Your Self Published Graphic Novel Can Make it to Library Shelves
January 22, 2022 9:59 AM Subscribe
You just need to sneak it in yourself like Dillon Helbig. The 8-year old from Boise always wanted one of his stories to end up in the library and he made that happen because he "always be sneaky."
Looks like the article is blocked?
My partner was a bookseller for a while and they had a local man who tried to do this with his own self-published novels. He would sneak them into the store and put them on the shelves, even trying to put them into window displays as a "local author". Eventually they had to ban him from the shop because he kept trying it, even when they explained to him it doesn't work like that. A library would have been much better, imo.
posted by fight or flight at 10:13 AM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
My partner was a bookseller for a while and they had a local man who tried to do this with his own self-published novels. He would sneak them into the store and put them on the shelves, even trying to put them into window displays as a "local author". Eventually they had to ban him from the shop because he kept trying it, even when they explained to him it doesn't work like that. A library would have been much better, imo.
posted by fight or flight at 10:13 AM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
I think this is one of those things that is endearing when you're 8 but creepy when you're 38.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:42 AM on January 22, 2022 [21 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:42 AM on January 22, 2022 [21 favorites]
The story book synopsis is the most "kid story" thing ever.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:43 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by SoberHighland at 10:43 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
Reminds me of one of my Art profs who said he had a piece in the Met in New York. He meant he left a painting wrapped up in the coat and bag check area.
I have been known to go to bookstores, find my brother´s novels, and put them on the best seller table.
posted by olykate at 10:45 AM on January 22, 2022 [10 favorites]
I have been known to go to bookstores, find my brother´s novels, and put them on the best seller table.
posted by olykate at 10:45 AM on January 22, 2022 [10 favorites]
Olykate: One day in 1979, I drew a cartoon of Howard The Duck on the wall of a toilet cubicle in the Guggenheim - then made a very similar boast to your art professor's.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:02 AM on January 22, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 11:02 AM on January 22, 2022 [9 favorites]
My 5yo has been trying to do this for months. He is also insistent that we take his book, which is about farts, to a publisher. I have been gently encouraging him to investigate self-publication.
posted by phooky at 12:08 PM on January 22, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by phooky at 12:08 PM on January 22, 2022 [12 favorites]
AW, DILLON. <3<3<3<3<3
posted by praemunire at 12:45 PM on January 22, 2022
posted by praemunire at 12:45 PM on January 22, 2022
He is also insistent that we take his book, which is about farts, to a publisher.
A topic in need of an explosive exposé
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:49 PM on January 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
A topic in need of an explosive exposé
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:49 PM on January 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
I loved this! Thank you for posting it. I was really delighted by how clearly Dillon loves his library and feels he belongs there, and how supportive his mom and the librarians are.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:51 PM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:51 PM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
phooky: My 5yo has been trying to do this for months. He is also insistent that we take his book, which is about farts, to a publisher. I have been gently encouraging him to investigate self-publication.
If Messrs. Stross & Scalzi could pick up the courtesy phone, we can get the bidding underway shortly.
posted by dr_dank at 3:03 PM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
If Messrs. Stross & Scalzi could pick up the courtesy phone, we can get the bidding underway shortly.
posted by dr_dank at 3:03 PM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
My 5yo ... is also insistent that we take his book, which is about farts, to a publisher.
Don't dismiss the idea till you've entered the word "farting" into Amazon's book listings and seen just how many titles this subject has inspired.
posted by Paul Slade at 4:06 PM on January 22, 2022
Don't dismiss the idea till you've entered the word "farting" into Amazon's book listings and seen just how many titles this subject has inspired.
posted by Paul Slade at 4:06 PM on January 22, 2022
What a delightful story !
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:07 PM on January 22, 2022
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:07 PM on January 22, 2022
Don't dismiss the idea till you've entered the word "farting" into Amazon's book listings and seen just how many titles this subject has inspired.
Yes, you'd think the topic would be exhausted.
posted by 7segment at 4:20 PM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
Yes, you'd think the topic would be exhausted.
posted by 7segment at 4:20 PM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
Oh my gosh this is so cute!
It's excavated a memory. When I was about 6, my class entered a city-wide competition to illustrate letters of the alphabet, and my drawing won. (C was for Catherine, who had a bonnet, like a C, and ... I dunno.) The prize was that the illustrations would be made into a book and put into the library, and I could not have been happier. I was already determined to write stories, and being in the library -- well, I seem to recall spinning around until I got dizzy.
I was grown before it occurred to me that they never actually got around to putting that book in the library, if they made it at all, and thank goodness. If I'd been a kid, I would have cried, and then I would have been determined to sneak one of my own books (a long story) into the library myself.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:18 PM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's excavated a memory. When I was about 6, my class entered a city-wide competition to illustrate letters of the alphabet, and my drawing won. (C was for Catherine, who had a bonnet, like a C, and ... I dunno.) The prize was that the illustrations would be made into a book and put into the library, and I could not have been happier. I was already determined to write stories, and being in the library -- well, I seem to recall spinning around until I got dizzy.
I was grown before it occurred to me that they never actually got around to putting that book in the library, if they made it at all, and thank goodness. If I'd been a kid, I would have cried, and then I would have been determined to sneak one of my own books (a long story) into the library myself.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:18 PM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
I took the easier route of happening to have the exact same name as the author of a modestly popular YA fiction series.
posted by notoriety public at 7:03 AM on January 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by notoriety public at 7:03 AM on January 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Thia is great. I'm also pretty sure you're allowed to bring external books in to most public libraries without hiding them. But, there's no reason a kid should know that.
posted by eotvos at 10:18 AM on January 23, 2022
posted by eotvos at 10:18 AM on January 23, 2022
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posted by Well I never at 10:12 AM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]