They Wrote It (Or Maybe You Wrote It) - Now What? Assisting Authors at Your Library

Handout Notes from the Program Presented at the
Kansas Library Association Triconference
Friday, April 7, 2006, 10:30-11:20 AM by
Jerri Garretson
Hale Library, Kansas State University & Ravenstone Press
Email: raven@interkan.net

Handout Notes from the Program Presented at the Kansas Library Association Triconference Friday, April 7, 2006, 10:30-11:20 AM by Jerri Garretson Hale Library, Kansas State University & Ravenstone Press Email: raven@interkan.net
Does everyone have at least one book in them? Once it’s written, what then? Submit to editors? Self publish? What about POD and ebook publishing? Who does the marketing? What about shorter works and submitting to magazines? Learn enough to help those budding authors, even if one of them is you! There is no more natural partnership than libraries and writers. This is a way you can stay relevant. What can you provide that someone else can’t? A focus on your local resources. I am surprised how few libraries even acknowledge their local authors. It’s as though only authors from elsewhere are valued or worth their time.
Section I. Twenty Ways to Assist Writers in Your Library Section II. Typical Situations, "Don'ts" and Misconceptions Section III. 18 FAQs About Writing and Publishing Section IV. Books and Online Resources about Writing and Publishing
Twenty ways to assist writers in your library: (See internal links and the resource lists at the end) Not every library will be able to do all of these, and not all of them will be useful at every library. 1. Add current books on writing and publishing to your collection. 2. Subscribe to writers’ magazines. 3. Bring in authors who do writing workshops to do programs at your library for those in your community interested in learning how to write and submit their work. 4. Buy local authors’ books for your collection and identify them and/or display them. 5. Invite local published writers to give programs and signings at your library. 6. Provide a contact point for authors to find each other in your community or across the state. 7. Provide an inviting place for writing groups to meet. 8. Provide a good reference collection. 9. Provide excellent interlibrary loan service. Authors may need resources you don’t have. 10. Help start a critique group – in person, online or both. 11. Help start a writing social group. 12. Feature local authors and their work on a page of your website. Keep it up to date. 13. Link to good writing websites. 14. Introduce your local authors to the Kansas Center for the Book and its website, or its equivalent in your state. 15. Know your collection; suggest current books to aspiring writers that will increase their knowledge of what is being published in their area of writing interest. 16. Offer a “writers’ tour” of your library, or a “writers’ fair” to show them resources they might not know you have and get to meet them. 17. Give publishers’ catalogs to local authors instead of throwing them away or recycling them. 18. Learn about the publishing process so you can give basic advice. 19. Be honest with authors about reviews and collection development, and which reviews are valuable. 20. Share review journals with authors who express an interest in reading or learning about them.
Twenty Ways to Assist Writers in Your Library (above) Typical Situations, "Don'ts" and Misconceptions 18 FAQs About Writing and Publishing Books and Online Resources about Writing and Publishing Back to the Top

Ravenstone Press *Stories of Kansas and the Great Plains*
They Wrote It (Or Maybe You Wrote It) - Now What? Assisting Authors at Your Library Section I: Twenty Ways to Assist Writers in Your Library