How Publishers Can Use LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a book cataloging and social networking site. Members catalogue their personal libraries, discover new books and connect with others who share their tastes.
Our 900,000 registered members have cataloged over 45 million books and written more than 870,000 reviews. LibraryThing draws over 2.5 million unique visitors per month, and is available in more than a dozen language.
Early Reviewers
LibraryThing Early Reviewers helps publishers distribute advance copies of books to interested readers. The publisher provides books, LibraryThing members sign-up to request them, LibraryThing plays matchmaker. Books find their way to readers who are likely to enjoy them!
Since June 2007, LibraryThing Early Reviewers has sent out more than 37,000 books, from over 260 publishers and imprints, including Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, New York Review of Books, Tor, Bloomberg Press, Scholastic, DK, Oxford University Press and Algonquin.
How it works:
- We do monthly batches of books, announcing the batch of books at the beginning of each month; our members sign up and request the books they're interested in.
- You supply LibraryThing with a list of the titles that you'll be offering to the Early Reviewers.
- We use an intelligent algorithm to find the members most likely to enjoy and create buzz for your titles.
- We send you list of the winning members. You send out the books.
- Early Reviewers read the books, and then post reviews to LibraryThing. They are encouraged to also cross-post to their blog, Amazon, etc. The publisher and author are granted perpetual non-exclusive permission to use the reviews.
Find out more.
ONIX Feeds
Most publishers produce ONIX data for retailers to list their books. Although LibraryThing doesn't sell books itself, we sell a lot of books through retailers. Sending us your ONIX file will help us make your books and authors stand out from the rest.
 Author Pages
Every author has an "author page" on LibraryThing—it's created by the system as soon as someone adds a book written by that author to their library. Members can add a photo, links and basic facts to the "Common Knowledge."
LibraryThing also has an events section, called LibraryThing Local, where you can list and promote author events.
Author Chats
Give readers a chance to chat with an author. The chat is fairly simple. It's not "real-time", but takes place in one of our forums, the Author Chat Group, over a two-week period. Members ask questions, and the author checks in about once a day and responds.
We promote author chats by sending profile comments to every member who has listed one of the author's books. We also put maintain a list of upcoming chats, so members can plan ahead.
Author Interviews
Each month we feature a few exclusive interviews with authors in our "State of the Thing" newsletter. The interviews are then also posted on the author's page on LibraryThing. Choice of author is an editorial decision, and author interviews are typically conducted with authors who have a new book to promote.
See Lisa See's interview.
 LibraryThing Authors
Wouldn't you love to know what your favorite author has in their library, what books inspired them, or what they're reading now? That's the idea behind the LibraryThing Author program—giving readers a window into authors' tastes, and authors a great new way to connect with their readers.
If authors are also LibraryThing members, then they can be listed as an official LibraryThing Author, showcasing some personal books for interested readers.
Contact Us
Contact Sonya (sonya@librarything.com) with any questions.
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