Panorama Project project lead Guy LeCharles Gonzalez has written an article for Publishers Weekly previewing the upcoming ALA Virtual Spotlight Session, How to Measure the Value of Library Marketing on Book Discovery & Sales.

Ask most authors and they'll confirm that publisher-organized book tours are an increasingly rare experience, typically reserved for proven A-listers and guaranteed New York Times bestsellers. Publishers’ marketing investments today typically involve printing and distributing ARCs to prepub reviewers and securing paid advertising in traditional and digital channels—all in the hopes of building awareness and driving sales. And the level of investment of course varies by title, author, and sales estimations. It’s no secret that many new releases get no dedicated marketing budget at all, often left to rely on the author’s own platforms and marketing savvy.
As a result, library events are often one of the few opportunities for local and midlist authors to get in front of an interested audience without investing their own money. As the survey found, big bestselling authors aren’t the primary focus of most public library author event. Respondents reported that less than half of the authors booked at their libraries were recent bestsellers.

Read the full article at PublishersWeekly.com: Putting a Value on Author Events at the Library.

Want to learn more? Gonzalez will be discussing the survey and library marketing in more detail in our ALA Virtual Spotlight Session, How to Measure the Value of Library Marketing on Book Discovery & Sales, on Thursday, June 25th at 12:15pm EDT.