How to deal with Authors' books?

You can also upload a small room with books in it to the gallery, have a little outside area at the book store or Library where you can download the room,  then remove the books and delete the room.

SimmervilleIf your active sim leaves their book lying around in a community venue like a library, the game will put it back in their personal inventory when they leave the lot, so you can't do it that way. If you want the books in the library, you'll have to follow SheriSim advice about saving a book room. I don't know whether or not a bookstore would work. Let us know if you try it. If it's possible to select a book as an item for sale, then that should solve the problem of copies, because you can just do the restock function. 

So, this is what I do: each time one of my sims writes a book, I have them make several copies (10-20) before publishing. They keep one copy in their own personal inventory at all times (though if they take it out to read, you may have to keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't leaving them lying around). One copy goes in a household bookshelf. Other copies are given to children, spouses, significant others, best friends, etc. I typically have them leave a copy in their local library (home world and/or worlds I consider adjacent). I haven't done this yet, but I also plan to start adding a copy to the family keepsake box. Now that we will have wills, we will hopefully also be able to designate sim-written books as heirlooms, so that someone can inherit the author's personal copy.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I have them gift a copy to Mortimer Goth, who owns a retail bookstore in Magnolia Promenade. Once Mortimer personally owns the copy through gifting, he can set it for sale, and then just have it restocked so that it is in circulation essentially forever.

Having to gift the books one on one to Mortimer is a bit of a chore, so I am still holding out hope that eventually we will be able to gift more than one item at a time. Still, this system has worked very well for me otherwise.

Sigh. Retail store is the only way I can think of to get your Sims' books out there. In TS3 the books would automatically be placed in the library -- at least in Sunset Valley. I can't remember whether they'd show up in other worlds, too. But yes, if you want a book to be in a library, your Sim has to place it there. I suppose you could have your writer Sims drop them off in a library, and your publisher Sim could pick them up. Or they could just gift them.

The only thing I know is that screenplays are generally the most lucrative. Playing around with titles is really the only way I know of to make them interesting.

Thank you all for good advice! I'm giving this all some more thinking before implementing a tradition. I'd wish there was an easier way than up/downloading a room, because it will not happen just once, but every time a sim writes a book. But, if I create my own book covers, those would not been seen in the library anyway, so well... That goes for the retail as well, but there I could at least visualize through custom posters showing off the Author/book cover. It would get tedious doing posters for every single book, but there could be a selection.

Gifting a few copies might be a good idea, just need a routine for it.

I might end up simply imagining again... I often do that in this game, and move the visualizing to my web page and blog.

If my sim writes a book, I make several copies and only one is for publishing. I do have one dedicated library which will always remain a library (the one in willow creek) and drop at least one book there. I also leave magic tomes at the magic realm and familiars for other sims. The trick with leaving books on a public space is to put it away in the bookcase yourself. That way it will not be taken back with you. 

It wasn't always this way, you could leave pretty much anything on a lot - but it's a bit finicky now. When your sim goes home, they can take stuff back with them. Just put the books away and they should stay on the lot. You can still leave crystals or other collectables without issue. 

I had a sim one time live in the Laurel Library as a librarian and I was designating diff sims to be writers of diff genres. So when you turn the library from residential to Library, the books will remain there for all sims to enjoy.