Upcoming on
Circle of Sites
|
|
Night Buddies
(Dune Buggy Press)
Lamb to the Slaughter
(iUniverse)
Timepiece
(Egmont Books USA)
Book of Summers
(Mira)
Capture the Flag
(Scholastic)
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
(Random House)
15 Seconds
(Random House)
|
|
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
www.sibaweb.com
|
|
|
Take Away for Today – In Search of One Good Idea?
|
|
Pick one thing you can do right now!
- Post the following on your Facebook page: CODE READ: You have exactly 5 hours to come in the store and say “CODE READ” for a 5% discount on your entire purchase. The clock is ticking. Spread the word and get here before (here place the time 5 hours from now).
- Use your POS to tell you which customer spent the most money in your store last week. Pull a thank you card and fire off a hand-written note to that customer with a $5 gift card in it.
- Switch out a display. Move books in the back to the front. Refresh a section pulling returns and changing what is face out.
- Look over your upcoming events. Think about other businesses you could partner with to increase outreach. Invite the owner and a visiting author to a meal, or take your author to their business for a visit. Build these partnerships.
- If you know the local winery or bakery or bike shop, ask them what books they’d like to see on the shelves and then make sure they know you have them.
- Email your favorite photo of your store cat or dog or bird or spider to your local printer and ask them to print full color postcards, and then sell them to your customers. (Use these for #2)
- Spend some time on your own website. Is it easy to buy a gift card? A book? Is it easy to find your location? To call or email your store?
- Spend some time on some other websites. Check out this Pinterest board – Cool Stuff Bookstores Do Besides Sell Books
- And while you are there take a look at Gifts Galore for Bookstores and find a new item to stock in your store.
- Grab a post-it note and write some praises for the last book you read, stick it on the book and put it in the Staffs Picks section.
share this  
|
|
SIBA Bookseller Revivals are Back! – Can I get an Amen?
|
|
Mark Your Calendar, June 21 & July 24...and watch for more to come.
SIBA is reviving the Bookseller Revivals--day-long workshops at independent bookstores where booksellers share experience and expertise, meet an author, and get re-energized. These are day-long gatherings directed at booksellers within a two hour drive of the host store. Leave home at 8am, revivals begin at 10am, include education, lunch, author meet & greet, and an opportunity to share your vision for SIBA’s future, and end at 3pm, putting you back home around 5pm. We currently are scheduling Bookseller Revivals in Richmond, Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Greenville, SC, and New Orleans.
June 21:
Come to Richmond, Virginia at The Fountain Bookstore, where Robert Goolrick (Heading Out to Wonderful) will be on hand to save some souls! Join bookseller & SIBA board member Kelly Justice and get revived and revved up for the last half of 2012. Thanks to our sponsor Algonquin for buying lunch and sponsoring the event.
Energize with Edelweiss: Use Just This One FREE Tool to Get Authors, Gain Customers, and Build Your Bottom Line
In this workshop, you will learn how to use Edelweiss, a free program offered by the makers of Above the Treeline, to:
- Request authors from publicity departments
- Find authors local to you that you didn't realize were there
- Get free digital review copies for you and your staff
- Learn about forthcoming books from your peers nationwide
- Buy books more efficiently in less time
- Make internal lists to assist with book fairs, repeated events, future reference
- Create direct marketing materials to mail to customers in only minutes to increase sales
You think a computer program can't be sexy? It is when it can do this much for you AND it's free.
RSVP:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
July 24:
Make your way to Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC Tuesday, July 24 and learn from SIBA Board member Jill Hendrix how to monetize your store newsletter. Sophie Hannah (The Other Woman's House) as special guest. Thanks to Penguin Books for sponsoring this revival.
Your Store Newsletter Can Be a Profit Center
Fiction Addiction regularly claims $500-1000/month in coop on their store email newsletter. This is money that goes directly to your bottom line. If you're not currently claiming newsletter coop or even sending out a newsletter, learn how to get started. For those already claiming coop, we will discuss tips and tricks we've learned to manage the process and ask you to share yours as well.
RSVP:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
share this
|
|
The Match Game: Let’s Make A Deal at #SIBA12 in Naples, Florida!
|
|
In Search of Seasoned Booksellers for FREE Trips to #SIBA12 Sept. 7-9.
The Match Game
SIBA wants to pay the way of seasoned booksellers (30 year or more veterans) to #SIBA12 in Naples, Florida. We'd cover travel, hotel stay, and include an all pass to all of the SIBA meal functions. And here's the rub: We want you to share your hotel room with a green bookseller (in business 5 years or less) from a different store. The point of this pairing is for your expertise and their enthusiasm to mashup into a SIBA weekend of sharing & shameless exchange.
If you have been a bookseller for 30 years or more and would be willing to take an all-expenses paid trip to the #SIBA12 show in return for lending your experience to the next bookselling generation, then
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
.
share this
|
|
Holiday Catalog Bookseller Recommendations Needed!
|
|
We need your recommendations. We are in touch with publishers now about the SIBA Holiday Catalog. Even though the winter holidays seem forever away, they will be here before we know it. You are the best test for what will sell and we need your input. We use your recommendations when approaching publishers. We want the holiday catalog to be the best sales tool around for your store. Together, we can insure the catalog’s success. Suggest a title today.
share this
|
|
 A couple weeks ago SIBA asked the people on the SIBA Listserv what kind of education they'd like to see offered at the #SIBA12 show. One of the most common answers was a request for better information on trends in the retail industry. Why are Target and Bed Bath & Beyond changing they're display styles? What do they know that we don't? Where do we get information on how consumers shop?
To meet that request, SIBA has become a member of The National Retail Federation, which has an incredible number of resources available to its members. The NRF recently held a "This is Retail" video contest, inviting retailers to submit their stories about what they do and why they do it.
A bookstore's video made the top 10:
http://www.retailmeansjobs.com/ThisIsRetail/HarrisonKressler_profile
And here is a link to the entire library:
http://www.retailmeansjobs.com/ThisIsRetail/Library
share this
|
|
Malaprop's Bookstore/Café celebrates 30 Years of Independent Bookselling in June 2012!
|
|
During a time when many independent and chain bookstores are struggling, Malaprop's enters her fourth decade stronger than ever!
In 2000 Publishers Weekly awarded owner and founder Emoke B'Racz and Malaprop's Bookstore/Café Bookseller of the Year. Malaprop's was the first southern bookstore to be so honored.
Here are some of the ways Malaprop's is celebrating her 30th anniversary:
- Publication by Malaprop's Burning Bush Press of Asheville of Naked Came the Leaf Peeper, a collaborative novel featuring 12 local authors. The collaborative novel has been featured in Salon, Publishers Weekly, Bookselling this Week, LA Times, AC-Times, Mountain Xpress and Rapid River and is a regional bestseller.
- Publication by Burning Bush Press of Asheville of Remember Me as a Time of Day, a poetry anthology of local women poets edited by Emoke B'Racz, due out this summer.
- Storewide sale on June 1st, 25% off most items
- Anniversary party on June 30th, including an official proclamation to Emoke, read by Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell
- Letterpress broadsides of two of Emoke's poems, printed and designed locally and distributed to friends of the store.
- Twitter and facebook specials during the month of June!
- Free advance reading copies of books with purchases over $30
- Balloons, fun, and surprises to come. They're still working on what will happen. A giant banner commemorating the anniversary will miraculously appear on the store balcony between now and June 1st. Look for it!
Please contact Linda Barrett Knopp (
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
) for more information about the anniversary celebrations, Emoke B'Racz, or to set up an interview.
share this
|
|
SIBA Single-Question Survey
|
|
Bookstore and community hub looking for just the right new owner. Located on Main Street in Downtown Hendersonville, NC, The Fountainhead Bookstore seeks a caring and energetic person or team to lead it further into a prosperous future. With 6 in-house bookclubs, many private off-site events, and author events, there is a lot going on!
If interested, email
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
share this
|
|
Thank you for your interest in SIBA,
Wanda Jewell, Executive Director
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
3806 Yale Avenue, Columbia, SC 29205
803.994.9530
Fax: 309.410.0211
www.sibaweb.com
Thank you to SIBA's Inkreadible Sponsors 2012:
Baker & Taylor
Bookazine
Ingram
Trade Show #SIBA12: Sept 7-9, 2012 at Naples Grande Beach Resort, A Waldorf Astoria Collection
Find your favorite authors at Authors 'Round the South
Visit me on Pinterest
Follow me on Twitter
|
|
