Best-sellers, ‘sleeper hits’ keep us waiting
If you decided you wanted to get your hands on an Ottawa Public Library hard copy of the Michelle Obama memoir Becoming in January, your hold joined more than 1,400 others on a four-month waitlist.
“We had a good indication that this was going to be very popular, we had pre-ordered a lot of copies,” said Ann Archer, OPL manager of content services. But they hadn’t anticipated just how ferocious the demand for the title would become.
“It is the publishing phenomenon of 2018,” and for OPL, that means “we, in turn, have to try and keep up with that demand as it grows and grows.”
Becoming is at the top of a “most requested” list that OPL launched online earlier this month, alongside other such titles as Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House, and How to Instant Pot.
OPL membership is on the rise — the number of active cardholders increased by nearly 35,000 between 2014 and 2018, and almost 15,000 in the past year alone — and when a book becomes extremely popular, it could mean waiting alongside hundreds of other people for months at a time. Predicting demand for a library book, and calculating the number of copies OPL should order to try to meet that demand isn’t an exact science. Sometimes, staff underestimate.
They’re already at almost 150 hard copies of Becoming, for example, and they still have to purchase more, Archer said.
But most of the time, according to Archer, OPL predictions are pretty spot-on.
Before placing an order for a title, which typically happens prior to its publication, OPL staff pick from lists prepared by library vendors, who already do a lot of research into books and get information directly from publishers before putting these lists together. Then, OPL considers how many copies the publisher is planning to print.
“That gives you a good indication of OK, this is going to hit all of the talk shows, this is going to get well-reviewed, there’s going to be advertising behind it,” said Archer.
They also look at popular book trends — “Political books are incredibly hot right now” — and an author’s previous popularity with readers. Then, after publication, OPL can order more copies if demand requires it. Sometimes it takes a while for a “sleeper hit” to build momentum, and popularity can be buoyed by reviews, awards and bestseller lists, added Archer.
The number of copies OPL can buy of any given title is limited, of course, by budget, and in some cases it’s just not possible to significantly cut down a long wait list. But that doesn’t deter many of the city’s loyal library users, said Archer.
“People are willing to wait because often they’re avid readers, they’re putting requests on a lot of different books, and they like that moment of surprise when it finally comes through.”
And if you’re really anxious to crack open a popular title, try your luck in the library’s express e-books section, or the express collection at your local branch, where popular titles are first-come, firstserved, and only loaned for short periods. “It might be your lucky day,” said Archer.