Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 12, 2024
SIBA regularly posts industry opportunities for bookstores in the #Bulletin Board channel of the SIBA Discord community. For early notice, ask for an invitation (open to booksellers only).
James Patterson Holiday Bookstore Bonus Recipients 117 SIBA booksellers
received a holiday bonus as part of James Patterson's Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program. Patterson committed $300,000 in 2024 to be distributed in $500 amounts to independent booksellers nationwide. Nominations had to answer one easy question: “In 250 words or less, why does this bookseller deserve a holiday bonus?”
Bath for Books adds Arcadia, Blackstone, IPG, and Microcosm Batch for Books has announced the addition of IPG, Microcosm Publishing, Arcadia Publishing, and Blackstone Publishing to Batch for Books’ network complements its existing partnerships with Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Gardner’s US. (Read more)
Binc Year-End Campaign "I Stand with Book and Comic Stores"
Binc’s year-end fundraising campaign kicks off with a generous $15,000 matching gift from Penguin Random House. All gifts will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling the power and impact of donations received, up to a total of $15,000. (More info)
Professional Booksellers School January Schedule:
Only 2 seats remain for the 2025 Inventory Management Course. Register Now! The course begins on Wednesday, January 15 and runs through Wednesday, May 17.
Only 3 seats remain for the 2025 Event Management Course! Register Now!
The course begins Monday, January 13 and runs most Mondays through June 16.
Registration for the 2025 Basic Bookselling Course opens on Monday, January 6 @ 1 pm ET / 12 pm CT Register Here on 01/06!
Registration for the 2025 Store & Operations Management Course opens on Monday, January 13 @ 1 pm ET / 12 pm CT Register Here on 01/13!.
Book Buzz Feature: The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch Show of hands—who’s had a rough couple of years? It’s a mark of just how brutal life’s been that I know your hand went up. Life’s been hard. It’s been cruel. And in the summer of 2022, I’d had it. I was tired of being sad and feeling crushed by the continued crap life heaped on us all. So, I set out to recapture joy by writing a rom-com. A silly, irreverent, whimsical rom-com about how you spend your life chasing nostalgia even when you know those moments will never be quite the same; about not just surviving, but living, and doing that while being unapologetically queer.― Sara Raasch, Letter to indie booksellers
Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature: With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
You don’t see teen mothers in YA much, and I am so grateful Acevedo has introduced us to Emoni, a seventeen-year-old who is a loving mother, a devoted granddaughter, and an amazing cook. Readers will warm immediately to her story of juggling school, family, romance, and her culinary passion. Sprinkled with magical realism and brimming with heart, With the Fire on High is a dish everyone should dig into!
― Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Booked for Murder by P.J. Nelson. This cozy mystery with notes of rom-com is set in Enigma, GA, in a bookstore with lots of secrets. It's no surprise Booked for Murder is a SIBA Read This Next December choice!
Listening: Last night an owl hooted outside the bedroom window for a long time, the perfect lullaby. This week giant trucks are in our neighborhood removing towering piles of tree debris from curbsides as part of the Hurricane Helene recovery effort.
Watching: Just finished the extended version of The Two Towers, which never fails to inspire. Also viewed the latest Lindsay Lohan rom-com, Our Little Secret. It was better than I expected. Looking forward to the newest season of All Creatures Great and Small, beginning on Sunday.
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: It's been slow going with reading lately! Still working on the same books, haven't started anything new.
Listening: To my own coughing, as I've been pretty sick since Thanksgiving!
Watching: So far I've watched five new holiday films, and there's only one episode left of Finding Mr. Christmas, a reality show where wholesome men compete to be the next leading man in a Hallmark Christmas movie. It is absolutely delightful! The men are so supportive of each other and cry together over dogs. Can't wait to see who wins and watch their movie!
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Winter is my time for deep dives and doorstops, so...
Reading: I am in the 300s of the nearly 800-page Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante. It is quite a journey. I've also got my reading notebook open to write down the things I love about Summer Will Show, which I read last month but book club got delayed, so we're discussing it next week. Revisiting Sylvia Townsend Warmer is never a hardship. Listening: Middlemarch, read by Juliet Stevenson, It's glorious. I'm in hour 12 of its 35+ and I think I'll finish by Christmas. Then probably start reading it in print.
Watching: Bosch from start to finish. You know, I don't think I'd ever want to live there, but I love seedy, gritty Los Angeles scenery.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading: My favorite movie of all time is the 1955 Douglas Sirk-directed Technicolor melodrama All That Heaven Allows, and I finally tracked down a copy of the 1952 novel it's based on.
Listening: I've just started the audiobook of Miranda July's All Fours, which should definitely make road trips more interesting.
Watching:The Sticky, loosely based on the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2011. It's a spiky, hilariously black-humored and Fargo-inflected tale of semi-competent Boston mobsters, a corrupt maple syrup cartel, local blowhards and yokels, a smart policewoman, and the always magnificent Margo Martindale as a hotheaded maple syrup farmer.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: the new memoir by Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Her story is so fascinating and sad and I'm curious to hear how she's doing now. Listening: Holiday music, because I work in retail.
Watching: The final episode of What We Do in the Shadows is next week and I'm not ready for it to be over! I may start a rewatch from the beginning.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 12, 2024
"Read more books!" That should be everybody's New Years Resolution. The books on the January Read This Next! list are described by their bookseller fans as haunting, joyful, scrappy, unexpected, and tough. Read This Next! books will bring your reading to the next level.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix A beautifully haunting thought-provoking story about societal views and motherhood while also dabbling with witchcraft. There are moments where you laugh, feel scared, and even
cry. That's the beauty of this book, everything comes with a price. – Caylee Wilson, Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Florida
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case Electric, angry, joyful, scrappy, and full of life - I could not get enough of Neko Case's memoir. A celebration of the power of art and the power that comes from being
our true selves in the world - an unforgettable read!
– Caleb Masters, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson I loved the way this book explored the ideas of trauma, PTSD, and loss as well as how resilience and strength can grow out of them. The ending brought together the past and the present in
a beautiful way, and showed the power we all have to preserver and learn from our past traumas. – Baldwin & Co. in New Orleans, Louisiana
Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su Built on the premise of Build-a-Bear gone funhouse mirror build-a-boyfriend, Blob really is a love story, but maybe not in the way that you expect. At the core Blob is about falling back
in love with the parts of yourself that you’ve thought you lost forever.
– Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin Emily Austin has the ability to make those of us that think differently feel seen. She tackles tough subjects --complex family dynamics, being an outsider in your community and battling
mental illness -- with care, humor and wit! – Kelley Barnes, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
Current Read This Next! books and what SIBA booksellers have to say about them can always be found at The Southern Bookseller Review.
About Read This Next!
Based on our booksellers' conviction that you can never have too many good books, Read This Next! is a list of books coming out next month that booksellers are especially excited about. Read This Next! Kids is a bimonthly list of forthcoming Children's
and Young Adult Books receiving Southern indie bookseller love. Each list includes resources for booksellers, including an Edelweiss collection, downloadable flyer, and sharable graphic. All the included books are featured in The Southern
Bookseller Review newsletter, and promoted as "Weekend Reads" on SIBA's social media channels, along with the bookstore which wrote the review.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, December 12, 2024
December 10, 2024 — Batch for Books is proud to announce new partnerships with Independent Publishers Group (IPG), Microcosm Publishing, Arcadia Press, and Blackstone Publishing. These partnerships mark a significant milestone in Batch’s ongoing mission to provide bookstores and publishers with a simpler, more efficient way to manage invoices and payments.
“This is an exciting milestone for Batch for Books,” said Nathan Halter, US Program Manager. “We are thrilled to partner with these publishers, whose commitment to supporting Batch underscores their dedication to fostering real, lasting change for independent bookstores. Together, we’re building a stronger future for indie booksellers and the publishing ecosystem.”
Batch for Books offers an intuitive, paperless platform that helps independent bookstores streamline invoice management and payment processes. The service is currently trusted by over 400 bookstores across the United States and continues to grow.
“At Arcadia, we’re delighted to partner with Batch because we share a common goal,” said Matthew Gildea, COO at Arcadia Publishing, “We both want to make the backend processes in the indie bookstores as efficient as possible so staff can focus on what they do that no one else can—putting great books in the hands of great readers.”
The addition of IPG, Microcosm Publishing, Arcadia Publishing, and Blackstone Publishing to Batch for Books’ network complements its existing partnerships with Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Gardner’s US.
These invaluable publisher partnerships reinforce Batch’s dedication to becoming an essential business tool for the bookselling community, delivering significant benefits to both independent bookstores and publishers alike.
Publishers have expressed enthusiasm for the efficiencies Batch provides to both booksellers and publishers:
Joe Matthews, CEO of IPG, stated, “While IPG works hard to empower independent publishers and simplify their lives, Batch is doing the same thing for independent bookstores. It’s a partnership that makes sense and will benefit the world of indie publishing.”
Joe Biel, Publisher and CEO of Microcosm Publishing, added, “Since we started using Batch, backlist sales are up 13% over the same time last year. Batch makes it easier for stores new to us to take a chance on Microcosm authors and many are doing exactly that!”
Mike Heuer, National Sales Manager, Blackstone Publishing, shared, “We’ve heard from many of our accounts what a time-saver Batch is, and we’re convinced this partnership will be a win-win.”
Kalen Landow, Sales Director, Microcosm Publishing, added, “Customers love it. It's making our accounts receivable process so much easier and faster, typically requiring fewer interactions.”
About Batch for Books
Batch was founded in 2000 by the Booksellers Association to serve the book trade and build better relationships between booksellers and publishers. Booksellers in over 80 countries use Batch to streamline invoice management and publisher payment processes, freeing up time to concentrate on their core mission of helping the public discover great books. Whether you manage a single store or run a global publishing company, Batch for Books will help your business to trade more efficiently.
About Arcadia Publishing
As the nation’s leading publisher of books of local nonfiction and rarely explored pockets of history, Arcadia’s mission is to connect people with their past, with their communities and with one another. Arcadia has a remarkable catalog of over 20,000 titles exploring the story of America, one town or community at a time. Using its proprietary Store Match system, Arcadia can create a highly customized hyper-local book assortment for any storefront in the nation.
About Blackstone
Blackstone has firmly positioned itself as one of America's fastest-growing and respected publishing houses with multiple New York Times bestsellers, Grammy Award–winning audio productions, and books placed on the New York Times Best Books of the Year list. A truly independent, privately owned publisher, with offices on both coasts, Blackstone is home to a vibrant and eclectic community of storytellers and story lovers, adding hundreds of new titles each month to its catalog of tens of thousands of books. Blackstone is committed to bringing entertaining stories to as many people as possible in the most creative and innovative ways imaginable.
About Microcosm Publishing
Microcosm Publishing & Distribution, based in Portland, OR and Cleveland, OH since 1996, gives readers tools to change their lives and see the world in new ways. Microcosm challenges conventional publishing wisdom, publishing and distributing books, zines, and sidelines on topics like mental health, punk music, witchcraft, feminist and queer relationships, activism, creativity, neurodivergence, wellness, DIY skills, and self-care.
About Independent Publishers Group
Founded in 1971, IPG was the first organization specifically created for the purpose of marketing titles from independent presses to the book trade. Today, IPG’s wide reach into the book market includes distribution of both print and e-books from a wide array of publishers, digital printing, and traditional publishing. With consistent growth year over year, IPG’s success has come from supporting and encouraging the growth of its publishing partners in the United States and worldwide. IPG was acquired by Chicago Review Press in 1987, and this acquisition formed the parent company Chicago Review Press, Inc., which now owns Chicago-based indie publishers Chicago Review Press and Triumph Books.
For more information about these partnerships and Batch for Books, please contact Nathan Halter at Nathan.halter@batchforbooks.com
**Contact**:
Nathan Halter
US Program Manager
Batch for Books
Nathan.halter@batchforbooks.com
617-843-2490
Batchforbooks.com
Posted By Linda-Marie Barrett,
Monday, December 9, 2024
Updated: Saturday, December 7, 2024
Monday Morning Coffee Recap
Good morning, friends.
We know you’re busy, and we hope you’re taking good care of yourself, too! Comfy shoes, hydration, and snack breaks are all important for your physical and mental health. Need some quick ideas for the final weeks of 2024? Check out this marketing kit from Tubby & Coo’s, which includes a marketing plan, a schedule, and a link to assets: November/December Marketing Kit.
We announced our March Madness 2025 bookseller series in last week’s newsletter. Nine SIBA member stores in nine states will host bookseller gatherings featuring education, author luncheons, and an afternoon idea share. These gatherings are hugely popular and FREE to SIBA members. If you’d like to introduce a non-member bookseller in your town or area to the SIBA community, they are welcome to attend for just $25 and may register at the same link, as a guest. SIBA members may attend as many March Madness events as they’d like, though each event has caps on attendance. Find out more and register here.
As always, please let us know if you have questions, want to offer suggestions, or just say hello. We’re here for you!
The March Madness Bookseller Series is a yearly event series featuring eight to twelve in-person
bookseller gatherings hosted by member bookstores. Events are within two to three hours driving distance for a majority of SIBA member bookstores. The series allows booksellers to share skills and information, and network with each other in a
fun and sociable setting.
Hosting stores spend the morning presenting on a topic they feel they do well. After lunch with an author, booksellers spend the afternoon in an idea sharing session when anyone can contribute. All March Madness events are free to SIBA member booksellers
and open to nonmember booksellers for a small fee to cover the cost of lunch.
3/3: The Snail on the Wall, Huntsville, AL 3/4: Plenty, Cookeville, TN 3/5: Square Books, Oxford, MS 3/10: Page 158 Books, Wake Forest, NC 3/11: Cavalier House Books, Denham Springs, LA 3/12: The Storybook Shoppe,
Bluffton, SC 3/17: Story on the Square, McDonough, GA 3/18: Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA 3/19: Inklings, Lakeland, FL
NVNR Owners Strategy Sessions (formerly "Owners Retreats") are held four times a year in January, May, August, and October. The sessions are held on Zoom, except for August which is held in person at the NVNR Annual Conference. They are always moderated by a store owner from NAIBA and SIBA.
The theme for January is "Safety" and will cover strategies for both store safety and the personal safety of store workers.
The SIBA moderator for the meeting will be Melissa Taylor, co-owner of E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, GA (and incoming SIBA board member).
This event is only open to store owners, or, in the case of cooperative business models, the person designated to speak for the business.
SIBA regularly posts industry opportunities for bookstores in the #Bulletin Board channel of the SIBA Discord community. For early notice, ask for an invitation (open to booksellers only).
This week on the bulletin board:
Bookcases available from Quarter Moon Books
Quarter Moon Books in Topsail, North Carolina will be closing at the end of the year. They have bookcases available for sale:
Three wooden bookshelves: 4 feet wide x 7 feet tall. Fluorescent lighting and adjustable shelves. $25.00 each.
Two wooden bookshelves with fluorescent lighting, 4 feet wide x 6 feet tall. 9 cascading shelves permanently affixed. $30.00 each.
ABA 2025 marketing calendar handouts for January, February, and March are now available.
Filing Deadline: Your Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report is due by the end of this year. There will be a $500 per day fine beginning January 1st for businesses that do not file. For details and tips on filing, see NAIBA's blog post.
Olivia Schaffer, The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia
Book Buzz Feature: The Rivals by Jane Pek I’ve always been really interested in the idea of the detective as a character. That there is some unknown, some mystery, some secret, and the detective can put together the clues and uncover the truth. For me, the character of Claudia came first. I had always wanted to write a gay female because growing up, I had never come across these types of characters. I wanted a gay female character who is out there, having adventures, doing these things which are unexpected for someone like her. To be honest, I was hesitant about also making her Asian. When you write a minority character, you worry that everyone will think, “Oh, that’s you.” Those sorts of concerns about being pigeonholed. But ultimately, I had a clear sense about who this character was, and it was that she is a Chinese American, second-generation immigrant, and because of that, she viewed the world in a particular way. Setting it up that way, the way she moves and thinks is necessarily informed by who she is. This isn’t a novel about Asian or lesbian identity, but about someone who possesses these traits, and you therefore see the world from their perspective. ― Jane Pek, Interview, Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network
Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature: Monster by Walter Dean Myers
I like to imagine a world where this is required reading for high schoolers. Where kids know what is like for their life to be left in the hands of someone who doesn’t understand you and doesn’t try to. This is a hard read, I put it down several times just to breathe, but it is one that will stick me just as Hate U Give and Dear Martin did.
― Olivia Schaffer, The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading:You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. Just reread this for my book club and enjoyed it even more the second time. Rich, sexy, and often very moving as a Nigerian-American artist and widow moves through her grief to explore the possibility of loving again.
Listening: To neighbors greeting each other as they walk by, and to birds and squirrels scrabbling beneath my office window, searching for food among the leaves.
Watching: Viewed the final episode of this year's Great British Baking Show and am now in a bit of a holding pattern until their holiday special (coming soon!). Continuing to watch LOTR extended versions weekly, and looking for Hallmark holiday movies that are not “horrible.”
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: Still working on finishing up Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan and Mutual Aid by Dean Spade. Listening: To my 90s throwback playlist. Watching: So far, I've watched A 90s Christmas, Dear Santa, and Our Little Secret. Next up: Hot Frosty. Give me all the holiday media!
Nicki Leone / Communications: Reading: Still on Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante, and will be for the foreseeable future. Listening: Finished the audio of The Serviceberry. It was more of an affirmation than a revelation for me, but Kimmerer's writing always has a lodestone effect. I can't help but let myself be pulled in. Now I have Middlemarch, read by Juliet Stevenson, queued up. Yes, it is over thirty-five hours long.
Watching: Most on my mind is a mesmerizing little documentary called The Nettle Dress. It was described by my mom's weaving friends as being about a fiber artist interested in sustainable living, who wanted to see how nettles could be used to make cloth. But it also about grief. The artist lost first his father and then his wife to cancer, and what had started as a kind of exploration turned into something like an elegy. What really held me was the way he poured his grief into the materials in his hands, and how both went through this kind of parallel transformation.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading:Miss May Does Not Exist, the new biography of Elaine May by Carrie Courogen. May was one of the most sought-after and influential screenwriters of the last century, half of the iconic duo of Nichols and May (with husband Mike Nichols), and because of her role as Hollywood's best script doctor, a hidden genius.
Listening: During a mind (and other parts)-numbingly long road trip, I listened to the entire audiobook of Rough Pages, Lev AC Rosen's third installment of his hardboiled yet heartfelt Evander Mills detective series. Set in an early 1950s, VERY pre-Stonewall era San Francisco, it's full of moody atmospherics, murky motivations, unknown queer history, and complicated characters. You can practically hear the foghorns blowing in every scene.
Watching:Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, HBO's hugely entertaining new documentary on...Yacht Rock. What can I say? I graduated from high school in 1980, and even as the preppy little B-52s-obsessed weirdo I was back then every song is still so instantly recognizable I can sing along with every single one. Admit it. You're channeling Michael McDonald right now.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: I'm about to give my brother The Name of This Band is R.E.M. by Peter Ames Carlin so I'm getting through my own copy first - gotta make sure it's a good gift! Listening: Early 2000's emo/pop punk, which I guess is my default? I'm really just waiting for Reputation (TV).
Watching: All the holiday movies! I'm jumping in earlier than usual this year and am looking forward to all of my favorite classics (ask me about my Grinch drinking game).
Orientations are designed to give new members a quick tour (and long-standing members a refresh) of SIBA's programs and services, with special attention being paid to programs and events in the near future. The Orientation is open to everyone. Stores are encouraged to sign up their staff -- especially new staff hires. Attendees will also have a chance to ask questions about specific programs and benefits.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Generous Community and Giving Thanks
In my notes for SIBA’s annual meeting last week, I brought attention to an aspect of SIBA’s membership that is particularly strong and so important, now and always: our community. We have such a supportive community among our stores, our industry partners, and our author friends. Many of you have shared that this is what sustains you when you face challenges. Challenges like book bans and curation pushback that affect your business’s work on book fairs and author visits, and your staff’s morale and sense of personal safety. Challenges like cash flow concerns that feel overwhelming, recovery from a weather event that has impacted your store and community, or dealing with the emotional labor that comes with engaging customers around politics or other thorny issues. It’s so helpful to have folks to turn to who know what you’re going through, have often been there themselves, and can offer you solid tips or simply a hug and encouraging words.
In the American Independent Business Alliance’s recent newsletter, they mention the idea of “generous community.” This was in reference to their Shop Indie Local Holiday promotion, which encourages giving back to nonprofits, neighbors, and other initiatives that we care about. They go on to say, “While every act of generosity counts, when we give where we live the generosity multiplies.” I love that sentiment, “when we give where we live, the generosity multiplies.” The generosity of our community, expressed in the many ways we help each other by providing expertise, leading each other to resources, or celebrating accomplishments, is what saves us from despair and can help us do more than simply sustain our work and businesses. It can energize us to thrive and be our best selves. The staff and Board of SIBA want to be there for you when you need us and when you want us to share and amplify your victories. We also thank YOU for all you give to us throughout the year – words of support, feedback on how we’re doing, your kindly presence at our in-person and virtual events, and, yes, the hugs! So, please, keep in touch with us and let us know when you need help or want to brag a bit about something great that you helped make happen. Let’s continue to give where we live and raise each other up.
Linda-Marie Barrett
Executive Director
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2024
SIBA's Annual Meeting was held virtually on Zoom on November 14. Approximately fifty booksellers attended to hear reports from the SIBA staff and board and to ask questions or raise issues of concern. SIBA faced an eventful year, including adopting revised by-laws, which changed the eligibility requirements for bookstore members and expanded the board, and responding to a devastating hurricane season, which affected a wide swath of its members from Florida to North Carolina and Tennessee. SIBA's own main office and executive director, located in Asheville, were cut off for almost two weeks, requiring the implementation of its emergency plan to continue operations. Nevertheless, the tone of the meeting was generally upbeat and positive. Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett spoke of SIBA's "generous community" and the willingness of its members to help each other in times of crisis. SIBA Board President Julia Davis spoke about the work done to make the organization more inclusive and how excited she is for the future.
Some highlights:
SIBA announced that the 2025 New Voices New Rooms annual conference will be held in Atlanta in 2025, date and venue to be announced. See coverage in Publishers Weekly and Shelf Awareness
Financially, SIBA continues to be in a strong position, with a 30% increase in assets since 2022. This has allowed SIBA to increase the amount of scholarships and financial assistance to booksellers for development.
The 2024 New Voices New Rooms Conference operated without a loss despite soaring hotel and food and beverage costs, The conference had increased bookseller attendance and extremely positive feedback.
Other SIBA programs, including March Madness bookstore-hosted events and the Indie Press Social event in Louisville, Kentucky, have received good participation and reviews from booksellers. Linda-Marie Barrett noted that there was a trend in the region away from virtual events and towards in-person gatherings.
SIBA membership is at 226 active members - a 20% increase from 2023. 46 new members joined in 2024. SIBA's Membership Coordinator Candice Huber is actively reaching out to lapsed members and thinks membership could reach 300 bookstores in 2025.
Membership engagement and participation has increased significantly, as evidenced by the recent SIBA board election, which drew the highest percentage of members voting in the past decade.
SIBA created a resources and information hub in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The organization will use the hub as a model to expand emergency preparedness resources for stores, both before and after a crisis.
SIBA actively addressed the concerns of store members facing book banning in their communities, including the creation of a successful Banned Books Week toolkit for stores. SIBA also launched "Decide For Yourself" on its reader targeted newsletter, The Southern Bookseller Review. Decide For Yourself features SIBA bookseller reviews of books that appear on the PEN America index of banned books.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Things to do / Things not to miss
1. Share pictures of your holiday catalog displays. SIBA wants to hear how bookstores are using their holiday catalogs. Email Candice Huber and describe how you plan to use the catalogs, show photos of your displays, and send in ideas. Participating stores are entered to win a $100 gift card! Five gift cards will be awarded. This contest is only available to current SIBA members. Catalog Marketing Assets
2. Send SIBA your bookstore profile. SIBA runs "Meet the bookseller" profiles in its newsletter and excerpts in the reader-targeted The Southern Bookseller Review. These profiles are a way to both raise the visibility of bookstores within the industry and their own communities and also to introduce booksellers to their colleagues and share some of the good ideas they are implementing to make their businesses successful. Brag about your store.
3. Refresh your Southern Book Prize displays. Southern Book Prize finalists include some of the most popular and beloved books of the year, some still frequently found on the Southern Indie Bestseller List. The Southern Book Prize ballot is open, and a fun way to engage customers on the all-important question of what books deserve to be called "the best Southern book of the year." Readers who vote can win a $100 gift card to their local SIBA bookstore. Bookstores get to hear what their customers love most about them.
4. Do Some Early Housekeeping. Check your SIBA cacount and update your emergency contact information. Please take a moment to log in and confirm that all the information is correct. This is especially important for 2024 because SIBA's membership has grown significantly this year.
Find your account | Add your emergency contact info | Why SIBA is asking for this information
5. SIBA's Office will be closed from 12/24-1/1. SIBA's staff will be out of the office the week after Christmas, so responses to queries will be slow. SIBA reopens with the start of the new year and is looking forward to a fantastic 2025.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2024
SIBA regularly posts industry opportunities for bookstores in the #Bulletin Board channel of the SIBA Discord community. For early notice, ask for an invitation (open to booksellers only).
This week on the bulletin board:
Attention North Carolina Stores Affected by Hurricane Helene LISC and Lowe’s will award $20,000 grants to 100 small businesses in Western North Carolina to help accelerate economic recovery after Hurricane Helene. This is a great opportunity with a short window, as applications are due THIS FRIDAY, 11/22/2024.Apply here
Filing Deadline: Your Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report is due by the end of this year. There will be a $500 per day fine beginning January 1st for businesses that do not file. For details and tips on filing, see NAIBA's blog post.
Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Book Buzz Feature: The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer I suppose that one important aspect of the economy of nature that has shaped my thinking is its circularity, in which materials flow in cycles and there is no such thing as waste. Everything gets regenerated so that life continues to flourish. Just about all the miraculous production by plants is redistributed in some way, passed among food webs, feeding other lives and eventually building the soil so it can all start again.
I continue to marvel every day at the reciprocity in something as basic as the two foundations of life on the planet–the inverse processes of photosynthesis and respiration. I mean, think of it…every breath we take is oxygen exhaled by plants, a so-called waste product. And no sooner does it enliven our bloodstream than we exhale carbon dioxide in return, which the plants take in in order to return the favor. It’s the ultimate biological poetry, my breath is your breath, and life is magnified by the exchange. Shouldn’t human economies emulate this?
Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature: Debating Darcy by Sayantani Dasgupta
I’m always a fan of a good Pride and Prejudice retelling, and this one does not disappoint. I love the setting of competing high school debate teams and the issues of racism and sexism that are addressed.
― Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher, a queer historical YA romance inspired by Robin Hood, and re-reading You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi for my book club.
Listening: To very little human-made sound, unless I must. Quiet is Bliss. Watching: The Fellowship of the Ring (extended version), The Great British Baking Show (whatever season is available), and Hot Frosty, because it looked like the good/bad treat it turned out to be.
Candice Huber / Membership: Reading: Almost finished Mutual Aid by Dean Spade, and it's giving me lots of ideas!
Listening: Chappell Roan on repeat.
Watching: Still on 3%, the Brazilian dystopian show on Netflix. I also love Shrinking on AppleTV, which has come back, and I'm sad to be watching the final season of What We Do in the Shadows! But I'm excited that completely unrealistic, silly, holiday rom-com time is upon us!
Nicki Leone / Communications: Reading: I finished a Sylvia Townsend Warner story collection A Moral Ending and Other Stories (an early present) in about an hour. I'm now into Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante, but also Deer Book by Cecelia Vicuña, which is a hard to describe collection of art, poetry, myth, and sacred dancing. I've also got Loretta Barrett Oden's book Corn Dance open on the kitchen counter, also a gift. I feel humbly gratified that most of the ingredients it uses are already staples in my pantry. Listening: I put Robin Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry at the head of the queue mostly because I love to listen to the author reading.
Watching: SP came for a visit this past weekend, so we watched It Came from Outer Space one evening, and then went to see Anora in the theater the next day. The former was tons of fun. The latter is one of the best movies I've ever seen.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator: Reading: Sylvia Townsend Warner's 1943 story collection A Garland of Straw, slowly, one perfect sentence at a time. A recent women-in-Hollywood book haul: Dorothy Parker's Hollywood (Gail Crowther), Miss May Does Not Exist (Carrie Courogen), and Inventing the It Girl (Hillary C. Hallett).
Listening: Old, old, old eponymous favorite albums: The Velvet Underground, The Roches, The Smiths.
Watching: The hilarious, gorgeous, heartwrenching Anora. Forty-eleven stars out of five. A master class on all the usual master class things, and probably one of the greatest endings in film history. See it in the theater so you can forget the rest of the world for a couple of hours.
Andrea Richardson / Sales: Reading: It's Non-Fiction November for me so I am into Enough is Enuf, a history of the English language and why it is so weird, It's fascinating!
Listening: According to my Spotify Daylist, I'm into "Bitter Bed Rot Morning" lately. Watching: Hot Frosty, which is exactly what you think it would be. Bring on the holiday cheese, please!.
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Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
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"Read more books!" That should be everybody's New Years Resolution. The books on the January Read This Next! list are described by their bookseller fans as haunting, joyful, scrappy, unexpected, and tough. Read This Next! books will bring your reading to the next level.
We know you’re busy, and we hope you’re taking good care of yourself, too! Comfy shoes, hydration, and snack breaks are all important for your physical and mental health. Need some quick ideas for the final weeks of 2024? Check out this marketing kit from Tubby & Coo’s, which includes a marketing plan, a schedule, and a link to assets: 
The March Madness Bookseller Series is a yearly event series featuring eight to twelve in-person
bookseller gatherings hosted by member bookstores. Events are within two to three hours driving distance for a majority of SIBA member bookstores. The series allows booksellers to share skills and information, and network with each other in a
fun and sociable setting. 
NVNR Owners Strategy Sessions (formerly "Owners Retreats") are held four times a year in January, May, August, and October. The sessions are held on Zoom, except for August which is held in person at the NVNR Annual Conference. They are always moderated by a store owner from NAIBA and SIBA. 
Bookcases available from Quarter Moon Books 
Wednesday, January 8 at 3 pm ET on Zoom
