At the Library

At the library yesterday I overheard a rather loud conversation between two local people who’ve written a book and wanted the library to purchase a copy since they live in this town. The librarian at the desk congratulated them and went on to explain that the library will accept a donated copy of the book, but wouldn’t purchase it unless it had been recommended by a professional reviewer like Book List.

She went on to tell them how to get their self-published book reviewed and that the library buys about 3,000 books a month.

I was disappointed and a bit shocked that our hometown library wouldn’t support residents who’ve written a book by purchasing one. Instead it’ll take months to go through a lot of rigamarole. Clearly, not everyone in town publishes a book every month.

I think that unless the book costs over $100 or is absolutely full of hate, they should buy a resident’s book. After all their $300 plus a year taxes support the library. No doubt they buy every Danielle Steele or Patterson book and those can be churned out monthly, but they don’t support their own people.

I did remember that I asked them if they bought my book, Dora McDonald on Trial (available on Amazon.com). They hadn’t though another nearby town had. They just ignored my request that I made months ago.