5 Reasons Why Selling to Libraries is a Top Priority

5 Reasons Why Selling to Libraries is a Top Priority 5 Reasons Why Selling to Libraries Needs to be a Top Priority Amy Collins is a publishing industry expert, author of The Write Way, and founder of New Shelves Books, one of the fastest growing book distribution, sales, and marketing companies in North America. As a former sales director for a large book and magazine publisher, she has sold to Barnes Noble, Target, Costco, and many other major chains.If you are looking for a new source of income from your self-published book, libraries are something you really should consider. Libraries in the US are experiencing a huge surge in foot traffic. Public librarians are seeing a LOT more patrons, and their check out rates are skyrocketing. The good news? Â  Their budgets are going up too. In many cities, the annual budget for libraries is increasing - new locations are opening, and old ones are reopening at historical rates.US libraries spend over 3 billion dollars each year on materials (books, magazines, e-journals), so you should consider using some of your sales and marketing time to present yo ur book to librarians. US Libraries spend over $3b a year on materials. How can #selfpub authors get a piece of the pie? 1. Fiction and Children’s books are the top categories, but non-fiction is catching upAccording to the ALA Materials Survey published in March 2015, the most popular categories in public libraries were Children’s picture books, general fiction, mystery/thrillers, cookbooks and memoir/bio. The complete list is here.2. Librarians want more books that drive traffic into their libraries.When more people come to a library, it demonstrates the need for that library in the community. Â  As a result, budgets will go up; they will hire more staff, and everyone is happy. For independent authors, this is also great news: 92% of librarians surveyed between May 2016 – July 2016 by New Shelves stated that they regularly buy books from self-published authors and small presses. 3. eBooks and audiobooks are the fastest growing type of book purchases.Ebook and audiobooks are a terrific way to get your book into the hands of avid readers. Â  Libraries spend over 25% of their budgets on ebooks and audiobook downloads. These types of books cost you far less to sell because there are no printing costs. Focus on your ebook and audiobook sales to libraries and make even MORE money.To learn more about how to get your ebooks into libraries, read our master guide on ebook distribution!4. Sell to one library, sell to manyOnce one library has your book and the check-out rates start showing up on reports, other librarians will start ordering your book. The growth and spread of your book’s sales and popularity will start happening while you are not even looking! Get your book into a few libraries within a system and watch out for your new sales.5. You can do this with just a few simple materials.There are materials that Librarians can use to decide if your book is something they want to buy. These items are:a one-page sales sheet with your book’s details and description,a one-page sheet about the author that showcases what a great person you are,a marketing plan and an outline showing all the ways you are going to promote the book,a list of things you are willing to do to help the library promote the book and your topic.Create an email that focuses on the librarian's goals instead of on how great your book is. The proper attitude, the right tone, and appropriate submission materials will get you much further than your belief that your book should be a best-seller.Have you ever considered selling your book to a library, or does it seem like too much effort for too little return? Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Definition and Examples of Parrhesia

Definition and Examples of Parrhesia In classical rhetoric, parrhesia is free, frank, and fearless speech. In ancient Greek thought, speaking with parrhesia meant saying everything or speaking ones mind. An intolerance of parrhesia, notes S. Sara Monoson, marked tyranny of both the Hellenic and Persian varieties in the Athenian view. . . . The coupling of freedom and parrhesia in the democratic self-image . . . functioned to assert two things: the critical attitude appropriate to a democratic citizen, and the open life promised by democracy (Platos Democratic Entanglements, 2000). Examples and Observations The author of [Rhetorica] ad Herennium discussed a figure of thought called parrhesia (frankness of speech). This figure occurs when, talking before those to whom we owe reverence or fear, we yet exercise our right to speak out, because we seem justified in reprehending them, or persons dear to them, for some fault (IV xxxvi 48). For example: The university administration has tolerated hate speech on this campus, and so to some extent they are responsible for its widespread use. An opposing figure is litotes(understatement), where a rhetor diminishes some feature of the situation that is obvious to all.(Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. Pearson, 2004)To best reflect the meanings in its own context, parrhesia should be thought of as true speech: the parrhesiastes is the one who speaks the truth. Parrhesia required that the speaker use the most direct words and expressions possible in order to make it clear that whatever he might be saying wa s his own opinion. As a speech activity, parrhesia was largely limited to male citizens.(Kyle Grayson, Chasing Dragons. University of Toronto Press, 2008) What is basically at stake in parrhesia is what could be called, somewhat impressionistically, the frankness, freedom, and openness, that leads one to say what one has to say, as one wishes to say it, when one wishes to say it, and in the form one thinks is necessary for saying it. The term parrhesia is so bound up with the choice, decision, and attitude of the person speaking that the Latins translated it by, precisely, libertas [speaking freely].(Michel Foucault, The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the College de France 19811982. Macmillan, 2005)The Fearless Speech of Malcolm XMalcolm X is the great example of parrhesia in the black prophetic tradition. The term goes back to line 24A of Platos Apology, where Socrates says, the cause of my unpopularity was my parrhesia, my fearless speech, my frank speech, my plain speech, my unintimidated speech. The hip hop generation talks about keeping it real. Malcolm was as real as it gets. James Brown talked about make it funky. Malc olm was always. Bring in the funk, bring in the truth, bring in the reality. . . .When Malcom looked at black life in America, he saw wasted potential; he saw unrealized aims. This kind of prophetic witness can never be crushed. There was no one like him in terms of having the courage to risk life and limb to speak such painful truths about America.(Cornel West, Firebrand. Smithsonian, February 2015) Eisenhower on the Military-Industrial ComplexWe annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influenceeconomic, political, even spiritualis felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an aler t and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. . . .Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent, I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war, as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years, I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But so much remains to be done.(President Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell Address , January 17, 1961) Straight Talk as a Rhetorical TropeI read S. Sara Monosons excellent work on parrhesia (frank speech) in ancient Athens. I thought, this is itwe can use this ethic of parrhesia as our own democratic ideal! But then I began to notice that our popular culture in fact already praised something like parrhesia: straight talk. Political theorists also have a similar ethic: sincerity. But the problem was that a lot of straight-talkers seemed deeply undemocratic: straight talk seemed to have become a trope, another tool of crafty politicians and smart advertising executives.(Elizabeth Markovits, The Politics of Sincerity: Plato, Frank Speech, and Democratic Judgment. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008)