Dear Friends,

A few years ago, I spent a weekend writing with a friend. We stayed at my house and wore repurposed lanyards that contained “A Retreat of Our Own” badges bearing our names and photos. I’d made these to remind ourselves that our weekend had a specific goal, to devote our time to writing, instead of doing laundry or just goofing off. That would come later :)

I mention this story because next week SIBA and NAIBA are co-hosting an extraordinary virtual conference, New Voices New Rooms: Opening Doors. We know you’re in your stores or at home working, as opposed to the usual setup of traveling to a hotel where you can be more single-focused. Consider taking out an old lanyard from pre-pandemic conferences (even if you only wear it metaphorically), and check out the full schedule of events. Mark off the times you can devote the same single focus to a conference that has been created to educate and inspire you, and improve your business. 

Things we really don’t want you to miss:

Opening Keynote on Monday (9/27) at 9AM ET
(Being Black in America: Past, Present, and Future)

Professional DEI training on Wednesday (9/29) at 4PM ET  

SIBA’s Annual Meeting on Thursday (9/30) at 330PM ET

Closing Keynote on Friday (10/1) at 2PM ET
(Tales of Hope and Alliances)

Honestly, though, I don’t want you to miss any of it. This conference is an unparalleled bookseller to bookseller experience: booksellers are offering education, running roundtables and retreats, moderating author events, even working behind the scenes with the NVNR staff to run Zoom! As we put together our programming, we reached out to booksellers to find out what education they needed now, what kinds of author events they most appreciated, what key ways they wanted to interact with their reps and publisher contacts. And we created a conference that would meet those needs, and more.

One last comment before I sign off here: Check out our author event programming and consider the panels as inspirations for displays, book bundles, and subscription box offerings. These are the authors your publishing colleagues want you to know about, to handsell their books to your customers. We’ve covered “rewritten classics,” horror, fantasy, thrillers, romance, debuts, international authors, books about food and foodways, mindful books for anxious kids, kids books on science and nature, timely tales of hope and alliances, adult silver linings stories, “big books,” books about the South, and books that explore the Black experience in our country. Stream these author events in your stores so staff (and maybe some lucky customers!) can gather round. Reach out through our Readers of the Last Arc Galley Room to get copies to review and share with your coworkers. 

Emily Liner, owner of Friendly City Books, Columbus, MS called last year’s virtual conference her Favorite SIBA programming benefit: She said, “Attending New Voices New Rooms last year was a game changer. It was lovely to connect with other bookstores across the South, and it introduced me to my bookstore mentor, Rachel Watkins at Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA.”  We hope you join us next week and up your own game. And bring your lanyard!