In celebration of Indies First on Small Business Saturday, beginning today, shoppers at indie bookstores can enter the American Booksellers Association's new #shopindiesfirstsweepstakes for a chance to win $1,000 worth of books from Penguin Random House.

Between Wednesday, November 15, and Sunday, November 26, customers can enter the sweepstakes by posting a message on Twitter or Instagram and using the hashtag #shopindiesfirstsweepstakes along with the location tag, the social media handle, or the name, city, and state of a U.S. independent bookstore.

Are you on the map?

Here's what's happening across the region on Indies First:

Make sure your activities are represented!

Some building developers are adding libraries to common spaces

"Why aren't my store's events on the calendar?"

SIBA publishes the event calendars of our member stores in the Lady Banks Newsletter, and sends out state-specific calendar listings to all our Lady Banks subscribers. So it isn't uncommon for a store to see the list of upcoming author readings, book club meetings, tarot card sessions (really! you know who you are!) and wonder "why aren't our events listed?"

Events appear on the calendar one of two ways:

Of course, there are only so many elves. And this time of year they get farmed out to Santa. So the most reliable way to ensure your store events are listed is to upload them yourself. Plus you now earn 5 B3! points for every event you add. Here's how to do it:

Add a single event | Add multiple events (Excel File) | Add multiple events online (Google Docs)

It takes about one business day for uploaded events to appear on the calendar.

More at the Peer Brain Trust

Do you use a sidewalk sign?

Results from last week's survey, "Does your store have a cafe?"