More Little Free Library Action

Yesterday on Sunday, I visited some of the Little Free Libraries in town that I had previously put books in.  Much to my delight, the copies I had placed in there were gone; I presume these books are now in the hands of some lucky children.

Of course, it was not my intention to simply stop there.  I put new copies of Hilda & Richie in those Little Free Library boxes!

Locations I put copies in were at the United Church of Christ at 901 Broadway N; the Pontoppidan Lutheran Church; and Hawthorne Elementary School.  One of those boxes though really caught my attention.

This Little Free Library was by the aforementioned Lutheran church.  I was surprised to see it was only about half full.  I put a copy of Hilda & Richie in there.  I want to see about going back this week and perhaps putting some additional copies of my book plus a few Dominic & Claire comics.

Stay tuned as I have my next planned part of my North Dakota library tour coming up!

Hilda and Richie For Sale At Ferguson Books!

 I have more good news.  Yesterday, after wrapping up my business at the Grand Forks Library, I had one more stop to make - Ferguson Books!

Ferguson Books at 1720 S. Washington Street in Grand Forks took copies of Hilda & Richie to sell at their shop; copies will also be for sale (by the end of this week) at their shop in Bismarck at 413 E Broadway Avenue.

But wait - there's more!

Ferguson Books at 300 Sheyenne Street in West Fargo also has copies of Hilda & Richie for sale.

Let's get these copies sold so the stores will ask for more copies.  Make sure you stop by these shops today!

Hilda and Richie Library Tour Part 1

 Today, my master plan commenced to get libraries in North Dakota to start carrying Hilda & Richie.  The first places on my list were the libraries in Mayville, Larimore and Grand Forks.

My first destination today was the Mayville Public Library of Mayville, North Dakota.

This beautiful building housed the town's library.  The librarian inside was named Margaret; I talked with her for a bit, introducing myself, explaining my book and giving her copies of my cover letter with the book's information in the hopes they'd be willing to get it for their collection.

After thanking Margaret, I went on my way.  I drove around rural North Dakota for awhile and had to consult Google Maps to get to my next destination - the Edna Ralston Library of Larimore, North Dakota.

This simple building was very fitting for a small town library.  The librarian inside, a lady named Melissa, saw me enter and greeted me.

I introduced myself, told her about Hilda & Richie and gave her the papers with the book's information.  After thanking her, I left Larimore and got to Grand Forks...after driving around more rural farmlands.  I had some lunch and was able to track down my last stop - the Grand Forks Public Library!

The Grand Forks Library contrasted from the other two I visited today.  Mayville and Larimore were small towns but Grand Forks is the third biggest city in North Dakota after Fargo and Bismarck.

I talked to one of the librarians at the desk you see in this photo and he took Hilda & Richie's book information to give to the children's librarian.

I had one more stop to make in Grand Forks...that was to a bookstore.  But that I will save for tomorrow.

If you know a library interested in carrying Hilda & Richie (ISBN 9780989069632), it is available from me or from Brodard Company.

Oh, one more thing...

Grand Forks Library has an aquarium!  I never knew any public library to have one!

The Plan After the Kickstarter

 On Sunday 5/9/2021, I officially declared the Hilda & Richie Kickstarter to be over.  All the Kickstarter rewards have been sent out so that's behind me now.

So what is next?  Well, it is important to keep selling the book.  It is not going to do me any good to have hundred of copies simply sitting around gathering dust.  I want to see about arranging for some local bookstores to carry Hilda & Richie.  One of them is Ferguson Books, a small bookstore with locations in West Fargo, Bismarck and Grand Forks.  I'm also noting more small bookstores within North Dakota that I want to visit in the future.  

Besides bookstores, libraries are another customer I want to sell to.  I plan to visit local libraries in the coming months to promote Hilda & Richie for their collection.  To that extent, my ties with national library wholesaler Brodart Company has been re-established.  Along with North Dakota libraries (I am local), I want to pitch to the big libraries as well.  A list is being made of the biggest libraries with big collections and potent budgets such as New York, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Boston, Hawaii and so on.  I'll probably be sending sales letters to them soon enough.

Work on the second Hilda & Richie book Hilda & Richie's Wizard has begun.  Later on, I will be revising the script as well as starting on thumbnail drawings for the book.  Like with the early drafts of Hilda & Richie's first book, I will share those here.

Stay tuned for more news!

Hilda and Richie Available For Libraries

 I have some good news to share.  Hilda & Richie is now listed in the OCLC Worldcat website and is in the collection of the North Dakota State Library!

I do not aim to stop there.  I am planning from May 15th to early September to hit the road to visit various libraries in the state of North Dakota to promote the book to them for their collections.

At the time of this writing, a deal is being hammered out with Brodart Company, a distributor of books to libraries.  They distributed my paperback comic book collections some years ago but I need to let them know what is going on now.

In the meantime, copies of Hilda & Richie are available directly from me; my terms are sixty percent off the cover price.  Please contact me at maxwestart(at)gmail(dot)com if you represent any libraries interested in carrying the book.

HILDA AND RICHIE

ISBN: 9780989069632

Hilda and Richie at the Little Free Library

 As I reported on my Kickstarter, copies of my book are now going out to backers.  But that's not what I'm talking about here today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I've made it a point to put some copies of Hilda & Richie in Little Free Libraries.  The Little Free Library is a non-profit organization based in the United States; they make books available to people who may not have access to public libraries or books otherwise.  The books are stored in custom built wooden boxes (you'll see those in a minute) by people called stewards and can be found in many places.  While some will be in residential neighborhood by schools, churches, apartments and houses, you may find them elsewhere such as inside museums and such.  It is basically an honor system.  You are free to take a book to read and encourage to leave a book in the box.  There are both children's books in there as well as general adult reading material such as fiction and non-fiction.

It turns out that there are a number of Little Free Library boxes throughout the Fargo metropolitan area.

This is one of the four boxes I put a paperback copy of Hilda & Richie in.  I put two copies in the Little Free Library of a pair of churches in downtown Fargo.

This is an example of a box housing a Little Free Library.  Some get creative as some of the box designs get really amazing!  If I come across those, I'll share photos here.

This one was in front of the Vocational Training Center in the Hawthorne neighborhood.

This box was in front of Hawthorne Elementary School.

Tomorrow, I plan to get up bright and early to put more copies of Hilda & Richie in Little Free Libraries.  Watch for more news!

Hilda and Richie books are READY!!

 I have good news!  On Wednesday, I picked up my entire 1,000 copy print run of Hilda & Richie from the printers!!

The first copies to my Kickstarter backers will start going out tomorrow but what I really want to talk about are my other plans to sell this book.

Press coverage is one thing; I'm going to produce some YouTube videos about the book.  I will also be sending out review copies to some trade publications like the Midwest Book Review and the School Library Journal.

About twenty-five free copies will be given away.  I will start with the Little Free Library.  The Little Free Library is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving literacy by offering free books in public bookcases that people can take to read as well as leave another book in them.  The above link has more details.  There are a couple of Little Free Libraries here in Fargo so I plan to start with those.

I have more plans but those will have to wait.  Stay tuned here for more news!