SELF-E Selection

I got some good news the other day. A month or so ago, I submitted my book, Stone's Ghost, to the SELF-e program here in Arizona. If you're not familiar with it, this is how the program is described on their web page:

SELF-e is an innovative collaboration between Library Journal and BiblioBoard® that enables authors and libraries to work together and expose notable self-published ebooks to voracious readers looking to discover something new.

The idea is to make the e-book available to library patrons for free, giving both the book and the author wide visibility and exposure. I submitted Stone's Ghost because it takes place in Arizona (near the haunted London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona), but the reality is that the book will be available on a much wider scale than I had thought. Here's the e-mail I received:

Congratulations--your book, Stone's Ghost, has been accepted into Library Journal's curated SELF-e collections! As your book is a featured selection we look forward to sharing it with subscribing libraries all over the country on BiblioBoard Library and helping to build a base of new readers. 

We anticipate the first Library Journal SELF-e curated collection will be available to libraries in mid-2015 and we will contact you when your book is available to readers nationwide.  
 
Your book will also be available to readers throughout your state in the Indie ARIZONA module as a "highlighted selection." The Indie ARIZONA module will launch when we have enough accepted books from ARIZONA.  Consult the "Where" page on the SELF-e site for more information about upcoming module releases. 

Hugh Howey has even weighed in on this thing:

"The SELF-e approach to curation combined with simultaneous user-access via public libraries will encourage books to be discovered and even go viral."

Pretty exciting stuff. I'm guessing that every state either has or will have a module of its own and that this will be a seamless national program once it gets up and running. Can't beat that kind of availability. I will definitely be looking forward to seeing how this pans out, seeing if readers take advantage of the program and if that exposure turns into more interest for my other books. Stay tuned for more information--and results--as I get it.