My new library card

I’ve been meaning to get one for years, but today I finally relented and applied for a library card.

A few reasons, I suppose.

Firstly, libraries are such great resources, and as an author, I should be supporting them much more than I have been.

Secondly, I’ve started to sell a few of my ebooks to libraries via Overdrive, so I wanted to check out how it all works. (BTW, my books are available via Overdrive, but it depends on your local library’s catalogue, so you may need to ask your local libary to stock them).

The kicker for me, though, was a conversation I had with my wife last week about the cost of entertainment. While we’re not huge spenders, up until the weekend, we had both Netflix and Stan, and I’ve just signed up for a Kindle Unlimited account, because it was cheaper than buying the number of books I was every month.

And while I’m a fan of the subscription model (mostly – though I do wish the amount authors get paid per borrow was more, which is why I don’t have my books in KU at the moment), I realised how differently I tend to seek out the books I want to read since I started using my KU subscription.

The choice is limited, as more and more authors go ‘wide’ and publish on other platforms (Amazon requires exclusivity in order to utilise the KU system).

And a lot of the big-name authors don’t have their books in KU because, I’m assuming, their publishers want sales and not borrows.

Plus, we’re trying to save some money, and although it’s not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, eveery little bit does count.

So I’m going to read what I’ve borrowed on KU this month and then cancel my subscription.

And then I’m going to start borrowing my ebooks from the library.

I’ve had a quick look at the apps I can access with my new library card, but have to wait until my card arrives to use most of them.

I am a little disappointed to not be able to find an LGBTIQ+ category in the apps  I can access so far, and will be interested to see if that’s the case for all of them.

I have some further thoughts on that subject that I think I’ll look at next week, hopefully after I’ve been able to get stuck in to using the apps and borrowing books.

I am curious though as to how many of you have library cards and actively use them? And do you use them for physical books or ebooks? (Did you even know you could access ebooks with your local library card??)

Hit me up in the comments – I’d love to know your thoughts.