[fjtorres]

Libraries are a great resource for readers to explore a genre and discover authors so they properly belong on the marketting side of the business. That the BPHs treat them as lost sales is just another of the many ways those folks have lost sight of the business they're in.

When I was first educating myself on SF, I was compiled a list of authors and books with reputations and my first week at college I took it to the university library card file and worked my way through the list. Those books gave me a foundation in the genre beyond the books that just happened to be on sale in tbose pre-ebook days. Then I did a second pass through the card file picking up every book listed as SF or Fantasy. Took me a year but by then I understood the genre and could better appreciate the books and authors I've bought in the decades since. And over the years I actually made an effort to buy my own copies of the books I found there, so the authors came out ahead in my library expeditions. (They had a great collection, courtesy of the nearby air force base.)

Considering how many times a library book can circulate it can be a very effective marketting tool for the story and the author... if it is allowed to be.