Local Author Policy

Rampart Library District Local Author Policy

 

Thank you for your interest in the Rampart Library District. The District is pleased to have the works of many local authors in the collection. We have developed this policy to guide local authors in their efforts to have their works selected for the District’s collection.

For the purpose of this policy, Local Authors are defined as residents of Teller County, Colorado.

Included in this document are:

  • Procedures to follow in submitting your work for consideration
  • Information on what you can expect the Library to do in support of your writing endeavors
  • Professional Reviews
  • Annual Local Author Showcase
  • Author Programs
  • Rampart Library District’s Criteria for Selection

What we will NOT accept:

  • Self-Published Family Histories
  • Text Books
  • Self-Published E-books

How to Submit Your Work

Send a brief cover letter, completed Local Author Submission Request form (see bottom of this page), and a copy of your published, bound and printed work to:

Rampart Library District
Collection Development
(Local Author Submission)
PO Box 336
Woodland Park, CO 80866

We will acknowledge receipt of your work within 30 days. You will receive notification regarding the District’s decision within 90 days. We carefully evaluate all new books using the detailed selection criteria in the District’s Collection Development Policy. Acceptance of a copy of your work for the collection does not guarantee that we will buy additional copies. If we buy more copies, they may not be purchased directly from you.

Some works may not be considered without accompanying professional reviews. The District relies in part on professional reviews when making selection decisions, and it is up to local authors to solicit reviews for their works. You may resubmit your work if professional reviews appear at a later time. Please be aware that reader reviews on websites such as Amazon and Goodreads will not be considered by the District.

If your work meets the District Collection Development Guidelines and the District decides to add your book, you may be asked to donate two copies if we are unable to purchase copies through the District’s book vendors. The Library uses book wholesalers Ingram and Baker & Taylor as these vendors provide substantial discounts to public libraries and these discounts allow us to purchase more materials for the entire library system.

The Rampart Library District bears no obligation for marketing an author’s work. Authors are fully responsible for promoting their work. Local Author titles added to the collection will be assessed on a routine basis using the same guidelines that are applied to other materials in the District’s collection. If circulation dwindles or totally declines, the title may be withdrawn from the collection.

Works not accepted for the collection will not be returned to the author. They will be given to a District Friends group to include in local book sales.

What You Can Expect From Us

  1. Your bound, printed work will be cataloged in the Marmot system, making it available to the patrons of the Rampart Library District as well as over 90 library districts state-wide.
  1. Your work will be included in the Local Author section at one or both of the District’s locations. The collection will be shelved alphabetically by author.
  1. Occasionally, the District may use your work in displays at the library.
  1. Each year, the District hosts a Local Author Showcase at the Woodland Park Public Library. See below for more information.

Professional Reviews

 It is very important that your work be tested in front of an audience of impartial readers. Those may include members of your writers’ group, beta-readers, professional editors, and professional reviewers. Public Libraries often seek works that are professionally reviewed, as it is important for our patrons to be assured of a quality library collection. Be aware that Library staff will not discuss critical or editorial issues with authors.

For best results, select review sources that target your specific market in terms of genre and intended audience.

Market guides such as Writer’s Digest and Writer’s Market can assist with your research. Be certain to read and follow the specific guidelines for each source before submitting your work. There are also many websites and blog resources available to authors. Ask your librarian for assistance in finding these resources.

Annual Local Author Showcase

Each year, usually in October, the Rampart Library District hosts a Local Author Showcase at the Woodland Park Public Library. This is an opportunity for you to participate in a Q & A Panel, give a brief presentation of your published work, and sell copies of your work. The author must take responsibility for collecting all monies, and reporting sales tax, as appropriate.

Each author must complete a Local Author Showcase Application. Space is limited, and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Authors who are traditionally published, independently published, or both are welcome, and treated equally. Please check this page for the next Local Author Showcase, and application acceptance dates and deadlines.

Author Programs

We are fortunate to have a great number of authors in our community. Though we would like to accommodate them all, we have limited time, space and staff for programming. Requests from authors to present programs are considered by the District’s program committee. Programs for a single author are rare occurrences and are considered only when the book has received widespread recognition.

 Rampart Library District’s Criteria for Selection

Rampart Library District will make every reasonable effort to provide a balanced collection reflecting a variety of perspectives, within the constraints of budget and shelf space. Materials purchased or added to the collection are not an endorsement by Rampart Library District of either the content or viewpoint presented in them. They are generally purchased from mainstream publishers and distributors.

The following general criteria are used to evaluate potential purchases and gift material:

  • Relevance to community needs and interests
  • Positive attention of critics, reviewers and the public
  • Popular demand, even if not enduring in value, interest or accuracy
  • Contemporary significance, whether local or national
  • Artistic merit, literary value, or recognized award recipient
  • Reputation /qualifications of author, artist, publisher or producer without regard to political, religious or other affiliations.
  • Clarity, accuracy and organization; comprehensiveness
  • Date of publication (to maintain the most up-to-date collection while striving to preserve key works in a field)
  • Permanence or timeliness
  • Suitability of physical form for library use (size, paper, print, binding)
  • Relationship to current holdings
  • Cost in relation to value to the collection
  • Availability of information elsewhere within region or electronically
  • Author or illustrator is well-known or local

An item need not meet all of these criteria to be selected.

Items generally excluded from selection:

  • Textbooks and curriculum-related work unless they are considered useful to the general reader as an introduction to a subject and their presentation is superior to other sources. Rampart Library District has a separate homeschooling collection consisting of materials that have been donated.
  • Scholarly and technical materials that are carried by academic or special libraries.
  • Puzzle or workbooks that encourage filling in blanks
  • Materials that are publicized solely through infomercials or personal websites and where there is no authoritative or evaluative information available
  • Self-published materials, unless they are reviewed in established publications or they are of interest in the local community.

Due to limitations on staff time, we cannot discuss individual titles with authors.

Concerns about the Local Author Policy must be presented in writing with specifics to the Library Director. Please provide your name and contact information. The Library District may amend or supplement this policy from time to time and reserves the right to do so.

 Approved by the Rampart Library District Board of Trustees on August 9, 2016.

Rampart Library District

Click HERE to download the policy, including the Local Author Submission Request Form.

 

Comments are closed.
http://rampart.colibraries.org/localauthorpolicy/
rampart.colibraries.org
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-22
41623
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:QM4M4EDUZ5CCTXPXYGU3J62FF7WL45P3
<urn:uuid:f978d013-839c-4415-9d96-1a702d897514>
2017-05-23T17:00:21Z
209.210.174.22
text/html
sha1:LLL4RGVJKBAUNJ36LT7UQUYJG2JUNDEJ
<urn:uuid:524fbe66-5a16-4dae-8dd1-4ac4992ffb73>
http://rampart.colibraries.org/localauthorpolicy/
response
<urn:uuid:8261d364-b2d8-4eee-8440-932faba5a8c8>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-185-224-210.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-22
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf