Local libraries featuring local authors…
Many residents in Montclair, NJ where I live are associated with the publishing industry—editors, journalists, screenwriters, and book authors. We’re just thirteen miles from the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, so that makes sense. People stay close but move out of NYC to have some room for their growing families, and these people associated with the publishing industry are no exceptions.
There are pros and cons for Montclair authors. The big positive is that these people surround me and enrich my life as a writer. The big negative is that local bookstores have never paid any attention to me. That’s just non-productive whining, of course, and I understand where that attitude comes from: we’re too close to the Big Five, those big publishing conglomerates that, together with their big name authors, still dominate the book publishing business. Bookstores are overwhelmed with Big Five books, so mongrels like me (traditionally and self-published authors) are puny signals lost in the noise created by the Big Five.
One place where the Big Five can’t dominate are those local library shelves that feature local authors. Libraries feature their local authors, even in Montclair. There are many reasons for them to do this. The first is that the library patrons like to see books by local authors. We’re all part of the same community, after all. The second is that local authors often donate books to our local libraries. I’d be surprised if the Big Five or any of their authors do that.
I was reading our great little local newspaper awhile ago, The Montclair Local (it’s killing the older one, The Montclair Times, especially after some big newspaper conglomerate bought it). I was surprised to see Soldiers of God, my 2008 sci-fi thriller, in a pic of a rack in the Montclair Public Library containing books by local writers (that’s a print version from Infinity; there’s a 2014 ebook second edition, and I provided no link to the first because there are major changes between them). Most scientists, even those no longer practicing their professions, are observant, and, as an ex-scientist, I’m no exception. Of course the book has a striking cover (both editions, but the Infinity edition has a Juan Valdes-like campesino in the mountains of Colombia riding a burro toward a mushroom cloud—read the book). My eyes went right to it.
Like many of my “old books” (many consider 2008 “old” in today’s publishing environment, especially online retailers), it’s as current now as when I published it, maybe even more so. And it’s a “bridge book” connecting two series, the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” (now all three books in the latter trilogy are bundled together as one ebook–see below).
I was happy to see the library’s copy still looked OK, but I was also sad to see it in that good condition at the same time. I’ve donated many print versions to libraries, including the Montclair Public Library—most are worse for wear, beaten up and dog-eared (they’re trade paperbacks, after all), so I’ve often replaced many of them with new copies. Hopefully more library readers try Soldiers of God. To be immodest, I’d say it contains some of my best prose. Maybe readers are scared of the mushroom cloud? Buy the ebook then.
But back to libraries. I’ve also donated books on the West Coast, thanks to an old high school chum. (I’d do the Midwest if I had old high school chums who lived there.) I also offer special prices for my ebooks to public libraries on Smashwords, which translates to their affiliated library services getting a break on prices (although all my books are inexpensive to begin with).
You see, my main goal as an author is to write stories that will entertain readers however they read my books. I’m also a great believer in public libraries. My reading life was enriched by them at a tender age.
And doesn’t everyone feel more comfortable browsing through recently published books in a quiet library than in a crowded bookstore? I have nothing against bookstores and know they’re having a tough time in this modern publishing environment, but I hope libraries will go on forever.
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Comments are always welcome.
Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection. From a dystopian Earth dominated by multinationals and their mercenaries, to star colonies and first contact, and to the future and beyond where a maniacal industrialist seeks to conquer all near-Earth planets, this trilogy contains in one ebook Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Zamba Galactica, and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hands! This bargain bundle of three books is available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, Walmart, etc).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
