By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
The Literary Agent Matchmaker™
As authors and writers, we’re always learning about resources and industry tools that we can use to improve our book project performance and the enjoyment of our writing and marketing experiences. Today let’s talk about why libraries need authors and why authors need libraries.
These days, books are available everywhere – online, on digital gadgets, in booksellers with cafes filled with fancy coffee, in airports and in many other venues.
Gone are the days when we headed off to the library to search the shelves for a great new book in our favorite category and genre.
Are these days really gone?
For many, the library was once a haven – a place to escape from every day life by connecting with stories and worlds beyond our own. For many, it still is.
Libraries don’t only need support from the states and cities they are in, they need to constantly present new reasons for local members of the community to come in and spend time there.
Libraries serve to bring people together around our favorite topic…books!
Although they’ve expanded to now offer videos and audio books to keep up with the times, they still are the home of many books that wouldn’t be read otherwise.
Libraries need authors to help bring in more people so they can experience the joy housed in this sanctuary filled with the outcomes of our efforts as writers and publishers.
As authors, writers and publishers, you may think you don’t need libraries or that they maybe on the endangered species list or on the verge of being extinct.
Think about this: there are many in your community who would never get to read your book if it wasn’t in the library. Without authors, libraries would lose the very reason they were created so long ago: to make books available to the general population.
Authors need libraries to reach more readers, to make a contribution and to have a place in the hearts of each community.
If just one person has the chance to read your book because they had access to it through the library, you as an author have benefited and made a difference in that one life. But who knows how many other lives will be touched as a result of what that one person read in your book that they found in the library?
Whether you entertain, educate or enlighten people with yours, your book is still your hook—even when it’s in the library.
Jennifer’s show can be heard every week on Tuesday mornings at 9am when it is broadcast on WomensRadio.com and syndicated on Google News and Live365.com. Each show is archived for replay listeners in different time zones and countries.
For more information on this Education Corner topic and others, please refer to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog for more articles and resources to help you with your books.