bestseller list is that the author self-identifies as Black or African American. We respect and uphold individuals' self-proclaimed racial and ethnic identities.

For our definition of “Black or African American,” we refer to the U.S. Census Bureau’s classification. This includes individuals with ancestral roots in any of the Black groups of Africa. It encompasses those who identify as “African American” as well as those who associate with more specific African ethnic groups, such as Nigerian, Afro-Cuban, Ethiopian, or Somali.

While we have established these criteria to highlight and promote authors of Black and/or African American descent, we recognize the vast diversity within this community. We are committed to ensuring that our selections reflect a broad spectrum of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We also acknowledge that definitions and categorizations evolve over time.

But the best part of the Black Book Accelerator project is how honest they are with themselves. From the FAQ:

Q: Couldn’t this information be used for bad purposes?

A: Yes, but we think the good outweighs the bad, and to do nothing is to reinforce the status quo, which is unacceptable.

Q: Don’t you think continuing to focus on race is a problem? Suppose someone published a list of the bestselling white writers; wouldn’t that be racist?

A: The purpose of this list is to address historical and systemic disparities by celebrating the most commercially successful books written by Black writers — whose work deserves more attention.

Q: What about authors who identify as Latino, Asian, LGBTQ+, etc.?

A: We hope our work can serve as a model for similar efforts within other communities. We welcome collaboration and are happy to share our insights with those seeking to elevate underrepresented voices.

They are doing the work AND having the hard conversations about said work. When Robin and I talk about being intention with your anti-racist service to readers-- this is what we mean. We are also constantly called out for being racist in favor of marginalized voices. But here's the thing, if you want to intentionally work against systemic racism, you have to tilt the scales to get there-- INTENTIONALLY. As they say above-- the status quo is unacceptable.

These "questions" listed above are the same things Robin always says are framed as "good faith": questions when really they are just trying to get you to stop doing the work. They are really there as "gottchas," from the asker. We see it all the time. I love that AALBC are very clear, open, and honest, that those questions are not worth exploring further for very good reasons. Full Stop.

This has been a long post, but everything here is important and connected. In order to summarize, here are the 4 points I hope you take away from this post.

1. AALBC is an amazing and longstanding resource 
2. Black bestsellers are everyone bestseller
3. Being intentionally diverse is not racist
4. If you are intentionally diverse over time, the brick wall that is systemic racism can be broken down, one brick at a time. 

Want more help? You can sign-up for the August edition of Actively Anti-Racist Readers' Advisory Service with Robin and I right now.

Audiobook Bestsellers via Libro.fm and Why This List Matters as we Help ALL Readers

One of the things I often talk and write about is how "bestsellers" are a genre. Not everyone believes me but I have seen it happen year after year, viral sensation after viral sensation. People come in to the library, curious about a book they see everyone else reading or talking about. There questions are: What is it? Should I read it? Will I like it even if it is not what I normally read?...etc.

They usually think that they want to try it because if that many people like it, I might too. And this alone gives readers comfort. With time to only read a handful of books per year, the average adult wants an assurance that they are not wasting their time before trying a book.

The other night, I was out with someone, who upon learning what I do for a living said, "I tend to read (and enjoy) whatever is 'popular.'" He thought that was weird and I said, absolutely not! I tell people all the time that "bestsellers" is a genre and you are just proving my point.

I am on record saying that the USA Today's bestseller list is my favorite and go-to bestseller list because it is THE ONLY bestseller list that actually lists the books that are selling the most, in order, with no regard to paperback or hardcover, an e-book or print sale, the age audience the book is intended for, if it is fiction or nonfiction, and whether it is self or traditionally published.

So yeah, it is most accurate and compressive peak at what is selling the most in any given week.

While I love this list, it does have one very important shortcoming-- as of right now, the USA Today bestseller list does NOT include audiobook sales. In fact, none of the tradition bestseller lists do.

But there's the thing you need to know, the audiobook market is at $2 billion and 52% of adults have listened to an audiobook in the last year (Stats from the Audio Book Publishers Association's most recent annual report)

In the past, we could use the Audible list to get a sense of what audiobooks were most popular, but that list was NEVER accurate because Audible only content and "free" titles skewed the results.

There are the Libby lists to get a sense of the downloadable audio that is trending up at libraries. But again, that is for library users only and not as accurate.

Well thankfully, the popularity of downloadable audiobooks and the push by LibroFM to expand the promotion of their audiobook partnership with over 3,000 bookstores, we now have the most accurate audiobook bestseller list we have ever had access to before. And just in time to satisfy the millions of audiobook listeners who love reading in this format.  (And by the way, audiobooks are reading. This FACT is non-negotiable. If you disagree you are wrong and you need to accept defeat and move on).

At the time of this post's release, the list is fascinating in that it is more backlist books than new titles and full of genre titles. I find for myself this is also true. I tend to do older titles I audio. While this is my observation on 3/14/25, you can use the list any time to identify trends in audiobook readership, just the same as you can use the USA Today's bestseller list. When we look at what books are selling the most at any given time AND over the span of a few weeks, months, or even for the entire year, we can see larger trends emerge.  

It is important to include the voice of our audiobook listeners in our collection development and displays-- of both print and audio titles. Readers are readers are readers. Some cross over the format (like myself), others stick to one or the other. But all of them are readers. Their voices need to be reflected in our collections and our displays, lists, and other merchandising pursuits. 

But also, back to the beginning, being a "bestseller" alone is an appeal factor we should be highlighting and promoting because it is one our readers use to find their next good read. Thankfully, we now have a reliable resource to help us consider the "bestseller" genre for our audio listeners as well. 

What I'm Reading: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Today I have one of the most hotly anticipated books of the new year, and it does not disappoint. This book is stellar and damn good.

The official review appears in the October 15, 2024 issue of Booklist. Below is my draft review and bonus appeal content. 

STAR

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

By Grady Hendrix

Jan. 2025. 432p. Berkley, $30 (9780593548981); paper, $19 (9780593818183). 
First published October 15, 2024 (Booklist).

Neva, fifteen and pregnant in 1970, is brought in secrecy to Florida and the Wellwood House, a maternity home by name, but a prison in practice, a stand-in for such homes that proliferated across the US and Canada between 1945 and 1973. Once admitted Neva is renamed Fern, to protect her from the shame she is reassured, ends after she gives birth. Abandoned, alone, and struggling to access information about what is happening to their bodies, angry at being told they alone must pay for their sins, Fern and her roommates– Zinnia, the only black girl, Rose, a hippie, and Holly, a molested 14 year old– are given a copy of “How to Be a Groovy Witch” by the bookmobile librarian and their lives are changed forever. Told from Fern’s perspective, this is an original and nuanced addition to the witch cannon. However, it is the clear, accurate, and intensely visceral body horror of pregnancy and birth laid bare, that may catch readers off guard. Another stellar novel from Hendrix, a story that has a strong emotional core, compelling plot, unforgettable characters, and 360 degrees of terror. For fans of Horror that empowers the powerless as written by Gwendolyn Kiste, Gabino Iglesias and The Reformatory by Tananarive Due.

YA Statement: Teen horror readers will be invested in Fern, Holly, Zinnia, and Rose’s story which, despite taking place in 1970, is unfortunately still relevant today.

Three Words That Describe This Book: visceral, empowerment, intense

Further Appeal: You all, Hendrix is a DAMN GOOD writer. 

Let's start with the fact that he is a man and it is about pregnant teens. As someone who has been pregnant twice and lived as a young woman in a world that thinks we are all "wayward"-- I am mad that Grady got it all so perfectly correctly. I mean not really mad, but damn, he got it all right. I know this book is based on real experiences from people in his own family and history, but still. I can't wait for men to read this book and be "shocked" and horrified" by the 2 giving birth scenes. They are visceral, intense and also 100% accurate.

I already see people warning others about the graphic birthing scenes; even lowering the star ratings because of it. Giving birth is supposed to be natural and a part of life. It also happens to be body horror by definition. You grow another human and must expel it. There should not have to be a warning. The fact that people feel the need-- this is why the book had to be written and by a man because a woman would be called extra or hysterical for doing it. I cannot wait for the first 1 star review by man who says it is "too much." I will cackle at the moon under the stars. 

But seriously, I also hope that reading this book gives male readers a lot more respect for the women in their lives. It is unfortunate, but I know that many men need a man to write a book to see it. Hendrix has added content in the book (afterward) that explains his personal connection to this story. He also talks at length about the history of the homes for pregnant teens to give readers even more horrifying context.

The work Hendrix put in to researching these homes, whose existence ends after Roe passes, is remarkable. I didn't even know they were a thing. It adds another level of real life horror to the book. And because we know they end with Roe and yet we also know Roe was recently rescinded-- that adds an entirely new level of fear. It also reminds you that this is not a story from the past– this is a horror that is still happening.

The setting's time is important though, because it is a moment of huge turmoil and change in America as a country, and these girls are locked away yet understand that they need more power in their own lives. They have none. And yet, they are carrying new life.

The witch part itself is original, surprising, and terrifying but also uplifting. Often witches are used in Horror novels about powerless women in similar ways. I do not want to give anything away here but in this tumultuous time, even the old ways of the witches are changing. They are not there to help to girls because they are nice friendly witches. I will leave it at that.

There are excerpts from the "How to be a Groovy Witch" book within this book as well. That was cool.

I just can't stress enough how much this is a perfectly constructed book from the details to the pacing to the characters to the setting. It has an intensity that unsettles you coming at the reader from every angle that allowed the Horror to infiltrate every page and the reader. And, the ending wrecked me.

Readalikes: The readalike authors above are a great place to begin. Of course, readers new to Hendrix should read everything he has written and use this link to find more readalikes for each of his books from me. Also the Jade Daniels trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones is a great readalike here, especially My Heart is a Chainsaw which can be read as a standalone.

The Real Bestseller List With Self Published Context

I read the Shelf Awareness daily newsletter for Bookseller and Librarians every single day. It is free and extremely useful. Every Tuesday at the end of the newsletter, they post the bestselling self-published books from the last week as compiled by IndieReader.com.

This list allows me-- and all of you who read the newsletter-- to see which self-published books are garnering the most sales. It is a great way to find up and coming voices to add to our collections, especially our ebook collections. At my library we have entire iPads of Kindle books, usually by genre, but also with just over all  bestsellers, that we circulate for people to read these books because some are e only.

But until this week, I never really thought about how the top self-published books stack up against the traditional titles. 

So yesterday, I did some digging. I matched the IndieReader list to last week's USA Today Bestsellers list because that USA Today list turned over today and the IndieReader numbers were from last week. I needed to compare apples to apples.

Before I reveal the list, I want to remind all of you that the USA Today Best-Selling Booklist is the only list out there that looks at every book and their raw sales numbers, anywhere and everywhere. They do not separate out fiction from nonfiction, youth from adult, paperback from hardcover, print from ebooks. So last week's top 5 were the two Rebecca Yarros books, then Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Mitch Album, and the Matthew Perry Memoir from 2022. Click here for the entire 11/22/23 list.

Okay, now that we have the context, here are the self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com w/ USA Today numbers from the 11/22 list. Source Shelf Awareness 11/28/23 (USA Today numbers added by me):

1. Twisted Love by Ana Huang 

    USA Today 35
2. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

    USA Today 51
3. Love Redesigned by Lauren Asher

    USA Today 52
4. King of Greed by Ana Huang

    USA Today 73

5. The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy

    USA Today 125
6. A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn

    USA Today 126
7. King of Wrath by Ana Huang

    USA Today 136

______________________________

8. Make-Believe Match by Melanie Harlow
9. After the Storm by Laura Pavlov
10. Good Elf Gone Wrong by Alina Jacobs

Let's think about this. Really think. The top 7 best selling self-published titles in America are all in the top 150 of ALL BOOKS sold last week.

Now I want you to be truly honest here. Ana Huang, you should know. That's no surprise. She is selling enough to make the NYT Paperback list. But do you even know about the other titles or authors. Probably not. But you need to know about them because they are the top selling books in the country.

Now I want to go into an ever deeper dive. Let's look more closely at Huang in particular who last week had the 35th, 73rd, and 136th bestselling books in the country. On last week's NYT trade paperback fiction list, she was 9 and 12. Okay, that's good right. Seems accurate,

But when we dig deeper we see larger issues that hinder our ability to understand how well the self-published books are actually doing. You see, number 1 on last week's NYT trade paperback list was Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree. Again, a book we all know right? But on the USA Today list where Twisted Love was 35, Baldree was 36! One spot below Huang, in real sales, but on the NYT list there are 8 places apart.

I could go on, but you get the point. We know from Colleen Hoover and Rebecca Yarros today, and E.L. James before them, that self-published authors can sell in numbers high enough to matter, but how often are we checking the self-published bestsellers again actual sales data. The numbers are surprising. 

And it matters because it is the devoted readers who are the ones pushing these books to the top of the sales charts. Those devoted readers should be our target audience. And yet, because they don't see the books they love and spend their money on in our collections, they don't think we get them, and they don't think of using us as their pipeline to the books they love. We are losing a large swath of our potential audience simply because we are not paying close enough attention.

Please subscribe to Shelf Awareness' Book Trade newsletter to stay up to date. It is free and you can use much of what they publish  to help you understand the place where book selling and libraries overlap. It will give you a general overview. The Self-Published Bestsellers List is but one specific example.

For those of you who want more than the top 10 self-published titles, there is also a free option from The Hot Sheet, which does a monthly Top 50 of Self-Published eBooks. But that may be a bit overwhelming for some of you who have no self-published titles. Start with the Top 10  each Tuesday from Shelf Awareness and add the newest titles to your collections each week. 

Also as you add more Self-Published bestsellers, market that you have them. Announce on social media, make displays on line and in the library. Promote it. I bet you will see new patrons coming in. And of course, a few months after you start doing this, go back and check the circulation stats on those titles. If they circulate well, which I know they will if you promote them as the best sellers that they are, even say, discover the next Colleen Hoover, in your marketing (or something like that), then you can justify adding more. This will lead you to using the Hot Sheet.

Make it a goal for 2024 to get more serious about adding self-published titles into your collections. They are too "best selling" to ignore.

Tomorrow, I am back with another super useful Attack of the Best Lists.