Research and contact relevant libraries
Research each library's purchase-suggestion or author-submission policy
Before contacting any library system, read its published policy on purchase suggestions and local author submissions, and follow it exactly rather than emailing whoever you can find.
Why it matters
Library staff wrote the policy so that suggestions reach the right person in a usable form. Following it means your suggestion is evaluated; bypassing it means it is deleted or forwarded with a sigh. Research also tells you which libraries can realistically buy the book, so you spend outreach where it can work.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author and Publicist. Author or publicist researches; libraries set the rules
- When
- Before contacting any library (Research and contact relevant libraries: after publication, and only through each library's own process)
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Almost every public library system publishes how it wants to hear about books. Many have a purchase suggestion form for cardholders. Some have a specific local author or self-published author submission process, sometimes with a form, sometimes with a mailing address for a review copy, sometimes with a stated policy that they consider only titles with professional reviews or wholesaler availability. A few say plainly that they do not accept author submissions. Each of these is a rule that the staff follow, and an author who follows it is taken seriously.
The research is straightforward: for each library system on your list, find the collection development or 'suggest a purchase' page, read it, and record the route, the requirements, any limits (cardholders only, one suggestion per month, print only), and the contact it names. If the policy requires a library card, note whether you or someone you know holds one. If it requires a professional review, note whether you have one. If it asks for a review copy by mail, note the address and the format.
On any path this is the author's or publicist's work. Publishers do not research individual library policies, and library marketing from a publisher operates through wholesalers and trade reviews, not through these forms. Start with libraries where you have a real connection (home, hometown, the book's setting) and with systems large enough that one purchase means several copies.
Do this before contacting anyone. A polite email that ignores a published process is the fastest way to be ignored.
Common mistakes
- Emailing the director because the form looked like too much trouble.
- Submitting a suggestion to a library that requires a card you do not hold.
- Ignoring a stated requirement for professional reviews and hoping.
- Treating a 'we do not accept author submissions' policy as a challenge.
- Not recording the policy, then repeating the research for the next book.
A template for this
Library purchase-process inquiryA brief, respectful note asking a library how it prefers to receive information about a new book, rather than asking it to buy one.
When to use it: Use this when you have read the library system's published policy and found no clear route for authors, or the policy says to contact a selector. Send it to one appropriate person, once. Do not use this when the published policy already answers the question. Follow the policy instead, and never send this to every branch.
What done looks like
- A list of target library systems with each one's policy page, route, requirements, limits, and contact recorded.
- Requirements you cannot meet (no card, no professional review) noted so you do not waste the request.
- Systems that do not accept author submissions marked and left alone.
- The list prioritized by connection and size.
- Everything done before the first contact.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified