Lateefah Zawistowski – How to Get Your Books and Ebooks into Libraries
Nonfiction Authors Association Podcast | October 26, 2022
“I know that self published authors–they have a lot to worry about, and a lot to keep track of. But I would just say–it’s really important for indies, or even traditionally published authors to understand library digital lending models.”
-Lateefah Zawistowski
About Lateefah Zawistowski
Lateefah Zawistowski is an Account Manager on the Publisher Relations team at OverDrive. Lateefah is responsible for maintaining the day to day relationships with existing publisher partners and for developing new content partner relationships. She enjoys true crime and romance novels and is always up for a good book or podcast recommendation. She resides in Cleveland with her husband, Mike and dog, Braxton.
Nonfiction Authors Podcast: Lateefah Zawistowski
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Show Notes
Links
- OverDrive
- OverDrive Blog
- Libby
- OverDrive Connect
- Draft2Digital (Merged with Smashwords)
- Kobo Writing Life
- Findaway Voices
- Company.overdrive.com
- Panoramaproject.org
- Professional Book Nerds Podcast
In this episode…
- An overview of the OverDrive platform.
- How to submit your digital books to OverDrive through OverDrive Connect.
- eBook distributors that work with OverDrive.
- Why it’s important to understand library digital lending models.
- How to price your digital books.
- Why the library is an important resource for authors, and how it can help you grow your audience.
- Revenue share breakdown for OverDrive.
- Marketing for authors that want to get picked up by libraries.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the interview series for the Nonfiction Authors Association. Today’s session is with Lateefah Zawistowski and we will be talking about how to get your books and Ebooks into libraries. I’m Carla King, your host, and I’m happy to have you with us today. This interview will last only 30 minutes and you can find the replay on our Nonfiction Authors Association website and social media platforms including YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.
This week enjoy a Top Replay from the archives.
Lateefah Zawistowski is an Account Manager on the Publisher Relations team at OverDrive. Lateefah is responsible for maintaining the day to day relationships with existing publisher partners and for developing new content partner relationships. She enjoys true crime and romance novels and is always up for a good book or podcast recommendation. She resides in Cleveland with her husband, Mike and dog, Braxton.
Stephanie Chandler 1:33
Lateefah, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Lateefah Zawistowski 1:36
Thanks for having me.
Stephanie Chandler 1:37
This is such a cool topic. I know it’s going to be really popular with our community. So could you start by telling us about OverDrive, and how it places eBooks and audiobooks in the libraries?
Lateefah Zawistowski 1:50
Sure. So as you mentioned, OverDrive is a digital distributor of eBooks and audiobooks to libraries. We work directly with publishers and authors to get content onto the platform. And then from there, our library partners can choose what titles they would like to purchase and add to their digital collections. Patrons can then go on their library’s website, and browse and borrow titles that have been added by their librarians with their library card. And they can check out titles–again, like I said–on their desktop or on the award winning Libby app.
Stephanie Chandler 2:24
I love the Libby app! I just recently downloaded the Libby app. And I’m smacking myself on the forehead for not doing it sooner, because it is loaded with eBooks and audiobooks that you can access for free through your local library.
Lateefah Zawistowski 2:39
Yes, and it’s very easy to use.
Stephanie Chandler 2:41
Yeah. And that’s all thanks to OverDrive. So let’s talk about how to get involved there. OverDrive Connect is the program that publishers can apply to in order to submit their digital books. What’s the criteria for being accepted into OverDrive Connect?
Lateefah Zawistowski 2:56
So a few things are required to meet the minimum criteria for a direct account. The first, and most important thing, is to not have the content tied up with an exclusive with anyone else. If you choose to put your titles onto OverDrive, it is non-exclusive. But we ask that you don’t have an exclusive anywhere else. You don’t want to get yourself into trouble. And files have to be available in ePub and pass an ePub check. And we also require a minimum of 15 titles by 3 different authors.
Stephanie Chandler 3:30
By 3 different authors. And so, the exclusive note is about, really, KDP Select. I’m personally not a fan. I’m very opinionated about KDP stuff. So what that really means is that if you’ve opted into KDP Select, you’re giving Amazon exclusive distribution rights to your ebooks there. So you want to avoid that. And does that also apply with ACX? Are they requiring exclusive audiobook distribution?
Lateefah Zawistowski 3:58
I would recommend that authors check their agreement with ACX.
Stephanie Chandler 4:03
Okay. And so there are also eBook distribution services that work directly with OverDrive. So if you’re not a publisher with 15 titles and 3 different authors, you can use something like Smashwords–that’s the service that I’ve used and recommended for probably over 10 years now. What other eBook distributors work with OverDrive?
Lateefah Zawistowski 4:29
Thanks for bringing that up. Because I think a lot of times people might get declined for a Direct Connect account and they get a little bit discouraged. But my team is a small team, and there are thousands and thousands of publishers in the world. So it’s impossible for us to work directly with everybody. So a great way to do it is to get connected with Smashwords. Other aggregators that we work with are Draft2Digital and Kobo Writing Life–they don’t cost a lot of money and they can provide distribution, not only through OverDrive, but through some retail outlets as well. Some even help with ePub conversion. And they’re just great partners to have.
Stephanie Chandler 5:09
Awesome. And so if your ebooks are published with these platforms–with Smashwords or Draft2Digital–does that mean they’re automatically available in OverDrive’s catalog?
Lateefah Zawistowski 5:21
Not necessarily. Thank you, that’s a good question. They might not necessarily be automatically enrolled. There’s usually a checkbox, or a slide, or some sort of opt in on your Draft2Digital or Smashwords account that you have to make sure that is clicked, so that when Smashwords is sending us all the files for the week, your book is included in that.
Stephanie Chandler 5:46
Awesome. And then for audiobook distribution–Findaway Voices distributes to OverDrive. We’re partnered with Findaway Voices. So in full disclosure, we have a special membership discount for people who want to publish their audiobooks with Findaway voices. What I personally like about them is that they’re independent from Amazon, versus ACX is directly owned by Amazon. So from that perspective, is ACX not distributing directly to OverDrive?
Lateefah Zawistowski 6:25
That’s correct. ACX does not distribute to OverDrive. And honestly, finding a way to assist self published authors in the audiobook space kind of has been a challenge for us, because it’s not as straightforward as, ‘Hey, just put your file on this site, and you can get it on overdrive,’ right? So right now, I think Findaway is your best bet if you need help with producing your audiobook. I know Kobo Writing Life distributes audiobooks, too, but I don’t believe they help with production at this moment. You just produce it on your own. You can upload it to Kobo Writing Life, and it works the same way your eBook file will work.
Stephanie Chandler 7:03
Yeah, and audiobook production is not as simple as what you and I are doing right now. It’s really got to be high quality production, great equipment, no background sounds. So that’s all really important. So Findaway voices–for those listening, we have a member discount for that. Are there any other details that self published authors should know about getting their books listed with OverDrive that I haven’t asked you yet?
Lateefah Zawistowski 7:30
You know, I know that self published authors–they have a lot to worry about, and a lot to keep track of. But I would just say–it’s really important for indies, or even traditionally published authors to understand library digital lending models. There’s a huge conversation going on in the industry right now. If you’re on Twitter or other social media or news platforms, you’ve probably read about it. But pricing digital books for the library market–it’s just important that people are educated on how to price their books, what sales models to use.
Chances are, if you’re an indie author, and you’re using Smashwords or the like, you’re on the one copy, one user model. And that just most closely resembles the lending or sales model of the physical books. So the library purchases one digital copy of a book for a set price. And that title is then available in their collection, and one person can check it out at a time. The library can then go in and purchase additional copies to meet demand and fill holds. I won’t get into all the pros and cons. But generally, that’s the model that most authors and libraries are comfortable with. And chances are, like I said, if you’re using Draft2Digital, or Smashwords, or something like that, that’s already what you’re doing. So I would just say do a little bit of homework about different types of lending models.
Stephanie Chandler 8:55
And then what about the pricing piece of that? Is there a general guideline for how you should be pricing your digital books?
Lateefah Zawistowski 9:06
There’s kind of two schools of thought on that. Some people are like, ‘Well, in the past, it would just go sit on a shelf. And maybe it didn’t get returned or maybe it got damaged and the library would have to go purchase another one. So we want to set it a little bit higher.’ The price a little bit higher than a physical book. Some people–and this is the stance that we generally take–is with an ePub file, you don’t have the cost of physically printing out a book. So a lot of our publishers choose to just price it at the standard hardcopy. I would say generally, it’s what you would sell a hardcopy, or even a mass market paperback for, would be appropriate.
Stephanie Chandler 9:51
Okay, good. And then if somebody searches Libby app for their book, and it’s not available, and they can request it through their local library, does this generate library sales? Does that go on a list somewhere where libraries are like, ‘Oh, this book has been requested?’ Do you know how that works?
Lateefah Zawistowski 10:14
They certainly can. And an easy way to do that, too, is just to go to overdrive.com and search for the book. And it’ll say if a library near you has it or not, and then you could go about requesting it that way. Depending on the budget and policy of your local library would decide whether or not they would move forward with purchasing that title. We always like to say no one ever says no, they just mean right now. So some libraries have a budget set aside for requested titles. Perhaps they hit their budget amount for that year, and that’s why they said no. I know that at my library, I have a certain amount of titles that I can request per month. And they usually do buy it. And I think most libraries do have a budget set aside for those requested titles. So depending on if they hit that or not.
Stephanie Chandler 11:05
Well, this might be an interesting little marketing strategy for authors–to have their audiences requesting their books at libraries if it’s available there. That’s an interesting thought. And I did notice with that Libby app, that–for example, I was looking for a book I’d seen recommended online, and they had three eBook copies of it, but all three were out, so I had to go on a waitlist. And so I think it’s nice–from the perspective of an independent author–to know that, just because the library bought a copy of your book, it doesn’t mean that that copy is being shared over and over again. Like you said, they only lend it one at a time, right?
Lateefah Zawistowski 11:49
Exactly, yeah. I think some people get the idea that, ‘It’s in there, and people could just go and borrow it. And I’m not making money on all of these people reading my book.’ But it really does operate the same way a physical book would. So it’s kind of an easier thing to wrap your brain around, I think.
Stephanie Chandler 12:05
I’ve always loved the perspective of digital books. If you really love a book–at least for me, if I love the ebook, I will often buy the physical book, because I want to have it on my shelf. So I think there’s a lot of pros to pursuing the library market and gaining more audience, right? And plus, if somebody reads your book and they like it, they’re more likely to go check out your author website, and maybe sign up for your newsletter, or follow you on social media, right?
Lateefah Zawistowski 12:34
Exactly. You may have just found a new fan. And that is the library’s number one goal–is to match the right book with the right reader. So they’re really hand selling your titles. I mean, it really is marketing. So they suggest your book to a reader, and now you have somebody new that’s gonna go out and buy your books.
Stephanie Chandler 12:55
That’s so cool. And so, what is the financial side of this? So a library buys a copy of an ebook, let’s say, through OverDrive, and let’s say it’s a $9.99 eBook. How much does the author or the publisher receive from that?
Lateefah Zawistowski 13:18
That’s just based on the deal that we have with each individual publisher negotiated. But it’s a revenue share, so OverDrive does keep a portion, and then the publisher gets a portion and distributes it to authors. There’s no upfront cost to the publisher or the author. I get that a lot from self-published authors–like, ‘Okay, if I sign on for a direct account, what do I have to pay you up front?’ And it’s nothing.
Stephanie Chandler 13:50
Good point. So talk to us about marketing for authors that want to get picked up by libraries. How does OverDrive market? Is there anything authors can be doing for marketing purposes?
Lateefah Zawistowski 14:03
I mean, for better or worse, we don’t use any algorithms on our shopping portal. So everything’s hand selected. And we’d like to keep it that way because of that reader’s advisory piece that I mentioned. So there’s no trick, right? There’s no, ‘figure out the overdrive algorithm,’ right? So we just tell people–anything you do to promote your book to readers will work because people will then recommend the library purchase it, right? So like I said, the overdrive.com link is great to post on your social media, or include in your newsletter, or blog, just to let your fans know that they can borrow the title on OverDrive with their library card.
We run sales and promotions. So once you’re on OverDrive–directly or through an aggregator–you’ll have the opportunity to participate in our theme sales we run once a month, and that gives you some extra discoverability on the shopping portal. So for instance, nonfiction–that sale will be in July. For folks that might be listening that are already on OverDrive, please participate.
And also, I would say just use your local library, or your local adjacent library, and kind of think outside the box. You know, it doesn’t have to be, ‘Hey, I’m just gonna go into my library and do a book club on my book that might not be necessarily successful.’ So I think maybe, if you’re writing nonfiction, you might be really good at research, right? Or, I love true crime–maybe you know a lot about unsolved local mysteries or something, and you can come teach a class on how to research those local genealogies or little things. Local food, or farming techniques, or whatever it is that people might be interested in. And then you’re solving a problem for that library. And because they might have programming gaps that they need to solve, and you’re the local expert, you can come in and people might be interested in going to see what you have to say.
Stephanie Chandler 16:02
Absolutely. So getting back to the sales and promotions piece, how would a publisher participate in that? Is that a paid placement opportunity? What does that look like?
Lateefah Zawistowski 16:15
No, it’s not paid. We don’t charge anything. Once you’re signed on, we have a little marketing kit bundle that has our logo that you could place on your website and on social media. And we also give you our editorial calendar with instructions on how to participate in all those sales and promotions. We just kind of leave the timing up to us. So you might not get the exact time you want. But it’ll usually be within a couple of weeks, we can fit it into our newsletter, or our sales that we’re already working on. So yeah, that doesn’t cost anything to you, unless you’re discounting titles, of course. And it’s still a revenue share, so we share in the discount, too. So it’s kind of nice and easy for the publishers and for the authors to participate in those things.
Stephanie Chandler 17:08
And so would an example of a discount promotion be something like dropping the price to $2.99 to inspire libraries to buy? Is that what that means?
Lateefah Zawistowski 17:18
Yes. We usually encourage people to drop the price 25% to 50%. And like I said, they get to choose.
Stephanie Chandler 17:27
Okay, that makes a ton of sense. Is there anything I haven’t asked you that I should have today? This has been so informative in such a short period of time? It’s great.
Lateefah Zawistowski 17:39
I know, I thought that we were gonna run over. I just say, ask not what your library can do for you, ask what you can do for your library.
Stephanie Chandler 17:55
I like that.
Lateefah Zawistowski 17:56
I think it’s sales–we talk about it all the time. What problem do you have that I can help solve, right? So I think people just go into their local library with the hard sell. Like, ‘Buy my book on Libby.’ And maybe, just be like, ‘Hey, what do you need me to do? Do you need somebody to teach a writing class? Do you have programming gaps,’ like I said, or, ‘Do you need help with whatever.’ And don’t get discouraged. Your local library–they might be short staffed, they might be experiencing turnover, and they might not be getting back to you. And it’s not because they hate you and they hate your book. It’s just because they’ve got other things going on.
So don’t be afraid to go to the library down the road or in the next county over. And think of it as just marketing and selling your book like you would to a new reader. It’s the same thing. If you get new readers, your library is going to want to purchase your book, because they want people in the community to be happy and they want to meet demand. So I would just say anything that you do to get more readers will work for your library sales.
Stephanie Chandler 19:09
Do you find that there are any trends in the genres that sell best to libraries?
Lateefah Zawistowski 19:19
I would say genre fiction is a big one. I know this is a nonfiction writers podcast. But genre fiction–like romance, and mystery, and thriller–are always really big. It’s an election year, so political nonfiction titles will probably be a big hit. Cookbooks. You know what’s funny is people always–like cooking and crafting titles, people are like, ‘Do libraries even buy those digitally?’ Because they don’t sell well retail digital, but in the library they do because people like to check them out. That’s one of those ones where people like to check them out, test a couple of recipes or see what’s in there, and then decide if they want to buy the physical copy. So they highly circulate–cooking, craft, and true crime.
Stephanie Chandler 20:10
That’s so interesting. And I would think niche nonfiction also, because libraries want to fill holes in their catalog, right? So they’re looking for titles that they don’t yet have or aren’t overrun with, right?
Lateefah Zawistowski 20:16
Well, yes and no. Sometimes they want to be able to say–let’s say there’s a really popular title out right now that just has a lot of holds on it. Sometimes they want to be able to tell those readers, ‘Well, you can read something similar to it. And we have it available now.’
Stephanie Chandler 20:52
Gotcha. Okay. So interesting. So I just want to recap a little bit, because I feel like we went through this fairly quickly. It’s really great information. And it’s really straightforward, which I love. So again, the criteria to apply for OverDrive Connect is that the publisher must have at least 15 titles by 3 different authors, is that correct?
Lateefah Zawistowski 21:19
That is the general rule of thumb.
Stephanie Chandler 21:22
Okay. And then, as far as other vendors–if you don’t meet that criteria–Smashwords, Draft2Digital, Kobo Writing Life, correct?
Lateefah Zawistowski 21:32
Yes. There are others, but those are the three that we recommend to most people.
Stephanie Chandler 21:37
And that’s primarily for the ebooks. And then for audiobooks, we’re looking at Findaway voices. I love that that gives them an edge–I’m really rooting for them in this marketplace.
Lateefah Zawistowski 21:48
They are great partners. We love having them as a partner.
Stephanie Chandler 21:52
I agree. They’re great for us as well. Lateefah, this was so great. So thank you so much for your time today. I think this was really helpful. I hope all of our authors will check out OverDrive, and at the very least download the Libby app so you can experience what readers are experiencing, right?
Lateefah Zawistowski 22:14
Yeah, I think that’s great advice for people. If you don’t have a library card, and you’re writing books, just–what are you doing, get a library card. And hook on to Libby and see what that process is like for people. Oh, one other thing that I did want to mention–if people want more information about some of the topics I talked about today, we do have a blog. So you could go on overdrive.com, company.overdrive.com. If you want more information about the sales and lending models I talked about, you could go to panoramaproject.org. And we do have a podcast and it’s called the Professional Book Nerds Podcast.
Stephanie Chandler 22:59
Professional book nerds. I love it. What is panorama?
Lateefah Zawistowski 23:05
Stephanie Chandler 23:08
And what’s that about?
Lateefah Zawistowski 23:09
It’s sponsored by OverDrive, but separate from OverDrive. And it’s researching the sales and lending model at the libraries, and comparing them to retail digital sales and retail print sales. So just trying to figure out data that fuels the whole library and retail bookselling ecosystem. I hope I’m explaining that right. I’m not a data person.
Stephanie Chandler 23:40
That makes a ton of sense. Especially because a few years back, we were all panicking that print books were going away, and ebooks were taking over. And that eventually leveled out. But it still is interesting to understand that data of how many print sales, compared to your digital book sales. So yeah, panoramaproject sounds like a valuable resource.
Lateefah Zawistowski 24:09
Yeah. And if people want to get nerdy and dig into numbers, that’s a good place to do it.
Stephanie Chandler 24:16
I love it. I love to be nerdy. Lateefah thank you again, so much. This has been really, really interesting. We really appreciate your time.
Lateefah Zawistowski 24:28
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Stephanie Chandler 24:29
And thank you to our listeners for joining us today and every week. For a list of guests and topics just check our schedule on the site, use your favorite search engine, or better yet, sign up for our mailing list at NonfictionAuthorsAssociation.com.
Quotes from our guest
“I know that self published authors–they have a lot to worry about, and a lot to keep track of. But I would just say–it’s really important for indies, or even traditionally published authors, to understand library digital lending models.”
“I think some people get the idea that, ‘It’s in there, and people could just go and borrow it. And I’m not making money on all of these people reading my book.’ But it really does operate the same way a physical book would.”
“That is library’s number one goal–is to match the right book with the right reader. So they’re really hand selling your titles. I mean, it really is marketing. So they suggest your book to a reader, and now you have somebody new that’s gonna go out and buy your books.”
“So we just tell people–anything you do to promote your book to readers will work because people will then recommend the library purchase it.”
“Ask not what your library can do for you, ask what you can do for your library.”
