Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Hot Desk by Laura Dickerman. Although marketed as a rom-com, this take on the publishing world set in the early 80s and today is so much more. I may know where one storyline is heading (enemies to lovers), but I’m very curious about the potential lovers to enemies arc of the other. The author pulls back curtains to scenes that are very layered and thought-provoking.
Listening: I’m dedicated to the very underappreciated sound of silence.
Watching: Entering the final season of Younger, which continues to intrigue and delight me with the publishing industry details and the struggles of women in a corporate environment. I will miss it when I finish the series.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Right now, Katherine Mansfield's In a German Pension, because I'm on a Mansfield binge. But I also just ordered Zhang Yueran's Cocoon, because someone in book club recommended it.
Listening: The audiobook of Peter Marshall's Storm's Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney.
Watching: Not much, but I did decompress for a few hours with Evil Under the Sun (1982) featuring not my favorite Poirot actor Peter Ustinov, but also a younger Maggie Smith (who is my favorite anything), wearing the most amazingly bejewelled jacket and carrying around an hors d'oeuvres tray that SP later accurrately commented, "looked like Sputnik."

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I finished Food Person, which is a little sharp, a lot sweet, and seems destined for a binge-worthy TV series. I'm a few chapters into Taylor Jenkins Reid's latest novel, Atmosphere, which seems even more destined for adaptation. Astronauts in love in the 1980s! Come. On. Listening: I had my song of the week all picked out, but a late night discussion of Nina Simone led to yet another listen to her 1969 album To Love Somebody, which led to multiple listens to her goosebump-inducing cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and I'm certainly not going to disagree with that. Especially not this week. Watching: The Times of Harvey Milk, the 1984 documentary made only six years after Milk's assassination, 32 years before a Navy ship was named in his honor, and 41 years before a cowardly fraud removed his name from the ship because this warrior did not "reflect warrior culture."

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I am preparing for a good bit of air travel in the next few days so I have a TON of DRCs downloaded and no idea where I plan to start.
Listening: A friend of mine was over for porch hangouts recently and put on a Spotify playlist full of angry 90's women that I can't get enough of.
Watching: We just finished a really good dark Scottish crime series called Dept Q. And then Lego Masters AU to lighten the mood after that's done.

The relationship between an indie bookstore and their customers is a unique and wonderful thing that shows in beautiful ways. Parnassus Books recently posted on Instagram that friend of the store made a highly accurate miniature of the store that is now on display on the store’s piano. Click to see! The craftsmanship is amazing!

Submit your good news to SIBA Spark

Editor's Note: The deadline to submit your ABACUS survey has been extended to June 21st. The information this survey provides is so important to bookstores SIBA encourages every store, no matter how small, to take the time to fill it out. If you are a member of the ABA and have been open a year, your store is eligible.

Here are some tips for bookstores we posted last year from SIBA Membership Coordinator Candice Huber, who is also Dean of Bookstore Finances for the Professional Booksellers School:

ABA’s financial ABACUS survey has been extended to June 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. Second, 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 2024, 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!

Attendees at NVNR have several tools for finding their way around the conference. Up to date schedules will always be available on the NVNR website. Attendees receive morning emails each day with news and schedule highlights. Every bookseller receives a Welcome bag with the show journal and brochure, each of which contain schedule highlights. And information is always available at the registration desk.

Conference goers will find the app to be a powerful tool for finding your way around, keeping up with what's happening next in the schedule, and connecting with exhibitors and your fellow booksellers. Attendees will be able to:

• View the full event schedule, and favorite sessions to make your own personal schedule.
• Filter the schedule by tags to see only the things you want.
• View session information, access session handouts, and take notes.
• View author, exhibitor and sponsor information.
• See venue information and important NVNR contacts and links.
• Send and receive direct messages from booksellers and exhibitors.
• Schedule meetings with exhibitors and fellow booksellers.
• Receive alerts and notifications about location or time changes, program updates and reminders.
• Rate sessions, speakers and events.

Booksellers who have already registered for NVNR 2025 are encouraged to download the app in advance and start building early connections. The link to download the conference app is in the confirmation email sent to every attendee. The app is also available from the Apple Store and the Google Play Store, by searching for "Eventleaf."

How to use the Conference App

New Voices New Rooms is holding orientation sessions for booksellers and exhibitors on July 16. Click on an Orientation to register:

Bookseller Orientation: 7/16 at 11:00 AM ET

Exhibitor Orientation: 7/16 at 3:00 PM ET

Each orientation will give attendees and exhibitors a chance to hear what to expect and what is new for the 2025 conference.

Even if you have not yet registered for NVNR, or are still not sure you will be attending, you should still make time to come to the orientation to hear about New Voices New Rooms 2025's new and exciting additions, appointment scheduling, planned programming, tips for using our new app, and more! The NVNR Team will be on hand to answer questions.

Visit the NVNR Conference Hub for more information about NVNR 2025

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Hot Desk by Laura Dickerman, a complement to my current binge-watch of Younger. Two editors share a desk on alternate days and vie for the literary estate of a “problematic” literary icon who recently passed with no clear heir. I met the author this week at a lovely Chapel Hill, NC gathering hosted by Simon & Schuster and learned some insidery details, too! Just finished Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott, which earned an almost perfect 5 out of 5 stars rating from my book club. A lost classic that's ideal for book club discussion.
Listening: To the rattle and hum of a very loud a/c unit in my hotel room in Chapel Hill, NC. When not on the road, enjoying the soothing soundtracks from my Calm app, and the summer songs of birds as they charm each other before making families in my hanging baskets.
Watching: Younger, set in the fictional publishing house, Empirical, and filled with so many fun publisher storylines around celebrity authors, ageism, fashion choices, generational differences, and life in NYC. Am biding my time all summer until we get to the next Great British Baking Show season.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Still working on Flashlight by Susan Choi. I finished Theory of Water (that one will stick with me for longer than an Ice Age) and Is a River Alive? As is usual with McFarlane's books, I pick them up because of the subject, but stick with them because of the people he finds to talk to. I find it pretty wonderful that, despite all the terrible things happening in the world today, there is a woman out there known as "the mushroom whisperer."
Listening: Lots of podcasts to get me through lots of house cleaning.
Watching: I finished the most recent season of Dark Winds. I love shows with strong ensemble casts. SP told me to watch Johnny Guitar with Joan Crawford, so naturally, I did. It's an amazingly odd western, and I say that as someone who has seen Johnny Depp in Dead Man. But Johnny Guitar will stay with me because of the woman vs woman gun fight, and because even though I know there were a bunch of men in the movie, they all just sort of faded into the set dressing in the face of Crawford at her most incandescent.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: Happy Pride Reading/Listening to/Watching, everyone! I finished A Secret Life, Claire Tomalin's biography of Katherine Mansfield and will be thinking about it for a long time. I woke up thinking about it this morning! I finished Alison Bechdel's new autofiction graphic novel, Spent, which was funny and wistful and ultimately hopeful. I'm halfway through Food Person by Adam Roberts, which is smart and funny and will make you want to buy about 900 cookbooks.
Listening: Since I will listen to Brittany Howard sing the phonebook (google it, youths) the song of the week is Miley Cyrus's "Walk of Fame," featuring Brittany Howard. If you're old like me, you'll instantly hear echoes of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" and all the other songs you flailed around to on the dance floor in the 1980s.
Watching: One of my all-time favorites, Johnny Guitar, the 1954 genre- and mind-bending Nicholas Ray-directed film starring Joan Crawford (at peak Crawford), Mercedes McCambridge (ditto re: peakness), and a bunch of dudes in cowboy hats waiting to be told what to do. I am a committed Johnny Guitar evangelist, as Nicki can confirm.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I just finished Shauna Robinson's Lauryn Harper Falls Apart, the story of two former BFFs trying to save their small town's apple festival while rediscovering their friendship and it's so sweet!
Listening: Now that Taylor owns all of her music, I can listen to Reputation without guilt!
Watching: I still can't get enough Poker Face. Some folks haven't liked this season as much as the last one but I think Natasha Lyonne can do no wrong.

In 2021 the US Postal Service did an in-depth generational study of how consumers viewed and used direct mail marketing campaigns. It found that despite the ubiquitous nature and apparent convenience of digital and email marketing, consumers respond positively to print marketing campaigns like catalogs. Print appeals to a reader's creative side, it's tangibility inspires a feeling of trust, and it's longevity tends to increase purchases. Here are some of the key statistics from the study:

• 87% of consumers say catalogs make them more interested in a retailer’s products.
• Consumers spend an average of 15.5 minutes browsing a catalog.
• 55% of recipients keep catalogs at least a month.
• 65% of consumers are more likely to remember a brand after receiving a catalog.
• 57% of consumers say they feel more valued when they receive mail from trusted brands.
• Customers who received catalogs spend 2.5 times more money than those receiving digital promotions.
• 57% of consumers find print marketing more trustworthy than other media.
• Personalized direct mail generates 36% higher response than non-personalized.
• 20% of catalog recipients make a purchase within 90 days of receipt.
• 49% of catalog purchases occur online.
• 33% of catalog recipients immediately visit a retail website.

Order the Winter Catalog

Current Newsletter: Meet Philosophers and Fools Bookstore

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Mekhala Villegas-Rogers, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida
• Amy Jones, As The Page Turns in Travelers Rest, South Carolina
• Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Georgia
• Melissa Taylor, E. Shaver, Bookseller, Savannah, Georgia
• Lynne Phillips, Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Nath Mayes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
• Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
• Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi
• Jamie Kovacs, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Stephanie St. John, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia
• Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia

Book Buzz Feature: Food Person by Adam Roberts
I could spend years in a cookbook shop and never get bored. Where do I begin? I love the weirdness of cookbooks; how they capture the larger culture of a specific time-period and tell the tale through the prism of food. Take, for example, one of my cookbook treasures: The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Cookbook by Robin Leach. It’s a time capsule of the eighties — glass block, Dynasty-style hairdos, Brooke Shields — and the food is as awful as the fashion. Or another favorite: A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent and Mary Price, a collection of all the menus that the famous horror maestro and his wife collected over their world travels in the ‘40s and ‘50s and the meals that they hosted for their friends in their exquisite Hollywood home. If I could jump into the pages of a cookbook, it might be that one.

― Adam Roberts, Interview, OutSFL

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
The Damned by Renée Ahdieh
The Damned picks up right where The Beautiful left off and introduces a few new POVs to keep things interesting. With Bastien now a walker of the night and Celine’s memories forgotten, the intrigue and drama are thicker than ever. Bastien is determined to become better than his uncle, while his sister Emilie is back from the dead as the head of the wolves. Fans of the first won’t be disappointed with this next thrilling volume in the series. The only disappointment is having to wait for the next! Renee Ahdieh is a skilled writer who has beautifully brought back the classic vampire, along with the fey and werewolves, intertwined. This is a must read for anyone who missed the classy vampires of Anne Rice, but loved the romance of True Blood.
―Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia

NEW REVIEWS | SUBSCRIBE | SUBMIT A REVIEW | FOR PUBLISHERS

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott for my book club. Published in 1929, this book still feels timely and poignant, reminding me a bit of Jean Rhys’ work.
Listening: I’ve been listening to cicadas who emerged after 17 years underground. I’ll miss their beautiful sound when this season is over. Also enjoying the peaceful, quiet vibe of our neighborhood.
Watching: Binge-watching Younger. Set in the fictional publishing house Empirical, the insider humor is often hilarious, especially around catering to celebrity authors and centering youth-culture and influencers.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: My reading life is all about water these days: Is A River Alive by Robert McFarlane, a book which poses a question that seems like it has an obvious answer to me, frankly. And I'm still going through The Theory of Water by Leann Betasamosake Simpson, which is about water, yes, but also about interconnected living and transformation. A kind of mantra against evil times.
Listening: SP sent me a YouTube link to Tami Neilson singing, so yeah. I'm in love.
Watching: I just started Dark Winds. Spectacularly beautiful scenery. Highly eerie storytelling.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life, Claire Tomalin's elegantly written and wickedly perceptive 1987 biography of the almost unknowable writer. After years of Mansfield's life being interpreted by others, who may have had their own agenda, Tomalin neatly turns the tables by letting her speak for herself. At my front door this morning: Spent, Alison Bechdel's new graphic novel.
Listening: The song of the week has been "You're Gonna Fall," by Tami Neilson, New Zealand's big-haired and big-voiced spiritual daughter of a long line of other big-haired and big-voiced queens.
Watching: Murderbot, the Apple TV adaptation of the Martha Wells series The Murderbot Diaries, starring Alexander Skarsgård. As usual, Apple has not stinted on the budget, and the series is funny, action-packed, and wryly sweet. The BBC series from the early 1980s, A Fine Romance, starring Judi Dench and her real-life husband, Michael Williams. It's also wryly sweet (just barely) and funny, though not action-packed unless you count characters crawling around the floor of a French restaurant trying to find a dropped contact lens.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I've got about three books going on right now but the "main" one is In The Family Way by Laney Katz Becker, about motherhood and choice in the 60s.
Listening: all my current podcasts are about the trashy reality TV shows I've very into these days.
Watching: The aforementioned reality TV, but I most enjoyed the new season of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Please talk about it with me, I have opinions!

Things to do / Things not to miss

1. Order your Winter Catalogs.

The final day to place orders is June 15th. Since this deadline is set by the printer, no late orders can be accepted and no extra catalogs will be available.

According to a US Postal Service study, people who receive catalogs are more likely to remember the brand, more likely to feel trust in the brand, and more likely to feel valued when they receive mail from the brand. The Winter Catalog is an invaluable tool for enhancing customer loyalty and reaching new customers.
Order here.

2. Take the ABACUS Survey

This free annual report will provide bookstores with invaluable data about how their business compares to others. The information can be use to identify areas for improvement, to set realistic goals, and as supporting evidence when negotiating leases or advocating for policy with local government officials. Read more.

The deadline to submit is June 14. There is an ABACUS workshop on June 6.
Read more.

3. Make your hotel reservations for NVNR 2025

The deadline to reserve a hotel room at the conference rate is July 17. Registration for NVNR 2025 has outpaced last year, and NVNR has already expanded the available room block. The earlier booksellers reserve their rooms, the better.

NVNR Hotel Reservation Link
Contact Linda-Marie at lindamarie@sibaweb.com if there are any issues

4. Send SIBA a Spark

"SIBA Spark" focuses on uplifting and inspiring news from members of the SIBA community fighting the good fight! SIBA will share bookstore projects and initiatives with the industry and readers. Tell us what your store is doing.

5. Get ready for hurricane season
As we come into hurricane season, now is the time to double-check your store emergency preparedness plans and strategies. Here are some resources:

• Cavalier House Books Emergency Prep Check List
• Emergency Prep Notes from the NVNR Owners Retreat
• SIBA's Store Emergency Contact Form