Rudy Owens’ memoir on the American adoption experience
Today I published a resource on my website to address a larger issue facing nearly every self-published and future self-publishing author. You can find that page and subject-index resource for my book here.
Because of the structure of the publishing industry, the official policies of the Library of Congress, and the cataloguing systems for books used by libraries and information systems, self-published authors such as myself will remain at a competitive disadvantage to provide a subject index on a book’s copyright page.
Likely purchasers of self-published works, such as public and academic libraries, may not have the resources or time to consider books that lack the stamp of legitimacy that comes with the Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) and Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) data block, which shows the key subjects of the book for cataloguing purposes.
An excellent set of essays for the self-publishing author, by M.A. Demers, deconstructs the confusion surrounding the LCCN, the CIP, the Library of Congress’s Pre-assigned Control Number (PCN) Program, and the for-profit Publisher Cataloguing in Publication (PCIP) services. Demers writes, “The absence of a CIP block or an LCCN in no way prevents a library from buying your book and putting it into circulation. And in the United States, self-published authors are barred from the Library of Congress’s CIP Program anyway, rendering an LCCN essentially useless.”
Because of the structural barriers my work faces to be “officially indexed” through the Library of Congress (LOC) system, I have created a LOC subject index that uses the library’s official subject heading system. Purchasers at libraries and other organizations may wish to consider using these subject headings when adding my work to their catalogue. I would be happy to answer any questions as well. Please contact me.
All of the official LOC subject headings can be found on my subject-index-heading page.
As a quick and hopefully useful follow-up to this post, I reached out to the Multnomah County Library, my public library system, twice to get clarity how a large public library system makes possible purchasing and acquisition decisions based on cataloguing information that is, or is not, placed on the copyright page. I was disappointed the library would not answer if the information on the page influenced their decisions. From all I have learned, this will remain an area of confusion for future and current indie authors, and even our beloved public libraries, whose mission is to promote knowledge and understanding of important matters, is not helping those who can’t or don’t find an agent or publishers and who seek to have their work on a public library shelf.
If someone who reads this can find a good FAQ page on how libraries evaluate purchases based on catalogue information on a copyright page, that would be great to see and share with others. Many authors would benefit from this knowledge. Thanks!