Book Review: Self-Publishing and Collection Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries

Abstract

Self-publishing has exploded over the last ten years, resulting in an entirely new ecosystem of self-publishing platforms, marketing options, and collection development tools. Major companies such as Amazon provide a relatively easy way for individuals to format and upload writing for public consumption, and the public’s demand for these materials is increasing. This demand has created a new and challenging set of problems for librarians who would like to leverage the growth of self-publishing to improve library collections and services. The essays collected in Self-Publishing and Collection Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries make a convincing case that academic and public libraries have significant opportunity to participate in this new publishing landscape while making clear that, particularly for academic libraries, the acceptance and active collection of self-published titles is still something of a work in progress.