How and Why Libraries Can Embrace Self-Published Books

We’ll just start with this: I have self-published several books, and while I won’t call any of them “good,” I will call them “competent” and “reasonably deserving of some library shelf space.”

This is my level of salesmanship: I’m willing to shamefully admit that I have books for sale.

That being said, I really believe that more and more self-published books are going to make their way onto library shelves, IF the library is keeping up with the times.

First, let’s get into why you should consider buying self-pub books for your collection, and then we’ll get into how you can do it.

The Classics of Self-Publishing

We’re starting here because too many people labor under the false assumption that self-published books are garbage. That’s WHY they’re self-published, right? Because no reputable outlet would publish them?

Jane Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was self-published. Yuuuup.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was put out by a publisher, but entirely bankrolled by Dickens.

Leaves of Grass, Huckleberry Finn, Mrs. Dalloway, What Color is Your Parachute? — all initially self-published.

Now, we can get picky and bitchy about this. Mrs. Dalloway technically came out of a publishing house, but it was a publishing house Virginia Woolf ran in her living room with her husband. So, I mean, technically not self-published, but if Steve RandomHouse’s (probably not the real CEO of Random House’s name) wife had a book come out from Random House, would we not be a bit suspicious about its bona fides?

Huckleberry Finn had a publisher lined up, but Twain wasn’t happy with them, so he created his own publishing house and put the book out.

Dickens had a book come out that didn’t sell so hot, and so his negotiations with a publisher were a lot more difficult. Writers who’ve had a BIG book come out with a lot of oomph behind it, and then failed to sell shitloads of copies, will tell you this is a very real thing in publishing.

There are many reasons people end up self-publishing, and it’s not all about a book being so sucky that it shouldn’t see the light of day, nor the booklight of night that’s supposedly going to let your partner sleep, but, be real, lights up the whole freakin’ room.

A book being self-published is not proof it sucks or that today’s standards are too low. I mean, tell that to Jane Austen.

The Moderns

The Martian was a self-published book, and it was one of the last books I would remember calling a “phenomenon.”

Legally Blonde, Eragon, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Still Alice, The Shack, and of course, 50 Shades of Grey. All started life as self-published books.

I bring these up not to remake the same point that we’ve got above, but to say instead that these are not just reasonably popular books, these were HITS. They were big, big sellers, and if the library wants to have books PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY READING on the shelves, and if they want to be ahead of the game, they are going to have to start looking at the self-pub world.

Niche

An important thing for libraries to do is to identify opportunities. What’s a niche we can get into?

I’ve long fantasized about taking over the local university’s music library and building the best metal collection in the United States. Because I tried to get a copy of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave, and not a single library in the state has it! That’s insane! The closest copy is in…UTAH!? How are the Mormons out-metal-ing us? In what world does that make any sense?

Learning this, I checked for lots of other metal classics, and you’d be pretty hard-pressed to find them anywhere.

What if a library started collecting metal albums? Bootlegs? Performances?

Anyway, enough of my fantasy life, reality is that libraries can’t just open wide and swallow whatever publishers are pushing forever. It’s with the help of libraries, through libraries, that self-publishing can gain some legitimacy, and that’s how we’re going to keep books lively, interesting, and THAT is how we keep things circulating.

Your library could become THE source for modern romance. THE hub of extreme horror.

Your library’s collection could be one that people use in order to discover new authors, new genres, and different reading experiences. It can be the kind of thing that people are excited about because they don’t know what they might find next.

Diversity

We talk a big diversity game in the library, but I pose this: do you think underrepresented groups are well-represented in traditional publishing?

If you can’t afford an MFA (because you can’t afford a post-grad degree program for $40k that has absolutely no prospects of making that money back), or if you can’t afford to live and work in Manhattan, one of the most expensive places to live on the planet, good fucking luck.

Self-publishing, on the other hand, is wide open.

There is NO indicator or even checkbox when you self-publish on Kindle regarding your race, economic class, or anything of the sort. Your books are NEVER rejected based on having natural hair in your author photo. It’s…kind of impossible for a self-publishing platform to turn you down because you’re disabled.

Yes, you need computer access, and, yes, you need a certain level of education to make it work. But, hey, do you think you’re getting traditionally published without those things anyway?

The best chance for someone who may not be published due to their identities is self-publishing.

Which means you have a great opportunity to diversify your collection through self-published books.

Hearts and Minds

If you’ve got a reasonable budget, buying a single copy of a local author’s self-published book might do more for you than buying a copy of some trad published thing that barely puts up any numbers.

We’ve had a number of local authors who then hype up their books’ presence in our collection, post about it on social media. And these things DO bring people to the library, as well as providing free advertising, AND you can bet when it comes time to vote for a budget increase for the library, that local author (and their close friends and family) are now on board.

Winning a tax increase for the library does a hell of a lot more for you than carefully protecting $12.99 of budget.

How It’s Done

Now that I’ve convinced you…well, an attempt was made, at least—now that you’ve heard the arguments for Why, what about How?

Local Authors

Have a request/suggestion form specifically for local self-published authors. Specify what “local” is, DO have some standards for quality and so on, make it clear that the book may be weeded based on the standards that apply to all titles, and if all that’s good, just buy the goddamn thing.

If you email back and forth 10 times with an author who’s…let’s call them “persistent,” you’ve probably already wasted more money, time-wise, than you would have by just purchasing the thing.

Policy Edits

Lots of libraries have collection development policies that make it difficult to put self-published books on the shelves. And I DO understand why: It’s pretty nice to point to something whenever a self-pub author wants (or demands, when they’re a jerk) to have their book on the shelf.

But tossing out all self-pub books is a whole baby out with the bathwater thing, which you shouldn’t be doing, just from the standpoint that throwing that water in the street is gross. Babies pee in the bath all the time. We all know it. Why are you covering our city streets in urine, you freak?

Consider why you have self-publishing policies in the first place, and do things to compensate.

Is it to ensure a level of interest? Could you, instead, say that you don’t generally buy books with fewer than X Amazon reviews?

Is it about quality? Like, you don’t want any typos in your collection? Bad news, chump, that ship has sailed. Trad publishing isn’t exactly a perfect machine. But, okay, could you create a “board” which operates like a book club, reading self-published titles and determining whether they meet the standards of quality that are appropriate for library purchase? Wouldn’t this be a dope volunteer opportunity for readers and library lovers?

And the biggie, if these policies are about making it easy to say No to self-pub authors, learn how to say No instead. Replace policy with action.

Some authors are pushy, some will want an explanation. You need to find a way to say a firm, reasonable No that doesn’t rely on the ol’ “Our policies don’t allow me to, my hands are tied!”

The Evils of Amazon

Some libraries have a really mad-on for Amazon to the point they’ve instituted “no buying from Amazon” rules for themselves.

Guys, this is foolish.

I’m not saying you should buy EVERYTHING from Amazon, but in the libraries where I’ve seen this policy in action, I can turn around to a shelf of office supplies that are from Amazon. I see program supplies from Amazon.

It’s one thing to cut off Amazon buys for things like program supplies, which you can ALWAYS find somewhere else, perhaps for just a little more money. But it’s another to cut yourself off from Amazon as a publisher, because this removes your opportunity to buy certain items at ANY price.

Overall Collection Philosophy

I think it’s time to start seeing books as they are, which, in 2024, is something a bit more ephemeral.

Maybe our collection budget SHOULD move a little into being more about buying books that circulate really well for a brief period, then fall off a cliff.

Maybe we get as good a return on investment from a short burst of activity as we do from a longer, slower-paced circulation.

Maybe weeding cycles can be shorter for books that are expected to have a brief window of appeal.

What I’m saying is, maybe it’s okay to buy things, keep them for shorter periods, and move onto the next thing. Maybe we don’t need to keep things for 5 years all the time.

Books, like most media, come and go more quickly in 2024 than they did in 2004. We need to accept that.

What to Keep an Eye On

The top 100 Kindle bestsellers is a great place to start. Currently at number 1 as of this writing is Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver, which was published by…Elsie Silver Literary Inc. Hm, sounds pretty self-pub to me.

The Bonus by T.L. Swan, Madness by Shantel Tessier, Haunting Adeline — all in the top 15, all have paperback editions, and all certainly appear to be self-published.

Kindle Movers and Shakers is another good resource, by my estimation.

Booktok is another great source of information, as well as Bookstagram.

Here’s what I don’t recommend: industry publications and databases like Novelist.

If you’re getting all your stuff from PW, that’s cool, but you’re not going to find a lot of self-pub there.

Novelist is a great tool overall, but it sucks for this particular purpose.

I looked up Aron Beauregard on Novelist, and there are no hits. Chandler Morrison has one book, but not his more recent, popular titles. Duncan Ralston, Patrick C. Harrison III, Daniel J. Volpe — all return small, red text that lets me know these people do not exist in Novelist’s database.

These are smaller, often self-pub extreme horror authors, and I don’t expect Novelist to list all of them. But if you even dabble in the genre, these are familiar names to you.

It’s not about Novelist being crappy, I’m telling you that if you look up an author in Novelist, and they don’t appear, it doesn’t mean they are not popular.

Romance is going to be similar, erotica, fantasy, there are plenty of genres that Novelist just isn’t keeping up with because so much of what’s hot in these genres has moved away from trad publishing.

New types of work sometimes require new tools.