Research and contact relevant libraries
Track library systems contacted, forms used, and outcomes
Keep one log of every library system you have approached, how, when, and what happened, so outreach stays polite, unduplicated, and useful for the next book.
Why it matters
Library outreach only works over time and only if it stays respectful, and both depend on remembering what you did. The log turns scattered contacts into a campaign you can see, prevents duplicate approaches, and gives you evidence about what worked when the next book comes around.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author and Publicist. Author keeps the log; publicist contributes
- When
- Ongoing, from the first library contact (Research and contact relevant libraries: after publication, and only through each library's own process)
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Library outreach is slow and spread out: a form here, an email there, a suggestion from a reader, a copy mailed to a branch. Without a record, you cannot tell which systems you have already approached, which said no, which asked you to wait for reviews, and which quietly bought the book. The log is a table with a row per library system: the system, the policy route, the date and method of contact, the person if any, what you sent, the response, and the outcome (bought, declined, no response, holds now visible).
The outcome column is the useful one. Link it to what you see in the library's catalog or in WorldCat holdings, so the log shows which approaches led to copies on shelves. Over a year that pattern tells you where library outreach pays and where it does not, which is worth more than any general advice.
On any path this is the author's or publicist's record. A publicist who does library outreach should hand over their log at the end of the engagement. The log also protects you from the most common outreach mistake, which is contacting the same library twice because you forgot the first time.
Keep it for the life of the book and start the next book's log from it.
Common mistakes
- Keeping contacts in email and losing track.
- Not recording no response, then asking again too soon.
- Recording the contact but not the outcome.
- Letting the publicist's log leave with the publicist.
- Starting fresh for the next book instead of building on this one.
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
- One table with a row per library system contacted, including route, date, method, contact, materials, response, and outcome.
- Outcomes linked to catalog or holdings evidence where visible.
- Systems that declined or excluded authors marked so they are not approached again.
- A publicist's outreach log merged in at the end of the engagement.
- The log reviewed quarterly alongside the holdings check.
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