We believe that one of the most useful aspects of Panorama Picks is the opportunity to look beyond obvious bestseller and/or celebrity-driven demand to identify books that are uniquely in-demand at public libraries in specific regions across the country. While it’s probably no surprise avid readers everywhere were very interested in Michelle Obama’s Becoming—the #1 adult nonfiction title in every Panorama Picks region over the summer—most of them have probably never heard of Tom Courtney's Walkabout Northern California, the title with the most unmet demand in libraries* in California over the summer.
Published by Wilderness Press—an imprint of AdventureKEEN, independent publishers of travel and adventure books whose mantra is “SHOP LOCAL LIVE LOCAL, in support of brick-and-mortar retailers”—Walkabout Northern California describes 14 walks in the wilds of Northern California and each entry includes “a map, mile-by-mile details of the route, logistical tips on places to stay and eat, and inspirational ideas to simplify your travel and reconnect with nature's rhythm.”
Travel guides are a highly competitive category which has also been heavily disrupted by online offerings over the years. A search for “northern California hikes” on Amazon returns 183 results, and the same search on WorldCat returns 298. Meanwhile, the top 10 organic search results on Google are dominated by travel blogs and bloggers—only one of whom has their own books to sell.
At first glance, Walkabout Northern California may seem like an unusual ebook to find traction in libraries, but it is simply another example of the power of public libraries as a critical discovery channel.
Why did this particular book make an impression on library patrons in California, and what insights does it offer to publishers, authors, and booksellers about libraries’ impact on discovery and retail sales?
““We are happy to help support libraries and want to make sure that our local nature and travel titles are available [to everyone].””
"Our titles are available through all the standard library distribution channels (Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc) and we attend ALA,” says Meredith Hutchins, AdventureKEEN’s Director of Sales, “but we do struggle with connecting our hyper-local and regional titles directly to libraries within those regions. We’ve done a good bit of publicity for Walkabout Northern California but it wasn’t specifically targeted to libraries.”
While publishers have access to several data sources to track consumer sales (and returns) of their books via a plethora of retail partners—including publicly available benchmarks like the NY Times and USA Today bestsellers lists, and opaque Amazon sales ranks—library sales and circulation are effectively an industry-wide mystery; a known unknown. This is especially true for smaller publishers who typically don’t have the staff or resources to focus on libraries, relying instead on intermediaries to provide useful reporting for them.
"We periodically get basic sales information for our books from our distribution partner who sells to the library distributors,” Hutchins explained, “but more information and circulation data on regional interest titles would be helpful. As well as any local/regional initiatives that our titles could help support."
““You want to do whatever you can to get exposure. A library might be the first time they’re seeing the book.””
In the absence of hard data or marketing targeted specifically to libraries, the key to Walkabout Northern California’s demand in libraries may be Tom Courtney himself. The entrepreneurial author not only hosts an online community, WalkaboutCalifornia.com, for people interested in “inn to inn vacations, in California and around the world,” he frequently does book talks at REIs in northern California—the outdoor retailer is one of AdventureKEEN’s primary specialty retail partners—as well as at local chapters of the Sierra Club, and public libraries.
“I'm an evangelist for connecting people to the natural world so I love that this book is available in libraries,” Courtney said. “You can check it out, but if you're planning to go out on a hike you're going to want to own the physical book.”
Courtney arranges most of his appearances on his own and sells books himself through WalkaboutCalifornia.com rather than partnering with a bookstore, noting that "the size of bookstore audiences are not usually as good as at REIs or libraries.”
In light of open skepticism recently from some publishers about libraries’ impact on retail sales, one might expect a publisher that specifically centers supporting local brick-and-mortar retailers as a central part of their mission would be concerned about their books being too popular in libraries. Both AdventureKEEN and Courtney see library access as a positive, though—both for discovery and its potential to drive local sales.
“I can't think of any current concerns we have about our titles and library lending,” Hutchins said. “We are happy to help support libraries and want to make sure that our local nature and travel titles are available [to everyone].”
“You want to do whatever you can to get exposure,” Courtney concluded. “A library might be the first time they're seeing the book."
*Panorama Picks provides local booksellers with quarterly lists of popular fiction, nonfiction, and young adult titles that are in demand at public libraries—optimized for local interest via regional groupings aligned with the American Booksellers Association’s (ABA) regional associations. This unique program uses aggregated, anonymized hold list data from public libraries across the United States to identify recently published titles beyond the biggest bestsellers that have long wait times for local library patrons—unmet demand that can help activate inventory, and identify opportunities for author events.