Alternative Book Promotion — Little Free Libraries

Putting your indie book in free book libraries around your town

Diane Hatz
4 min readJun 18, 2023

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Little Free Libraries around University of Denver, Denver, CO. Aren’t they beyond cute??

When I first started researching indie book marketing, I balked at the thought of putting my novel into Little Free Libraries. I mean, give away my hard work and soul to anyone who walks by? For free??

Well, almost a year later, reality has sunk in about the challenges an indie author faces. And I now believe Little Free Libraries are a viable way to promote your novel.

What are Little Free Libraries?

If you don’t know what a free library is, it’s a movement that started in 2009 by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin. As a tribute to his mother who loved to read, he built a model of a one-room schoolhouse, filled it with books, and put it on a post in his front yard.

Several years later Little Free Libraries had popped up all over the world. Today, there are over 150,000 registered book-sharing boxes in 120 countries.

The idea is that anyone can leave a book they no longer want or need, and others can take a book they’d like to read. The motto is “Take a Book; Share a Book.” It’s very similar to community fridges which I also love. (I co-founded one when I lived in New York City.)

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Diane Hatz

Author. Organizer. Inner activist. Looking for answers one pen stroke, meditation, and road trip at a time. Rock Gods & Messy Monsters out now.