Attention Librarians...The Horror Writers Association Wants YOU!

As you probably know I am a member of the Horror Writers Association. And in the last few years they have made a commitment to working with libraries and librarians.  Not only do they have a dedicated volunteer to work with the library community, but they have a specific area on the website for us. They have also entered into to an official partnership with United for Libraries, culminating this year in a wonderful presentation at ALA annual.

Well, right now they are offering a discounted membership for the end of 2016 for people to try them out.

Click here for more details.

But let me tell you [from my experience] what you can get from the HWA as a librarian that you cannot get anywhere else:

• Access to the Stoker Recommendations list...as they are being recommended-- this is a wonderful way to see what horror books are getting a lot of buzz. Since they are not reviewed as often as other genres in the mainstream library review sources [people, I can’t read every book and write a review for it; I do many, but all...impossible]. You can also add books to the rec list as a member.
• The chance to volunteer as a judge for the Bram Stoker Awards! Who knows what books readers like better than us? Members make up the jury for the awards. I will have a lot more to say about this in early 2017, so stay tuned.
• A monthly emailed newsletter. Using this link you can access a sample newsletter to see what you get. It gives you a great quick snapshot of what is going on in the genre at any time. Also, past newsletters are archived.
• Access to a database of publishers and authors with contact information. I can tell you from experience, contacting these people is a 2 way street.  You can contact them for information you need, but you can also opt in to get free ARCs of upcoming books. This is a great collection development tool.
• There is a lot more that I am sure I am forgetting right now. Click here for all of the posts I have tagged HWA which includes guest posts by officers in the organization directed at you specifically.

You can look at all of the Librarian membership information on the HWA’s webpage that is catered to us specifically.

Librarians do not have to be paid published horror writers to join at the Associate level. Back when I first joined, they did not have this option. I joined as a professional, published writer. 

I would highly suggest any library workers who work with horror collections and/or readers take the HWA up on this $37 offer to give the association a try. 

If you have questions or concerns about the HWA, feel free to contact me.