Category: Guest Posts

Guest Post
by Debbi Mack

When I was invited to be the featured speaker on last year’s Indie Author Day at the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland, I was both honored and surprised. Me, a featured speaker? What had I done lately that merited that designation? While it is true that my first novel made the New York Times eBook bestseller list in 2011, it felt like forever since I’d enjoyed anything like that sort of “success,” at least in the traditional sense of that word.

However, I really wanted to do this event. As one trained in library science and a “frequent flyer” (borrowing-wise) at my own public library, I’m a huge supporter of libraries and books, in general. Continue reading “My Experience as Featured Speaker at Indie Author Day 2016”

Guest Post
by Jacob M. Appel

The American Library Association’s “Declaration for the Right to Libraries” describes libraries as “the great equalizer,” institutions that provide access to knowledge for any person — of any age, background, class or creed — endowed with intellectual curiosity. Libraries are among the only places on earth that truly welcome everyone. As a lifelong public library fanatic — I have visited nearly one thousand in forty-nine states — I certainly appreciate the joy of walking into a two-room Carnegie library in an unfamiliar town or a sleepy branch library in an alien metropolis and suddenly feeling at home. But for small press authors, public libraries serve as equalizers of a different sort too. In an era when the “Big Five” publishers dominate the literary marketplace, rendering a book review in a major newspaper or even shelf space at Barnes & Noble a pipe dream for many talented authors, the local public library offers a welcome opportunity for partnership. Continue reading “Make Your Library Your Publicist”