A Stellar SIBA Revival in Southern Pines! 

On Friday, July 20, booksellers from McIntyre’s Books, Quail Ridge Books, and The Country Bookshop gathered for a SIBA Bookseller Revival.  SIBA Board member Kimberly Daniels Taws presented with Josh Floyd of IngramSpark, giving an overview of how bookstores are utilizing Ingram Sparks’ services in various ways. Kimberly and her team shared their experiences working with local authors, and their approach to publishing with IngramSpark. They help local authors publish their own work, or publish for them. Their services include project management, local expertise, and quality book production. The Country Bookshop has published two authors under their imprint, with plans for more. They also offer authors resources to DIY.

Ingram Sparks’ Josh Floyd explained how his program works in bookstores across the country in ways similar to Kimberly’s, from being a part of a program offered to authors, to becoming the printer for a bookstore’s imprint. He praised Eagle Eye Book Shop of Decatur, GA for their success with offering marketing services to authors.

Josh also offered samples of store and business-branded journals, produced by IngramSpark, and an example of a calendar that stores could replicate if they wanted to do a store or community calendar.

Booksellers spent the afternoon brainstorming for next year’s Independent Bookstore Day, NC-Piedmont Style. Look for some great things to happen for the twelve indie stores participating!

Praise from attendees:

"This revival session was jam-packed with good information. My coworker felt we picked up more in that short period that was useful to our store going forward than any other education we participated in this year. It was intimate enough that we felt we had meaningful participation and had opportunities to ask questions/ hear from our fellow booksellers. In short, we look forward to attending our next one!”--Keebe Fitch, McIntyre's Books, Pittsboro, NC

"I thought the revival was terrific.  Josh gave a really valuable presentation on using Ingram Spark for setting up a bookstore publishing program. Having Kimberly's first-hand experience with it made it even more useful. I couldn't scribble notes and ideas down fast enough. Equally valuable was the opportunity to network with a few other stores in our area. With inspiration from Josh's presentation and the ability to brainstorm on the spot we were able to flesh out a whole campaign for promoting our stores, NC authors, and Independent Bookstore day through next year! Something that would have taken months of emails otherwise and wouldn't have been half as good (or fun). Thanks to SIBA for giving us this opportunity - and to Ingram for a great program, continued support - and lunch!”--Sarah Goddin, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, NC

"Thank you to everyone who came to the revival. We missed those of you who couldn’t join us! Josh did a fantastic job representing IngramSpark, a company that is truly changing the game of what is possible for our stores.” --Kimberly Daniels Taws, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC