What your customers are saying about your store

This week SIBA added a voluntary question to the Southern Book Prize ballot. After selecting their picks for best Fiction, Nonfiction, and Children's/YA book, and telling us the name of their indie bookshop, voters are invited to "say something nice about your local bookstore."

Everyone at the SIBA office then spent the next few days smiling at all the comments that were coming in. Here are some of them:

"My local bookstore is always a wonderful place to visit, and the people who work there are also wonderfully helpful and kind." - a customer of Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, AL

"It’s like a visit with a longtime friend. I often stop in just to browse and end up buying a book to start reading at a nearby restaurant." -- a customer of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC

"Novel is amazing! I have loved this store in it's various versions since I was a child. I am so happy that it is still around." -- a customer of Novel in Memphis, TN

"Literally the sweetest bookstore I’ve ever been in." -- a customer of Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN

"Sweet Home Books is one of my favorite places to go!!!" -- a customer of Sweet Home Books in Wetumpka, AL

"Malaprops sets the standard for what an independent bookstore should be." -- a customer of Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC

"Annie B. Jones and her crew at the Bookshelf are wonderful; they provide great gift ideas and really care about providing great customer service!" -a customer of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA

"I love McIntyres books in Pittsboro NC. The staff is always friendly and helpful."

"I am amazed with what Richard Howorth has done at Square Books in Oxford, MS"

"It's a great neighborhood gathering spot" --a customer of Garden District Bookshop in New Orleans, LA

"E. Shaver has everything I’m looking for, and I always discover something I didn’t know I needed to read." --a customer of E. Shaver, Bookseller in Savannah, GA

The Southern Book Prize Ballot remains open until February 1, 2023. SIBA is sharing photos of store displays of the SBP finalists as we see them on social media. Use the SIBA Toolkit of useful materials to help stores promote the ballot and encourage their customers to vote for their favorites:

• Edelweiss Collections: Fiction | Nonfiction | Children & YA
• Flyers (PDF): Fiction | Nonfiction | Children & YA
  Full-color, perfect for displays of 2022 bookseller favorites
• SBP Shelf Talker (PDF)
• Other SBP Assets (logos, author photos, pdfs, links)
• SBP on SBR:
  Finalists reviews on The Southern Bookseller Review
  The SBP Ballot
• Code to embed the ballot on bookstore, author, and publisher websites