Are Libraries the Hidden Book Market?

What if the most powerful tool in your book marketing strategy isn't social media — it's your local library? In the debut episode of The Publishing Playbook, host Sarah Russo of Page One Media sits down with publishing veteran Erin Cox to unpack one of the industry's most overlooked opportunities: libraries. With a career spanning publicity at Scribner and HarperCollins, agenting, and her current role as publisher of Publishing Perspectives and co-founder of Words and Money, Erin brings rare, 360-degree expertise to the conversation. Together, Sarah and Erin break down how libraries actually buy books, why they're a powerful (and underutilized) marketing channel for authors, and the misconceptions that are costing publishers real money. Whether you're a debut author, a seasoned writer, or publishing-curious, this episode will change how you think about getting your book into readers' hands.

Words & Money

Publishing Perspectives

Essay by Auyon Mukharji, author of HEARTLAND MASALA

PageMatch by Spotify


Key Moments

0:00 - Libraries Are Selling Books 📚

Erin explains why libraries aren't the enemy of book sales — they are book sales.

1:56 - Meet Erin Cox 🎙️

Host Sarah Russo introduces her guest: a publishing lifer whose career spans Scribner, HarperCollins, The New Yorker, literary agenting, and beyond.

7:28 - Words and Money 💡

Erin shares the origin story of her new venture with Andrew Albanese, a digital media platform shining a spotlight on libraries' overlooked role in publishing.

8:19 - The Library Misconception 🏛️

Sarah and Erin bust the myth that libraries hurt book sales and explain why those purchases are some of the best a publisher can get.

14:24 - The Hold System Trap ⚠️

Erin reveals why encouraging fans to place library holds can actually backfire — and hurt smaller publishers in the process.

21:23 - Reasons to Be Excited 🎧

Erin shares the publishing news she's genuinely buzzing about, including Spotify's surprising new moves that are bringing print books and audio together in a whole new way.


Books and authors mentioned in this episode. We encourage you to check them out at the library, buy them from your local independent bookstore or from Bookshop.org:

My Antonia by Will Cather

Richard Powers’s The Overstory and Playground

Justin Cronin's The Ferryman

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

Judy Bloom

Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire (and the book I read the manuscript of at my very first job in publishing was Merrick)