A familiar and beloved face for Southern booksellers, Wayne Donnell passed away on December 28, 2022 after a short illness. In his obituary family noted that "Wayne was a consummate reader who worked for years as a publishers' rep. He made many wonderful friends on the road, sometimes taking his children with him." Donnell was a regular presence at SIBA's fall trade show with George Scheer Associates until his retirement in 2011.

Heard any good books lately? SBR is now including links to the audiobook editions of reviewed titles when they are available. SBR uses the independent bookstore-friendly Libro.fm audiobook service, and will include audiobook links on its posted reviews if an audiobook version of the title is available at Libro.fm and the reviewing store has a Libro.fm affiliate account SBR can link to. Audiobook links can be seen in the latest edition of the SBR newsletter and on the individual reviews published on the SBR website.

What a year! At SIBA's annual meeting in October Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett called 2022 "a year of transition." As the country slowly moved out of the pandemic, bookstores began opening their doors again, and SIBA, after two years of operating virtually, once again started hosting programs at member stores. Here are some of the things SIBA accomplished this year.

In-Person Events

SIBA hosted two in-person events this year, in Winston-Salem, NC in April, and in New Orleans in September. Both events filled up in record time, 70 people in April, 110 in September. The two events introduced a new model for SIBA's in-person programs by including a tour to showcase bookstores in the community as well as a visit to a place with cultural significance for the area. Booksellers who attended the Winston-Salem event were able to visit the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, located in the Woolworth's Building that was the site of the first of the lunch counter sit-in protests in February, 1960. In New Orleans, the opening reception was held at the Historical New Orleans Collection, and booksellers were able to see the museum's extensive exhibit of early New Orleans culture and history. (When French President Emmanuel Macron visited New Orleans earlier this month, HNOC was one of the places he had to see). SIBA also finally was able to make good on its promise of last year by serving vegetarian fare at both events. SIBA's commitment to prioritizing a vegetarian menu has since been adopted by other organizations, including the ABA.

Several times this year Linda-Marie Barrett visited bookstores to talk with them about their business and their expectations of SIBA. Her most recent trip was to bookstores in the Atlanta area, and she has also made trips to Greenville, SC, New Orleans, and Florida.

Virtual Programs

Virtual events hosted by SIBA this year included the launch of James Lee Burke's new novel Every Cloak Rolled in Blood via the Reader Meet Writer author series. Diane Chamberlain and Mesha Maren also appeared on Reader Meet Writer. SIBA hosted two online bookseller orientation events for new members that also included presentations by the book industry services Edelweiss and Batch.

Bookseller Development

This year SIBA carried out its first-ever Census of SIBA Bookstores. Over half of SIBA's membership participated, providing invaluable data about their store operations post-pandemic.

It was the second year of SIBA's 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, the self-guided program for bookstores and booksellers designed to help them increase diversity, equity, and inclusivity in their businesses. 50 people from 40 stores signed up to take the challenge. The Keynote event for the challenge this year featured a conversation between Laura Coates, Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness, and Steven Wright, Coyotes of Carthage.

In support of bookseller development, SIBA has adopted a policy of partially reimbursing booksellers who complete a module in the Professional Bookseller Certification Program. And this year, in cooperation with Sarah McCoy Mustique Island, SIBA launched The McCoy Grant for any unpublished Southern women or nonbinary booksellers who harbor ambitions to be published writers. See a list of the many grants and scholarships SIBA provided its booksellers this year.

The Southern Bookseller Review

SIBA's consumer-targeted publication, The Southern Bookseller Review was launched in late 2020 to positive acclaim. In 2022 its reach increased significantly, with subscribers up 15% and website views more than tripling. Among the innovations SIBA added to the SBR program were monthly "special edition" newsletters on a single topic. The most popular special issues were February (Black History), April (Poetry), August (Harvest & Cookbooks) and September (Hispanic Heritage Month). SIBA also added reviews of Graphic Novels and Comics as a regular newsletter feature.

Most importantly, after a beta-testing period the previous year, SIBA has now made it possible for bookstores to embed their SBR reviews on their store websites. The embedded reviews automatically refresh to show the most recent reviews by the store published at SBR. Currently seven bookstores are running these "automatic staff picks" on their websites.

In July, SBR published its 1000th review from SIBA booksellers. As of this week, SBR is approaching 1400 published reviews. 72 SIBA bookstores have submitted reviews to SBR.

New Voices New Rooms

2022 was also a great year for New Voices New Rooms -- the programming partnership created between SIBA and NAIBA. NVNR hosted its regular Publicity Speed Dating event in the spring, giving bookstores a chance to pitch their stores directly to publishers and publicists. It also hosted two summer events in May and August -- the first focused on Fall release authors, and the latter with extra days of education and networking built into the schedule. The famous NVNR "Readers of the Last ARC" Galley Room processed 1500 requests from booksellers for review copies.

In October, NVNR hosted a bookseller-only reprise of one of the most popular sessions at the August event, "Responding to Hate," where booksellers were able to share difficult or confrontational situations and offer each other advice and support.

In November, NVNR hosted the second annual VIndies Ceremony, celebrating the best in bookstore video. the 2022 VIndies included an expanded list of categories, include "Staff Picks" and "Trending Sounds" -- both of which showcased the creative ways bookstores have used TikTok to share their enthusiasm for books and reading.

The Holiday Catalogs

Still the most popular benefit among SIBA booksellers, the holiday catalog is produced by RAMP, in cooperation with SIBA's sister organizations, NAIBA and GLIBA. This year, despite supply-chain worries and a shortened publication schedule, RAMP created both a Summer and a Winter Catalog for stores, and added an optional early ship date for stores that wanted to start they holiday promotions early (October is the new November!). 65 SIBA stores signed up for the RAMP Catalogs and distributed about 240,000 catalogs in 2022.

New Faces on the SIBA Team!

One of the most important changes in 2022 is that the SIBA staff has grown. In January Robin Wood came on board as SIBA Social Media Coordinator. Not only has she expanded the reach of SIBA's own social media presence, she has been dedicated to amplifying the presence of SIBA's member stores. Her regular posts of store reviews from SBR has caught the attention of authors and publishers, raising the visibility of SIBA bookstores within the industry and among readers.

In November Candice Huber, (owner of Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Bookshop in New Orleans) joined the SIBA team as its Membership Coordinator. Their role is to reach out to all SIBA bookstores and work with them to make sure they know about all their SIBA benefits. Candice wants to hear from stores about what things are working or not working, and what things they would like to see from SIBA in the future. Every SIBA bookstore can expect a call in the upcoming months!

Looking Ahead

While SIBA stores are busy with fourth quarter and holiday sales, SIBA uses this time to strategize for the upcoming year. SIBA booksellers can look forward to more of the great programming they are already familiar with, plus more in-person events and virtual networking opportunities. This upcoming spring sees the return of "March Madness" a series day-long events at nine bookstores across SIBA territory. New Voices New Rooms will return in 2023 as well, with its first in-person event in August in Alexandria, Virginia. NVNR is also continuing its virtual programming, starting with an Owners Retreat in January.

A Crazy and Gratifying Year

The year was not without its challenges. Some stores faced unprecedented difficulties -- book bans and storytime protests, which also become opportunities to rally the support of their communities Hurricane Ian had a devastating effect on bookstores on the Florida Gulf Coast, Right now, those stores are engaged in rebuilding, determined to re-open their doors. SIBA has lent support and advocated for its members wherever and whenever possible.

SIBA's membership grew from 152 stores in 2021 to 173 stores in 2022. 44 new bookstore accounts were created this year -- some from bookstores under new ownership, some from established stores that joined SIBA for the first time, but over half were brand new stores that opened their doors in the last 18 months.

If there is a word to describe SIBA's booksellers this year, it would be "eager." Over and over again members talked about their joy at having customers in their stores again, their determination to face all challenges, and their enthusiasm about the future.

If 2022 was a year of transition, the watch word for SIBA and SIBA bookstores in 2023 is "optimism."

by Robin Wood, Social Media Coordinator

The winter holiday season is always hectic, but also hopefully joyful, busy with sharing books and products we love with our customers and celebrating indie bookstores as vibrant, unique gathering spaces. It’s also a chance to show our stores off on social media.

At SIBA, we’ve loved seeing these glimpses of stores and communities. At Novelette Booksellers in Nashville, TN, a whimsical display celebrates snowy weather. At Pressed LKLD in Lakeland, FL, the vibe is cozy and festive. Check out their recent Instagram reel for Small Business Saturday.

At Books & Books @ The Studios in Key West, FL, they’re getting ready for Hanukkah.

At Burke’s Book Store in Memphis, TN, Brave + Kind Bookshop in Decatur, GA, Page 158 Books, in Wake Forest, NC, San Marco Books in Jacksonville, FL, The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA, and E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, GA, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Don’t miss the reel of Page 158 celebrating the annual lighting of the leg lamp and check out The Bookshelf’s Tik Tok channel.

The Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA created a dynamic series for their year-end staff picks, Righton Books, in Saint Simons Island, GA shared a photo from a book club holiday get together, and Read It Again Books in Suwanee, GA created a fun display of local gift ideas.

Share your social media with us by using #SIBAbooksellers and mentioning us @siba_books on Instagram (all the handles on the pictures are Instagram), or @SouthernIndependentBooksellersAlliance on Facebook. We will reshare some of your posts on SIBA’s social media or on the customer-facing Southern Bookseller Review social media (@southernbooksellerreview on Instagram and @readermeetwriter on Facebook).

Revisiting your DEI Statement

In the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, many business and organizations adopted Diversity statements to show their solidarity with the grass roots movement advocating for change and also as a promise the enact change within.

As the year comes to a close, it may be the time to ask, have we kept that promise?

Organizations should periodically re-examine their Diversity Statements and policies to ensure they meet their goals. DEI Statements inform policy and provide guidance, so they will evolve with the company while being a compass that always points towards equity.

A DEI Statement can vary widely, but they usually include some or all of the following:

• A statement of the company’s mission
  
• An explanation of how DEI connects to that mission
  
• A call-out to specific underrepresented groups
  
• High-level examples of DEI efforts

(via)

A best practice when writing your organization's DEI statement is to make it specific to your company, rather than generic and abstract. Use a strong headline, positive language, and include specific examples of how the organization meets the goals stated in its mission.

Tips and examples of good DEI Statements

At its core, a Diversity Statement is supposed to inspire action and create a sense of community within your organization. If your bookstore's DEI statement was originally adopted from a template, or modeled on another store or organization, it is worth taking another look at it and making it something that truly represents your store and your values.

SIBA welcomes all bookstore owners to get together virtually on Monday, January 9 from 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm to share, ask questions, and wonder about bookselling in the new year. We will be joined by our NAIBA friends. This is open only to owners of current SIBA members. Registration is free. Space is limited.

The Owners Retreat will be hosted virtually on Zoom, but SIBA booksellers should register here. All attendees will receive their Zoom links the week before the event.

Register here

You truly make a difference!

SIBA is grateful to all our industry and author friends who support our booksellers year round, through participation in our programming, direct support of stores, and sponsoring of scholarships to fund bookseller travel to in-person events. Your generosity means so much to SIBA booksellers!

We want to bring special attention to the sponsors of several specific scholarships and awards for their generosity in 2022. Because of you, SIBA was able to provide assistance to every bookseller who asked for support to attend one of our events. Attending a SIBA event can be life-changing; professional development, networking opportunities, mentoring, and friendships happen and deepen. You truly made a difference!

Event Sponsorships: Thank you to Scholastic, Sourcebooks, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Blackstone, Ingram, Binc, Shelf Awareness, and Publishers Weekly for supporting booksellers through event sponsorships in Winston-Salem, NC and New Orleans, LA, and through our partnership with NAIBA in New Voices New Rooms .  Your funding supported multiple booksellers with lodging and travel needs.

The Wanda Jewell Scholarship Fund for Bookseller Professional Development: Created in 2022 in honor of our much-beloved former Executive Director, this scholarship is funded by authors, and provides financial support for bookseller professional development through education and networking at in-person SIBA-sponsored events. Friends & Fiction (NYT-bestselling authors Patti Callahan Henry, Mary Kay Andrews, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Kristin Harmel) stepped forward to be this year’s author supporters and we thank them so much! Their funding helped support booksellers attending our gathering in Winston-Salem, NC, and in New Orleans, LA.

Macmillan Booksellers Professional Development Scholarship: This scholarship provides funds to booksellers traditionally underrepresented within the industry to attend their regional associations' fall trade show or gathering. This year’s award went to Krystle Dandridge of The Book Bar in Richmond, Virginia, who attended our NOLA gathering in September.

George Keating Memorial Scholarship: This scholarship provides $250 to a bookseller in the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), and New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) for the purpose of professional development. Rachel Ford of the Bookshop in Nashville, Tennessee is the SIBA recipient of the George Keating Memorial Scholarship and attended our NOLA gathering..

The Nancy Olson Bookseller Award: This award honors the legacy of Nancy Olson, founder of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC. Nancy was  a tireless advocate for writers, especially new writers looking for a chance in the publishing world, and a beloved bookseller and colleague.  An anonymous admirer of Nancy’s, in conjunction with SIBA, awards two $2000 gifts to special booksellers in her memory each December.  The 2022 winners will be announced in the next two weeks.

The McCoy Grant for Bookseller Writers: In 2022, New York Times bestselling author Sarah McCoy established two $1500 grants for unpublished southern bookseller women/nonbinary writers.  Recipients will be awarded at the 2023 New Voices New Rooms in-person conference in August.

SIBA is always appreciative and welcoming  of funds to support our booksellers, to provide travel assistance and education, including DEI training. If you’d like to support our booksellers in 2023, please reach out to SIBA (lindamarie@sibaweb.com) and we’ll talk about the best ways to do that. SIBA also has a donation link that earmarks your donation for one of our funds. 

Call for Authors for SIBA’s 2023 March Madness!
Nine bookstores, eight  states, and everyone’s a winner at SIBA’s March Madness!

In March 2023 eight SIBA bookstores will host one-day gatherings that include bookseller education, a meet-the-author luncheon, networking, and idea shares on what’s working at attendees' stores. Events are within two to three hours driving distance from a majority of our member stores, and take place over a three week period. We expect booksellers may register for multiple events. We’re so excited to offer this range of programming to our booksellers and would love your authors to be part of it. SIBA first hosted March Madness programming in 2020, and booksellers raved about it! 

Would you like one of your authors to present at a luncheon? 

Sponsorship cost is $699.
A March Madness Sponsorship incluudes

• Author luncheon presentation to booksellers

• eBlast to over 700 SIBA booksellers promoting author event/book (value $399)

• Header banner ad in consumer-facing Southern Bookseller Review newsletter (over 7k subscribers) promoting author event/book (value $399)

• Afternoon or evening public event at the hosting bookstore, depending on availability 

Host stores and locations below. Dates will depend on author availability and host store’s programming schedule. If you’re touring your author this spring, one of these stores might already be on your radar for an event or conveniently nearby.

• Baldwin & Co., New Orleans, LA
• Buxton Books, Charleston, SC
• Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC
• Hub City Bookshop, Spartanburg, SC
• Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA
• Oxford Exchange, Tampa, FL
• Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN
• Square Books, Oxford, MS
• The Book Bar, Richmond, VA

March Madness 2023 Call for Authors Form

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

 

Land Acknowledgments

“When we talk about land, land is part of who we are. It’s a mixture of our blood, our past, our current, and our future. We carry our ancestors in us, and they’re around us. As you all do.”
– Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) via Native Governance

Of all the official American holidays on the calendar, Thanksgiving is one of the most emotional and intimate. Even though the holiday sometimes feels snowed under by newspaper inserts and Black Friday sales, the day itself has always been primarily about togetherness, family, and food.

And for the many Indigenous peoples of the continent, a day to mourn. One of the great tasks of anyone trying to live an anti-racist life is to acknowledge and reconcile (or discard) beloved cultural traditions that are built upon an oppressive, racist foundations.

How do we honor the values of Thanksgiving -- the togetherness and generosity and gratitude -- and yet still acknowledge what it represents to Indigenous people? We tend to associate Thanksgiving with a somewhat mythical story of Pilgrims and Native Americans sitting down to eat together, but the truth is Thanksgiving was first established as a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, as a kind of "thank you" to the advancing Union armies and a call for unity and healing among the American people.

There is a growing movement to "decolonize" Thanksgiving and turn it into something that more meaningfully honors the heritage of all the peoples on this continent. "Meaningful" is the watchword here. One practice that has become more common in recent years is to make a Land Acknowledgment part of important events and celebrations.

A Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement of recognition and respect for the indigenous peoples who were and are the traditional inhabitants and stewards of the specific place of the event. Organizations and groups also create Land Acknowledgments as part of the work they do in their communities. Independent bookstores sometimes create a Land Acknowledgment in recognition of their own role in and commitment to the heritage of their local communities.

A Land Acknowledgment (which is not, by the way, a "Land Welcome," the distinction is important) is not something to be simply copied from some template found online. Every one is unique because the history of every place is unique. There are over 550 Native American nations in the United States. Consider this map of the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples: https://native-land.ca/.

Bookstores looking to create a meaningful Land Acknowledgment for their store should take the time to research what and who should be acknowledged, and why. The Native Governance Center has published a useful guide to creating an Indigenous Land Acknowledgment statement that includes questions to ask yourself as you do your research: Why are you doing this land acknowledgment? What is your end goal?

The guide also offers some tips to writing a land acknowledgment statement that is truly meaningful and intentional. For example: be specific about the names and history of the Indigenous people to whom the land belonged and belongs -- including the history of the land itself and any treaties, honored or broken. And be scrupulous about correct spelling and pronunciation for the names of Tribes, places and peoples. Also include the names of living Indigenous peoples from the community. There is a tendency to talk about Indigenous peoples in the past tense. They are not. They are active, vibrant, contemporary cultures.

A Land Ackowledgment will not minimize or dismiss past crimes by avoiding accurate terms: genocide, forced removal, ethnic cleansing. But neither is it simply an accusation:

"Land acknowledgments shouldn’t be grim. They should function as living celebrations of Indigenous communities. Ask yourself, “How am I leaving Indigenous people in a stronger, more empowered place because of this land acknowledgment?” Focus on the positivity of who Indigenous people are today." --The Native Governance Center (via)

In the end, a Land Acknowledgment is a first step, an expression of gratitude to those who have been here long before us, and also a promise, a commitment to take action and effect change. It is a promise we can't break.

More resources
https://nativegov.org/resources/
https://nativegov.org/resources/?_sft_resource_topic=land-acknowledgement