[Gary Wassner]

You're older and wiser, I suspect. We all live our lives in retrospect to some degree. It's important to recognize where you came from.

[KatG]

I am impressed. I have to tell that to Scott.

I know that the publisher or my children's books automatically delivers to almost all of the libraries in the US. It's the most stable portion of their business because the libraries never return books and there is no middle man, so the profit is greater as well. It also guarantees us, the authors, great distribution. But, sadly, that's not the case with fantasy publishers. Usually, the books must be ordered by the library, so the independent presses and the small presses get left out of that loop entirely.


Because so much of the sff market is paperback, a lot of libraries are not set up to carry much of it, but that's changing and the sff publishers are doing more hardcovers and trade paperbacks specifically to get books into libraries. Also, if library subscribers request books, the library will often order it for them, or at least consider doing it. If they get enough requests or a work looks like it's getting a lot of attention, they will often try to stock it, even if it's small press. But sometimes they can't afford small press prices, since the small presses can't always do the discounts that the bigger boys can and library budgets have been shrunk over the years.