Save the Libraries: Thriller Writer Karin Slaughter on Her Campaign
By Karin Slaughter Jun 9, 2011Not many of us listened to our parents when we were growing up, but we always listened to the words we read in books. I remember my own childhood through the novels I read—Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case; The Secret of the Old Clock; Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Flowers in the Attic; Gone With the Wind. The one thing all of these books have in common is that they were suggested to me by my local librarian. With a stealthy hand, she directed me toward choices that fostered a lifetime love of reading.
I am hard pressed to find a successful writer who doesn’t have a similar story to mine—transformation through the public library. This is why I am beseeching all members of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) organization to support the Save the Libraries program.
At a time when Americans need their libraries the most, funding is being slashed, staffs are being cut, and doors are being closed. The story is the same in most library systems: demand is up, funding is down. Why do we need libraries? For many children in rural areas of our country, the library offers their only access to books and the Internet outside of the schoolroom. For adults, many companies only accept job applications filed over the Internet. Mechanics and other professionals need access to costly manuals that are free at their local library. Sixty-five percent of entrepreneurs use the library to research opening their own business. And, believe it or not, there are still children whose highlight of the week is that trip to the library. It was true when I was a kid, and it’s doubly true now: the library is the beating heart of any community.
With support from the ITW, I and fellow authors Jon Land, Joe Moore, and Dave Hosp are launching a library fund-raising program that we hope to roll out nationwide sometime next year. The pilot event was held March 12, 2011, in support of my local system, the DeKalb County Library Foundation, to spectacular success raising over $50,000. The fund-raising effort was multifaceted. Tickets were sold for a cocktail party that I hosted with special guests Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help, and Mary Kay Andrews, author of ten critically acclaimed and best-selling novels. We also did a blind auction for items of interest to people in the Atlanta area—restaurants, hotel visits, spa treatments. Some of the bigger-ticket items were also offered online via Bidding For Good and eBay. Computers were set up at the library to enable bidding in real time, so someone from Decatur, GA, could compete against a reader in Bulgaria to have their script read by my film agent in Los Angeles. Since many ITW authors are published in multiple languages, we felt that having this international component would result in a huge boost in bidding dollars.
More important than just this one event is the repeatability we've built into the Save the Libraries program. We documented every step—and misstep—so far in our journey to build a successful fund-raiser: the donation requests we've made, the letters we've written to potential sponsors, the timeline we've used, the media coverage we’ve attained, the press releases we’ve sent, the auction items we’ve gathered, and all the logos, posters, invitations and ads that were developed in support of the event; eventually, we will combine all of these components into an “event in a box” packet that will act as a template for future fund-raisers.
All of this work is being done with an eye toward our eventual goal: to hold a nationwide raffle in which the ITW will invite library systems from all four corners of the continental United States to submit a short proposal for a fund-raising event. We’ll then choose one system from each quadrant and send, at no expense to the library, at least four New York Times best-selling authors to help raise money. We’ve already exacted promises from Dennis Lehane, Linda Fairstein, Joseph Finder, Douglas Preston, Lisa Gardner, and Tess Gerritsen for an event this upcoming fall in Boston.
From its inception, ITW has fostered an international reputation for supporting writers. I think it’s equally important that we build a reputation for supporting the places where most of us got our start. It is a textbook symbiotic relationship. Anything that is good for the libraries is good for authors. If we look at these fund-raisers as a way not to help ourselves, but to help one of the cornerstones of our industry, we can’t go wrong. As a lasting legacy, there is nothing more important we can do than to make sure everyone has free and open access to reading. Whether it’s celebrating Banned Books Week or risking jail time in support of reader privacy, librarians have always stood up for the rights of writers. It’s time that we stood up for them.
If you are interested in using the Save the Libraries model for your local library, contact us via the SaveTheLibraries.com website or e-mail STL@cincinnatimedia.com. [This piece was adapted from an ITW blog posted by Karin last fall.—Ed.]
