Thank you for your interest in hosting a program in partnership with the Stoughton Public Library! We have a very small staff, so we are unable to partner with community members and organizations as frequently as we would like to host special programs for adults, teens, and children. Due to the high volume of requests for partnership each month, unfortunately we must say no to many excellent suggestions.
If you are a self-published author, we welcome you to reach out with a suggestion to host a book launch at the library. We receive many requests from self-published authors, however, so we very seldom pursue partnership programs for self-published book events. The good news is, you can book our basement meeting room, with our permission to sell copies of your books at your own independently-hosted program held here at the library. See our “Hosting an Independent Program at the Library” page for details.
Best practices for pitching your program idea to the library:
- Know your audience: Do you already have a large local following? If you’re the author of a self-published book, does it concern Stoughton history or other topics of special interest to our particular community? If you can demonstrate that your program would be likely to have good attendance, share this in your proposal.
- Craft a blurb: Look at our website calendar to see how we typically describe our programs. Come up with your own short blurb in the same style. Help us envision how we could market your program to appeal to our patrons.
- Explore funding: We are happy to pay performers and presenters for their skills or expertise, or to offer an honorarium to performers who would normally be out of our budget but are willing to lower their fee for the public library. Sometimes even a lowered fee is out of our price range, however, and we must sadly pass. If you wish to charge a higher fee, please mention potential grant or community funding which you could pursue.
- Be concise: Due to our small staff, conscientious use of our time is very important to us. If planning and hosting your program would require lots of back-and-forth emailing, phone calls, or meetings, we may decline to pursue it. This is especially true for Adult programs, which generally have lower attendance than Children’s and Teen programs. Even if you volunteer your own time, if we dedicate hundreds of dollars’ worth of staff time to creating and promoting a program, this is not a responsible use of library resources.
Please email storef [at] stolib.org with your program proposal and we will forward it on to the appropriate supervisor, who will respond as soon as they are able.
If we decline your program proposal, we invite you to pursue hosting your own independent program using the library’s basement meeting room.