Posted By Wanda Jewell,
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Want Your B3! Points?
We want you to have them. You can accrue your points and use the credit to pay for SIBA in the Springtime, annual dues, Discovery Show, or Facebook advertising. And we want you to get every point you can.
1. Have you posted the Holiday Catalog to your website? Let us know and we'll give you B3! points.
2. Are you reviewing books on Edelweiss? Check the SIBA box and earn B3! points.
3. Do you participate in the turnkey emails for Okra Picks & the Holiday Catalog, a la Shelf Awareness? You get B3! points.
And so much more. And engage your staff as they can be earning points as well. Print this page and post it in the staff room, email it to your staff and get them earning dimes for the store.
PS - Put SIBA in the Springtime on your calendar - March 18-20, 2019 in Atlanta, GA.
Posted By Linda-Marie Barrett,
Monday, November 5, 2018
Holiday Prep for Your Store: Have you made your list and checked it twice?
New research, and likely your instincts, suggests that consumer interest during the holiday season actually peaks almost one month earlier than Black Friday. That means right now! Don’t be overwhelmed if you haven’t launched your holiday campaign yet. You can join forces with Love Your Bookstore week (November 10-16) and encourage your customers to celebrate local bookstores. Here’s a list of bookseller resources, including downloadable images, to get you started.
Consider this great checklist of “9 Great Practices to Get Shoppers to Buy During the Holidays.” Simple things like providing your customers with baskets, gift-wrapping items ahead of time for easy shopping (with unwrapped similar items nearby, or stickering wrapped items with sku/isbn), making sure your store hours are correct on Google, and catching customer attention with a display that moves (perhaps a toy train or rotating display of bookmarks festooned with lights) can promote bigger sales.
For your store’s internal checklist, here’s a tip from a veteran--keep bottles of hand sanitizer and boxes of tissue by the registers, and wipe down shared keyboards and phones with Clorox wipes daily. ‘Tis the season!
Join our Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Group on Facebook to share your tips for Holiday success in keeping sales and morale high in your stores!
Posted By Linda-Marie Barrett,
Monday, November 5, 2018
An Interview with Julia McCrea Kudravetz, owner of New Dominion Bookshop in Charlottesville, VA
Name: Julia McCrea Kudravetz
Store and location: The New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville, VA.
Number of years as a bookseller: I purchased the shop after being manager. I was hired as manager after the sudden passing of Carol Troxell, the owner for the previous 30 years. Previously, I ran a local Reading Series and taught English through the local community college. I got involved with the store by doing their social media and selling books off-site at the reading series I hosted.
Best part about being a bookseller?: The conversations I have with people from all walks of life. We have students, international tourists, authors, young kids, everyone coming into this shop.
What book(s) are you reading?:Right now I am reading to prepare for our annual Christmas List, a mailing we do of our top recommendations from the past year. All those books are featured in a "Holiday Market" on our second floor; this is a fantastic store tradition that helps guide holiday gift purchases. Currently I'm reading a book called Ninth Street Women and learning a lot about the New York Art scene in the first half of the 20th century.
Favorite handsell of 2018: I think Werner's Nomenclature of Colors, a pocket-size facsimile re-issue from Smithsonian Books, is a lovely book for artists and scientists. Each color is described in such a poetic, specific manner; this was the book that Charles Darwin took on his famous voyage. I love to handsell this book as a unique gift.
Best thing you did this year at your store:Hard to say, but we did rent out the local historic theater, the Paramount, and hosted 1,041 people there for a conversation with Jon Meacham and John Grisham. It raised the profile of our shop, and lead us to believe we can do these 1,000-person off-site events for major international authors in the future.
What are some ways you work with your community?: We partner with alot of local non-profits in various ways. Sometimes, it's donating 10 books to a silent auction, other times it's cosponsoring an author or an event. We offer our rose garden as a calm space where people can read on their lunch hour. The shop hosts a book group, an open-mic for young writers and songwriters, and the MFA Reading Series from the University of Virginia. All of these partnerships bring new people into the shop and provide a space for literary community.
Do you have any community partners you work with regularly?: We partner strongly with the Virginia Festival of the Book, which hosts over 20 events at our shop during the book festival in March. www.vabook.org
Do you have passions that carry over into your bookselling life?: Certainly reading and writing are a passion that carry over; plus I get to see all the new books coming out every week.
Top priority for 2018:We have a lot of priorities, but one of my top ones is paying all booksellers a decent wage in an expensive college town. Other goals are having more locals who have never visited the shop become regular customers.
Favorite SIBA programming benefit: I think being a part of the SIBA community and hearing how other bookstores are thriving in this area is a wonderful benefit; it's great to know the other bookstores and have them know us. --also Okra picks!
SIBA and participating publishers are giving away the galleys and other materials below to southern indie booksellers on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you are interested simply email the publisher to request a copy. Supplies are limited, so act quickly!
N.B. These are review copies only, and not for resale.
Eat. Sleep. Read. Southern.
Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War
Elizabeth R. Varon
ISBN: 9780190860608
Oxford University Press
528 Pages | 74 halftones and 34 maps
Hardcover
34.95
March 2019
Description: Loyal Americans marched off to war in 1861 not to conquer the South but to liberate it. So argues Elizabeth R. Varon in Armies of Deliverance, a sweeping narrative of the Civil War and a bold new interpretation of Union and Confederate war aims. Northerners imagined the war as a crusade to deliver the Southern masses from slaveholder domination and to bring democracy, prosperity, and education to the region. As the war escalated, Lincoln and his allies built the case that emancipation would secure military victory and benefit the North and South alike. The theme of deliverance was essential in mobilizing a Unionist coalition of Northerners and anti-Confederate Southerners.
Interweaving military and social history, Varon shows that everyday acts on the ground--from the flight of slaves, to protests against the draft, the plundering of civilian homes, and civilian defiance of military occupation--reverberated at the highest levels of government. Varon also offers new perspectives on major battles, illuminating how soldiers and civilians alike coped with the physical and emotional toll of the war as it grew into a massive humanitarian crisis.
The Union's politics of deliverance helped it to win the war. But such appeals failed to convince Confederates to accept peace on the victor's terms, ultimately sowing the seeds of postwar discord. Armies of Deliverance offers innovative insights on the conflict for those steeped in Civil War history and novices alike.
Baker and Taylor is offering a special 45% discount offer on all the Southern Book Prize finalists, through December 1st. No promo code is required. Here's a link to an order sheet you can use:
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Updated: Tuesday, October 30, 2018
The 2019 Southern Book Prize: The Finalists
..wait, what? Aren't those announced in the Spring?
In response to input from bookseller members, SIBA revamped the Southern Book Prize to streamline the selection process and encourage more bookseller and customer engagement, with a goal towards increasing excitement and sales around the holiday season.
So what, exactly, has been "revamped"?
Nominations: Nominations have been expanded to include reviews of eligible books posted by SIBA booksellers to Edelweiss. Nominations can also be submitted via the nomination form.
The Timeline: the selection of the Southern Book Prize finalists has been moved up to the Fall in order to take advantage of the holiday season and the popularity of the "best of the year" lists that predominate during that period. Nominations will close on October 15, and Finalists will be announced on November 1st. Winners will be announced on February 14.
Streamlined Selection Process: Voting on the "long list" (the full list of nominated books) has been eliminated. Finalists are selected according to the number of nominations and/or reviews they receive.
More customer engagement: Voting on the finalist ballot is now open to the customers of SIBA member bookstores. The ballot is available online and can be embedded on member store websites. Member stores also receive postage-paid postcard ballots they can hand out to customers in store. The voting season extends through the holiday season and into the New Year.
A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler (St. Martin’s Press) An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books) Florida: Stories by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books) Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown (St. Martin’s Press) Scribe by Alyson Hagy (Graywolf Press) The Line that Held Us by David Joy (G. P. Putnam’s Sons) Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)
Nonfiction
The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table by Rick Bragg (Knopf) Calypso by David Sedaris (Little, Brown & Company) One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson (Bloomsbury Publishing) Southern Discomfort by Tena Clark (Touchstone)
Childrens
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little Brown Books for Young Readers) Grim Lovelies by Megan Shepherd (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt BYR) I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain by Will Walton (Push) Lions & Liars by Kate Beasley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR) Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick) Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl (Random House BYR)
Honorable Mentions Books which did not receive quite enough nominations to be finalists, but whose nominations were especially enthusiastic.
Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles (Hogarth) Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin (Ecco) Treeborne by Caleb Johnson (Picador) Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper) Varina by Charles Frazier (Ecco) Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Holiday Catalog for Websites: Instructions
Instructions are now available for IndieCommerce stores that want to link the holiday catalog to their websites. Catalog pages are mobile-friendly, and non IndieCommerce stores can choose to have their catalogs hosted on their own website or hosted by SIBA.
IndieCommerce Stores: IndieCommerce and IndieLite stores can link to the holiday catalog by appending this their website URL:
"/holiday/SIBA/holidaycatalog.html"
When customers click on the 'Buy this Book' button on the catalog, they will be taken to Fountain's website to purchase the book.
Stores with other e-commerce: SIBA has created a single mobile-friendly catalog page, with a place for your own store logo: online sample. Email nicki@sibaweb.com
Stores without ecommerce:
SIBA can provide a no-link verson of the html catalog for you to include on your website(s). Email nicki@sibaweb.com
Submitted this week on Edelweiss+ using the "send to SIBA" option. Thanks to Avid Bookshop, Bookmarks, Bookmiser, Fiction Addiction, Fountain Bookstore, Inkwood Books, Lincoln's Loft, Page & Palette, and The Country Bookshop.
9780062449252 I'm Tough! 10/9/2018
"Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for a good truck and the same goes for books about trucks."
9781982101633 You Know You Want This 1/15/2019
"A collection full of interesting, dark stories about the power structures within all kinds of relationships. Some are playful and some will knock your socks off."
9781250144546 The Gilded Wolves 1/15/2019
"This book is going to transport you into the world of gilded wolves were everything is shiny and magical, but you have to remember that all wolves have teeth."
9780062358202 The Last Romantics 2/19/2019
"Memories are such powerful things and affect our lives in compelling ways.There is so much love in this story! It’s absolutely wonderful!"
9780062691316 We Set the Dark on Fire 2/26/2019
"If you enjoy The Handmaid's Tale, but are looking for a more YA twist, this is the the book for you."
9781683691044 Race Me in a Lobster Suit 3/26/2019
" delightful romp about what happens when you follow a "bad idea" to its conclusion."
Order "Book Life" trucker caps, t-shirts, and more for holiday gift sales!
From the fine folks of Independent Bookstore Day, order “Book Life” trucker caps for those customers who love all things literary, especially when it comes in the form of a stylish cap! They’re available in bundles of 5 for $60, with free shipping, Order by MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Book Life tees and sweatshirts are also available in a variety of sizes and styles. Order here!
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Holiday Catalog HTML and PDF editions are now available
The SIBA Holiday Catalogs have dropped, and stores should be receiving shipments shortly if they haven't received them already. Drop shipped catalogs have been schedule to arrive at their specified locations as requested.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO TAKE THE PRINTED CATALOG TO PARTICIPATE
TITLE LIST
If you haven't already done so, here is a link to the title list so you can place your orders: Spreadsheet | Edelweiss
CATALOG ON PDF
We also have pdfs of the catalog available: Cover 1 | Cover 2
MOBILE FRIENDLY HTML CATALOG
HTML versions of the catalog are available for stores that want to post them on their websites. The html catalog has been made responsive and mobile friendly.
IndieCommerce Stores: The ABA has the catalog and is installing it on your servers. You'll receive a notification when it is ready to be linked to.
Stores with other e-commerce: SIBA has created a single mobile-friendly catalog page, with a place for your own store logo:
online sample
SIBA can either send you the files to host on your own website, or we can host the catalog for you. (If we do that, the web address of your catalog will be SIBA's, not your store's).
Stores without ecommerce:
SIBA can provide a no-link verson of the html catalog for you to include on your website(s).
The Holiday Newsletter is sent out to your store mailing list, a la Shelf Awareness for Readers, in six editions between November 12 and December 17, with each edition highlighting books from a different section of the holiday catalog. Links click through to the store's own website for purchase:
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
My Love Affair with the Stacks
by Diane Chamberlain
“Why do you always pick books that no one else ever reads?”
That’s what my sister’s husband asked me when I, still in high school, came home from the library with four books I’d carefully selected from my public library. I still remember the books: Reynolds Price’s A Long and Happy Life, Sinclair Lewis’s Kingsblood Royal, Joanne Greenberg’s brand new I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, and a fourth book I’ll mention later. I wasn’t bothered by my brother-in-law’s question. One of my favorite things to do was to rove through the fiction stacks at my public library to see what jumped out at me. Yes, I also read the books all my friends were reading, but when it came to fiction, I was always hungry for more than just the bestsellers.
Why did I pick those books? I’d never heard of Reynolds Price—and in retrospect, I’m surprised his first novel was in my New Jersey library—but he looked kind of sexy on the back cover and I liked that his protagonist was a teenaged girl. That was enough for me, and reading A Long and Happy Life turned me into a lifelong Price fan intrigued with southern fiction.
As for Sinclair Lewis, I’d read Arrowsmith and Main Street in my English class and I was utterly smitten by Lewis’s writing and the social values expressed in his stories. Kingsblood Royal actually became my favorite of his many books. In it, Lewis’s 1940’s protagonist is a white man who learns he is 1/32nd black. The knowledge changes his sense of self as he begins exploring the black culture of the day with new eyes. Growing up in a well-integrated town during the civil rights era, I was fascinated by this story and it gave me much to think about as my treasured hometown endured riots and unrest.
I picked up I Never Promised You a Rose Garden before the book took off and long before it was made into a movie. I was a ‘troubled teen’ at the time (are there untroubled teens?). I was drawn in by the story of a sixteen-year-old girl fighting her psychological demons. It’s a book that will always stay with me.
"One of my favorite things to do is to wander without direction through the nonfiction stacks to see what books jump out at me."
The stacks, both in the library and in bookstores, have played a role in many of the books I’ve written as well. In a way, they’ve been my brainstorming buddies. One of my favorite things to do is to wander without direction through the nonfiction stacks to see what books jump out at me. Years ago, for example, I stumbled across a book about the CIA mind control experiments performed on psychiatric patients during the fifties. I sat in a corner of the library, devouring that book, as the idea for my novel Breaking the Silence began to take shape in my mind. That was only one of my books that found its inspiration in the stacks.
When I research my books, I turn often to the Internet for help of course, but I also visit my library and two of my favorite Indies, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina and Quarter Moon Books in Topsail Beach. Since more than half of my twenty-six books are set in North Carolina, there is no place like the local stacks to find the esoteric North Carolina information I need to fuel my stories.
What was the fourth book I picked up at the library that day long ago? It was a small book by Helen Perlman, the 1962 edition of So You Want to be a Social Worker. Although I longed to be a writer, it never occurred to me that I’d be able to support myself with a writing career, so yes, I became a social worker. A social worker who spent time in the stacks, thinking and dreaming. Just as I do today.
-----------------------
Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times, USA Today and Sunday Timesbestselling author of 26 novels published in more than twenty languages. Influenced by her former career as a social worker and psychotherapist, she writes suspenseful stories that touch both heart and mind. Her most recent book, The Dream Daughter, was just released in October, 2018 and is a SIBA Okra Pick.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Bren McClain Receives $10,000 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction for
ONE GOOD MAMA BONE
Author Ann Kidd Taylor given Special Recognitionfor The Shark Club Distinguished panel honors life and writings of Pat Conroy Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry Announced
The Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction has named the recipient of its 2017 literary award: Bren McClain for her novel One Good Mama Bone (Story River Books). McClain was honored at a ceremony at the New York Yacht Club where she received the award’s $10,000 prize. Author Ann Kidd Taylor received Special Recognition at the ceremony for her novel The Shark Club, for its originality and insight.
Since its inception in 2008, the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, founded by novelist Reba White Williams and her husband Dave H. Williams, has recognized annually a writer whose work is set in the South, exemplifies the tenets of Southern literature—quality of prose, originality, and authenticity of setting and characters—and reflects, in the words of Willie Morris, “hope for belonging, for belief in a people’s better nature, for steadfastness against all that is hollow or crass or rootless or destructive.” Past recipients include Mindy Friddle, Stephen Wetta, Terry Roberts, Katherine Clark, and Kim Wright, 2016’s honoree for her novel Last Ride to Graceland.
2017 award winner Bren McClain is a native South Carolinian, who now resides in Nashville, TN. One Good Mama Bone is her debut novel and in addition to widespread acclaim was also a finalist for both the Southern Book Prize by the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Alliance and the 2018 Crook’s Corner Book. She is a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project and the recipient of the 2005 Fiction Fellowship by the South Carolina Arts Commission. She is now at work on her next novel, Took, which received the gold medal for the 2016 William Faulkner –William Wisdom Novel-in-Progress.
"I wrote the book of my heart, held it up to the world and said Here's what I think is beautiful."
On learning that One Good Mama Bone won the 2017 Willie Morris Award, McClain said, "I wrote the book of my heart, held it up to the world and said Here's what I think is beautiful. And for that beautiful to be honored in this glorious way is an humbling like no other."
“Like all the best Southern fiction, One Good Mama Bone is about the mysterious, powerful bonds of family and the eternal longing for home,” says judge Clair Lamb. “Bren McClain finds the universal in a very specific story about two mothers — one human, one animal — equally committed to their offspring. It's a book that lingers in both the mind and the heart.”
New to the ceremony this year was a panel of distinguished guests honoring the life and writings of Pat Conroy. The panel, moderated by Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, included Conroy’s widow Cassandra King, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Jonathan Galassi, and Willie Morris judge, past recipient, and author of Conroy’s oral biography My Exaggerated Life, Katherine Clark. “Our Willie Morris Award shows a similar interest to the Pat Conroy Literary Center, recognition of and promoting the best of contemporary southern fiction,” remarked Dave Williams. “So, it seemed only natural that we collaborate with them on a panel celebrating those shared interests. We are pleased and honored to have had them play such a special role in this year’s award ceremony.”
The Willie Morris Awards also announced news of its expansion with the Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry, which will include a prize of $2,500 for an original, unpublished poem that exudes the American South in spirit, history, landscape, or experience. The inaugural poetry award, judged by Susan Kinsolving, will be given in 2019 during the 2018 Willie Morris Award ceremonies.
Reba and Dave Williams were inspired to create the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction in 2008 after Reba learned that her two nieces in high school in Charleston, SC had never read Harper Lee’sTo Kill a Mockingbird. Reba, who was born in Mississippi and raised in North Carolina, remembered how her own introduction to classic Southern novels as a young student sparked a lifelong love and appreciation for Southern literature and its unique style, elaborate prose, evocative language, and sense of place. Envisaging the future of the Southern literary tradition, Reba decided that Southern writers and novels—especially contemporary works—deserved more attention. The result was the Willie Morris Award, named for celebrated Southern writer and long-time Williams family friend Willie Morris. A native of Yazoo City, Mississippi, Morris was a journalist, editor-in-chief of Harper’s magazine, and author of several novels set in the South, some of which remain required reading in public schools in his home state.
Authors, agents, publishers and booksellers are invited to submit books for consideration. The winner is selected by a prestigious panel of academics and writers, including previous award winners. In addition to the $10,000 prize, recipients receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to attend a luncheon and reception in their honor, joined by nearly 100 members of the Southern literary community and New York City publishing community.
The Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction is now accepting submissions for the 2018 prize, to be awarded in 2019.
###
FOR MORE INFORMATION about The Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, including submission guidelines, please visit https://williemorrisaward.org/
The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, NAIBA, has given SIBA permission to pass along their weekly list of publisher promotion offers. The program was created by NAIBA as a way to get special deals in front of the booksellers at the time they are placing orders. NAIBA compiles on-going specials into a spreadsheet that is updated and shared every Monday morning:
Submitted this week on Edelweiss+ using the "send to SIBA" option. Thanks to Avid Bookshop, Bookmarks, Bookmiser, Copperfish Books, The Country Bookshop, Fiction Addiction, Flyleaf Books, Fountain Bookstore, Inkwood Books, Itinerant Literate, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, Octavia Books, Page & Palette, Quail Ridge Books, and Underground Books.
9780451491336 The Travelling Cat Chronicles 10/23/2018
"A charming, quick read. A lovely gift for anyone who loves... and is loved by...a cat."
9780393609752 Did You Just Eat That? 11/6/2018
"I have a new fear of restaurant menus because of this book."
9780062498823 Harold Snipperpot's Best Disaster Ever 2/5/2019
"Alemagna's mixed media illustrations are delightful and exquisitely riotous, and her ability to channel a child's wide-eyed curiosity is unmatched."
9780062868909 The Hunting Party 2/12/2019
"The Hunting Party is reminiscent of Agatha Christie while still being thoroughly modern. I flew through this story in less than a day."
9780525622109 Finding Dorothy 2/12/2019
"Not only do we come to know Frank and Maude and their lives together but we learn more details about the making of the movie and the role of Judy Garland. What’s not to love!!!"
9780525513926 Four Dead Queens 2/26/2019
"A very fast paced mystery that takes so many twist and turns you’ll find yourself gripping the book for dear life."
9781101907146 The Old Drift 3/26/2019
"Serpell is the kind of debut author that makes you believe in ONLY ever reading debut authors."
If you haven't signed up for DartFrog, now's a great chance. In addition to a guaranteed quarterly stipend, DartFrog is launching a new program that will pay your store $500 every time you refer an author whose manuscript is accepted for publication through DartFrog's new hybrid publishing program.
There's no cost to your store to join DartFrog. Every three months they send you 15 fully vetted self-published books. You keep the full retail value of the first of each title sold, and then order additional copies through Ingram at your normal discount rate. They also pay you $35 every time you refer a self-published author, plus every store receives a guaranteed quarterly stipend of $100. Click here for more information, or here to see how some stores already display DartFrog's titles.
If you sign up by Oct 31, they will consider you for their new pilot program that will pay your store $500 every time you refer an author whose manuscript is accepted for publication through their new hybrid publishing program.
DartFrog is a great opportunity for bookstores. Take a moment to learn more and sign up today.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Disaster Relief
Are you a bookseller or store owner that has been affected by Hurricane Florence or Michael? Remember that Binc is here for you. Email us at help@bincfoundation.org or call 866-733-9064.
Staying Open Despite the Hurricane Because of Your Help
The consequences and difficulties that result from a major hurricane don't always take the form of property damage, and stores and their employees do not need to have suffered physical damage to qualify for assistance.
The thoughtful owner of a bookstore in North Carolina did all they could to prepare for the recent Hurricane Florence. They put books and merchandise on high shelves and most major physical damage was avoided because of their precautions and preparation before the storm. However, because of this store's location and a customer base which is in a large part tourists, they are struggling to pay their mortgage and utilities because access to their area is currently restricted to emergency and storm clean up crews. Cleanup is likely going to take several months and foot traffic will be limited to nonexistent for weeks to come. Binc has stepped in to cover mortgage and utilities for a few months, so that when tourists return their favorite local bookstore will still be there – ready to welcome them back.
If you or a bookseller you know is facing an unexpected hardship, contact Binc and we will help you navigate available resources.
If you'd like to help booksellers facing life's emergencies donate here.
We are counting on you to help booksellers and their families.
There’s a new retail holiday celebrating brick and mortar bookstores! It’s Love Your Bookstore, taking place from Saturday, November 10 to Friday, November 16.
This holiday comes with a challenge: during “Love Your Bookstore” week, readers visit their favorite bookstores and take a picture of the book they’re most excited to gift this holiday season. They must post their photo on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter sometime during November 10-16 with the hashtag #loveyourbookstore to be entered to win bookish prizes. The list of prizes is fantastic, and growing as more sponsors join in.
Booksellers can promote the #loveyourbookstore challenge to customers, and involve their local authors and publishers to spread the word through social media. Here’s a link to resources for booksellers to assist in promotions. Raise awareness of the “Love Your Bookstore” holiday in your community and boost an event that celebrates you!!
One of the founding members of this holiday is Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks. She says, “Bookstores are amazing and important places for us all culturally, and we know that booksellers help readers discover and share the magic of books. They create communities of readers that make a difference because books change lives. We want to give everyone a way to celebrate their favorite bookstore.”
Posted By Linda-Marie Barrett,
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
What’s on the Shelf at Lady Banks during November?
SIBA promotes six new books every month to consumers 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 on the cover image of the ARTS Facebook page with buy links promoted to our 15,000 Facebook friends. A different member store is featured with the titles every week.
Since SIBA redesigned Lady Banks Bookshelf in the spring, this promotion experienced a 23% increase in audience reach(from 17K to 22.5K), and a16% jump in engagement (from 585 to 700) in on social media, and a 10% rise in impressions, 14% rise in click throughs via email. SIBA attributes the success to a more strongly focused target audience, more active engagement with member bookstores, and a fresh, more visually appealing presence that also appeals to the reader's sense of adventure and individuality. These were all decisions made directly out of the Social Networking Class we took with Sarah Benoit.
By promoting through Lady Banks, publishers are making an investment in SIBA member bookstores’ attention and market. SIBA works with them to select titles your customers are looking for, and then we drive those customers to your stores. It’s very worth your while to bring Lady Banks Bookshelf titles in before the month begins, and put up a display.
What’s up for November:
Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg
The Alehouse at the End of the World by Stevan Allred
Want to mark this off your bucket list? Dream of presenting a TED-style talk on an innovative solution you've created. We want you!
Items for any potential EUREKAsiba bookseller to consider: Talks need to be between 11 and 18 minutes, and cannot go over time. In developing your idea, write your idea down in one or two sentences. Ask yourself three questions: Is my idea new? Are you telling people something you're pretty sure they have not heard before? Is it interesting? Think about how your idea might apply to a room full of varied kinds of people. Who might be interested in it? Is it factual and realistic? If you are presenting new research, make sure your idea is backed by data and peer reviewed. If you are presenting a call to action, make sure it can be executed by members of your audience. If you answered “no” to any of these questions, refine your idea. Ask someone you respect who doesn’t work in your field, and if they answer “no” to any of these questions, refine your idea.
Here is a good structure for your talk.
1. Start by making your audience care, using a relatable example or an intriguing idea.
2. Explain your idea clearly and with conviction.
3. Describe your evidence and how and why your idea could be implemented.
4. End by addressing how your idea could affect your audience if they were to accept it.
Submitted this week on Edelweiss+ using the "send to SIBA" option. Thanks to Avid Bookshop, Bookmarks,The Bookshelf, Fiction Addiction, Firestorm Books, Flyleaf Books, Fountain Bookstore, Inkwood Books, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, McIntyre's Books, One More Page Books, and Read It Again.
9781250175731 The Darkest Star 10/30/2018
"No one delivers angsty alien, swoon worthy romance like Armentrout!"
9780316415811 An Almost Perfect Christmas 11/6/2018
"This book reminded me, in the best way possible, of reading my mom's Erma Bombeck books, but with a hilarious, British Christmas setting."
9781250144546 The Gilded Wolves 1/15/2019
"Roshani Chokshi’s ability to undercut extremely dark and emotional scenes with glorious humor rivals that of even the best writers at Marvel!"
9780451493026 Black Is the Body 2/19/2019
"Bernard's essays are infections jolts of insight."
9781984883261 The River 5/14/2019
"Take a pinch of James Dickey, add a spoonful of Norman MacClean. Stir well, then take outside and bake in a flashover fire. Top it off with a dollop of an ending that will tear you up inside and you have a mighty tasty novel that you will not be able to put down.."
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..wait, what? Aren't those announced in the Spring?
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THE BOOKS YOUR COLLEAGUES ARE TALKING ABOUT
“Why do you always pick books that no one else ever reads?”
As for Sinclair Lewis, I’d read Arrowsmith and Main Street in my English class and I was utterly smitten by Lewis’s writing and the social values expressed in his stories. Kingsblood Royal actually became my favorite of his many books. In it, Lewis’s 1940’s protagonist is a white man who learns he is 1/32nd black. The knowledge changes his sense of self as he begins exploring the black culture of the day with new eyes. Growing up in a well-integrated town during the civil rights era, I was fascinated by this story and it gave me much to think about as my treasured hometown endured riots and unrest.
When I research my books, I turn often to the Internet for help of course, but I also visit my library and two of my favorite Indies, 
Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times, USA Today and Sunday Timesbestselling author of 26 novels published in more than twenty languages. Influenced by her former career as a social worker and psychotherapist, she writes suspenseful stories that touch both heart and mind. Her most recent book, The Dream Daughter, was just released in October, 2018 and is a SIBA Okra Pick.
On learning that One Good Mama Bone won the 2017 Willie Morris Award, McClain said, "I wrote the book of my heart, held it up to the world and said Here's what I think is beautiful. And for that beautiful to be honored in this glorious way is an humbling like no other." 
If you or a bookseller you know is facing an unexpected hardship, contact Binc and we will help you navigate available resources.
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