Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 31, 2020
The response to the launch of The Southern Bookseller Review has enthusiastic. The subscriber list increased by 5% within the first couple days of the announcement.
An important component of SBR is a strong social media strategy, designed specifically to raise the profiles of SIBA member stores by sharing their reviews of books. SIBA has welcomed Lucy Perkins-Wagel onto the team as its Social Media Coordinator to manage SIBA's and SBR's social media.
As we move into the New Year, SIBA booksellers and members witll see some further changes as we complete the launch:
Okra Picks is now Read This Next! A selection of seasonal forthcoming books with exceptional bookseller excitement and buzz. See the 2021 Winter Read This Next list in this newsletter.
Lady Banks Bookshelf is now the SBR Shelf: Six books per month, promoted to readers, and click through links to purchase at a SIBA member store.
AuthorsRoundtheSouth.com will redirect to The Southern Bookseller Review website, the new home of SIBA's reader-targeted programming, including the Southern Bestseller List, The Southern Book Prize, and the SBR Newsletter.
The STARS Bookstore Directory will now live on the The Southern Bookseller Review website. All requests for the old site will automatically redirect to the new location.
Don't forget! On January 6 at 2 pm, EST SIBA will be hosting an orientation of The Southern Bookseller Review website and newsletter. We'll take people through the site and discuss how booksellers and publishers can make the most of the new program. REGISTER
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Hello Everyone!
My name is Lucy, and I recently joined the SIBA team to help with the social media side of things. I’m also a bookseller at Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida, and a member of the SIBA Influencer’s program. I’m so excited to have this opportunity to promote SIBA programs and SIBA stores to both SIBA members and consumers, as I believe SIBA as a whole is doing some phenomenal things, and I want as many people as possible to learn about and hopefully engage with those things! To that end, if you take a fun picture, have a cool display, or something amazing happens at your store and you want to share it, please tag SIBA in your social media post, and/or send content to me directly at lucy@sibaweb.com. Please also follow SIBA across all of our social media channels so that you can see what we’re up to! You can find us on Facebook at Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and Authors Round the South (soon to be The Southern Bookseller Review), on Instagram at @siba_books, and on Twitter at @SIndies.
I wish all of you a happy and bright new year, and I look forward to seeing what we can all do together in 2021!
SIBA promotes six new books every month to readers, the customers of our member stores, in our Southern Bookseller Review (SBR) Bookshelf promotion. These titles appear at the top of our weekly SBR newsletter, which has a circulation of over 60k. We also feature them on our SBR facebook page, with buy links promoted to our 15,000 Facebook friends, and on our Instagram and Twitter accounts. A different member store is featured with the titles every week. We give SIBA member stores a heads up on each month’s featured titles, to encourage in-store and online displays.
For publishers looking to promote their new titles out to readers across the South, the SBR Bookshelf is our greatest value because of high visibility and engagement across multiple platforms. Contact us for more information or to get your titles on “The Shelf” in coming months.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Lisa Yee Swope of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Bonnie Shank of The Storybook Shoppe in Bluffton, South Carolina are the 2020 recipients of the Nancy Olson Bookseller Award. The Nancy Olson Bookseller
Award was launched in 2019 with an anonymous donation from an author who is also an admirer of the late Nancy Olson, founder of Quail Ridge Books. The award, which comes with a $2000 cash prize, honors booksellers who embody the spirit of Olson’s
bookselling legacy of supporting writers–especially new writers– other booksellers, and community outreach.
“Each day in the bookstore is a ray of sunshine surrounded by books and helping parents, grandparents,
and children find the right book,” said Bonnie Shank of her work as a bookseller, “Nothing is better than hearing a mother or grandmother say their children devour books. This morning a grandfather came in and was looking for a Christmas book to read
to his two and four year old grandchildren through Skype. What fun it was to help him pick the perfect book to share.” Shank said she was “humbled and proud” to have been nominated and selected for the award, which comes with a $2000 cash prize. “Our
little children’s bookstore, The Storybook Shoppe, is the soul of our community, Historic Old Town Bluffton, and I am privileged to be a part of it.” Shank came to The Storybook Shoppe nine years ago, after retiring from a 34-year career as
an English and Language Arts teacher in the Department of Defense school system, living and teaching in Panama, Okinawa, Japan and Germany.
Lisa Yee Swope, who joined Bookmarks three years ago as it was transitioning from an annual book festival
to a physical bookstore with year-round programming, said “I am delighted that the Bookmarks community sees and lauds my exuberance for sharing the things I love. It's a daily joy to be part of a great org that is making such a difference in
our schools and community.” Swope is a frontline bookseller who manages the Bookmarks Kids Club, a subscription service for kids in which she gets to individually pick books for dozens of children. This service also allows her to form ongoing relationships
with the families in the community and the grandparents, aunts, and uncles in the community who have littles they love in and out of area.
Nancy Olson’s husband, Jim Olson, served as one of the judges for the Award, along with Sarah Goddin, buyer and former General Manager of Quail Ridge Books, and Linda-Marie Barrett, Executive Director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
Jim spoke of his gratitude that the sponsor of this award chose to honor Nancy Olson’s legacy in this way, “Nancy would have loved this. She was a champion of other bookstores and would have loved to have seen booksellers so generously rewarded and
acknowledged for the work they do for their communities.”
Linda-Marie Barrett echoed Olson’s sentiment and added, “We received an amazing set of nominations this year. There were so many wonderful booksellers making such a difference in their communities; it was incredibly difficult to select just two.”
The full list of nominated booksellers
Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
Angie Fleming of Givens Books in Lynchburg, VA
Avery Leopard of Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, AL
Alex McLeod of The Haunted Bookshop in Mobile, AL
Nicole McManus, My Sister’s Books, Pawleys Island, SC
Matilda McNeely of Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA
Kathy Neff of Square Books in Oxford, MS
Damita Nocton, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
Bonnie Shank of The Storybook Shoppe in Bluffton, SC
Maximize your [12-minute] Speed Dating Meetings with the Publishers!
SIBA is co-hosting Publisher Speed Dating with NAIBA in March 2021. This is a fantastic opportunity to get your store in front of key publisher folks who make decisions on author tours and more. We want to help you be your best.
Is this your first time attending a speed dating session? Not sure what to expect? Whatever you do, we recommend you don't wing it. Stepping forward to assist is Maribeth Pelly, Event Planner of BookTowne, and seasoned speed dater and big believer
that this is the most important event of the year. She's offering private sessions that are perfect for new stores or stores new to Publisher Speed Dating (and even for veterans who want to vet their current pitch and press kit) who want to
grow their event programs in 2021.
What You will Need:
Press Kit
Confirm a meeting with Maribeth BEFORE Friday Feb 26, 2021.
What You will Receive:
90 minute Private Zoom meeting with Maribeth.
Customized tips to help nail your store's pitch.
Review of your event program goals and fine tuning of your messaging to the publishers.
Final review of your press kit before you it goes to "print"
Post Event Recap. Access to Maribeth by phone, text, email, FaceTime, or zoom to review your experience & as any follow up questions.
COST: $90
GET STARTED: Email Maribeth Pelly ASAP at maribeth@maribethpelly.com to schedule your appointment.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 17, 2020
On January 6 at 2 pm SIBA will be hosting an orientation of The Southern Bookseller Review website and newsletter. We'll take people through the site and discuss how booksellers and publishers can make the most of the new program.
The mission of SBR is to raise the visibility of SIBA bookstores and booksellers in the industry and within their own communities by focusing on booksellers as an invaluable and trusted resource for book lovers of all kinds. SBR replaces several of SIBA's
previous consumer-targeted programs, including Lady Banks Commonplace Book, Authors Round the South, and the STARS Directory and Calendar.
Topics will include:
how reviews are submitted and chosen for publication
how stores are added to the bookseller directory
SBR's social media strategy
how booksellers can use SBR to promote their store
As we enter the final stretch of 2020, I hope you are healthy, and your businesses are humming along in whatever ways you've adjusted them
to address bookselling during a pandemic. I've watched with so much respect and awe as you shifted your models to protect your staff and do your part in preventing the spread of the virus in your communities: putting up sneeze guards and wearing masks,
offering curbside pickup and home delivery, expanding your mailing services, scheduling browsing visits, or going, and staying, completely online. You've worked tirelessly for months, building to this holiday retail moment. I think of you every day,
and have so enjoyed seeing your faces and hearing your stories during office hours, influencer meetings, webinars, and publisher-sponsored events. You are my daily inspiration; you are my heroes.
I took over as Executive Director in June, a daunting time when many communities were still in lockdown. My priorities were to listen to your needs and provide the education, access, and community you needed to keep going. SIBA waived dues for any bookstore
that requested it, and to keep our organization funded and flexible, we reduced pricing on our publisher promotions, working with everyone's pinched budgets, and cut our own expenses by half.
In response to our nation's civil unrest, and after much reflection and discussion, SIBA and the Board of Directors crafted our SIBA Statement Against Racism. The
staff of SIBA and the Board undertook diversity, equity, and inclusion training during the summer, and are deeply committed to the antiracist initiatives outlined in our statement. We welcome questions and suggestions from our members as we move forward.
With the dedicated and talented assistance of the other members of Team SIBA, Nicki Leone and SP Rankin, we turned our in-person trade show into a free five-day virtual conference, partnering with NAIBA to create New Voices New Rooms. SIBA's attendance was up 53% over 2019, with 107 bookstores attending (270 individual booksellers).
(
Visit this link to view key education sessions). This
new partnership with NAIBA will continue under our New Voices New Rooms name into 2021; we're planning Winter Retreats and a March Madness series featuring publicity speed dating, author events, and education.
SIBA joined the Regional Association Marketing & Promotion (RAMP) consortium this year, a partnership of SIBA, NAIBA, NEIBA, MIBA, and GLIBA, to produce our print and digital holiday catalogs. We offered saturation mailing, a first for SIBA members,
and enhanced the digital options for SIBA members, to increase opportunities for book sales.
Our team also worked on rebranding our consumer-facing programming: Lady Banks Newsletter, Okra Picks, and Authors Round the South. The result is the The Southern Bookseller Review,
a stunning website and newsletter where your reviews of books you love are the heart and soul of this project. We will include profiles of booksellers in upcoming issues.
Please
email me if you'd like to be featured, or recommend another bookseller. Join
us for an orientation session on January 6. Link to register.
Looking ahead to Winter 2021:
SIBA is discontinuing the B3! Program. If you have accumulated points, SIBA will translate them into credit you can use toward dues and other programming that involves expenses.
Dues resume at $100/annually (down from $150). If you need dues waived due to financial need, please let us know.
New Voices New Rooms Winter Retreat (Focus on Social Media) 1/25-28.
February Racial Equity Challenge.
Please keep in touch and let SIBA know how we can support you and your goals. We are always here for you!
Wishing you a healthy and prosperous season and New Year!
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Updated: Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Introducing The Southern Bookseller Review:
A Book for Every Reader
(December 10, 2020) The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is excited to announce the launch of The Southern Bookseller Review, a website and weekly newsletter focused on reviews from Southern indie booksellers. The Southern Bookseller Review (SBR) introduces a new approach to SIBA’s commitment to outreach and advocacy for its bookstore members with their customers, potential customers, and the general reading public. Designed to showcase the wide range of southern readers’ literary tastes
and interests, SBR is the evolution of several long-standing, consumer-facing SIBA programs: Authors Round the South, Okra Picks, and The Lady Banks Commonplace Book newsletter.
At the heart of SBR are book reviews by SIBA booksellers of the books they are most excited to hand-sell. Reviews come from store websites, newsletters, social media, and submissions to Edelweiss Plus, the book industry platform for marketing and
ordering new titles.
“Indie booksellers know that getting the right book at the right time into the hands of the right reader is life-changing,” says SIBA Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett, “The Southern Bookseller Review is a unique and beautiful vehicle for
making these connections happen. We are providing a thoughtfully curated selection of book reviews and more, from across our territory, that highlight the diverse literary tastes of our booksellers and their delight in bringing these books to readers
everywhere.”
Indie booksellers put their reputations on the line when they recommend a book to their customers, who are not screen names and avatars, but their neighbors and friends. Readers know that the recommendations they receive from their local bookshop
are informed, sincere, and trustworthy. And because booksellers are the most avid of avid readers, their enthusiasm for the books they love is irresistible. Nancy Olson, the late beloved owner of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC once told Angela Davis-Gardener
“I just want to stuff books down their throats!” SBR is built on bookseller excitement and the belief that independent booksellers are experts in the art of “You’ve got to read this!”
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Updated: Wednesday, December 9, 2020
A Bookseller Guide to The Southern Bookseller Review
The Southern Bookseller Review website and weekly newsletter feature reviews from Southern indie booksellers and showcases the wide range of
literary tastes and interests of Southern readers. SBR is the evolution of several long-standing, consumer-facing SIBA programs: Authors Round the South, Okra Picks, and The Lady Banks Commonplace Book newsletter.
SBR Reviews come from store websites, newsletters, social media, and submissions to Edelweiss Plus, the book industry platform for marketing and ordering new titles. You can read the press release here.
The SBR Website
The new home of SIBA’s reader-targeted programming, the SBR website includes:
Read This Now! A searchable database of bookseller reviews, tagged by subject, store, and interest
Read This Next! A seasonal list of featured forthcoming books receiving extra bookseller buzz
A searchable directory of Southern independent bookstores, with links to their store reviews
The Southern Bookseller
Review weekly newsletter replaces the personal missive-style of Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book as a reader-targeted newsletter. SBR is focused on bookseller reviews that demonstrate the wide range of reading interests and literary culture in their communities.
Reviews include a mix of new books, forthcoming books, backlist discoveries, reading lists, and bookstore-centric features such as bookseller profiles or store community initiatives and partnerships. All books are linked back to the reviewing store
for purchase. The primary goal of the newsletter is to emphasize Southern independent booksellers as a source for good and trustworthy recommendations of what to read next, for every kind of reader.
Mobile Responsive and Social Media Friendly
The Southern Bookseller Review website and newsletter are built to be mobile responsive and highly social-media friendly. SIBA is rebranding its own reader-targeted social media accounts to SBR and has added a social media coordinator to its staff
to share SBR reviews and raise the visibility of reviewing stores.
Timeline:
In 2021 SIBA will convert its Lady Banks mailing list to The Southern Bookseller Review. Click here to subscribe to now.
What do you do if one of your staff tests positive for COVID?
As we all know, independent bookstores have been pushed to new limits in 2020, changing policies and sales models—often by the minute—as COVID numbers continue to rise. My own company, Matchbook Marketing, has evolved and changed with booksellers’ ever-shifting needs, working with bookstores throughout the crisis to help them meet the challenges of operating in a largely online environment. We’ve been busy freshening websites to be more shoppable, adding gift items, promoting book carousels, enabling elements like donation buttons, wish lists, gift cards and codes, and adding messaging that changes with COVID policies, including curbside pickups, changing store hours, local deliveries, and more. Most importantly, we have kept our offering of personalized staff training so that booksellers know how to maintain their new site and adapt to the “new normal.”
If one of your staff receives a COVID-positive test result, your already continual pivoting accelerates rapidly. The storefront closes, all staff get tested, new accommodations for order processing need to be enacted. And somehow, in the midst of all this activity, the store also needs to communicate to the public what is happening.
What are some of the things you should do if this happens to your store?
Create a public message for your website and to share on social media. Create a long and short version of this message to accommodate multiple needs.
Update your store hours on your website and social media account, and add COVID messaging to the top of your page.
Create a standard and reassuring response for queries and well-wishers.
Check your order processing set up. The odds are, your normal operations are going to be interrupted. You may need an alternative option like Bookshop.org to meet processing demands.
Most of all, don’t panic! A calm and consistent approach to your messaging will reassure your customers and your community. In working with stores, Matchbook Marketing has developed a quick-response series of steps for handling a COVID-positive test situation. We coordinate store PR, providing a fast response to queries, and thus allowing you to focus your support where it is most needed, on your staff and your business.
-Gwyn Ridenhour
Founder, Matchbook Marketing
For more information about Matchbook Marketing, please visit www.WeLoveBooksellers.com. You can reach Gwyn at matchbookgwyn@welovebooksellers.com.
From John Cavalier, co-owner of Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, LA and SIBA Board Member
With Small Business Saturday a little more than a week away, most of us are already in the thick of holiday sales and focusing on making the most out of Q4. Of course there need be no reminder that this holiday season will be different from any other,
but our good friends at NAIBA put together a very comprehensive list of action items to prepare their stores for the worst case scenario of another shutdown. We've all grown accustomed to operating our businesses in a state of precarity and by now
we're all old pro's at the pivot, but I encourage everyone to take a moment to print this list out and give it a read through. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure keeps ringing louder and I know that in our current
circumstance we can all appreciate that old saying in the most literal ways possible!
SIBA promotes six new books every month to readers, the customers of our member stores, in our Lady Banks Bookshelf promotion. These titles appear at the top of our weekly Lady Banks Commonplace Book newsletter, which has a circulation of over 60k. We also feature them above the fold on the homepage of Authors ‘Round the South and as the cover image of the ARTS facebook page, with buy links promoted to our 15,000 Facebook friends. Plus, we boost these titles on our Facebook page for thousands more views. A different member store is featured with the titles every week. We give SIBA member stores a heads up on each month’s featured titles, to encourage in-store and online displays.
For publishers looking to promote their new titles out to readers across the South, Lady Banks Bookshelf is our greatest value because of high visibility and engagement across multiple platforms. Contact us for more information or to get your titles on “The Shelf” in coming months.
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
Gobbledy: A Novel by Lis Anna-Langston
Restitution by Janet Lee Berg
My Real Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih
Cleo Can Tie a Bow: A Rabbit and Fox Story by Sybrina Durant
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Interested in learning more about email marketing with Edelweiss360? Sarah Richmond, Director of Communications and Marketing at Edelweiss, introduces the program and walk through creating a campaign in 360. Jamie Rogers Southern, Interim Executive Director of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC has generated substantial book sales through this program, and talks about some of the best practices she uses to make 360 a success for their store.
Stores are encouraged to engage their customers to vote for the books they think should be the "Best Southern Book of the Year."
The SBP 2021 Toolkit includes resources stores can use to promote the ballot to their members, included the information needed to embed the ballot on their own websites, as well as social media graphics for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Anyone who votes is entered in a drawing to win a complete set of the 2021 SBP Finalists.
Best part about being a bookseller?: Unlimited access to ARCS! And seeing someone’s eyes light up when you handsell them a book they are going to fall in love with.
What book(s) are you reading?: A HISTORY OF MY BRIEF BODY by Billy Ray Belcourt (Two Dollar Radio), BRING ME THE HEAD OF QUENTIN TARANTINO by Julian Herbert (Graywolf), LOST IN SUMMERLAND by Barrett Swanson (Counterpoint - May 2021), & THE ORGANS OF SENSE by Adam Ehrlich Sachs (Picador) & waiting for a galley of KLARA AND THE SUN by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf - March 2021)
Favorite handsell of 2020: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARSON MCCULLERS by Jenn Shapland (Tin House)
Best thing you did this year at your store: Other than survive the pandemic, getting to co-host National Book Award Finalist Deesha Philyaw as the first author event for a newly opened Black-owned bookstore in Knoxville called the Bookshop at the Bottom (www.thebottomknox.com, follow them on insta! @thebottomknox).
What are some ways you work with your community? The downtown community of Knoxville is really close. Especially during the pandemic. We’re gearing up to host a safe window display Elf on the Shelf for December with the help of our Downtown Knoxville association. Customers have used us a haven, knowing that we are still here during this time. I think our daily encouraging conversations and providing of books services as way to give people hope in trying times. Rather than list some charitable things we’ve done in the past, I really think this is the bread and butter of our impact. Just being here and open to talk about books or whatever is happening in your life. We even have a bike courier doing deliveries! He’s a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra who lives across the street who just wants to volunteer.
Do you have any community partners you work with regularly? - Humanities TN / Chapter 16, Friends of the Knox County Public Library, East TN Historical Society, University of Tennessee Libraries Society, University of Tennessee Humanities Center, University of Tennessee Creative Writing Department, Knoxville Writer’s Guild, Ijams Nature Center, Stanley’s Greenhouse, The Plaid Apron, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Choice Health Network Harm Reduction, Blount Lit Project
Do you have passions that carry over into your bookselling life? All things Appalachian. There’s a movement building happening here with the literary scene that will be worth noting. It’s a creative force I think to be reckoned with when you have a sense of community like the writers of Appalachia do. I’m excited to help build out an Appalachian literary network so the writers get the real attention they deserve, and not exploitative stereotypical takes from outsiders. Just wait and see folks.
What e-commerce platform are you using, and why did you choose it? Indie lite (upgrading to indie commerce as we speak). The access to ingram and direct web ordering feature.
Top priority for 2021: Reimagining what bookselling looks like in a post pandemic world AND helping to direct and open a NEW cooperatively owned, Southern Appalachia bookstore in Johnson City, TN (Summer 2021). Follow me on Twitter and Insta (@booksellermonk) where I’ll start announcing things early 2021.
Favorite SIBA programming benefit: The Trade Show, getting to nerd out with all my fellow kindred spirited booksellers and publishing industry folks!
A bookstore that doesn't do events? That doesn't bother with Twitter? Annie Jones from The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia, and Adah Fitzgerald of Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina host "Branding and Messaging for Your Store" -- a session on the do's and don'ts of creating your store brand and staying in touch with your store mission. Now, more than ever, your stores brand and message is viewed through a narrow lens. Listen to how branding works, and how best to present yourself to your community.
At this point, the holiday catalog is about to land, or has already landed at your shops. Here is a list of the resources available to stores to help promote the catalog titles.
IndieCommerce IndieLite:
Holiday catalogs have been enabled for your website. Use the following guide to link to them:
https://yourstore.com/holiday/SIBA/holidaycatalog.html
https://yourstore.indielite.org/holiday/SIBA/holidaycatalog.html
Bookshop Stores: Contact Sarah High for your affiliate link to your catalog
Other eCommerce Platforms:
SIBA can create an ecommerce-enabled catalog for your store if you are 1) not a Bookshop or IndieCommerce store and 2) all the catalog books can be ordered from your website. Email sp@sibaweb.com for information. See a sample.
SBP 2021 Toolkit: Includes a Flyer, Social Media Graphics, links to the edelweiss collection and the embedding code for adding the SBP Finalist Ballot to your website. We've also consolidated all the reviews of SBP finalists from SIBA booksellers.
What's next?
The Southern Book Prize Finalists Ballot will open on November 8 at www.southernbookprize.com. Stores are invited to encourage their customers to vote for their choice of "the best Southern Books of the Year." Voting will run through February 1st. Winners will be announced on Valentine's Day.
Interested in learning more about email marketing with Edelweiss 360? Sara Richmond, Director of Communications and Marketing at Edelweiss, will introduce the program and walk through creating a campaign in 360. Jamie Rogers Southern, Interim Executive Director of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC has generated substantial book sales through this program, and will show some examples of successful campaigns. They’ll also be ready to answer your questions.
The program in a nutshell: Edelweiss360 allows bookstores to quickly create targeted email campaigns that promote titles or events. This allows stores to provide personalized customer service and handselling in a virtual environment. Emails can direct sales to either the shop’s website or the store’s BookShop virtual storefront.
Edelweiss360 integrates store sales and inventory data with title data into a simple email marketing platform. This means stores can send an email about upcoming history books to their customers who have purchased history books from them in the past – all without needing to worry about jacket cover images, copying title info, running customer reports, or manually managing eCommerce links.
The late Nancy Olson was 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. In 2019, an admirer of Nancy’s, in conjunction with SIBA, created an annual award of two $2000 gifts in her memory, to be given to booksellers before the Christmas holiday. All SIBA booksellers—but not owners—are eligible for the awards. Writers, readers, and/or storeowners may submit a name and any helpful information via email to SIBA at lindamarie@sibaweb.com . Also, individual booksellers may nominate themselves. While the emails 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 simply honor Nancy and recognize special booksellers. The winners will be selected from these nominations by Sarah Goddin from Nancy’s Quail Ridge Books, SIBA’s Linda-Marie Barrett, Nancy’s husband Jim, and the donor of the gifts. The deadline for e-mail nominations is 5:00 p.m. on December 1, 2020.
RSS
My name is Lucy, and I recently joined the SIBA team to help with the social media side of things. I’m also a bookseller at Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida, and a member of the SIBA Influencer’s program. I’m so excited to have this opportunity to promote SIBA programs and SIBA stores to both SIBA members and consumers, as I believe SIBA as a whole is doing some phenomenal things, and I want as many people as possible to learn about and hopefully engage with those things! To that end, if you take a fun picture, have a cool display, or something amazing happens at your store and you want to share it, please tag SIBA in your social media post, and/or send content to me directly at 
“Each day in the bookstore is a ray of sunshine surrounded by books and helping parents, grandparents,
and children find the right book,” said Bonnie Shank of her work as a bookseller, “Nothing is better than hearing a mother or grandmother say their children devour books. This morning a grandfather came in and was looking for a Christmas book to read
to his two and four year old grandchildren through Skype. What fun it was to help him pick the perfect book to share.” Shank said she was “humbled and proud” to have been nominated and selected for the award, which comes with a $2000 cash prize. “Our
little children’s bookstore, The Storybook Shoppe, is the soul of our community, Historic Old Town Bluffton, and I am privileged to be a part of it.” Shank came to The Storybook Shoppe nine years ago, after retiring from a 34-year career as
an English and Language Arts teacher in the Department of Defense school system, living and teaching in Panama, Okinawa, Japan and Germany. 
Lisa Yee Swope, who joined Bookmarks three years ago as it was transitioning from an annual book festival
to a physical bookstore with year-round programming, said “I am delighted that the Bookmarks community sees and lauds my exuberance for sharing the things I love. It's a daily joy to be part of a great org that is making such a difference in
our schools and community.” Swope is a frontline bookseller who manages the Bookmarks Kids Club, a subscription service for kids in which she gets to individually pick books for dozens of children. This service also allows her to form ongoing relationships
with the families in the community and the grandparents, aunts, and uncles in the community who have littles they love in and out of area. 
As we enter the final stretch of 2020, I hope you are healthy, and your businesses are humming along in whatever ways you've adjusted them
to address bookselling during a pandemic. I've watched with so much respect and awe as you shifted your models to protect your staff and do your part in preventing the spread of the virus in your communities: putting up sneeze guards and wearing masks,
offering curbside pickup and home delivery, expanding your mailing services, scheduling browsing visits, or going, and staying, completely online. You've worked tirelessly for months, building to this holiday retail moment. I think of you every day,
and have so enjoyed seeing your faces and hearing your stories during office hours, influencer meetings, webinars, and publisher-sponsored events. You are my daily inspiration; you are my heroes.
What do you do if one of your staff tests positive for COVID?
Most of all, don’t panic! A calm and consistent approach to your messaging will reassure your customers and your community. In working with stores, Matchbook Marketing has developed a quick-response series of steps for handling a COVID-positive test situation. We coordinate store PR, providing a fast response to queries, and thus allowing you to focus your support where it is most needed, on your staff and your business. 
The 2021 Southern Book Prize Ballot is now open at 
Name: Davis Shoulders 
What book(s) are you reading?: A HISTORY OF MY BRIEF BODY by Billy Ray Belcourt (Two Dollar Radio), BRING ME THE HEAD OF QUENTIN TARANTINO by Julian Herbert (Graywolf), LOST IN SUMMERLAND by Barrett Swanson (Counterpoint - May 2021), & THE ORGANS OF SENSE by Adam Ehrlich Sachs (Picador) & waiting for a galley of KLARA AND THE SUN by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf - March 2021) 
Best thing you did this year at your store: Other than survive the pandemic, getting to co-host National Book Award Finalist Deesha Philyaw as the first author event for a newly opened Black-owned bookstore in Knoxville called the Bookshop at the Bottom (
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