Watch for your SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE BALLOTS!

All SIBA member stores have been shipped a set of postage-paid postcard ballots for the 2019 Southern Book Prize. They should be arriving for the start of the Love Your Bookstore Challenge week. Hand them out to your customers and get them involved in the excitement of choosing the best Southern books of the year.

• Downloadable posters promoting all the Southern Book Prize finalists are available here for you to post with your store displays.
  
  
• Ballots can also be submitted online at www.southernbookprize.com.
  
  
• Baker & Taylor is offering a special 45% discount offer on all the Southern Book Prize finalists, through December 1st. No promo code is required. Click here for a sell sheet
  

We've had a few questions about the new format, so here are some of the more common ones:

Can books still be nominated for the Southern Book Prize?
Nominations for this year's SBP (books published in 2018) have closed, but nominations for the next year's (books publishing in 2019) are open.

Can customers vote?
Voting on the finalists is open to the general public. We want stores to involve their customers. The ballots have a place for the person to write in their local bookstore and the ballot is invalid without this information. There is also an online ballot that will be active on 11/10. Submitted ballots are entered into a drawing to win a complete set of the Southern Book Prize Finalists.

What happened to the "long list" and the "short list"?
SIBA has eliminated the step of voting on the "long list" of nominated titles to come up with the "short list" of finalists. Instead, the finalists were selected from the books that received the most nominations.

Will you have booksellers judging the finalists this year?
No. Judging by booksellers has been replaced by the current ballot, which is open to all SIBA members and their customers.