Re: Authors market
Concerning libraries...
I am a librarian (Yes, I have a soft spot for that line from "The Mummy"), and I am the person they turn to when collection development needs advise about small press, vanity, etc.
We get a lot of PA books. For some reason, there are a lot of people in this area who think PA is the perfect solution (though I have tried to educate them) to their publishing needs, and they don't seem to understand why we turn their books down. There is one local author in particular who has taught classes and tells people that PA is the best place to get published, and the local writer's guild buys into this dog and pony show because most of them are writing stuff too local to get published mainstream.
This, of course, is why I do not belong to the local writer's guild. As a fellow writer and I both noted, they want to talk about being writers, but they don't really want do the work required, and so they are always looking for shortcuts to publication.
There are no shortcuts.
Our main reason, of course, is that we look to add books to our collection that have some permanent value (as permanent as you can get, considering that you do have to weed a collection from time to time). To this end, when we get a vanity, self-published or PA book, we mainly look to see whether or not we think it will be an asset to the collection. Of the thirty or so PA books I have had thrown in my direction in the last year, I have advised collection development to accept one, and only because the author was local and had actually written a mystery novel with a local historical setting, and had clearly done her research. However, because the writing in the book was not exactly--up to standard, we decided that instead of adding it as a circulating book, we would put it in the archive section as "work by local author with historical value."
From my own point of view, having worked so hard to sell my last six books the old-fashioned way, I am not terribly fond of anyone publishers who assume there is one born every minute that they can fleece.
And yes, my own small press books are in the library collection here (and elsewhere, I have learned), but not because I work here. My writing career has had to be kept separate from my work as a librarian (the former director here was much opposed to me drawing any sort of attention to my writing even on my own time, and used to actually threaten me if I told anyone I was an author--problem was, I kept telling the papers, and they kept writing about me
).
I just happen to be published by a press that takes returns...
My two cents...for what it's worth.
