“The moment ours went out. . . our phones started ringing with phone orders.”

Full-color professionally-designed catalogs are invaluable tools for growing sales, but often far beyond the resources of a single bookstore. That is why SIBA has stepped into the breach to create a regular gift catalog for its members. Produced in cooperation with Ingram Book Company and publishers, the SIBA Holiday Catalog has become an irreplaceable asset for the fall and winter selling season.

"The same morning my catalog was in the paper I had a customer come in and buy $120 worth of books she had circled in the catalog and ordered another $90 of books."

--Lisa Sharp, Nightbird Books, Fayetteville, AR

Bookseller feedback for the catalog has been enthusiastic, with many stores citing increased sales on catalog titles, and increased in-store traffic as customers brought in catalogs heavily marked with ideas for holiday gifts. Stores often opt to have the catalog inserted into their local newspapers or directly mailed to their customer list. The catalog has proved so popular and versatile that in 2006 over 1.5 million catalogs were distributed throughout the South.

Printing a full-color, professionally-designed catalog can cost thousands of dollars. SIBA’s Holiday catalog comes absolutely free to members—no printing costs, no cost to imprint your store logo on the cover, no shipping fees—even if you opt to drop ship your catalogs to several locations. The SIBA Holiday Catalog has quickly become one of the fastest ways for member stores to increase sales over the holiday season.

“If your store doesn’t have a website, you’re a hobbyist.”

That was the pithy opinion of Gayle Shanks, owner of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ and Publisher Weekly’s Bookseller of the Year for 2007. SIBA recognizes that in this day and age, every small business needs access to the Internet and a presence on the World Wide Web. In order to ensure its members are able to participate fully in all of SIBA’s programs, SIBA offers simple yet professional website hosting services FREE OF CHARGE to its core (bookstore) members.