Listing Your Comic or Graphic Novel with Library Suppliers

This page will tell you how to list your book with Australian library suppliers, which will allow your book to be ordered by libraries for their collections.

Why library suppliers?

Suppliers offer a wide range of services to the library that include discounts for purchases as well as integrated services such as making the books shelf ready (adding spine labels, cover treatments, RFID tags and cataloguing data).

Libraries most often use specialised suppliers for transparency and efficiency. Very often this is prescribed by Councils or library management. Since the items are processed in bulk by the library supplier, the turnover is faster with the items arriving shelf ready sooner. Libraries also report cost savings through this process.

How to Price Your Books

Ideally, books will not cost much more than $30 for children’s fiction, and not much more than $60 for adult fiction. Authors will be required to provide the titles to all library suppliers at 45% discount off the retail price, PLUS free shipping.

Regardless of what the book’s normal retail price is, it’s recommended that books are listed at a point where the author can at least break even. For example, “Fabled Kingdom v1” is usually $20 as a direct sale from the creator, but it’s listed at $30 with library suppliers.

When suppliers place an order with the creator, the author bills them at a 45% discount + free shipping, meaning that the author charges $16.50 for book (with free shipping). “Fabled Kingdom v1” costs $7 to print and $8 to ship, so the author makes $1.50 off that sale).

If the title is not listed with a 45% discount plus free shipping, the extra cost will be pushed onto the libraries, and they will be less inclined to order your books.

Sales Cannot be Guaranteed

Unfortunately, listing books with library suppliers does not guarantee any library sales. However, this is often a requirement, particularly with public libraries, and it does make it easier and cheaper for libraries to order directly from registered library suppliers.

To get library sales, you still have to market to libraries yourself. If libraries don’t know about your books, they can’t order it in. This is where, we hope, ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics and this database will make a difference. If you have a new comic or graphic novel suitable for libraries, please add it to this catalogue and feel free to let the ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics team know. They’ll love to hear from you.

Another good way to get libraries to order your book in is to do workshops or talks for them. Comic workshops are extremely popular with kids during the school holidays.

Library Suppliers

Whilst libraries are often keen to support local creators, especially if they’re doing a workshop or talk with the library, acquisition policies require most libraries to purchase books with registered library suppliers. This is particularly the case with public libraries and to a lesser extent with school libraries.

Please note that different library services will use different library suppliers. Having your title listed with one supplier will make your book available to some libraries but not others.

Library suppliers will have access to titles by major publishers but if you’re an indie publisher or your title is self published it’s best to check with library suppliers to add your title to their catalogue.

Library suppliers are generally happy to add indie and self published titles to their catalogue but titles must have:

  • A valid ISBN. (please note, an ISSN is not enough – these are for periodicals, not books)
  • Perfect bound trade paperback or hardback (single issue floppies or spiral spine binding are not acceptable as most libraries will not buy them)
  • There is a preference for standard trade sizes

See below for a list of the most widely used library suppliers in Australia. When contacting library suppliers, please let them know that your title is an Australian graphic novel.