As we come to the close of the year, we want to remind bookstores that voting for the Southern Book Prize is still ongoing and to encourage booksellers to get their customers engaged on the vital question of what books deserve to be called "The Best Southern Book of the Year" by creating displays and encouraging readers to vote.

SIBA has a toolkit for booksellers, publishers, and authors with posters, flyers, shelf talkers, and other downloadable assets.

As a perk, any of your customers who vote for the Southern Book Prize can also choose to enter a raffle to win a selection of the finalist books and a gift card to your store. Plus, we ask them to say something nice about the store, which SIBA then shares  on our social media channels:

"The staff really care. Through the years I have known the bookseller/owners, they have been very attentive and caring. When I had four joint surgeries over a period of three years, they were kind enough to mail books I ordered until I could return to shop. I am 79 and appreciate this service. I also enjoy the readings in-store when I am able to get downtown." --a customer of Union Avenue Books in Knoxville, Tennessee

"I have had fun interactions with the staff there, and they've always been helpful. I've enjoyed the author events over the years, too." --a customer of Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Georgia

"Wonderful little oasis of literacy and positivity!" --a customer of Read Spotted Newt in Hazard, Kentucky

"They are always so kind and welcoming. Whether I just want to browse or am looking for something specific, Pearl’s always has my back!" --a customer of Pearl's Bookstore in Fayetteville, Arkansas

"Great little retreat within the urban car-scape surrounding!" --a customer of Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina

Lady & Christina are fantastic at The Snail on the Wall! They keep a wide variety of books in stock, including those by local writers. If they don't have what I'm looking for, they are always happy to order titles for me. We are so lucky to have them in the area!! --a customer of The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

More info about the Southern Book Prize can be found at The Southern Bookseller Review

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Good Hair Days by Grace Helena Walz. Described as a modern twist on Steel Magnolias with a little extra Dolly Parton flair, this Atlanta-based novel delivers on family drama, love, forgiveness, and the importance of good hair (as in, well-maintained and styled with oodles of product).
Listening: I’m at a writing residency this week and word is I’m staying in the most haunted room at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities. I hear it all: the creaks and groans, the mysterious voices, doors opening and closing down the hall, and someone snoring in the unoccupied room next door. It’s really doing a number on my “I don’t believe in ghosts” stance.
Watching: It’s beautiful here in Southern Pines, NC. Today I spent a little time feeding apples to horses and watching white-tailed deer eat grass in the pastures beside the Center.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. And a book I got for my mother, but started reading first: Tell About Night Flowers: Eudora Welty's Gardening Letters 1940-1949 edited by Julia Eichelberger. Also, Mom and I have set aside cookie recipes to start on...fruit cake recipes! And because there is a terrible, dreadful shortage of organic Florida oranges, we had to make our own candied orange peel using California oranges.
Listening: There is an old episode on the Slightly Foxed podcast dedicated to Jean Rhys with one of my favorite biographers, Miranda Seymour, as the main guest. It made me put Rhys on my list of "writers worth binge-reading."
Watching: We finished the Ken Burns series American Revolution (and by the way, it is worth splurging on the accompanying book, which tells you all about the paintings you see in the series). I have also, because Mom and Dad are fans, seen several Bills football games, which I don't mind because I find football easy to tune out when I am working.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: Looking forward to reading Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight for book club.
Listening: My Spotify Wrapped told me my listening age was 22 so I retaliated by listening to a lot of Van Morrison and Nina Simone.
Watching: I finished The American Revolution. It was thrilling, beautiful, moving, horrifying, inspiring, and profoundly and utterly sad. I was sorry when it was over. I would have watched another twelve hours.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I just finished the most fun Poe-themed Middle Grade mystery - Ellen Poe and the Forgotten Lore by Diana Peterfreund. It's a great mystery set in Baltimore with a ton of Edgar Allan Poe lore.
Listening: According to my Spotify Wrapped, a lot of the Handsome podcast this year. That tracks!
Watching: Minx, a fun and bawdy short-lived show about a women's magazine in the 70's. I'm bummed there were only two seasons!

Shelf Awareness is a free daily email that covers the indie bookselling business. For many of us, it’s the first email we open in the morning and, along with Publishers Weekly, a source of need-to-know industry information and breaking news. Shelf Awareness considers their mission to “help indie bookstores succeed.” When they reached out recently to introduce themselves to new booksellers in our rapidly growing membership, we were happy to oblige! 

Here are some of the things readers get from Shelf Awareness:

• Daily news focused on independent bookselling

• Tips about promotions, marketing, and displays, etc., that have worked for independent bookstores

• Access to advance reading copies and author promotions from publisher-advertisers

• In-depth book reviews – they put emphasis on independent publisher offerings, not just the big five

• Thorough coverage of events like Winter Institute; Children’s Institute; and the regional trade shows

• Information about scholarships and aid available to booksellers (Shelf Awareness is a supporter of Binc’s efforts)

• Updates about authors currently in the media and important book releases

• Celebration of indie booksellers through pictures, stories, etc.

• A job board that is relevant to indie booksellers

If you’re not already receiving their emails, you can get a free subscription HERE.   

"Shelf Awareness makes a difference in my daily work because it helps give me a larger sense of awareness of what is happening in the book industry that I might not hear about anywhere else. It's not all serious news, it helps spark creativity, adds to my TBR, and keeps me connected to other booksellers."  –Jenny Gilroy, General Manager, E. Shaver Booksellers

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: The Summer We Ran by Audrey Ingram. This Southern Book Prize finalist is a captivating novel set in two time periods that deals with tragedy, secrets, love, and ambition. I’m enjoying the southern setting, political intrigues, and hinted-at secrets yet to be revealed.
Listening: The Relaxing Guitar station on Pandora is my speed these days. Comforting music for the grey days.
Watching: If it’s not Hallmark holiday movies, it’s classic holiday movies, with the occasional A Man on the Inside episode thrown in. Looking forward to the newest season of All Creatures Great and Small in January.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy. A couple of different novels I think might be good to suggest to book club, the most promising of which are You Exist Too Much by Zania Arafat, and Duet for One by Martha Ann Toll. Also, cookie recipes! Pfeffernusse, date pinwheels, pecan butter balls, and pizzelle.
Listening: The wind in the trees. Literally. When I started walking the dog through the woods first thing in the morning, I thought, I could listen to audio books while we walk. But I can't make myself do it. The woods are just too beautiful to ignore.
Watching: Half an episode of the Ken Burns American Revolution series every night. I love all the excerpts from letters of people caught up in the war -- common soldiers, wives, loyalist resisters, patriot militia "men" that were really only boys. I like the way the series always often shows things at eye level, as if you the viewer are one of the solidiers marching in the line, or one of the women tending wounded men in your parlor.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: Is unfortunately taking a back seat as we approach the launch date of the new SIBA website. But that has not stopped me from adding things to my list, like Olivia Meehan's Slow Looking: The Art of Nature and Kathleen B. Casey's The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America.
Listening: I'm a firm believer that the best holiday music should make you cry, and so I'm welcoming the season of shadows and light with Tracy Thorn's "Joy" from her 2012 album Tinsel and Lights. "It's because of the dark; we see the beauty in the spark. That's why, that's why the carols make you cry."
Watching: Ken Burn's stunning, sweeping The American Revolution. Filled with voices (both historic and present-day) that are usually unheard in the telling of this story, it restores the full complexity of our beginnings as a nation. And none too soon, in this age of rejecting complexity and truth for simplistic and dangerous myths.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I just finished the most fun Poe-themed Middle Grade mystery - Ellen Poe and the Forgotten Lore by Diana Peterfreund. It's a great mystery set in Baltimore with a ton of Edgar Allan Poe lore.
Listening: According to my Spotify Wrapped, a lot of the Handsome podcast this year. That tracks!
Watching: Minx, a fun and bawdy short-lived show about a women's magazine in the 70's. I'm bummed there were only two seasons!

Registration for 2026 March Madness Bookseller Series Opens Soon!

The 2026 March Madness Bookseller Series will take place from March 2-18 at ten different bookstores across SIBA territory. Mark your calendars now for the events you want to go to! Registration will open with the launch of SIBA's new website on December 16.

"March Madness" is a unique event series which allows booksellers to showcase their expertise and network with their colleagues. Each series seeks to host at least one event within driving distance of most of SIBA's members bookstores. The day-long events begin with a presentation from the hosting bookstore on a topic they feel they do particularly well, then break for lunch with an author presentation, and wind up with an extended idea share and networking session among all the attending booksellers.

Each event is free to SIBA member bookstores, and open to non-member bookstores for a small fee per event. Booksellers are invited to attend multiple events.

Schedule Sneak Peek Preview:

• March 2: Parnassus Books, Nashville TN
  Subscription Book Clubs & Kids Programming
  
• March 3: Resist Booksellers, Petersburg VA
  Building Your Brand on Social Media
  
• March 4: Octavia Books, New Orleans LA
  To be determined
• March 5: Main Street Reads, Summerville SC
  Creating a Store Culture where Fun is GOOD
  
• March 9: novel. & Burkes Books team up! Memphis TN
  novel: Ticketed Authorless Events
  Burke’s Book Store: Navigating Longevity, Legacy, & Succession Planning
  
• March 10: Underbrush Books, Rogers AR
  Bookseller Technology
  
• March 11: The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines NC
  Creating a Culture of Creativity at Your Store
  
• March 16: Auburn Oil Company, Auburn AL
  Crafting Special Events to Reach New and Repeat Customers
  
• March 17: Charis Books, Decatur GA
  Radical Hospitality
  
• March 18: Writer's Block, Orlando FL
  Legal landmines and Lessons: What Every Booksellers Should Know
  

SIBA's popular March Madness Event series returns for 2026! Participating SIBA bookstores will host one-day gatherings that include bookseller education, a meet-the-author luncheon, networking, and idea shares on what’s working at attendees' stores. Events are within two to three hours driving distance from a majority of our member stores and take place over a three-week period. SIBA March Madness programs receive exceptional and enthusiastic engagement from booksellers.

Sponsorship cost is $699 and includes:

• Author luncheon presentation to booksellers
• eBlast to over 750 SIBA booksellers promoting author event/book (value $399)
• In-line banner ad in consumer-facing Southern Bookseller Review newsletter (over 8k subscribers) promoting author’s book (value $299) 

Submission deadline: January 15, 2026

Authors with books launching in spring and summer 2026 preferred. A minimum of 24 ARCs or finished books is required for attending booksellers.

Host stores and locations below. If you’re touring your author this spring, one of these stores might already be on your radar for an event or conveniently nearby.

Schedule:

• 3/2: Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN
• 3/3: Resist Booksellers, Petersburg, VA
• 3/4: Octavia Books, New Orleans, LA
• 3/5: Main Street Reads, Summerville, SC
• 3/9: novel. & Burke’s Book Store, Memphis, TN
• 3/10: Underbrush Books, Rogers, AR
• 3/11: The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
• 3/16: Auburn Oil Co. Booksellers, Auburn, AL
• 3/17: Charis Books & More, Decatur, GA
• 3/18: Writer’s Block Bookstore, Orlando, FL

This month SIBA reached a milestone as a steady influx of new bookstores joining the organization has brought our active membership total to 300 bookstores. Here are all our new bookstore members that joined since the New Voices New Rooms Conference in August:

Anna's New, Used and A Little Abused Books & More (Rockmart, GA)
Bentontown Books (Franklin, TN)
The Book Garden (Tarboro, NC)
The Book Rack (Charlotte, NC)
The Bookcase
The Bookdragon's Lair Bookstore (Port Charlotte, FL)
Bright Side Books & Wine (Raleigh, NC)
The Brown Dog Bookshop (Kennesaw, GA)
Citrus and Sage Bookshop (Brooksville, FL)
Dixon Books (Natchez, MS)
Favorites Bookstore (Batesville, MS)
Flutters and Flowers, LLC (Irmo, SC)
Goosey's Books (Hillsborough, NC)
The Hive (Knoxville, TN)
Mecklems dba Bookish Fort Smith (Fort Smith, AR
) The Spine Bookshop (Smyrna, TN)
Stir the Plot Books
TBR Books & Tea (Baton Rouge, LA)
Thrifted Shelf Used Book Store (Casselberry, FL)
Tide Turners Books & More (Poquoson, VA)
Triumvirate Books (Matthews, NC)
Turtle and Bea Book Boutique (Edgewater, FL)
Watermark Books LLC (Beaufort, NC)
Wilding's Bookshop (Lexington, KY)
Yer Mom's Bookstore and Wine Cafe Wine Cafe (Louisville, KY)

All told, SIBA has had 77 new bookstore members join the organization this year, 25% of our current membership, and an increase of 31% over 2024. And, of the 245 bookstores who were members in 2024, 223 have renewed for 2025. That is a 91% renewal rate, well above the average retention rate for trade organizations.

What does all this tell us? Broadly, the rise in new bookstores and the relatively small number of store closures suggest that despite a volatile economy and a strained political climate, booksellers in the South are galvanized and committed to their communities. It really is "a bright future" for Southern bookselling.

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston. A fun publishing industry insidery romance about a ghostwriter who sees ghosts and has given up on love. This is my book club’s December read and it’s perfect for the moment.
Listening: I’m tuning in to the most tranquil, calming music this side of a “trapped in a spa” soundtrack. It’s working for me.
Watching: Tis the time of year for Hallmark, and I’ve been hitting the holiday romance movies like A Merry Little Ex Mas (over the top even for this genre, but I appreciated the pro environment heroine) and Merry Gentleman (not bad!). Looking forward to the new season of Man on the Inside and anything else not involving murder or other problems, including sadness, that can’t be solved.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home by Amanda Thomson. The Salvage by Anabara Salam.
Listening:. The Rochester Memorial Art Gallery has something called "Third Thursday Concerts" that feature a bonafide Italian Baroque Pipe Organ (trust me, the thing deserves the capitalization).  So tonight, we are going.
Watching: With the date of SIBA's transition fast approaching, I haven't had much time to watch much of anything.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I'm still listening to Ulwe Neumahr's The Writers' Castle: Reporting History at Nuremburg, and it continues to be an interesting and even somewhat discomfiting look behind the scenes at the trials.
Listening: This week's song is Elvis Costello's "Goon Squad," from Armed Forces. For obvious reasons.
Watching: When the temperatures start to drop, I'm always in the mood for overstuffed, oversaturated Technicolor 1950s melodramas, and the master is Douglas Sirk. And it doesn't get more overstuffed than 1954's Magnificent Obsession, starring Rock Hudson (in the role that proved he could actually act) and Jane Wyman.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I started Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward yesterday and I can't read it fast enough. I think it's going to be my new favorite from her.
Listening: Cats tearing up and down the stairs, playing.
Watching: We're on the last season of Sex Education and while it's not as good as the first three seasons, the music is SO good and Aimee Lou Wood can do no wrong, ever.

Instagram has removed the ability to follow hashtags, which limits exposure. TikTok and Instagram now both prioritize captions, audio, and on-screen text for ranking content. X (formerly Twitter) has deprioritized hashtags as well, and LinkedIn has shifted to natural language indexing, where keywords matter more than hashtags. 

Social media platforms are now indexing text much the same way search engines like Google do. And if your content doesn’t include the words people are searching for, no one will see it. So while hashtags drove content discovery in the past, now discovery is driven by natural language keywords, search terms, and context, making clear, intent-driven captions far more effective than a list of hashtags. 

Since keywords reflect how people actually search, including important keywords and search terms in your captions to align with your content means higher engagement and that your content is more likely to rank in searches. According to the Hubspot 2024 Social Trends Report, 67% of marketers are now prioritizing keyword strategies over hashtags for social discovery. 

So, are hashtags still worth using? The short answer is yes, but maybe not in the way you’re used to. They’re no longer a main traffic driver, but they now work more similarly to metadata. Hashtags help platforms understand what your content is about, so they can be used to reinforce topics. They also act as secondary keywords, and they can tell the algorithm who might care about your content. Finally, hashtags keep your posts searchable over time, especially on TikTok and Instagram. 

When used really well, hashtags can support and boost your content and contribute to you reaching more relevant consumers. If they are too generic, though, or misaligned with your content, they can dilute your visibility.

Here is a handy chart of what works and what you’ll want to avoid with hashtags going forward:

What Works

• Choosing just a few relevant hashtags per post
• Use hashtags to reinforce the information in your captions
• Think of hashtags as supporting metadata instead of a traffic driver
• Prioritize keywords, natural language, and on-screen text to make your content more discoverable

What Doesn’t Work

• Relying on hashtags to “hack” the algorithm
• Using the exact same caption on every post
• Overloading posts with a ton of hashtags

Following and Tagging SIBA

If you don’t already, make sure to follow SIBA on Instagram (@siba_books) and on Facebook (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance). Also, make sure to tag us directly in posts about what your store is doing! This will increase your visibility.

And like and comment on our posts to help us increase SIBA’s reach as well! The more reach we have, the more discoverability and visibility we can offer to our member stores.

If you’d like to be featured on SIBA’s social media, please fill out the Bookseller Profile form to give us all the information we need.

If you use hashtags in a particular way or have questions or information to share, or if you’d like to tell SIBA about something great your store is doing in your community, please email candice@sibaweb.com.

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page. I absolutely love this, the perfect read for any book lover who shares a fascination with the stories that make us who we are, inform our decisions and relationships, and hold the secrets we keep from others.
Listening: To quiet instrumental music and the sound of the furnace kicking on and off.
Watching: Having finished the final episode of this season’s Great British Baking Show (tears of joy), and Young Sheldon (fountains of tears over a family’s grief, SO MOVING), we are now looking for the next program to spend after-dinner time with.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home by Amanda Thomson --an author and artist I know because SP gave me a copy of her book A Scots Dictionary of Nature several years ago. That one has the most wonderful collection of words to describe walking: Taiver: to wander. Tarsie-Versie: a term applied to walking backwards. Teasle: the fatigue and derangement of dress produced by walking against a boisterous wind. Belonging is a different kind of book: memoir, ruminations on home and nature and our place in both, colored by northern landscapes.
Listening: Slightly Foxed podcast episodes -- the new one about the Brontes, and some old favorites, like the one about Muriel Spark and the one about Jean Rhys.
Watching: I have got my parents hooked on The Criterion Channel. This week we watched The Conversation, because Mom had never seen it. SP and I watched Hedda, directed by Nia DaCosta, for one of our movie nights. That is one of the great literary characters, and I kind of want to see every production to see what each actor makes of the role. We're also watching Masterpiece Theatre's The Gold, which is probably the best thing I've seen on TV all year. Phenomenal script.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: The Writers' Castle: Reporting History at Nuremburg by Ulwe Neumarh. A riveting account not so much of the trials themselves, but of the writers and journalists all staying at the official press camp. A history of history as its being created.
Listening: The gods of the algorithm delivered this week's song, though it has been a fundamental favorite of mine for many years. It's a song that will always meet you where you are: "Let the Mystery Be" by Iris DeMent.
Watching: Nicki and I watched Hedda, the new film adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler directed by Nia DaCosta. Set in an English manor house in the 1950s, it's gorgeous to look at and kept my stomach in knots as Tessa Thompson's Hedda laid waste to the all the people surrounding her.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I'm dabbling in a little Non-Fiction November with Mark Hoppus's memoir but also getting into a couple of thrillers coming out next year.
Listening: My sweet old lady cat is taking a bath right next to my head and I wish I was listening to something less gross.
Watching: We've gotten very into Sex Education and have been bingeing that at my house. It's bawdy comedy but also really sweet and heartbreaking sometimes. The cast is A+.