Dearest SIBA Booksellers,
A big thanks to all of you who posted your Spring Okra Nominations over the last couple weeks. We'll be announcing the new Okra Picks at the end of the month. In the meantime, here are a few things we want to make sure are on your radar:
1. A Letter from Board President Jill Hendrix
SIBA Board President Jill Hendrix's letter to the SIBA membership is up at the member hub for you to read:
https://sibaweb.site-ym.com/
Please take a moment to read it and see what the board is doing on your behalf. The SIBA Board has created a Virtual Town Hall for its members and wants to hear about any industry issues that concern you and need to be brought to the board's attention:
The virtual town hall is here:
https://sibaweb.site-ym.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topic=1076682

2. The SIBA Book Award Long List has been announced!
The full list is available here:
http://www.sibaweb.com/siba-book-award
And we've created a list on Edelweiss with available titles to help you with orders for your displays (of course you are doing displays!) here:
http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/CatalogOverview.aspx?catalogID=2317416
The next step will be to choose the finalists from the list. In the past, SIBA has sent out ballots to each of its member stores, one ballot per store. This year SIBA has posted the ballot online, and invites ALL core bookseller members to vote:
Go here:http://sibaweb.site-ym.com/surveys/?id=ba_ballot_2015
You need to be a SIBA core bookstore member or staff in order to vote. Your login username is here:@@username@@
Vote for three titles in each category: Children's, Cooking, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Adult. Your store will earn 2B3! Engagementpointsfor each ballot submitted, so encourage your store staff to participate.
The voting closes on March 31, and Finalists will be announced in April.
3. GABBS Atlanta is just days away, but there is still time to register.
Go here:http://www.cvent.com/d/n4q3ql/4W
And be sure to sign up forSIBA in the Springtime: a day of educational seminars for booksellers centered around the topic of "Exploring Potential" -- as in potential new markets, new products, new customers, new ideas.
You'll need a code to register for SIBA in the Springtime for free: emailwanda@sibaweb.comfor the code.
Also, theShoe Burnin' Showis back! They'll be performing Friday evening at 5:30 pm; and just in case you think you've already seen it at the Discovery Show last fall, you should know that it is a whole new show. And featuring a couple of VERY FAMILIAR names, including , Mary Kay Andrews, Raymond Atkins, Jackie K. Cooper, Joshilyn Jackson, Colleen Oakley, and Shari Smith.
The show is only open to people at GABBS, so if you've been on the fence about coming, you now have a reason to get your butt up off it!
4. Please take a moment to get your events onto the ARTS Calendar!
At the end of February SIBA automatically applied anyB3! pointsyour store had earned for listing your events on the ARTS calendar. So when you log in you may find your store has jumped a level or two!
Be sure to keep posting your events to the ARTS calendar -- your store earns 2 pts for every event you add, including bookclub meetings, writer's groups, story times. SIBA promotes your events in the Lady Banks Newsletter, on Twitter, and on Facebook. So take a moment to make sure your listings are up to date.
The login for the ARTS calendar is here:
http://stars.authorsroundthesouth.com/users/login
Your username for the calendar is the same as your official store login for SIBA (probably your store email address). If you need help finding your username or password, you can asknicki@sibaweb.comto reset it for you.
Once you are logged in, click on "Account" and then on the "Event" tab.
Thanks, and happy bookselling!