From the Land of SIBAA message from SIBA to its membership
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First Things First...
10/29 ABA Workshop Non-Violent Communication & Physical Empowerment (all booksellers) (register) 11/1 Holiday Catalogs start landing in bookstores 11/1 Holiday
Catalog Survey opens
11/8 Southern Book Prize Finalist Ballot Opens 11/11 Webinar: Intro to Email Marketing with Edelweiss 360 (register) 11/12 Reader Meet Writer with
Julia Fowler: Embrace Your Southern, Sugar! (register) 11/19: Reader Meet Writer: Ingram presents #Blackvoices, a celebration of #BlackJoy sponsored by HarperCollins
(register)
Wednesday's Fall Town Hall with the SIBA Board drew 26 booksellers and focused on two primary questions: How to create more and better linkage between SIBA's owners -- bookstores -- and the organization itself, and what strategies
are bookstores using to make the 4th quarter successful?
Booksellers met with individual SIBA board members in two different breakout sessions to discuss each question. Among the suggestions received:
Making the concept of members as owners more prevalent in SIBA's own messaging
Create more opportunities for frontline booksellers and bookstore staff to talk to SIBA staff and board members
Focus on reaching new owners, and create an onboarding process for new stores
The 4th Quarter Strategies section was comprised primarily of stores sharing their concerns for the forthcoming season, including supply chain and fulfillment issues, a depressed economy, and worries on how to operate safely while
the pandemic remains a serious concern. Booksellers traded tools that they found useful, including Batch and Autoentry.com for
managing repetitive accounting and invoicing tasks, and Ringcentral.com to consolidate phone calls to multiple lines and voice messaging.
Kelly Justice recommended that stores who use Trello take advantage of the templates developed by Jill Hendrix. Jamie Rogers Southern cited Edelweiss 360 as
a powerful tool for enhancing targeted email marketing to customers, which has generated significant real sales for their store.
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.
Coming up in November:
Dear DeeDee by Kat Meads
Duck Duck Gator by Ken Wheaton
Larvae of the Nearest Stars by Catherine W. Carter
A Palm Beach Scandal by Susannah Marren
Trouble the Water by Rebecca Dwight Bruff
Stars of Wonder by Rebecca Dwight Bruff, Jill Dubin (illus.)
Holiday Catalog Update: Digital Catalogs
The Holiday Catalog is now available for most store websites. And while IndieCommerce and
Bookshop each have pages created for stores using those platforms, that isn't the only way bookstores can promote catalog titles on their websites. Take a look at what Dragonfly Books in Decorah, IA did using the graphics resources
provided to every store!
IndieCommerce and IndieLite stores: The holiday catalog has been installed on your sites. Your link will look like this: https://yourbookstore.com/holiday/SIBA/holidaycatalog.html
or, for IndieLite stores: https://yourbookstore.indielite.org/holiday/SIBA/holidaycatalog.html
Bookshop stores: Catalog links for Bookshop stores are being finalized and will be sent to store affiliates when they are complete.
Non-IndieCommerce/Non-Bookshop stores: these are still being developed. We hope to have them shortly.
Catalog PDF: If you'd rather provide your customers with a pdf you can download a generic version here
How do we get customers to buy books on our website? How do we make it easier to find things? How do we know what is most important on the site?
If there is one thing the pandemic underscored for bookstores, it was the importance of having a good website. Almost overnight store websites became the primary point of contact and source of sales for stores forced to
operate behind closed doors. Site updates were no longer an afterthought, but high priority. Gwyn Ridenhour of Matchbook Marketing talks to booksellers about their store websites, and booksellers chime in on suggestions for some
common issues.
Online Event Platforms
Pandemic or not, virtual events are now a common way to reach customers and an important tool to stay engaged with your community. Kelly Justice of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA has road-tested most of the online event platforms
and offers a guide to the strengths and weaknesses of Crowdcast, Zoom, and Hopin for stores seeking to build up their virtual event programming.
Edelweiss 360
The session on Edelweiss's new targeted email marketing program was attended by a cadre of supporters and advocates, who credit Edelweiss 360 with generating significant sales for their stores at a time when in-person and sometimes
online shopping has proved difficult for customer.
If you missed the NVNR Session and want to know more, join SIBA's upcoming webinar:
Intro to Email Marketing with Edelweiss 360 Wednesday, November 11 at 2:00 – 3pm ET
with Sara Richmond, Director of Communications and Marketing at Edelweiss, and Jamie Rogers Southern, Interim Executive Director of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
In Brief:
Shop Local NOW So You Can Shop Local FOREVER — Workman Publishing Announces 2020 Holiday Campaign in Support of Independent Bookstores
To help support independent bookstores during the critical holiday selling period, Workman Publishing Co., Inc. is introducing a consumer-focused Shop Local FOREVER marketing campaign. The campaign has three elements: Videos from prominent authors talking about what independent bookstores mean to them and why it’s important to shop local. Bulk quantities of a frameable art print highlighting the pleasures of reading, and an 11x15 foamcore poster featuring the message "Shop Local NOW So You can Shop Local FOREVER
Reader Meet Writer: Emily Hampshire talks to Miles McKenna
It was a lively, funny, and really very sweet Reader Meet Writer event with Youtube star Miles McKenna and Schitt's Creek actress Emily Hampshire on Tuesday night. Talk ranged from McKenna's field guide to haircuts, to the best way
to stave off a panic attack, to what the writing process looks like to someone who does most of their creative work in front of a camera, to why Miles McKenna didn't have a ghost writer and how far you have to read into his new
book, Out, before you get to a page where he isn't sticking his tongue out in the photo. (No spoilers, you will have to see for yourself).
The video is now available to watch and share. Take a look and be instantly charmed.
This week on Lady Banks Pick of the Week:
Read more about SIBA's Circle of Sites Program (aka the "banner for dues" program) and find out whether your store is eligible to participate and
receive free membership dues.
1. A Time for Mercy John Grisham, Doubleday, $29.95, 9780385545969 2. The Searcher Tana French, Viking, $27, 9780735224650 3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue V.E. Schwab, Tor, $26.99, 9780765387561 4. The Once and Future Witches Alix E. Harrow, Redhook, $28, 9780316422048 5. The Evening and the Morning Ken Follett,
Viking, $36, 9780525954989
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. Caste Isabel Wilkerson, Random House, $32, 9780593230251 2. Greenlights Matthew McConaughey, Crown, $30, 9780593139134 3. Untamed Glennon Doyle, The Dial Press, $28, 9781984801258 4. Modern Comfort Food Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780804187060 5. This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking Vivian Howard, Voracious, $35, 9780316381123
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Supporting independent bookstores in the South SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
Thank you for your interest in SIBA, Nicki Leone SysAdmin
nicki@sibaweb.com
THANKS TO OUR INKREADIBLE SPONSORS:
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805 You have received this email because you are currently subscribed to receive general correspondence. Please click @@unsubscribe_url@@ if you
no longer wish to receive these communications.
The Holiday Catalog is now available for most store websites. And while IndieCommerce and
Bookshop each have pages created for stores using those platforms, that isn't the only way bookstores can promote catalog titles on their websites. Take a look at what Dragonfly Books in Decorah, IA did using the graphics resources
provided to every store!
Shop Local NOW So You Can Shop Local FOREVER — Workman Publishing Announces 2020 Holiday Campaign in Support of Independent Bookstores
Are you interested in joining the circle of bookstores sending
invites to their customers? Please 
