Once your book is doing what it should in UK libraries — registered for Public Lending Right, properly catalogued, sitting on the shelves of your local library service — the natural next step is looking further afield. Between them, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand represent a library market many times the size of the UK’s, and reaching it doesn’t mean reinventing anything you’ve already learned. It does mean understanding that the systems are different: different wholesalers, different platforms, and occasionally different rules about who can submit what.
The good news first: almost every route in this guide is open to independent authors anywhere in the world. Whether you’re based in Brison, Boston, or Brisbane, the platforms that matter most here – Draft2Digital, Kobo Writing Life, Ingram Spark – don’t care where you live; they care whether your book is properly listed in their system.
A small number of routes do have residency requirements, and these are flagged, rather than leaving you to discover a restriction after filling in a form.
How Library Buying Works Beyond the UK & Ireland
As in the UK, libraries in these four countries buy through wholesalers and platforms rather than directly from authors — but the wholesalers themselves are different from the ones you’ll already be using for UK distribution. Ebooks reach libraries through digital lending platforms such as OverDrive and Hoopla; print books reach them through library-specific wholesalers such as Ingram Library Services and Brodart Library Services. Your job as an author is simply to make sure your book is properly listed with the right one for each format, which is where the two sections below come in.
Ebooks
Direct Routes
Kobo Writing Life → OverDrive
Open to authors anywhere in the world
If you already publish through Kobo Writing Life, you can opt individual titles directly into OverDrive’s library marketplace rather than reaching it through a third-party aggregator. From your KWL dashboard, open the book, go to the Rights and Distribution tab, and toggle on “Available for Libraries in OverDrive.” You set your own library price, and because Kobo has a direct partnership with OverDrive, you earn 50% of that price with no aggregator fee in between — a noticeably better rate than reaching OverDrive any other way (Kobo Writing Life Help Centre). It can take up to a week for the title to appear in OverDrive’s library-facing catalogue, and Kobo doesn’t require exclusivity, so this sits comfortably alongside any other distribution you’re already using.
Indie Author Project
Free submission open worldwide; cash-prize contest is US and Canada residents only
The Indie Author Project (built on the BiblioBoard platform, and the direct descendant of the SELF-e programme many authors will recognise) is the closest thing to a distribution route designed specifically for independent authors. Submission is free and takes a matter of minutes: you submit your ebook file and basic details, and if you don’t live in the US, you simply select “Outside the US” during submission — your book then appears in a dedicated non-US collection accessible to participating libraries (East Baton Rouge Parish Library guide to SELF-e). Selected titles can also be added to curated genre collections and, in some cases, earn author royalties.
Howe er, one thing to note is that the The Indie Author Project Annual Contest, which offers cash prizes and the highest-visibility curation, is open only to authors residing in the US or Canada (Indie Author Project FAQs). If you’re UK-based, you can still use the general submission route to reach US and Canadian library patrons — you simply won’t be eligible for the contest itself.
Aggregator Platforms for ebooks
Draft2Digital
Open to authors anywhere in the world
For most independent authors, Draft2Digital remains the single strongest choice for reaching English-language library platforms in one upload. Through D2D, your ebook can reach OverDrive, Hoopla, cloudLibrary (Bibliotheca), BorrowBox (which also covers Australia and New Zealand), Palace Marketplace (a nonprofit platform backed by the Digital Public Library of America, paying 60% of list price), and Odilo (Draft2Digital Partners).
On D2D’s Publish step, library distribution is opt-in per platform via checkbox, and there’s no cost to ticking every library partner available — so unless you have a specific reason not to, opt in to all of them. The one exception is if you’re enrolled in Amazon’s KDP Select: because Select requires exclusivity everywhere except Amazon, you’ll need to deselect Digital Stores and Subscription Services within D2D and leave only Library Services active. This became possible following a September 2025 policy change from Amazon that, for the first time, allowed KDP Select ebooks to be distributed to libraries (Draft2Digital blog).
Two further aggregators, PublishDrive and StreetLib, are worth knowing about, though for this particular set of countries they’re complements rather than replacements. Both reach thousands of libraries worldwide, but their distinctive strength lies in markets D2D covers less well — Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America. For English-language library lending specifically, D2D’s network is already comprehensive.
Paperbacks
Print-on-Demand
IngramSpark
Open to authors anywhere in the world
IngramSpark is the backbone of paperback library distribution outside the UK, much as it likely already is within it. A single listing makes your book discoverable to more than 40,000 retailers and libraries worldwide, feeding directly into Ingram Library Services — the wholesale channel most North American public, school, and academic libraries order through (IngramSpark).
Two settings matter most for making your book genuinely orderable by libraries (as well as by booksellers): a workable trade discount (librarians typically expect somewhere in the 40–55% range) and returnability. Libraries aren’t reselling your book the way a bookshop is, so they’re less discount-sensitive than retailers, but most still expect the option to return unsold or damaged stock before adding a title to their ordering system (IngramSpark discount guidance).
KDP Print + Expanded Distribution
Open to authors anywhere in the world, but a weaker option for library orders
It’s worth being upfront about a common shortcut. Amazon’s KDP Print, with Expanded Distribution switched on, does technically list your book in Ingram’s catalogue too. But KDP Print doesn’t offer a returnable option, and most libraries — like most bookshops — are reluctant to order non-returnable stock. If library orders matter to you, IngramSpark remains the stronger route despite the extra setup involved (Jane Friedman).
Offset Printing
For most independent authors publishing one or two titles, print-on-demand is the only realistic way into library wholesale channels. The alternative — a traditional offset print run through an independent printer distributed through Ingram’s other arm, Ingram Publisher Services (IPS) — is built for imprints and small presses with a growing catalogue, requires a qualification process, and comes with warehousing and fulfilment obligations that don’t suit a single-title author (Ingram Publisher Services FAQ).
If the cost savings of a larger print run genuinely appeal, the practical middle ground is a hybrid: print an offset batch for your launch, at a lower per-unit cost, while still listing the title with IngramSpark so that libraries and bookshops can reorder via print-on-demand once that stock runs out. This gives you the savings of an offset run without losing the ongoing wholesale listing that POD provides.
Country-Specific Library Wholesalers
United States
Ingram remains the backbone of US library wholesale distribution, reached automatically through a properly configured IngramSpark listing. Baker & Taylor, long the other dominant library-specific wholesaler, ceased operations in late 2025. The major library-specific suppliers now remaining are Ingram Library Services and Brodart Library Services, with Follett also expanding beyond its traditional schools base into public libraries. (American Libraries Magazine).
Canada
Open to authors anywhere in the world
Library Bound Inc. (LBI) is Canada’s leading public library wholesaler, and unusually, it has a dedicated Self-Published Section: you submit your book’s details directly, LBI loads it into the database libraries use to order from, and Canadian public libraries can then order copies either through LBI or through your existing distributor (Library Bound). Nothing in their process restricts submissions by the author’s home country.
Australia and New Zealand
James Bennett and ALS are the leading library suppliers across Australia and New Zealand, covering print, ebook, and eAudio. James Bennett was previously owned by Baker & Taylor, but was sold back into independent Australian ownership in mid-2025 (now part of the digiDirect Group, which also owns Booktopia). Neither James Bennett nor ALS offers a direct author-submission route — both are reached indirectly through your existing wholesale distributor, principally IngramSpark’s global network — so your location as an author makes no difference here at all. (digiDirect Group)
Quick Tips for Library Success, Wherever You’re Based
- Ask your own readers to request your ebook throught their local library’s app (OverDrive/Libby, Hoopla) – libraries won’t stock a title patrons haven’t asked for.
- Pursue reviews from publication librarians actually use for selection: Kirkus, Library Journal, and BookLife (the indie-focused arm of Publishers Weekly) carry real weight.
- Keep your metadata identical across every platform and format – a mismatch between your ebook and paperback listings makes a title harder to catalogue correctly.
- Consider a distinct library price where the platform allows it (Kobo direct, for instance) – library copies can circulate many times over, so a higher list price there is standard practice, not a barrier to sales.
Conclusion
Getting a self-published book into libraries beyond the UK isn’t about starting from scratch. It’s about recognising which of the systems you already know — IngramSpark, Draft2Digital — travel with you unchanged, and which local wholesalers and direct-submission schemes are worth adding to the mix. For most independent authors, a properly configured IngramSpark and Draft2Digital listing does the bulk of the work automatically; the country-specific additions above are what turn “technically available” into “actually being found.”
If you’d like help making sure your book’s metadata, pricing, and distribution settings are genuinely library-ready across every platform in this guide, The Publishing Studio can take care of the detail — so your book is working as hard as it can be, wherever your readers are.
