In our most recent post in this series, Develop Your Book Audience, we designed a guide to get you past the apprehension of  “My audience is all over the place” to a place of audience understanding and subsequent development that will help you build meaningful author, title, series, character, and publisher brands. A refined audience will generate engagement and direct relationships with readers and influencers, helping you build a strong brand recognition and ongoing consumer relationships. Read More  

By Heather Faulhefer
Banned Books Week offers bookstores, readers, and writers an opportunity to shine a light on the freedom of self-expression through the written word, and what better theme for this year’s celebration than “Censorship Leaves Us In the Dark. Keep the Light On!” Read More  

By: Pete Peterson, The Rabbit Room
Whenever we release a book, it’s easy, addictive even, to get caught up in checking its sales rankings or its Amazon reviews. And while those are good measures and necessary data, I’ve learned over time that they aren’t as immediately important as they seem. Books take time. Read More  

by Becky Walton, MLIS, Collection Development Librarian
Have you seen the “Who Rescued Who” car magnet? Grammar error aside, that decal makes me smile because I often reflect on the relationship between animals and humans. It never ceases to amaze me when I hear stories on the news of a cat waking up his owner in the night when a fire breaks out, or a dog standing guard over his owner who’s in the middle of a seizure, or rats sniffing out landmines. Read More  

by Jill M. Andreasen, MLIS, Collection Development Librarian
A recent trend I’ve noticed in both juvenile and YA fiction is stories dealing with the apocalypse. But rather than focusing on dystopias, this new crop of narratives is themed around the actual End of the World: some humorous, some figurative, some literal. It’s important to have narratives to allow kids to explore their anxieties about the future—including climate change, political and social upheaval, imploding personal lives, and ya know, extinction. Read More  

Ann Lehue, MSIS, Manager, Collection Development Programs
What do you get when you put a group of Ingram Library Services team members (including librarians) into a room with unlimited coffee twice a month? A whole lot of ideas, passion, and spirited negotiations about ipage enhancements, and completely full whiteboards with lots of edits. The past six months, the Collection Development team has been creating and standardizing great content, including genre lists, but the content was largely hidden, known only to ipage experts, serendipitous wanderers, or the most conscientious webinar attendees. Read More  

Ann Cox, MLS, Collection Development Librarian
Senior citizen protagonists have been one of the most enduring trends in fiction of the last decade. It’s no wonder they’re so popular: as the entirety of the baby boomer generation reaches 65 in 2030, rapid demographic changes will have a drastic impact on American society. For the first time in U.S. history, older people are projected to outnumber children by 2035. Additionally, the number of Americans 65 and older will more than double by 2060 and will comprise almost a quarter of the total population. With these projections, it’s expected that graceful aging is a topic at the forefront of many readers’ minds. Whether embarking on new adventures, finding love, or reflecting on the relationships that make life meaningful, the seniors in these novels prove that you don’t stop living once you reach retirement. Read More