One of the major goals of the New Voices new Rooms program is title discovery: providing multiple opportunities for booksellers to find new books to fit in their store inventory and mission. Rep Picks, where sales reps talk about their favorites from the fall lists, Genre Buzz, bookseller-led and driven discussions about the genre books they look forward to selling, and the Editors Buzz reception, where attendees can hear from editors about the authors they work with and the books they believe in.

Most importantly, there are a dozen author events scheduled at NVNR 2024, more than double the number in last year's program. From the Early Bird Reception on Thursday evening to the Moveable Feast Lunch on Sunday there are many opportunities for booksellers to hear from and talk to the authors whose books will be on store shelves in the upcoming season.

Author Event Highlights

See the full schedule and complete list of authors

Keynotes

Breakfast Keynote: Centering The Book: A Conversation 8/9 at 8:30 AM

Opening with poet Tony Keith Jr., and honoring books and the roles of storytellers and poets, the Breakfast Keynote features a conversation on the ways books help us understand ourselves. With Glory Edim (Gather Me), Tony Keith Jr.(Knucklehead), and Sarah Chihaya (Bibliophobia).

Lunch Keynote: Power and Politics with Juanita Tolliver and Rebecca Graham 8/9 at 12:15 PM

Genre Writers

NVNR's program has a range of genre and theme-focused author panels and presentations, including:

Laughing While Reading (Humor)
Working with YA Authors and Their Fans
Horror Author Panel
Southern Writers
Bedtime Story Hour Reception with Picture Book and Middle Grade Authors
Sip and Sizzle Romance Authors Reception

Author Receptions and Meals

Meals and receptions at the conference each have their own charms. At the meals booksellers have a chance to hear presenting authors uninterrupted, and more time to connect with their colleagues sitting at the table. Receptions and more unstructured and casual, giving booksellers a chance to mix and mingle with authors on a one-to-one (or maybe one-to-several) basis.

Receptions:

Early Bird Reception 8/8 at 6:30 PM
For attendees who arrive the day before the conference officially starts, this "Authors and Aperitifs Mix and Mingle" gives booksellers a chance to have a few drinks with some of their favorite authors after a day spent touring local bookstores.

Indie Press Authors Reception: 8/9 at 5:00 PM
Mix and mingle with debut and veteran authors from some of our favorite indie presses.

Meals:

New Voices and Debut Authors Breakfast 8/10 at 8:30 AM
Share the excitement of meeting four new voices with debut works.

Moveable Feast 8/11 at 12:45 PM
The well-known highlight of the Annual Conference, featuring participating authors making the rounds, talking to booksellers over lunch.

Register here: SIBA | NAIBA

Current Newsletter: Beach reads from the bestsellers

Book Buzz Feature: Spotlight On: Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler
When I first started writing seriously, about 16 years ago, I wrote down conversations at restaurants, on the bus, anywhere I was just passing time, because I was trying to develop my ear. For a very brief while I also transcribed an hour or two a day of public access television, so it wasn’t just natural conversation I was interested in learning—or maybe ingraining is a better word. There was something strict about it. I would also try to write down conversations I’d had when I got home, and then deviate from what had actually been said, try to add in staircase wit, and then think about if that was actually better, or if it introduced something embarrassing to the interaction, and if it did, could I go from there to develop something new. I think the important thing is to become observant of both the world and of yourself, and see what flows from there. What you want to develop is insight, and (fortunately, I think) that looks different for every author and artist. ― Halle Butler, Interview, Our Culture

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Beartown by Fredrik Bachman
If you want to discover your new favorite book, read Beartown. Dozens of character POVs, phenomenal writing, a heartbreaking storyline, and a thrilling murder mystery. You will be hooked from the very first line. Seriously, open it and read the first line.
Reviewed by Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee

NEW REVIEWS | SUBSCRIBE | SUBMIT A REVIEW | FOR PUBLISHERS

SOUTHERN INDIE BESTSELLER LIST
For the week ending 7/14/2024

Edelweiss Collections:
(sort by "Catalog Order" to see each list according to rating)

Hardcover Fiction | Hardcover Nonfiction | Trade Paperback Fiction | Trade Paperback Nonfiction | Mass Market | Children's Illustrated | Children's Interest | Children's Series

Hello, all!

I'm Janet Geddis, the business owner and founder of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA. I have been running a brick-and-mortar bookstore for nearly 13 years. Since starting my book world journey, I have had the opportunity to take on both formal and informal leadership roles in the industry at large. That said, the survey I reference below is one of my own making and is not related to any other entity, group, or board I'm affiliated with.

I created this anonymous survey in hopes of getting a realistic snapshot of independent bookstores' financial realities: bit.ly/BookstoreMoneySurvey

The survey should take 5-12 minutes. It's for bookstore owners, managers, and staffers past or present. If you used to own or work with an indie bookstore but no longer do, I'd like for you to share your thoughts as well. Just add a comment in there somewhere that you are not currently affiliated with a bookstore.

BACKGROUND & GOALS

In numerous conversations with bookstore owners, managers, and staff over the years, I have learned that I am not the only one who routinely struggles with cash flow, publisher holds, etc. I'm guessing there are a lot more folks out there who are stressed about cash flow and its impact on their bookstores and their own health.

Physical bookstores are integral to publishers' success. When a small number of us tell credit or sales reps we're struggling financially, it's hard to know if anyone with decision-making power at the publishing companies ever understands (or even hears) just how serious this problem is.

Will the survey results reveal grander, more widespread problems that publishers can no longer dismiss as anomalies? Will a critical mass of responses prompt higher-ups at publishing corporations to enact serious, long-term changes to support bookstores? Once I share the [anonymized] data from the survey results, will we self-flagellating booksellers be able to see that we're not the only ones kept up at night due to money-related stress?

Will folks from all aspects of the book industry realize that we must take action sooner than later? Will those of us who've self-isolated due to shame and/or stress be brave enough to stop operating in our bubbles and instead broach brave conversations with one another? Can we forge new paths that will ensure the success and the future for all of us?

As stated in this message and on the survey itself, your responses are anonymous by default. I am not collecting email addresses and will not know whose response is whose unless you explicitly share your contact information at the end.

Please share this with friends and colleagues. It's my goal to amass at least 150 responses, though far more would be amazing. At the time of this posting, I've not decided when the survey will close.

[Disclaimer: Perhaps the news is better than I think, and I'll get a rush of folks saying they feel super-confident about money. That would be wonderful! But I suspect the opposite is true: that I'll discover that the cash flow frustrations my store perpetually faces are all too familiar to most of you.]

ABA’s financial ABACUS survey is due July 21, and we’re encouraging SIBA members to participate. Filling out ABACUS can be intimidating, and thinking about where to find all the data is exhausting. But ABACUS is extremely useful for your store for a couple of reasons. First, it forces you to take a good look at your store’s finances. Secondly, being able to compare your store’s data with other similar stores allows you to get objective feedback about where your strengths and weaknesses are. Numbers don’t lie! 

For ABACUS to work best, we need as many stores filling it out as possible. It’s important that the data collected come from a wide range of stores with different business models so we can get a more accurate picture, both for the industry and for stores’ own comparisons. No store is too small or insignificant!

To successfully fill out ABACUS, start with these steps:

1. Gather and document basic information for your store and community, including: 

• Number of locations

• Square footage

• Years in business

• Business model (pop-up, brick-and-mortar, co-op, nonprofit, etc.)

• Store focus (children’s, genre, BIPOC, etc.)

• Type of community (urban, suburban, rural)

• Community population

• Number of staff

• Local/state minimum wage rate

• Starting pay rate for your booksellers

• Annual salaries for managers, buyers, event coordinators, & booksellers (you may need to do the math to convert hourly employees to an annual number)

• How often you conduct a physical inventory

• Whether you offer online sales, have a Bookshop.org account, and/or sell e-books and audiobooks

• TIP: Since the answers to these questions aren’t likely to change often, keep them documented somewhere easy to find next year!    

2. Categorize your expenses into these three sections that ABACUS will ask you to report on: 

• Payroll (all payroll costs)

• Occupancy (all costs related to your store’s physical space)

• Operations (everything else)

3. Run your profit & loss report for 2023, or your most recent fiscal year. This is found in your accounting software, e.g. Quickbooks, Sage, etc.

4. Gather specific sales & revenue data, including: 

• Net Sales (this will show on your profit & loss report as the top line and is Total Sales minus Customer Returns/Refunds, including online sales but excluding Bookshop.org sales)

• Total number of customer register transactions for the year (found in your POS system typically)

• Percentage of sales from offsite events, children’s/YA, and credit card/electronic transactions (you’ll likely need to break out these categories of sales)

• Co-op dollars received (if any)

• Total proceeds from Bookshop.org

• Any COVID relief funds, grants, or other income received

• Estimation of the percentage of customers who order online, then pick up in the store

• Of that percentage of customers who order online and pick up in the store, what percentage do and do not make additional purchases when they come to pick up their order?

Most of this data will be found in either your point of sale system or in your accounting software (if you’re keeping up with data entry!). In some cases, the data may not be as easy to access as it seems, for example, if you don’t break out your sales into those specific categories ABACUS asks for. In these cases, consider if there might be an easy fix you can put in place to make the data more accessible next year, like breaking out the sales categories in your accounting software. Just make sure that you consult with your accountant before making any changes so you can be mindful of potential implications those changes may have. 

I have a document where I store all the general information about my store and community that doesn’t change often and update it when something does change, and doing that saves me a TON of time because I don’t have to find that information every year! I also created overall heading categories within my accounting software in my Chart of Accounts for Payroll, Occupancy, and Operations and made notes under each expense regarding where it fits so I can organize it in a way that makes it easier to find the data ABACUS needs each year. Finally, I make sure to break out the sales categories ABACUS looks for so that data is handy. Making these small changes in my accounting system (after consulting with my accountant!) saves me HOURS of work finding all this data for ABACUS when the survey comes around. My best advice for this year is to follow the steps above, gather all your data, and make sure you document the process and where the data is found to make it easier next time. 

Good luck, SIBA friends!

One of the highlights of the annual New Voices New Rooms Conference happens before the event officially starts: the pre-show Bus Tours of area indie bookshops. Because of its location in Arlington, there are a wide range of great indie bookshops worth visiting. Bus tours are scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, August 8. NVNR will be hosting five different tours to area bookstores, and a special tour of the Library of Congress.

Tours all run concurrently from 12-5 PM and include a box lunch. As a new added feature, each bookstore tour will include a short discussion from the host store on an aspect of the book business they feel they do especially well.

Every bookseller knows that some of the best ideas come from other booksellers. With six different available tours, every booksellers should be able to find something that appeals to them. But to ensure a quality experience for both the NVNR attendees and the hosting stores, space is limited to 22 people on any one tour.

NVNR Bus Tours require an extra $50 ticket, available to purchase when you register. Attendees will be able to select the tour they want to attend from their NVNR Attendee App, which will be available at the end of June. If you have already registered and did not buy a bus tour ticket, you will also be able to purchase one via the attendee app when it opens.

Register Here

2024 Bus Tour Details
(see more details of each tour at the NVNR Website)

Tour 1: Scrawl Books, Hooray for Books!
Scrawl Books: Dig Deeper with Edelweiss
Hooray For Books!: Reader Advisory Groups

Tour 2: East City Bookshop, Solid State Books
East City Bookshop: Store Design
Solid State Books: Staff Safety

Tour 3: Loyalty Bookstores, Child's Play!
Loyalty Bookstores: Monetizing & Tracking Displays
Child’s Play!: Kid Friendly Spaces

Tour 4: Politics and Prose, Sankofa Video Books & Cafe
Politics and Prose: Store Trips and Classes
Sankofa Video Books & Cafe: Community Relationships

Tour 5: Bold Fork Books, The Potter's House, Lost City Books
Bold Fork Books: Events
The Potter’s House: Diversity Audit  
Lost City Books: Used and New Books

Tour 6: Library of Congress
A special peek at the Poet Laureate’s Ceremonial Office at the Library of Congress, and a docent-led tour.

Current Newsletter: Lambda Finalists: Transgender Fiction

Book Buzz Feature: Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden by Christy Mandin
Like many of my stories, Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden started with something I read about that made my brain light up – a real life poison garden in England! You see, I myself am wonderfully weird and a poison garden would’ve been just the kind of place I would’ve wanted to visit as a child. From a very early age I was multi-passionate, interested in all manner of things. But my unquenchable curiosity and varied interests often made me feel like I didn’t quite fit into any one box. And being curious and questioning sometimes put me at odds with the grown-ups in my life. I wasn’t satisfied with “because it’s always been that way” or “because I said so.” And I especially wasn’t interested in the words “you can’t.” In that way, Millie Fleur and I are alike. ― Christy Mandin, Letter to booksellers

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
VanderMeer’s twisted worlds have a way of sinking their teeth into you, dragging you right down the tower steps. Part sci-fi mystery, part psychological eco-horror, Area X had me hooked from the first page and questioning the foundations of my reality by the last..
―Morgan Holub, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

NEW REVIEWS | SUBSCRIBE | SUBMIT A REVIEW | FOR PUBLISHERS

SOUTHERN INDIE BESTSELLER LIST
For the week ending 6/23/2024

Edelweiss Collections:
(sort by "Catalog Order" to see each list according to rating)

Hardcover Fiction | Hardcover Nonfiction | Trade Paperback Fiction | Trade Paperback Nonfiction | Mass Market | Children's Illustrated | Children's Interest | Children's Series

Booksellers attending the New Voices New Rooms (NVNR) conference in Arlington in August can use store-branded merchandise to make an impact both at the show and beyond.

At its inaugural event last year, NVNR created an impromptu "store swag swap," inviting bookstores to bring some of their store-branded merchandise to put on a display table in the show lobby. Attendees were encouraged to swap merchandise, adding an item to the table and taking away something from another store that caught their fancy.

The store swag swap table was a roaring success, and rarely without booksellers and others clustered around the table admiring the creativity (and sometimes the sense of humor) of their colleagues. Booksellers (and sometimes authors and exhibitors) would walk around wearing store buttons or carrying store tote bags, making the swap a great way to passively promote the shop.

This year, NVNR is giving the Store Swag Swap a bigger table. Stores are encouraged to show off their store-branded merchandise-- from bookmarks and book totes to puzzles, ball caps, candles, t-shirts, coffee cups, buttons, pins, and shot glasses. Stickers were surprisingly popular and often found their way onto attendee badges.

Stores that want to participate in the 2024 Swag Swap should check their inventory levels now, and make sure there is enough stock to bring some to the show.

Here are some FAQs about participating:

Do stores have to sign up to participate?
No! Just bring the items they want to add to the swap.

Does it have to be store-branded merchandise?
The items have to be store-branded or store-created. Stores that sell their own lines of candles, soap, or other gift lines can include them, but NVNR recommends that anything added to the swap has a card or sticker saying where it came from.

How many items should stores bring?
As many or as few as they would like and is within their budget. The point of the swag swap is to give bookstores a chance to have a few people walking around the show wearing their merchandise, while returning the favor by doing the same. Last year, some bookstores brought stacks of stickers and bookmarks to give away, and replenished the supply as people took them. Others just brought a few items, which were all gone by the end of the show.

What happens to our merchandise when the show is over?
Stores can reclaim any leftover items from the table when they leave. Leftover items that are not reclaimed are given away or recycled.

Register Here