This happened to almost all the books I have on hold. I got booted way further down the line than I was yesterday. Did something happen? I've been waiting for months for some of these and was so close!!
I had this happen with an audiobook recently. They had 500 licenses for both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame but apparently it was very temporary as they now have 11 licenses for Iron Flame and I went from Available Soon to several months wait.
That makes sense, but is deeply frustrating. It happened to five of my nine holds. I was so close on these, and now it's gonna be months longer.
Is it possible that you got the alert that it was ready for you to borrow and you missed it? Seems weird it would happen to 5 at the same time
Nope, didn't miss it. Must just be a weird timing thing, probably the library bought a bunch of licenses on the same day and then they all expired on the same day.
I usually end up buying the book when that happens.
If you have the interest, check out some classics. They often will be unlimited copies or available. It helps your wait not seem so long. Also, check out the book suggestions sub for good recs that likely don’t have as long a wait.
The good news is, they may add a bunch more copies once they see the ratio of holds. So it might be temporary.
You should feel free to talk to your local librarian about this! At my library, we appreciate when a patron points out something like this to us.
Good luck, and I hope you get your books soon!
Yep, definitely frustrating! I've not had this happen (that I'm aware of) but have had the last license of a book I had on hold expire without renewal so now I'm just in the ether of either A) waiting for the library to get new licenses or B) bitterly let go of my own money.
Try contacting the library? See if they will renew?
I have a copy of this I can send to you for free if you want to dm me a kindle address (the app is free if you don’t already have it)
how i deal with this, i have multiple cards. See if there's any state libraries you can get another card with?
Wait, you get 9 holds? I only get 6.
The number of holds varies based on the library/library district
I get 10! I just only have 9 right now.
I only get 3 so enjoy your 6! Luckily I use KindleUnlimited a lot and buy some so I really use the library for more expensive books, but it can make it hard to chose what I want to put a hold on.
Dang, I get 25. I didn’t realize that it varied so greatly.
It varies between libraries. One of my libraries gives 20 holds/10 loans. The other is 10/20 the other way round!
My local library only gives 5 holds, so I purchased a card at a big library in another state. Now I have 10 additional holds. It’s been great.
If you are doing ebooks, this one and many are often on sale for $.99-2.99 a piece, I add to wishlist then grab when on sale, even if I received an advanced copy and didn’t read for some reason. Also, I believe this is a kindle unlimited title. Which is free for a trial period. Good luck! Hope you get to read soon!
That was my first guess too…the other option I was thinking, although I think this book is too new, was Advantage copies being held for home library patrons.
OP said this happened to 5/9 books. Is that still likely? And would it say that the library just got 2 more copies ( like in OPs screenshot)? Just curious how it all works lol
Disclaimer: I have an MLIS but I'm Canadian and have not worked in a public library so this is based off of what I know from school.
Libraries don't often buy licenses one at a time. They tend to put in large order for books with high wait times, alongside new books and other books in demand. So a single order could have a couple hundred different books with differing amounts of licenses. So if the OP has holds on a lot of popular books it's not unlikely that 5 overlap on one of the larger orders.
Given the popularity of this book and the fact it's ~4 years old, and it, along with many others, have had surges in popularity thanks to Book Tok the library likely has multiple "packages" that include this book. So if a library has 50 "copies" of a book, 20 may be on a one year license expiring in February, another 20 may also be on a one year license but those won't expire until October, and the final 10 are on a 5 year license.
This book got popular again because the 3rd (and final) book was released a week or so ago. Lots of people doing rereads or "finally" ready to read it now that they know the series is complete.
The two lanes are why you are now back.
I have library cards that have 2 lanes, and in some, I am fast tracked and others in the slow one.
For example, I was a military spouse and got library cards from all over. When I updated 2 of them with my new address, I moved from being local and was placed in the "non local" lines. This means local addresses get 1st dibs, then IF no one local wants the book, I then the 2nd line gets a chance to check it out.
Not all libraries do this. Some allow non residents with no separation of residents and non. I have all my cards with my actual address so I know I can have them (or if not, will get kicked eventually). Some even allow you to pay to have a card as a non resident, but also have the same thing.
I also know of a local library that does this but is a reciprocating library with my local one. The actual locals get 1st chance on the books, then not actual locals in a reciprocating area.
The two lanes isn't why I got pushed back. It happened to some books that did not have two lanes, and those that have multiple lanes had those lanes before today. Turns out a bunch of licenses expired.
Oh, that sucks. Sorry, I saw the 2 lanes and was like, I know how that works, and didn't think about books expiring.
Maybe they will renew or get more? 🤞
I’m a military spouse and I absolutely haven’t updated my address from my last city. They don’t need to know I don’t live in that province anymore, I’m just getting the odd audiobook from their system!
442 people?!?! Jesus Christ
Fourth Wing has over 1100 people waiting. It's insane.
Wow! Maybe try the audiobook - that's available now in both my libraries.
It says there are 72 people waiting when I look at this hold in my account. Why is it so different? Because it’s based on my specific library?
Yes, your library system has it's own purchase/rental of the book which gives it x many copies for your local library. Your system either has more copies, so less folks on hold, or just less people wanting to read that book.
Thanks for explaining.
This is so crazy to me how it varies so much. I have Fourth Wing available now, but Iron & Flame is estimating 21 weeks(14 copies ~150 in line). So strange how this all shakes out!
I’m 1,136th in line for one of my holds.
22 copies… 32nd in line. Sarah J Maas books generally read pretty quickly once you’ve picked them up and with 22 options for someone to return early, i’d expect this line to move quicker than the full check out time.
How is the estimate several months? I’d estimate 3 weeks unless I’m completely missing something here.
I mean, I put this on hold at the end of October, so it's already been nearly four months.
I’m going to guess some of your wait time movement is due to the expiring of licenses as well as there being two lanes. I know I’ve jumped people in line before when it’s the card part of the consortium because the library I got my consortium card from had priority.
She’s 32nd in line per copy. There are over 400 people waiting in total.
I'm actually reading this one now and the pacing is more on par with the first book. It's like watching a soap opera that switches between three different scenes every five minutes and by the end of the week, all of the characters are still in the same room/situation/scene that they started in on Monday. And this book is longer than the other two! I'm 25% through, but it's been a slog. I probably won't finish before I have to return it and need to wait in line again.
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3mo
Nope, none of these even got to available. Turns out a bunch of licenses expired so there's fewer copies. Huge bummer.
Ouch, I'm sorry OP.
I'm not sure what state you're in but some libraries allow you to become a member of their library if you're a resident in the state.
I live in California and our local library system isn't the best. I was able to become a free member to several other library system in the state for free by just being a resident. If one book isn't available in one system or the wait is too long, I just jump to a different library system and request the book there.
I just found that out today, but in Pennsylvania. My local library switched to Cloud Library a few years ago. That’s fine, I can get books to read on my iPad mini. But I did some research and found that residents of Pennsylvania can get a library card for the Free Library of Philadelphia and they use Libby. I signed up online for a card and within a few minutes I was able to start reading a book on my Kindle. I’m very happy! I agree, research if big library systems in your state offer library cards with Libby for anyone.
Oh yay, I’m glad you were able to start reading! I’ve read CC before, actually just reread it for CC3 that just came out. I hope you enjoy the story!
I just buy the hard copy, read it and then donate to the library to add to their collection. I have no patience for this long wait.
I don’t think I’ve even logged into Libby in over a year. If the books are available long enough to have a short wait time, they’re usually on Kindle Unlimited.
The "In Two Lanes" is what does it... I'm not really sure what it means but it seems some users get prioritized over others based on library card types. So when it says "in two lanes" your wait can be very unpredictable.
My hypothesis is that online only cards get deprioritized in favor of cards opened/confirmed on site . But really idk.
Nah, in this case, it's just that a bunch of copies expired in the library system so places got shifted. This one was just an example but there are a couple of books that don't have multiple lanes where I also got booted far back in line.
Your library will potentially re-obtain licenses for this, though. The old ones expired and I'd be suprised if they don't purchase new ones soon, unless end-of-year budgets are an issues (like they are in my system, but this is a popular author). 20/1 hold ratio is huge for a library - my systems tries to shoot for 5/1.
I certainly hope so! I don't mind waiting, I do have plenty to read in the meantime. It was just such a bummer going from ~2 weeks away back to several months.
I totally get that! I'm pretty confident that your library will try to correct that soon if they have budget for it, though.
I love libraries and I want to support them, but this and my inability to just read a book at a time is why I usually end up buying them
I had one do that yesterday as well lol
I didn't have notifications turned on for my app and when I logged in after 2 days of not opening it, I scrolled through my shelf and there were messages about not hitting borrow for my hold books that became available and it placed me to the back of the line. Any chance that it might have happened to you this way?
Nope! Didn't miss any becoming available. I have push notifications on, so it would have popped up on my phone. I don't have any messages about them being missed either.
I dunno but I am so so sorry you booted from that book in particular, I just finished and it’s so good!
i’m so sad because i’ve been waiting months for crescent city and i didn’t see the notification that it was available and it lapsed 😭😭😭 im 344th in line now
This is the explanation for Libby when I click on the highlighted text”Some copies of this title belong to specific libraries, and their patrons are given priority for holds on those copies. For this reason, you may jump forward or move backward in the line, so we can’t accurately estimate wait time.”
If you don’t want to wait but don’t want to actually buy the book I recommend getting the Everland (previously Scribd) app. It’s $12ish and it’s rare I haven’t been able to find a book on it. I may have to wait a couple of weeks but for the most past it’s there. Audio and ebooks.
UGH that happened with me with All Systems Red!! But I gaslighted myself into thinking I just misremembered!
Side note, I just stumbled on all systems red and was wondering why I suddenly had a months long wait . Aside from the glitch mentioned in the comments I didn’t realize there’s a TV series coming out. Bitter and excited at the same time
My best guess is that a lot of licenses lapsed on these ebooks. Now they have 22 copies, but yesterday they may have had 50. So now all the people who were #1 for those other 28 copies have been put ahead of you.