Do library check-outs affect future offers?

Maybe these days with e-books they may keep track of check-outs.

As far as I know, no.

Libraries are like used books. They don't directly support the author past the initial purchase, but they can generate sales on new books by introducing the reader to the author, thus expanding the fan base. If a book at a library has been checked out a gazillion times, but none of those check outs have generated a sale, then why would a publisher care? Sure, the library might have bought a few copies, and they might buy a few more to keep up demand, but if volumes of new books aren't being moved then that doesn't matter.

Also, I can't see how the publisher can verify the check-outs. Sales have legal tender behind them and must be calculated. Library records can be changed and someone's friend can easily forge a check-out list.

In some countries (such as Australia, NZ, UK, Canada) there are Public Lending Right programmes, where authors are paid a small amount if their books are available at Public Libraries. The payment systems vary.

As to whether loans under such a scheme, when quantifiable, would translate to heightening agents'/publishers' interests in an author I would think it would have to help.

When agents and publishers want to know how well a particular author has sold they look them up on Nielsen. It records sales. It's a blunt instrument: it doesn't give precise, accurate numbers; but it does show trends.

There are lots of sales which aren't included in Nielsen's figures, because they don't have access to those sales.

I don't think they have any way of referencing library usage, but I can't check because I don't have access to an account anymore.

But nope, library borrows aren't included in a book's sales.

It's a shame, as it does impact on lots of writers.

For example, Robert Hale is a publisher which specialises in producing books for libraries. It has very short print-runs (300 is a good one), doesn't reprint until it has a hundred or more advance orders, and pays low advances; and its books are solid hardbacks in library binding, so are very robust and therefore extremely expensive to buy, so bookshop sales are almost non-existent: if you look up a Hale title it'll look like it's sold very badly. But they get borrowed at breakneck speed from libraries, and do very well there. Writers who are published by Hale look terrible in Nielsen, but often have a good following and strong potential.

It seems unlikely that a book would still have low sales if it was getting loads of library loans, barring it no longer being available to buy I suppose.

Library loans are tracked in the UK and the most popular loans figures are published. They pretty much reflect the bestselling author lists. The same authors are popular and have large sales in both the bookshops and the libraries.

Becky Black said:

It seems unlikely that a book would still have low sales if it was getting loads of library loans, barring it no longer being available to buy I suppose.

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It might seem unlikely to you, but it happens under a particular set of circumstances. I have several friends whose books are affected.

For example, Robert Hale, which I referred to before, publishes books primarily for the library market. Its books are published mostly as hardbacks in library binding, and are consequently expensive to buy. They don't routinely appear in bookshops. They are not usually promoted to the book-buying public, or marketed to booksellers who might be interested in carrying them. Readers can buy them, of course: but first they have to be aware of them and if the books are not in bookshops, and aren't marketed or promoted very widely or effectively outside the library market, how are readers going to even know they exist? It's the readers who use libraries who find them, who borrow them, and who read them. Their sales are often very poor (I believe the average print run for a Hale book is just 300 copies, and their titles are unlikely to be reprinted without at least 100 advance orders); but their income under the PLR scheme is relatively good.