[anamardoll]

Well, I wanted to wait until I had more to report, but here is the email traffic so far.

Dear Free Library of Philadelphia,

I am an indie author who would love to donate my novel (released under a free-to-share Creative Commons license) to your library through the Overdrive Community Reserve option.

http://www.overdrive.com/Resources/P...tyReserve.aspx

My novel can be viewed in full here:
[link]

I would be excited and honored to be able to donate an unlimited license Open ePUB to your collection, if you feel that my novel might interest your patrons. (I can also provide mobi and pdf versions if you're interested.)

Thank you very much for allowing me to make this request. Yours,

Ana Mardoll

Hi,

Thank you for your email and for thinking of us for your book. I was able to see the book in GoodReads, but I could not find it in the search in the Overdrive Community Reserve. We have not had too many authors come to us who are using this service. Do you know if you book appears as soon as you submit it or if there could be a lag before it comes up in a search? You may want to check with Overdrive.

Ultimately, though we can look at the book, we rarely add new titles to our collection unless they have received reviews in the literature (this criterion simply helps us deal with the large number of requests we receive from authors). Also, it would help if you told us more about yourself, specifically your connection to Philadelphia. Thank you,

Free Library of Philadelphia

Thank you so much for your email!

Unfortunately, Overdrive is not willing to deal with indie authors directly.
I have spoken with them over several emails, but that is their policy. I cannot place my book into the Overdrive Community Reserve, but it is my understanding that a librarian *can*.

I'm afraid I don't have a connection to your library, other than being an out-of-state patron. Your excellent library is used by many indie authors on a writing forum that I visit, and several of us were hoping to donate our books to you for inclusion into your community reserve.

I absolutely understand your policy about adding new titles to the collection. I think a very great hurdle that a number of us indie authors are facing is that we do not want to be associated with some of the attitudes and tactics that larger publishers are pushing on libraries with regards to e-book titles, but if Overdrive refuses to allow our books into their catalog for review and purchase, then we were hoping to offer our services to the libraries directly.

Ana Mardoll

That was 3/5 when my last email went out. It's 3/8 now; no response since.