Today’s post is by debut children’s author Ilham Alam (@IlhamAl50397575), whose rhyming picture book, Wonder Walk, is available now.

I’ve long dreamed of getting my book into the public libraries at home, in Canada. But because I published with a hybrid press for my debut children’s picture book, I had to do the work of getting the book into libraries myself.

With trial and error, I’ve identified six steps that have helped my book enter library circulation, even though I did not have the might of a traditional publisher’s marketing team, agent, or PR team.

While this worked for library systems in Ontario, Canada, the same steps should work for any local library system. I’m also sharing the template I used to approach libraries.