SIBA

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Marketing Programs for Bookstores
SIBA’s marketing initiatives are designed to extend the shelf life of favorite Southern books, allowing bookstores to sell more copies over a longer period. SIBA provides bookstores with professional-quality materials and a comprehensive publicity campaign to generate word-of-mouth buzz among the media, the book industry, and among readers.
  • SIBA Book Award   ( 4 Articles )

    Each year, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite "handsell" books of the year. These are the "southern" books they have most enjoyed selling to customers; the ones that they couldn't stop talking about. The SIBA Book Award was created to recognize great books of southern origin.

    What books can be nominated?

    Books are nominated in several categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, cooking and children's. For a book to be eligible, it must be set in the South, or the author must be Southern (preferably both) and it must have been published within the previous calendar year. In order to promote diversity in the award, no author can win the award in the same category twice.

    Who can nominate a book?

    Books can be nominated by SIBA-member booksellers . But stores can submit nominations on behalf of the their customers, so if you are not a bookseller, you can request your local bookstore nominate a title on your behalf.

    How do I nominate a book?

    Click here for the online nomination form

     

  • Newsletter & Toolkits   ( 10 Articles )

    Introducing the Newsletter as Toolkit! 

    In order to enhance the value of the SIBA newsletter for its members, it has been completely redesigned as a marketing tool for booksellers. Welcome to the first SIBA Newsletter as Toolkit. Each issue will be a collection of marketing tools and techniques for booksellers to copy and use in their stores. Signs, bookmarks, shelf talkers, contest forms, flyers, sample press releases…these are only some of the items that may be included, depending on the time of year and the topic. Each toolkit will have a central theme and will be designed to be taken apart and reproduced as needed. Extra materials will also be available on SIBA’s website. Let us know which “tools” work the best for you, and send SIBA your own ideas and innovative marketing solutions.

    Schedule of Toolkit Themes: 

    April/May: SIBA Book Awards
    June/July: Buy Local
    August/September: Tradeshow
    October/November: Holiday Catalog
    December/January: Book Clubs
    February/March: Events

  • Holiday Catalog   ( 1 Article )

    SIBA coordinates with publishers to produce a consumer gift catalog for its members to help bookstores make the most of the holiday shopping seasons. These catalogs are professionally designed, full-color, and feature titles of regional interest. Catalogs are imprinted with your store logo so they appear to come directly from your shop. The are absolutely free in any quantity to SIBA member stores.

    Every catalog promotes the winners of the SIBA Book Award as well as titles specifically requested by SIBA booksellers. Approximately 1.5 million catalogs are distributed to shoppers each fall holiday season.

    Dear publishing friends,

    I know we are all struggling with tight budgets, but I can offer some data I just found to support that the regional holiday catalogs work.

    Using Bookscan, I isolated a few books and found a definite effect on sales. There’s also of plenty of anecdotal evidence to show that initial orders double or triple when a rep says a book is in the catalog.

    The regional association execs have also done a great job getting stores to do prominent displays and to order up in the fall.

    These marketing vehicles are THE holiday tool for everyone from Tattered Cover and Powells’ to hundreds of small indies whose combined sales in rural markets constitute a top 5 Bookscan market all by themselves.

    Email me if you’d like more info, but I hope you’ll support the catalogs best you can.  It’s important to your books and authors, to the bookstores, and to the associations who put on shows that will be more important than ever to all of us this fall.

    Best,

    Carl Lennertz
    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

     

     

  • Southern Independent Bestseller List   ( 1 Article )
    SIBA partners with the American Booksellers Association and Book Sense to create a weekly list of bestsellers specific to the South.  The Southern Independent Bestseller List is distributed to all SIBA members, promoted to the region's newspapers and media, and archived at Authors 'Round the South. The list is printed in dozens of newspapers and is carefully watched by publishers, who love to see their books climb in its rankings.  More regionally distinctive than national bestseller lists, the Southern Independent Bestseller List is used by SIBA stores for displays and promotions.

    A Note About Reporting to the Indie Bestseller List

    The weekly Southern Indie Bestseller List is a reflection of regional tastes and your handselling expertise. In order to keep this list going – to have your voice heard, to bring attention to our regional authors, to stay relevant in the halls of publishers and the minds of authors, and to create indie bookstore buzz in-store, in print and online  – we need all SIBA members to report your sales to the list. 

    It’s easy, it’s confidential, and the rewards are many. Just follow these steps:

    1. Choose one of the three ways to report: the ABA manual entry method, the ABA file upload method, or to BookScan via your POS. You can review the reporting options here. The BookScan compatible POS systems include Anthology, Books-In-Store, BookLog, Computac, IBID, Word Stock, and UBIC. ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information and to receive the appropriate software bridge.)

    2. If reporting via the ABA manual entry or file upload methods, create a login and password for the ABA reporting area on BookWeb.org. If your store doesn’t have a BookWeb.org account, you can create one here. (You will need an ABA ID number to create the account, so if you’re not yet an ABA member, please join here.)

    3. Pick a convenient time to report weekly. The report should include sales occurring during the week beginning 12:01 am Sunday through midnight Saturday.

    4. If reporting via BookScan, transmit the weekly report no later than 10 pm each Monday.

    5. If reporting via one of the ABA methods, transmit the weekly report no later than 3 am EST each Tuesday, via the ABA reporting site. Access the site here. The reporting site opens each week at midnight Saturday.

    6. For questions, visit the ABA Indie Bestseller FAQ page. For technical support contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at ABA.

    That’s it! It’s really easy once you’ve set up the system. Help keep this great asset alive and meaningful! Thank you.

  • Southern Traveling Authors Registration Service   ( 2 Articles )
  • Okra Picks   ( 3 Articles )

    The Okra Picks are a dozen fresh titles chosen each season that SIBA Indie Bookstores want to handsell.  These books should be southern in nature but can cover any genre, not just fiction.  Southerners love their writers, and we want to be at the forefront of bringing them a strong selection of southern titles not to be missed each season.

    A new harvest of Okra Picks will be announced each publishing season.  To nominate a book you must be a SIBA bookseller.

    Nominations can be emailed to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    Or, you can use our new nomination form

     
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