The Library Ask

I have a favor to ask. I would love to get a copy of the TL;DR series of books in public libraries (and possibly school libraries). This is not about selling books or making money. While it’s true that I’ll get $2 – $3 per sale, the goal is to make it easy for educators to get access to the books through their public (or school) library. That way instead of recommending that someone buy the book, people can instead point them to their local library and the educator can read it for free. (They can, of course, still choose to purchase the book if they want their own copy.)

Most public libraries have a simple process (frequently online) to request a book get added to their collection. Each of these books comes in a Kindle (ebook), Paperback, and Hard Cover edition (I imagine most libraries would want the paperback or Kindle versions). I’ve created a spreadsheet that hopefully makes it easier for you to make the request. For each book (state or city pension plan) it lists the information that’s typically required to make a library request:

• Book Title
• Publication Date
• Publisher (Independent/Amazon)
• Author(s)
• Links to the Kindle, Paperback, and Hard Cover versions on Amazon
• The ISBN for the Paperback and the ISBN for the Hard Cover (the Kindle version doesn’t have an ISBN)

The ask is that you consider contacting your local library and requesting they order the appropriate book for your area (maybe do a quick search first to make sure they don’t already have it). If you are in Colorado, you would order the Colorado book. If in California, the California book. And so on. And if you have friends or colleagues who are in a different library district (or state), ask them to consider doing the same for their library. It should take less than five minutes but could result in providing a great (free) resource to educators in your area.

In addition, you might consider asking your school librarian to order a copy for their professional collection. Because even better than being able to check it out from the public library would being able to walk down to the library in your own school and checking it out.

If you do decide to do this, I would love it if you would reach out and let me know what library(ies) you were able to get to add the books.