Meet the SIBA Staff: Nicki Leone / Communications

Nicki Leone has been working in the book industry since 1985, when she ditched a waitress job in college to work as a cashier and stock person at a bookstore in Chestnut Hill, MA, for the employee discount. She remembers the printed editions of Books in Print, STOP orders, when HarperCollins was Harper & Row, how to check Ingram stock levels on a microfiche machine, and that year's Danielle Steel bestselling novel, (Secrets).

In her career in the book industry, she has worked as a buyer and manager for both independent and chain bookstores, and in editing, graphic design, and book design for bookstores and small presses. In the early 1990s, she moved to Wilmington, NC, and eventually became a buyer and then manager at Bristol Books until it closed in 2005. She began working for SIBA later that same year as a newsletter editor and production manager, and eventually managed the organization's website and member database. She now serves as SIBA's Communications Coordinator and Systems Administrator.

Nicki's obsession with books dates back to her very early childhood, when she once asked if she could exchange a necklace she had been given as a Christmas gift for a dictionary from the school book fair. She has a BA in Russian History with a minor in Middle Eastern History from Boston College. Outside of working for SIBA, she is a long-serving member of the board of the North Carolina Writers Network, is known for adopting older rescue dogs and cats, and for sometimes gardening barefoot.

In the time she has been with SIBA Nicki has never ceased to admire the dedication and passion of booksellers and bookstore owners. As one of those people who can't pass a bookstore without going in and getting lost in the stacks, she finds working to build the bookselling community both meaningful and rewarding, and is honored to be a part of it.