Valentine's day has to go away forever

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crich70

The problem is that most libraries are on a budget. They can only afford to buy so many new books in a given year. And they aren't likely to buy books that they don't think their patrons will actually read. So if only say 5% of their patrons will read a given genre but 55% will read another given genre they will buy to meet the tastes of the 55% rather than the 5%.

I've seen way too many cases of buying books in a foreign language and they don't do well.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've seen way too many cases of buying books in a foreign language and they don't do well.

Well they must do well at my library as they buy a ton of them and many seem to be checked out quite often. IIRC we have Harry Potter, for example, in 7 or 8 languages as eBooks and 3 or 4 in audio as well.



I can't say if their spending is "proportionate" in various categories, but Romance books, as well as being very popular, tend to also cost a lot less so they may be spending similar amounts on many areas, but getting more "bang for their buck" in some than others.

Romance also tends to go on sale more on the consumer end, but I don't know if their are sales for libraries through OD sometimes too or not.

[AnemicOak]

I was curious so I went to my libraries OD site and checked the breakdown for eBooks (no audio) and this is what I got... Didn't seem too bad to me (of course it relies on publishers placing books in the right categories). They also do Cloud Library, but I didn't check that.

Fiction 66,064
Nonfiction 42,822

Romance 28,432
Juvenile Fiction 18,532
Literature 14,685
Mystery 14,668
Historical Fiction 12,339
Fantasy 11,618
Juvenile Literature 9,625
Young Adult Fiction 9,241
Thriller 8,861
Suspense 7,387
Biography & Autobiography 6,207
History 5,345
Comic and Graphic Books 5,225
Cooking & Food 4,878
Science Fiction 4,589
Humor (Fiction) 4,382
Business 3,781
Young Adult Literature 3,624
Travel 3,218
Health & Fitness 3,046
Self-Improvement 3,005
Religion & Spirituality 2,938
Juvenile Nonfiction 2,885
plus a bunch more smaller categories

[JSWolf]

As AnemicOak just showed, a disproportionate amount of romance vs other categories.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As AnemicOak just showed, a disproportionate amount of romance vs other categories.

If there are more Romance readers (not saying for sure there are, but most data from various things supports it being the most popular genre especially for ebooks) then how do you know it's disproportionate?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

If there are more Romance readers (not saying for sure there are, but most data from various things supports it being the most popular genre especially for ebooks) then how do you know it's disproportionate?

I'm basing on how many Romance vs all other genres. Maybe the reason for so many romance reader is this disproportionate amount of romance? Maybe other types of books would do better if there were more.

[AnemicOak]

It also probably wasn't a good example as many of the Romance books have one or two copies (each isn't counted separately in the total above) while some books have a lot more so it's not necessarily 1 for 1.

Then there is something like Grant by Ron Chernow which even for consumers (without the huge library cost markup) costs $20 and they have 27 copies of it. Versus a lot of popular current Romances in the $5 to $8 range where they're buying one or two of each.

[Plumadona]

Interesting topic. I believe a public library that did not choose to buy large numbers of books in genres that their patrons wanted to read would soon find itself in trouble.

I also do not read romance novels, but I do read other types of fiction as well as history, biography, and many other subgenres of non-fiction. The same is true of my husband. We both use our local libraries extensively; for the most part, I borrow e-books and he borrows hard copy books. One thing we have both noticed is that new titles in popular fiction take much longer to get (wait lists) than the non-fiction titles. When I look at hard copy books in the library, the books that seem to be the most worn (and therefore likely to have been circulated and read most often) are the romance novels and other light fiction.

I'd personally love to see more serious non-fiction titles (and I'm lucky to have library cards from two extremely large library systems so I can't really complain), but I can't blame any library that chooses to buy more of the books that more people want to read. I have no doubt that circulation stats have a bearing on funding, if only in the sense that they need to show how much the library is being used. If there's a choice between Book A that 30 people will read and Book B that 7 people will read, A will and should be bought. Even the largest library systems have only so much money to spend.

Just my $0.00.

[AnemicOak]

Hopefully the people who want to see more of certain titles are requesting them when they find the libraries selection lacking? I know my library is pretty good about accommodating patron requests when they can. Maybe not ideal, but they can't necessarily know you feel they're lacking in an area if you don't tell them.


It has to be tough. Especially with eBooks where some publishers have titles that expire. I mean HarperCollins is a "simple" 26 loans and it expires, but last I checked MacMillan was 52 lends or 2 years whichever comes first and Simon & Schuster is/was one year expire (or 1.5 years at 1.5 times the price for certain titles). Meaning if that title they bought from MacMillan or S&S only sees a limited number of lends over one/two years before it expires should they have perhaps spent that money elsewhere and balance that question with trying to be inclusive to all tastes.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As AnemicOak just showed, a disproportionate amount of romance vs other categories.

A few questions asked of the tech at my local library branch and basically, they have more romance than any other genre -- they are popular after all -- but those romance novels also have proportionately more holds than mystery, fantasy, science fiction or non-fiction. This suggests that not only are they popular but to satisfy the library patrons, they should have even more copies. Romance is also the genre where books are more likely to expire from the number of checkouts for those publishers who use that option.

All this is subject to the "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" rule.

[Tarana]

Librarians would be THRILLED if you would let them know titles you are interested in that they don't already have. We have quite a bit more science fiction now in ebook and audiobook now because I gave them a lot of titles and authors. Even have some Westerns in ebooks now.

[Hemmi]

Thanks for reminding me to check out my library's new ebooks and get on the hold list for the new romance book I wanted to read!

[barryem]

A number of years ago I was talked into trying a romance novel by a number of people in a book forum I was in at the time. I read the one they suggested and, while the story wasn't bad, the writing was gimmicky and dishonest and I said so. Suddenly all those people who suggested that book said I read the wrong book and they picked another one for me, which I read. That experience was similar. Over the next couple of years they talked me into trying 4 of 5 more of them so I have tried romance novels and I don't like them.

I have no problem with love stories. They aren't what I look for usually but I've read many really good ones over the years. What I don't like is the tricks the romance writers play on the reader to get an emotional reaction.

That said, this is my own personal conclusion and no-one need be influenced by it. I think people should read what they like even if I don't like it. Even more important to all of us, I think, writers should write what they want to write even if I don't like it. That's where many of our best books come from.

I do wish there were fewer romance novels being written. I also wish we lived in a perfect world full of brotherly love and peace and harmony and had sharks and roaches for pets because we loved them. But that's not the real world and if it was the real world we'd run out of things for authors to write about and I'd probably end up miserable.

The large number of romance novels, fantasy novels, serial killer novels, etc. make it a bit more difficult for me to find new books at times but that's a small price to pay for having so many good books to read once I do find them.

I vote we keep valentines day.

Barry

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by barryem

A number of years ago I was talked into trying a romance novel by a number of people in a book forum I was in at the time. I read the one they suggested and, while the story wasn't bad, the writing was gimmicky and dishonest and I said so. Suddenly all those people who suggested that book said I read the wrong book and they picked another one for me, which I read. That experience was similar. Over the next couple of years they talked me into trying 4 of 5 more of them so I have tried romance novels and I don't like them.

I have no problem with love stories. They aren't what I look for usually but I've read many really good ones over the years. What I don't like is the tricks the romance writers play on the reader to get an emotional reaction.

That said, this is my own personal conclusion and no-one need be influenced by it. I think people should read what they like even if I don't like it. Even more important to all of us, I think, writers should write what they want to write even if I don't like it. That's where many of our best books come from.

I do wish there were fewer romance novels being written. I also wish we lived in a perfect world full of brotherly love and peace and harmony and had sharks and roaches for pets because we loved them. But that's not the real world and if it was the real world we'd run out of things for authors to write about and I'd probably end up miserable.

The large number of romance novels, fantasy novels, serial killer novels, etc. make it a bit more difficult for me to find new books at times but that's a small price to pay for having so many good books to read once I do find them.

I vote we keep valentines day.

Barry

To be fair, there are some excellent writers in the romance genre. I have read some historical romances that are quite well researched and well written. I still don't like them, but that's because I am bored by the genre and the predictability of the stories, not because they are poorly written.

[4691mls]

When I look at my library's new listings usually there is a decent variety of books, but occasionally there will be a bunch of romance books added all at once, typically all by one author. I wonder if they get a bundle deal on them?