Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
The SIBA Offices will be closed during the following periods for the winter holidays:
Thanksgiving Week: November 26 - 30 There will not be a SIBA newsletter on Thanksgiving
December Holidays and New Year's: December 22 - January 2 SIBA will send out its last newsletter of the year on December 18, and resume after New Year's in 2026.
Although the offices will be closed, email will be monitored and urgent queries responded to during normal business hours.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Did you know that social media sites are de-prioritizing hashtags? Many are saying that hashtags are dead, but are they really? Let’s dive in!
Instagram has removed the ability to follow hashtags, which limits exposure. TikTok and Instagram now both prioritize captions, audio, and on-screen text for ranking content. X (formerly Twitter) has deprioritized hashtags as well, and LinkedIn has shifted to natural language indexing, where keywords matter more than hashtags.
Social media platforms are now indexing text much the same way search engines like Google do. And if your content doesn’t include the words people are searching for, no one will see it. So while hashtags drove content discovery in the past, now discovery is driven by natural language keywords, search terms, and context, making clear, intent-driven captions far more effective than a list of hashtags.
Since keywords reflect how people actually search, including important keywords and search terms in your captions to align with your content means higher engagement and that your content is more likely to rank in searches. According to the Hubspot 2024 Social Trends Report, 67% of marketers are now prioritizing keyword strategies over hashtags for social discovery.
So, are hashtags still worth using? The short answer is yes, but maybe not in the way you’re used to. They’re no longer a main traffic driver, but they now work more similarly to metadata. Hashtags help platforms understand what your content is about, so they can be used to reinforce topics. They also act as secondary keywords, and they can tell the algorithm who might care about your content. Finally, hashtags keep your posts searchable over time, especially on TikTok and Instagram.
When used really well, hashtags can support and boost your content and contribute to you reaching more relevant consumers. If they are too generic, though, or misaligned with your content, they can dilute your visibility.
Here is a handy chart of what works and what you’ll want to avoid with hashtags going forward:
What Works
Choosing just a few relevant hashtags per post
Use hashtags to reinforce the information in your captions
Think of hashtags as supporting metadata instead of a traffic driver
Prioritize keywords, natural language, and on-screen text to make your content more discoverable
What Doesn’t Work
Relying on hashtags to “hack” the algorithm
Using the exact same caption on every post
Overloading posts with a ton of hashtags
Following and Tagging SIBA
If you don’t already, make sure to follow SIBA on Instagram (@siba_books) and on Facebook (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance). Also, make sure to tag us directly in posts about what your store is doing! This will increase your visibility.
And like and comment on our posts to help us increase SIBA’s reach as well! The more reach we have, the more discoverability and visibility we can offer to our member stores.
If you’d like to be featured on SIBA’s social media, please fill out the Bookseller Profile form to give us all the information we need.
If you use hashtags in a particular way or have questions or information to share, or if you’d like to tell SIBA about something great your store is doing in your community, please email candice@sibaweb.com.
Posted By Linda-Marie Barrett, Executive Director,
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Would you like to be more involved with SIBA? Get the inside scoop on new and existing programming? Have an opportunity to provide feedback in an environment where your voice matters? Become a SIBA influencer!
SIBA is in search of booksellers who’d like to join SIBA’s Influencer Team in 2026. Influencers meet twice monthly to gather bookseller feedback on emerging ideas and ongoing projects. Influencers must be current bookseller members of SIBA and only one bookseller per store may serve.
Your participation as we create and evolve our programming is invaluable. If interested or if you have questions, please email lindamarie@sibaweb.com.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive
Director: Reading: The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page. I absolutely love this, the perfect read for any book lover who shares a fascination with the stories that make us who we are, inform our decisions and relationships, and hold the secrets we keep from others. Listening: To quiet instrumental music and the sound of the furnace kicking on and off.
Watching: Having finished the final episode of this season’s Great British Baking Show (tears of joy), and Young Sheldon (fountains of tears over a family’s grief, SO MOVING), we are now looking for the next program to spend after-dinner time with.
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: Nothing new to report this week!
Listening: Still on Zomromcom by Olivia Dade. I'm only about 12% in, so I'll be here a while.
Watching: The first snow of the season falling outside my window! Also, the first couple of episodes of Pluribus are out on AppleTV. I've been waiting for Vince Gilligan to do another show, and his return to sci-fi does not disappoint. It's so unique and interesting. Plus, the romantasy book signing line at the beginning of the pilot episode was so accurate that I could not stop laughing. I kept having to pause it. A guy correcting the author's use of "mizzenmast"? Folks asking the author if their favorite character is actually dead? Lots of swooning over a sexy pirate? Perfection!
Nicki Leone / Communications: Reading: Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home by Amanda Thomson --an author and artist I know because SP gave me a copy of her book A Scots Dictionary of Nature several years ago. That one has the most wonderful collection of words to describe walking: Taiver: to wander. Tarsie-Versie: a term applied to walking backwards. Teasle: the fatigue and derangement of dress produced by walking against a boisterous wind. Belonging is a different kind of book: memoir, ruminations on home and nature and our place in both, colored by northern landscapes.
Listening: Slightly Foxed podcast episodes -- the new one about the Brontes, and some old favorites, like the one about Muriel Spark and the one about Jean Rhys. Watching: I have got my parents hooked on The Criterion Channel. This week we watched The Conversation, because Mom had never seen it. SP and I watched Hedda, directed by Nia DaCosta, for one of our movie nights. That is one of the great literary characters, and I kind of want to see every production to see what each actor makes of the role. We're also watching Masterpiece Theatre's The Gold, which is probably the best thing I've seen on TV all year. Phenomenal script.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading:The Writers' Castle: Reporting History at Nuremburg by Ulwe Neumarh. A riveting account not so much of the trials themselves, but of the writers and journalists all staying at the official press camp. A history of history as its being created. Listening: The gods of the algorithm delivered this week's song, though it has been a fundamental favorite of mine for many years. It's a song that will always meet you where you are: "Let the Mystery Be" by Iris DeMent. Watching: Nicki and I watched Hedda, the new film adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler directed by Nia DaCosta. Set in an English manor house in the 1950s, it's gorgeous to look at and kept my stomach in knots as Tessa Thompson's Hedda laid waste to the all the people surrounding her.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: I'm dabbling in a little Non-Fiction November with Mark Hoppus's memoir but also getting into a couple of thrillers coming out next year. Listening: My sweet old lady cat is taking a bath right next to my head and I wish I was listening to something less gross. Watching: We've gotten very into Sex Education and have been bingeing that at my house. It's bawdy comedy but also really sweet and heartbreaking sometimes. The cast is A+.
Posted By Candice Huber, SIBA Membership Coordinator,
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
SIBA staff has been working diligently on our new membership system and website, and a large part of our system transition is ensuring the membership database holds accurate data and that we're collecting all the data we need to best serve our members. This means going line by line through every member bookstore to ensure records are accurate and reviewing and creating all the fields of data we both currently collect and want to collect going forward. As Membership Coordinator, the project of reviewing every bookstore member record has been interesting and informative. I've really enjoyed learning so much about all of our member stores, and I feel like I'll be able to serve everyone better because of it.
While reviewing bookstore data, I’ve been able to collect some interesting membership statistics to share. One caveat on this data: these percentages are based on information stores have given us and that I have gleaned from looking at every store’s website and social media. If information about a store was not apparent, it would not be included here. That being said, SIBA’s membership is so diverse!
Business Model Statistics
43 current bookstore members are bookstore models beyond the traditional bookstore (around 15% of our membership)
49 stores have a bar and/or cafe element, which is about 17% of our membership
13 stores are "combo" stores that are not bars/cafes, including plant stores, record stores, pottery, tea shops, and art galleries
14 are boutique stores sharing space with other businesses
13 are pop-ups
7 are online only serving niche communities (not doing pop-ups)
5 are nonprofit or mutual aid based
3 are worker-owned or cooperative
2 are bookmobiles
2 are micro stores
Bookstore Niche Statistics
SIBA has 43 niche stores:
11 children's stores
9 romance stores
5 Black interest stores
3 general BIPOC interest stores
3 stores that focus on all underrepresented voices
2 activist/radical stores
2 genre fiction (general) stores
2 LGBTQ+ interest stores
1 cookbooks store
1 horror store
1 wellness/care store
There is also some crossover here in niches, for example, most of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ interest stores and the two radical/activist stores also cover other underrepresented voices.
Collecting this information has been extremely eye-opening and interesting for SIBA, as we have learned quite a bit about our membership, including discovering that between varying business models and niche stores, about half of our membership operates outside of the traditional general bookstore model!
When you log into our new system for the first time, you will notice that we have added several new categories in your store profile, including store model and niche. SIBA would love to collect this information to help us in looking for panelists for education events and New Voices New Rooms, selecting mentors for new stores, passing along opportunities, and generally getting to know our membership better. Please be sure to review and fill out all the information in your new store profile!
Nominations are now open for the Nancy Olson Bookseller Award, named for the late founder of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina and a pillar of the literary community. The deadline to nominate is November 26, 2025.
An admirer of Olson, in conjunction with SIBA, awards two $2500 gifts in her memory in December. Recipients will be announced on December 18.
The award honors Nancy Olson: a legendary bookseller, a first-class wit, a remarkably gentle soul, and a tireless supporter of writers, especially new writers looking for a chance in the publishing world. Simply put, she was one of the best folks to ever work in the book business, and her Quail Ridge Books was—and is—a literary institution.
SIBA booksellers—but not owners—are eligible for the awards. Booksellers from stores who have received the award in the last two years are not eligible. Writers, readers, and/or storeowners may submit a name and any helpful information here. Individual booksellers may also nominate themselves.
While the nominations should explain why a particular nominee deserves to be selected, there are no hard and fast rules or requirements or guidelines for the submissions—the hope is to honor Nancy and recognize special booksellers who particularly excel in the areas important to Nancy: customer service and helping writers, especially new writers, reach their reading audience. The winners will be selected from these nominations by Sarah Goddin of Mcintyre’s Books, SIBA’s Linda-Marie Barrett, Nancy’s husband Jim, and the donor of the gifts.
The SIBA Annual Meeting on October 30th was attended by approximately 50 booksellers. The SIBA Board acknowledged the service of outgoing board member Jamie Anderson (Downtown Books, Manteo, NC) and welcomed incoming board member Dave Lucey (Page 158 Books, Wake Forest, NC) whose term begins in January. Board members reported on the work they have been doing in 2025, and the SIBA Staff reported on the state of the organization and plans for its upcoming transition to a new member platform and redesigned website.
Meeting Highlights:
SIBA Governance Policies Under Review
After SIBA members voted to adopt newly revised Bylaws in 2024, the board turned its attention to SIBA's governance policies; reviewing them to ensure they are in line with the bylaws relevant to SIBA's current situation, and responsive to member feedback. SIBA is run on the Carver Method of governance, and all board members receive Carver training.
Committees to be Established
In order to a create stronger connection between the Board and SIBA member bookstores, committees will be created to allow bookstores to provide their priorities to the board. Committees may be comprised of board members, booksellers, or a mix of both. The first will be a "Benefits Committee" tasked with looking at what other regional organizations offer and what SIBA members want. Other committees will be created based on member need and feedback.
State of SIBA Report
SIBA grew rapidly in 2025, experiencing almost a 30% growth in membership, and now stands at 290 Bookstore members. Member engagement is high for SIBA programming, including record-breaking attendance at the spring March Madness Bookseller Series and the annual New Voices New Rooms conference in Atlanta in August. SIBA has also produced well-received bookseller resources including a Banned Books Week Toolkit and an Anti-Racism Training Kit. SIBA's catalog program also received an increase in store participation compared to previous years.
Financial Stability
SIBA is likely to show some losses for both the annual New Voices New Rooms conference, which faced high prices in the Atlanta market, and for the holiday catalog, which is experiencing waning publisher support. However organization remains financially stable, thanks to its commitment to building reserves over the past five years.
A Bright Future
SIBA's plans to transition to a new membership platform and new website design are on schedule for mid-November. The new site will be more user-friendly with easier access to programs and member benefits.
Fifteen booksellers attended SIBA's New and Propective Owners Retreat on November 5th on Zoom. Moderated by Janet Geddis (Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA) and Alsace Walentine (Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg, FL), the event was an hour-long lively discussion over a wide range of topics including:
Concerns about potential delivery delays because of the government shutdown
Revising business plans and how to prepare for conversations with banks and lending institutions
Building good relationships with other local businesses
Running a business while maintaining another job
Managing tasks and workload
Hiring practices and using interns
Booksellers traded personal experiences and possible solutions for the different issues that were raised, such as noting how valuable it is to join local business organizations and groups, because participating in their programs helps build connections with other local entrepreneurs.
Booksellers traded their favorite systems for managing tasks, such as designating different days for different kinds of tasks, or using a "top three" priority system, with the most important task first, so that you always finish at least one important thing each day.
Attendees received a list of "Five Things to Do Right Now" for new store owners and a list of other helpful resources from SIBA Membership Coordinator Candice Huber. Contact Candice to request a copy.
More SIBA Owners Retreats are being planned for 2026.
The Southern Book Prize ballot launched on November 1, and has already received over 100 responses from readers and customers of 60+ bookstores in all 11 states in SIBA's territory.
As part of the ballot, readers are asked to name their local bookstore and say why they like to shop there. The responses, which in the past have ranged from "They have great staff" to "they carry every Star Wars book I'm looking for," are something SIBA staff always look forward to reading. SIBA also shares the nice things people say with the bookstores and on social media. Here are a few from the first week of voting:
"They are my favorite place to go in the city that I love. " --a customer of All Good Books in Columbia, SC
"I absolutely love the feeling when I step inside Square Books. It's like a warm hug from a friend you want to spend hours with. " -- a customer of Square Book in Oxford, MS
"Knowledge is power! Feed the people fuel the revolution!" --a customer of Blacksburg Books in Blacksburg, VA
"They do the best event programming!" --a customer of Charis Books & More in Decatur, GA
"THE best. It’s like stepping in between worlds. Great service too." --a customer of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive
Director: Reading: The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page. I just finished her Six Little Words and loved it, so am now starting her debut novel, which I might like even better. She’s very clever with characters and dialogue, and often quite funny.
Listening: The “Relaxing Guitar” station on Pandora is currently my favorite thing. It’s the perfect background music for dealing with all things Quickbooks (my focus these days).
Watching: Young Sheldon’s final season, The Great British Baking Show, and Beyond Paradise. It’s also the time of year to watch the Lord of the Rings extended versions.
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: I finished my crafting activism books! I'm excited to dig into Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams.
Listening: I'm still in spooky season mode, so I started Zomromcom by Olivia Dade. I'm hoping it's as entertaining as it sounds!
Watching: Finally started the last season of Squid Game. I also added 28 movies to my holiday watch list, and that doesn't include holiday specials and TV! Nov. 2 - Jan. 2 is my official holiday watch season :)
Nicki Leone / Communications: Reading: Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard, by Jessica K. Whitehead. Listening: She Speaks! by Harriet Walter. Again. Don't judge me. Watching: Halloween night SP and I watched Carnival of Souls, which inspired every zombie movie that has been filmed since, and was even better than I remembered (5 stars for creepiness). I spent a little time mourning the fact that the Saltair Pavilion where it was filmed was long since burned down.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading: Holiday gift making is in full swing, which is seriously cutting into my reading--at least for anything other than articles and patterns. Listening: I finished Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America and found it far more disturbing than any dystopian fiction I've ever read. The album of the week is Snocaps by Snocaps (Kate Crutchfield/Waxahatchee and her sister Alison).
Watching: Nicki chose the gorgeously haunting and unsettling Carnival of Souls (1962) to watch Halloween night, and I've thought about it every day since. Dreamlike (like an actual dream, not a Hollywood dream), melancholy, creepy, and mysterious, it's gone straight onto the list of my favorite films.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: Now that I've got my Best of the Year List pretty much down, I'm reading whatever I feel like - even backlist! Currently I'm reading Leigh Stein's If You're Seeing This, It's Meant For You. A friend gave it to me and I'm loving it.
Listening: Amy Pohler hosted Kate McKinnon on her Good Hang podcast recently and it's a magical episode.
Watching: I am waiting for election results to come in tonight!
This month, as part of its "A Bright Future" transition to a new platform and website, SIBA has upgraded its email service, which will now be handled by the state of the art email delivery service, Constant Contact. The move coincides with a shiny new design for SIBA's newsletters using SIBA's new logo and branding. Most importantly, Constant Contact's system offers a more stable and reliable platform, which means a better experience for SIBA's members no matter what device they use to read their email.
SIBA members started receiving email via Constant Contact last week. Members do not need to do anything to update their accounts in order to remain subscribed to SIBA notifications. In fact, once SIBA's transition to its new website is completed, members will be able to have even more control over the kinds of email they wish to receive from the organization.
Voting for the 2026 Southern Book Prize opens next week. The full list of books
on the ballot will be announced publicly on November 1 on the Southern Book Review website at southernbookprize.com.
However, SIBA Booksellers can see all the finalists here:
Orders placed for any of the finalist titles from Ingram will receive an extra 2% discount, no code required.
SIBA has also created a marketing toolkit for bookstores which includes posters, flyers, shelf talkers, logos,
and code stores can use to embed the Southern Book Prize ballot on their own websites, so they can encourage their customers to vote.
What SBP means for bookstores:
Wide-scale consumer target marketing program: Authors and publishers with books on the ballot will independently ask their readers and followers to vote.
Ongoing social media and newsletter support from SIBA.
Voting customers entered into a raffle to receive a selection of the books on the ballot and a $100 gift card to their local indie bookstore.
For more information about The Southern Book Prize and how it can be used for your store, reach out to Nicki Leone at nicki@sibaweb.com .
SIBA's fall survey asked booksellers about the effect of tariffs and the ongoing government shutdown on their businesses. A significant number of the respondents said they had been effected by one or both issues:
Are current or proposed tariffs affecting your business?
58% of respondents answered "yes." Some of the issued noted include:
Price increases on books
Security system upgrades and planned construction costs have increased
Tariffs affecting the costs for goods and shipping from overseas
Low traffic from international markets
People planning cheaper holiday celebrations or not planning to travel for the holidays
When ordering sidelines, we're particularly careful to avoid products that have been hit with rising tariffs
Is the government shutdown affecting your business?
38% of respondents answered "yes." Issues noted include:
Customers are not spending as much
Slow foot traffic
People are in a wait-and-see mindset
“Come November 1st, our area will definitely be worried.”
“We live in an area that has many Navy and Air Force families”
The survey will remain up through the end of October. SIBA invites booksellers to add their experiences. The information will help to inform SIBA's strategy and programming for 2026.
SIBA wants to hear from its members. If you need help, resources, advocacy, or simply a friendly ear, please reach out to our membership coordinator, Candice Huber, candice@sibaweb.com or to our executive director, Linda-Marie Barrett, lindamarie@sibaweb.com. We’re here for you.
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive
Director:
Reading: I'm rereading The Art Thieves by Andrea L. Rogers for my book club. We timed this read for Native American Heritage Month, as the writer is Cherokee and the book is an example of Cherokee Futurism. It’s a YA near-future apocalyptic time-travel love story with a lot of heart, thrills, and wisdom. Love it.
Listening: It’s finally raining after weeks of drought in WNC. The sound of gentle rain is heavenly.
Watching: After seeing the mysterious and very dapper gentleman among the French police after the Louvre jewel heist, we decided to watch Poirot again. We’re mixing it up with Young Sheldon, which we haven’t finished yet.
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: Still struggling, but I'm setting my TBR and hoping I can read more in 2026! Listening: Almost finished The Stranger in Room Six. Less than an hour left!
Watching: I've watched 16 spooky/silly movies for the season! Most recently, I watched Death Becomes Her (1992), The Babysitter (2017), and The Monkey (2025), none of which I'd seen before. I had fun with all of them, but especially Death Becomes Her, as I'm excited to see the musical when the traveling show launches in 2026!
Nicki Leone / Communications: Reading: Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard, by Jessica K. Whitehead. It was given to my mom by my uncle, but both Mom and I are enamored of Hubbard's own book, Shantyboat. This biography has its flaws, but Hubbard's paintings are beautifully reproduced, and remind me a lot of Charles Burchfield. For fiction, I have The Salvage by Anbara Salam, from Tin House. Marine archaeology, Victorian shipwrecks, the wild and rocky Scottish coastline. I can't tell you how often I wanted to just stop work early to read. Listening: She Speaks! by Harriet Walter. Yes, I have the book. But who in the world would deprive themselves of a Harriet Walter performance? Watching: The new Maigret. It's filmed like those scenes you look at through an old fashioned Viewmaster. Dreamy. A hint of sepia. Filled with light.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading: I'm still reading The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris and more convinced than ever that I'm living in the wrong time.
Listening: Still listening to Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America and finding it chillingly fascinating.
Watching: The recent death of Prunella Scales (probably best known as Sybil in Fawlty Towers) led me to rewatching her in her actual greatest role, Elizabeth Mapp in Mapp and Lucia. If you know, you know.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: I took a quick break in my Halloween books to read Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre and it was an altogether different type of horror. It's heartbreaking to read but it was so important to her that she got her story out.
Listening: No updates on that front since last week.
Watching: We went to a silent movie at an outdoor amphitheater last night and it was so cool! We watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with a Latin band playing along. The 125-year-old movie was amazing (the sets!) and it was such a cool Halloween-y experience.
SIBA wants to hear from its member bookstores to help guide the organization's efforts and advocacy. Booksellers are asked to fill out a short, two-question survey on how tariffs and the government shut down are impacting their businesses. All information specific to individual stores will be kept confidential, though anonymous examples may be cited in reports of trends.
The Read This Next! Young Readers list for November and December has been taken over by cats and dragons! These six bookseller favorites are full of adventure, heart, and the importance of believing in yourself.
Read is why Southen indie booksellers love these books:
Broken by X. Fang Broken is a gentle story of a little girl with big feelings rendered in soft layered colored pencil. This story is simple, but soothing, and a reminder that what's broken can always be fixed (and to perhaps not trust cats, who are
always up to something). – Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina
Dragonborn by Struan Murray Absolutely loved this. What a great twist for readers who love dragons but are moving onto books with heavier themes and twists. A great read for friends who loved KPop demon hunters (I can't think of higher praise than that!). – Stacey
Sanford, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi
Winging It by Megan Wagner Lloyd, Michelle Mee Nutter (illus.) Go on Luna's journey of self-growth as she navigates a life-changing move across the country with her father, surviving a new middle school while still mourning her long deceased mother. Beautiful illustrations, great story line and satisfying
feel good ending! Now I'm off to search for the ever elusive Luna Moth... – Barb Rascon, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
The Last Ember by Lily Berlin Dodd With magical prose and a fun cast of quirky characters, middle-grade readers are sure to be swept away by this heartfelt adventure story. – Cindy Otis, The Stacks Bookstore in
Savannah, Georgia
Moon Cat by Casi Cole, Amanda Romanick (illus.) A unique bedtime story for the space explorer and the feline-lover. Join Moon Cat as it moves through the night and space sharing so much of the quiet glittering
world. The illustrations took my breath away. – Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Tea Is Love by Adib Khorram, Hanna Cha (illus.) Stunning. The cadence of only a few words combined with brilliant illustrations convey so much and evoke so many memories and feelings. – Jennifer Sauter-Price,
Read Early And Daily (R.E.A.D.) in Arlington, Virginia
Current Read This Next! books and what SIBA booksellers have to say about them can always be found at The Southern Bookseller Review
The fall NVNR Owners Strategy Session began with booksellers sharing their 4th Quarter plans and strategies, before opening the discussion to a variety of issues that were "top of mind" for booksellers in the current uncertain economic climate.
4th Quarter Strategies takeaways:
1. Take Care
Self-care is important for owners and staff during the busy holiday season!
Build breaks and meal times for staff into the schedule.
Building in time for breaks reduces stress and increases productivity.
Plan post-season holiday or down time, and treat yourself to something special.
Delegate tasks when possible.
Create a manual of employee guidelines and important store functions.
2. Tariffs
Tariffs are affecting both costs and availability of books.
Be prepared for key titles to sell out and unable to be restocked in time for Christmas gift purchases.
Encourage customers to order early if they need a specific book.
Have frank and honest conversations with people about how tariffs are affecting the store.
3. Pop-Up Stores
A plan for running pop-up and offsite locations during the holiday can increase sales and reach new customers.
Look for town and community sponsored events like local festivals, open holiday markets, and smaller private events run by other community groups, churches, book clubs, etc.
Offsite and pop-up stores are time-consuming and demanding for the staff, so prioritize them based on your resources and goals.
Doing pop-ups increases your visibility in the community, and can reach people who otherwise would not see your storefront.
4. Social Media
It is important to showcase the exterior of the bookstore, not just individual books or interior photos. It help people recognize the store as part of their community.
Having a TikTok channel can increase store exposure and reach new audiences, and can be worth pushing past any reticence or embarrassment about posting.
5. Damages
Damages continue to be a problem, which booksellers find very frustrating when they occur with expensive "deluxe" editions of books with high price tags.
The risk of damage is reduced when books are ordered in carton quantities.
Report issues with damaged shipments to sales reps, who can intercede on the store's behalf.
Reporting damages via Batch makes it easier to receive credits from the publishers in a timely manner.
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive
Director:
Reading:Six Little Words by Sally Page. Gorgeously written novel set in Dorset, England, and infused with color and nature imagery. I look forward to settling in with it each evening.
Listening: As I tend to spend my waking hours avoiding listening to music coming at me electronically, I am more and more tuned into the sounds of the world just outside my office window. Wind, rain, birdsong, the crunch of leaves as creatures (including human creatures) shuffle by are my daily background.
Watching: I have finished all the cozy murder and romantic dramas currently in my queue and need recommendations.
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: All my new issues of crochet and cross stitch magazines! Working hard on holiday gifts!
Listening: The Stranger in Room Six by Jane Corry. It's not exactly what I thought, but the characters and audiobook reader have me hooked in enough that I'm interested to see what happens.
Watching: I watched my thirteenth spooky (ish) movie of the season, I Don't Understand You. It's about a gay couple who takes a vacation to Italy that does NOT go as planned when they start accidentally murdering people. It was mostly comedy, and I wasn't a fan of the ending, but it was entertaining enough!
Nicki Leone / Communications: Reading: Between SIBA's big transition to the "bright future" and adjusting to living with my folks and their schedules, I'm not getting much reading done. I have a couple of pocket guides to trees and birds I take with me when I walk the dog, but I'm looking forward to when SIBA launches its new website so that I can settle back with my BWR (Big Winter Read) - something dense and deep and at least 500 pages long. Listening: Two of my favorite podcasts have new episodes: Slightly Foxed is all about the Brontes, how fun is that? And Between the Covers features the poet Diana Arterian, whose new book gives voice to a Roman Empress known almost exclusively for being Nero's mother. These imaginitive dives into the minds of women sidelined by history are like honey to me. Watching: The birdfeeders have just been filled for the winter, so most of my "watching" is with binoculars, looking out the kitchen window that has the best view.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading: Jennifer Dasal's The Club: Where American Women Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris has been in my queue for a little while and it's finally underway. It's so much my kind of thing, I sort of think I made it up.
Listening: The audiobook of Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America. Given my predilection for all things scammy and culty, this well-researched history of multi-level marketing by the journalist Bridget Read is completely fascinating. Watching: October usually means old horror movies for me, from the ridiculous (Manos: Hands of Fate) to the sublime (Cat People) to the sublimely ridiculous (The Lair of the White Worm). And speaking of sublimely ridiculous monsters, I am also watching The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: Well, I forgot that I have book club tonight so I am cramming Liliana's Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza today, I guess.
Listening: Call me basic but I can't stop bopping to "Opalite" from the new Taylor Swift album. It's so dang catchy!
Watching: The changing leaves outside! Fall is hitting RVA and I love it. Now, let's get these mosquitoes gone.
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Did you know that social media sites are de-prioritizing hashtags? Many are saying that hashtags are dead, but are they really? Let’s dive in!
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive
Director:
Nicki Leone / Communications:
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Nominations are now open for the Nancy Olson Bookseller Award, named for the late founder of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina and a pillar of the literary community. The deadline to nominate is November 26, 2025.
The Southern Book Prize ballot 
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive
Director:
The fall NVNR Owners Strategy Session began with booksellers sharing their 4th Quarter plans and strategies, before opening the discussion to a variety of issues that were "top of mind" for booksellers in the current uncertain economic climate. 
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