SIBA joins the American Library Association and the Association of American Publishers in reaffirming our commitment to the landmark 1953 Freedom to Read statement on its 70th anniversary. Read the statement.
Earlier this year SIBA released our own statement on book bans. In short: The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance opposes efforts to ban books and censor events at independent bookstores.
During the last year, SIBA bookstores have reported widespread efforts to ban books. They have witnessed this in their community libraries and schools and have experienced extraordinary pressure, including protests, to limit choices in their inventory, especially when books reflect the stories of those who are LGBTQ+ and/or people of color.
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance strongly condemns these acts of censorship and intimidation.
Independent bookstores, because they are privately owned and able to curate their inventory, are uniquely positioned to safeguard the freedom to read for readers of all ages. We stand with stores carrying books under community threat of censorship and hosting events that spark protest by those who would ban book content or authors.
The SIBA and NAIBA partnership of New Voices New Rooms(NVNR) will be hosting an orientation for booksellers on Zoom on Wednesday, July 12 at 3 PM Eastern.
NVNR hosted successful virtual conferences during the pandemic. NVNR 2023 will be the first in-person event to bring SIBA and NAIBA booksellers together at a shared conference. The schedule features innovative programming, including the launch of Genre Buzz, the bookseller-led tour through forthcoming books in sixteen different categories.
The Booksellers Orientation will take booksellers through the show, including what to expect on the exhibit floor, highlighted networking opportunities, what's new for 2023, and what will be familiar from past NVNR events.
Booksellers who have not yet registered are invited to attend to see what it is all about:
SIBA's 2023 Annual Conference at New Voices New Rooms now has a Bookseller Resources page available, where stores can update their listing on "Bookstore Row" -- the enhanced online store directory for the event.
Bookstore Row will serve not only as a directory of bookstores at the event, but also a resource for both booksellers and publishers, and easy networking tool to share information with colleagues.
Newly added to store listings are a photo gallery dedicated to store-created and store-branded merchandise, and tags that can be used to help find stores with business models or mission focuses in common.
SIBA is strongly encouraging stores to visit the Bookseller Resource page and create or update their store information, even if they have not yet decided to register. Bookstore Row is an ongoing resource for programming under New Voices New Rooms, a reference for both publishers and booksellers.
Posted By Candice Huber, SIBA Membership Coordinator,
Thursday, June 22, 2023
From the Membership Coordinator
Five Steps To Prepare for ABACUS
Filling out ABA’s financial ABACUS survey can be intimidating, and thinking about where to find all the data is exhausting. But ABACUS is extremely useful for your store for a couple of reasons. First, it forces you to take a good look at your store’s finances. Secondly, being able to compare your store’s data with other similar stores allows you to get objective feedback about where your strengths and weaknesses are. Numbers don’t lie!
For ABACUS to work best, we need as many stores filling it out as possible. It’s important that the data collected come from a wide range of stores with different business models so we can get a more accurate picture, both for the industry and for stores’ own comparisons.
To successfully fill out ABACUS, start with these five steps:
Gather and document basic information for your store and community, including:
Number of locations
Square footage
Years in business
Business model (pop-up, brick-and-mortar, co-op, nonprofit, etc.)
Store focus (children’s, genre, BIPOC, etc.)
Type of community (urban, suburban, rural)
Community population
Number of staff
Local/state minimum wage rate
Starting pay rate for your booksellers
Annual salaries for managers, buyers, event coordinators, & booksellers (you may need to do the math to convert hourly employees to an annual number)
How often you conduct a physical inventory
Whether you offer online sales, have a Bookshop.org account, and/or sell e-books and audiobooks.
TIP: Since the answers to these questions aren’t likely to change often, keep them documented somewhere easy to find next year!
Categorize your expenses into these three sections that ABACUS will ask you to report on:
Payroll (all payroll costs)
Occupancy (all costs related to your store’s physical space)
Operations (everything else)
Run your profit & loss report for 2022. This is found in your accounting software, e.g. Quickbooks, Sage, etc.
Run your balance sheet for 2022. This is also found in your accounting software.
Gather specific sales & revenue data, including:
Net Sales (this will show on your profit & loss report as the top line and is Total Sales minus Customer Returns/Refunds, including online sales but excluding Bookshop.org sales)
Total number of customer register transactions for the year (found in your POS system typically)
Percentage of sales from offsite events, children’s/YA, and credit card/electronic transactions (you’ll likely need to break out these categories of sales)
Co-op dollars received (if any)
Total proceeds from Bookshop.org
Any COVID relief funds, grants, or other income received
Most of this data will be found in either your point of sale system or in your accounting software (if you’re keeping up with data entry!). In some cases, the data may not be as easy to access as it seems, for example, if you don’t break out your sales into those specific categories ABACUS asks for. In these cases, consider if there might be an easy fix you can put in place to make the data more accessible next year, like breaking out the sales categories in your accounting software. Just make sure that you consult with your accountant before making any changes so you can be mindful of potential implications those changes may have.
I have a document where I store all the general information about my store and community that doesn’t change often and update it when something does change, and doing that saves me a TON of time because I don’t have to find that information every year! I also created overall heading categories within my accounting software in my Chart of Accounts for Payroll, Occupancy, and Operations and made notes under each expense regarding where it fits so I can organize it in a way that makes it easier to find the data ABACUS needs each year. Finally, I make sure to break out the sales categories ABACUS looks for so that data is handy. Making these small changes in my accounting system (after consulting with my accountant!) saves me HOURS of work finding all this data for ABACUS when the survey comes around. My best advice for this year is to follow the steps above, gather all your data, and make sure you document the process and where the data is found to make it easier next time.
Read This Next! July is the perfect Summer Reading List!
Read This Next! highlights new books that are receiving exceptional, and exceptionally enthusiastic, buzz from Southern indie booksellers. Each of the selected books has several enthusiastic cheerleaders among Southern indie booksellers. SIBA always makes
a point of putting the store excitement and buzz around these books in front of their publishers, raising store visibility with the industry.
The Art Thief : A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel This was not a man who needed to don all black and plan elaborate, barely made it heists. No, all Brietweiser needed was his pocketknife
and girlfriend (with the occasional nail clipper). – Laney Sheehan from Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, NC
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter A miserable, beautifully written swan song to the happy life- to freedom, to creativity. Our heroine descends into black hole darkness while trying to navigate her increasingly insane amount of
responsibilities at her Silicon Valley startup. Be careful. – Aimee Keeble from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC
Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch I absolutely loved this book! Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, The glittering glamour of late '30s Hollywood is completely immersive, every character is fully formed and complex, and the writing
is truly excellent. – Chelsea Bauer from Union Ave Books in Knoxville, TN
Forget Me Not by Julie Soto I adored this book! Ama and Elliott have my whole heart. I loved Ama's tenacity and dedication to her career as a wedding planner; she is one of my favorite romance characters I've met this year.
This will be one of the big romances of the summer! – Kate Storhoff from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
When Rubin Plays by Gracey Zhang Beautiful music is in the ear of the beholder and in this stunning picture book from the author/illustrator of LaLa's words, that ear is a chorus of cats! – Angie Tally from The Country
Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC
Current Read This Next! books and what SIBA booksellers have to say about them can always be found at The Southern Bookseller Review
This month, I would like to focus on SIBA's Annual Conference, New Voices New Rooms (NVNR)!
NVNR took the place of the former SIBA Discovery Show. It started as a virtual conference in partnership with NAIBA during the pandemic, and this year will be our first joint in-person conference. We’ll be meeting at the intersection of our regions, in Arlington, VA. The conference runs August 7-10, and registration is open now.
There will be many opportunities for professional development and connection with your peers, including bus tours to area stores and retreats for owners, managers, and children’s booksellers. You’ll get to meet publishers, authors, and other booksellers and establish relationships that will be invaluable to you and your store. I’ll be doing some financial literacy sessions there as well. And you may or may not get to see me dressed as an elf!
I’m really hoping you’ll take advantage of this terrific opportunity to learn and grow your relationships! You can register for NVNR here. You’ll need to be logged in to your SIBA account. If you have any problems with your account, please reach out to me, and I’ll help you log in. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me any time. Hope to see you there!
As for my current projects, I’ve been doing my best to keep you all updated on what’s happening with SIBA! As some of you may already know, I am also the Dean of Bookstore Finances for the Professional Bookseller School, so I am working on some future columns on financial literacy and ABACUS tips that I hope you find helpful.
SIBA’s Linda-Marie Barrett and Nicki Leone attended the first PEN NC Hackathon on June 10th, “Hacking the Literary Ecosystem: Building a Vibrant Literary Community”. They were joined by other members of the NC literary community, including representatives from non-profits, booksellers, writers, and small publishers. The day’s mission was to look at problems, which included threats to freedom of expression, access to literature, diversity in access and opportunity, and the publishing ecosystem. The format included a number of conversation icebreakers and idea prompts before moving into small groups to tackle, or “hack,” specific issues.
Some of the concerns that arose in the first part of the day were how to translate the cultural value of art into economic terms, consistent online engagement with readers, leveraging technology to build community, diversity in publishing, and the challenges for BIPOC authors to participate.
SIBA participated in a small group discussion around bookbanning. We talked about the following approaches that communities, including our booksellers, could explore taking on:
Invite important stakeholders in the community to a professionally moderated public discussion of book banning.
Adopt the NY Public Library model of providing free electronic library cards and access to children.
Set up an Open Discussion project as Quail Ridge Books (QRB) of Raleigh, NC did in their Bridging the Divide series. QRB hosted monthly meetings of alternated conservative and liberal titles, and two local people, a conservative and a liberal, took turns moderating.
Use book clubs as a way to reach potential book banners, finding a common ground through a shared love of reading.
Support non-traditional bookstores and bookselling-pop ups and bookmobiles, that bring books into communities impacted by book bans.
SIBA came away from the Hackathon curious about setting up similar hackathons in other communities around our territory, especially around the very pressing issues of bookbanning, attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, and personal safety during volatile times. We invite booksellers to reach out to us if interested, and we’ll provide resources and support! Let’s work on this together.
The Hackathon was sponsored by PEN America, SIBA, and Scuppernong Editions. Deonna Kelli Sayed of PEN America NC Piedmont and author David Wright Falede, author of Black Cloud Rising facilitated. We send a big thanks to both facilitators and our co-sponsors!
n preparation for SIBA’s annual conference in partnership with NAIBA, NVNR, bookstores are invited to create or update their store listing on NVNR’s Bookstore Row. Bookstore Row will function as the store directory for the show, and will also be an ongoing resource for bookstores and publishers through 2023.
New this year, bookstores can select from a number of description tags (large store, small town store, children's store, LGBTQ+ store, etc) which will allow like stores to find each other more easily at the show.
NVNR has also added an option gallery for store-branded merchandise and store-produced gift items.
Over 50 SIBA bookstores voted in the Holiday Catalog Cover Contest. The winning cover was submitted by Random House Children's Books and created by Doug Salati, the author and illustrator of the 2023 Caldecott medal-winning picture book, Hot Dog, "a universal story about needing to take a break, relax, and enjoy the people and spaces around you."
Orders for the SIBA Holiday Catalog close on June 15. This is a firm deadline, no late orders can be accepted.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Monday, June 5, 2023
Updated: Sunday, June 4, 2023
August 8, 2023 at 9:00 AM
New Voices New Rooms is pleased to announce leadership expert Julia Fabris McBride as the Keynote speaker for the upcoming NVNR conference August 7-10 in Arlington, Virginia. The keynote address will be held on Tuesday, August 8 at 9:00 AM.
When Booksellers Lead: The Tough Challenges Get Seen and Solved
Leadership is not about authority and position. Leadership is actually an activity—small actions taken in moments of opportunity. That means everyone can lead. You can lead, no matter your role in your bookstore or place in your community. When more people feel empowered to see, and seize our moments to lead, we make more progress on our most important challenges.
Julia Fabris McBride, co-author of When Everyone Leads, a new book from Bard Press and the Kansas Leadership Center, will present on leadership tools to support your ability to lead among your peers and teams. The goal: to discover new ways to move forward on what matters most, and to leave this session with insight and energy about:
Leadership in The Gap between big concerns and bold aspirations.
Common barriers to leadership and how to get around them.
Leadership starts with you and must engage others.
Moving forward on what matters most.
Making leadership less risky for others.
Building cultures where everyone leads.
After Julia's presentation, booksellers will be divided into groups to discuss the ideas presented, with specific applications on current issues facing stores today.
Julia Fabris McBride is Chief Civic Leadership Development Officer of the Kansas Leadership Center, a certified coach and co-author of three books, the When Everyone Leads (Bard Press, January 2023), Teaching Leadership: Case-in-Point, Case Teaching, and Coaching and the brand new Your Leadership Edge Teacher Companion. At KLC, she oversees teacher and coach development and created three professional programs for leadership developers, including an Advanced Leadership Development Intensive that has drawn people to Wichita from five continents. Before taking up the art of leadership development Julia trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and enjoyed a fun and varied career as an actor in Chicago. She lives amidst the Kansas tallgrass prairie, where she and her sculptor husband enjoy hosting retreat-seekers, artists, birdwatchers and railroad enthusiasts.
Bookseller Registration: NAIBA | SIBA
Pulbisher Registration at NAIBA
Be a moderator! NVNR is looking for bookstores willing to moderator Genre Buzz sessions for the following genres:
BIPOC
Cookbooks & Home Life
Holidays
LGBTQ+
Middle Grade
Picture Books
Religion & Spirituality
True Crime
YA
What could be more fun than spending a morning with a hundred great new books? Contact Eileen Dengler at eileen@naiba.com if you are interested in moderating one of the above genre buzz discussions.
What is "Genre Buzz"?
One of the most important goals of NVNR 2023 is title discovery. That is the purpose of "Genre Buzz": a new kind of event driven by booksellers and focused on the discussions of new books in sixteen different genres.
Genre Buzz conversations will be held on Wednesday, August 9 at 11 AM, and will be led by bookseller moderators from SIBA and NAIBA who are well versed in their particular genre topic. Genre Buzz is for booksellers who love the genre to exchange ideas and share what they know. Each genre buzz topic comes with a list of up to 100 books which moderators will use to guide the conversation. Many of the books will be found in the exhibit hall or in the virtual galley room.
While the deadline to order your Holiday Catalogs is June 15, if you want to take advantage of the direct or saturation mail options, you have to start your order by June 1. These are hard deadlines, and no extra catalogs will be printed, so if you don't place your order in time, you will have missed the opportunity for this year.
Bookstores usually think of the catalogs as things to be stuffed into bags at the counter, or sent out to the store mailing list, or perhaps put into the newspaper that goes out for Thanksgiving weekend. But there are many other creative ways to use the catalog to increase store visibility, traffic, and sales.
Five things to try:
Stores with bookmobiles or who do pop up locations can use saturation mail to target the areas they will be servicing. Put a QR code in your imprint area* that links to your location schedule online.
Make a trade with compatible local businesses. Hand out their coffee shop coupons in exchange for them giving out your catalog. Work with your local business alliance or Main Street organization and make your catalog a part of their Shop Local campaigns.
Use the catalog to promote your store as a vital business to your local government officials. Add it to the promotional packet you create to give to city council members, school board officials, or chamber of commerce representatives. Send copies to all your local elected officials.
Integrate the catalog into your fundraising efforts. If your store normally raises money or collects donations for a local cause during the holidays, the imprint area on the catalog can be used to promote these efforts. The organization you are working with can also distribute catalogs on your behalf as part of the campaign.
Use the catalog to bring people to your social media community. By including your Instagram or TikTok handle with a note to find more Web-exclusive sales, gifts, fun and games you can cross-promote between your catalogs, in-store displays, and online social media, and generate excitement about your store in both the real and the virtual world.
Last week's virtual panel on supporting trans and nonbinary staff and community had over a hundred people registered, and 50+ in attendance. The response to the event has been overwhelming, and many people have reached out to SIBA privately to express their gratitude for hosting the event.
There was quite a lot of information covered in the hour-long conversation, which is well worth listening to in its entirety. But here are a few takeaways since, as E.R. Anderson noted in his comments "I know when I come to these talks, I want like actionable things that I can do."
1. Revamp your employee forms. Charis uses a "very open ended" employee intake form that asks, but does not require, not just a person's pronouns but also information about how they want to be referred to in different scenarios. What name should be used if the store is called as an emergency contact? How should store staff refer to them if their family comes in to ask for them? Charis commits to supporting staff however they ask or need to be supported.
2. Be an ally. There are a lot of confusing paperwork and procedures that go into legally changing a person's name or gender. It is also something that people may not feel safe to do on their own. Employers can help their staff navigate the ins and outs of this process. They can, for example, take it upon themselves to make necessary changes with their payroll service, or offer to help their staff with filing paperwork.
"The joke among trans people is often like, one of the hardest things about being trans is all of the paperwork, because there's such a high burden of proof that the government that health care, that even religious institutions require to even believe us, that we are who we say we are, who we know we are." -- E.R. Anderson, Charis Circle
3. Clarify staff names. Even more than getting someone's pronouns wrong, it hurts to refer to them by a name that no longer signifies who they are. Nor is it okay to use the wrong name just because that is what is still on, say, someone's driver's license. If you publish a staff directory, either in-house or publicly on your store website, make sure you are using the name your staff tells you to use. And make sure your in store paper work also reflects their correct name. Don't put up obstacles for people to make a change to their name, pronouns, or gender within your store.
4. Be flexible in scheduling. Trans people face an incredible amount of hostility, and they may be in crisis. Allow for the time to support them when they need it -- whether that means extra time off, or simply extra time in the store to collect themselves in a space where they feel safe. Likewise, be supportive of their need for time when they are participating in political rallies or other kinds of activism.
"I think that is something we do a lot of for each other at Firestorm, which is really inviting and welcoming, kind of honesty about where we're coming from, or what's going on for us in our lives. And then being prepared to really collectively say it is a priority of our organization to meet people where they're at, and hold and care for each other." -- Libertie Valance, Firestorm Books
5. On the subject of activism a number of topics are discussed, from directly lobbying the local legislature to providing space for support groups to supporting prison book programs. But the main point everyone agreed upon was don't to be afraid to take a stand for rights and lives of trans and nonbinary people. Speak up at meetings when someone proposes pulling books from the shelves of the library. Don't be afraid to explain why you choose not to stock books that actively harm trans people.
Booksellers, especially those located in conservative-leaning communities, sometimes express concern about alienating customers who don't share their values. But as all the panelists pointed out, there are also all those people who will be drawn to your store because you reflect their values. "I think that people will surprise you," noted Candice Huber from Tubby & Coo's. "I think that queer communities and queer people are everywhere."
Orders are now open for the Holiday Catalog -- a key element in maximizing 4th quarter sales for SIBA bookstores. Stores that have placed their order can be part of the Holiday Catalog Cover contest. Pick your top choices from about 30 possible catalog covers submitted by publishers. The contest ends June 1st, and only stores that have placed their orders can participate.
NVNR's upcoming Publicity Speed Dating event (June 14-15) is a wonderful opportunity for bookstores to raise their visibility with publishers. The event was invented by NAIBA, which originally held Publicity Speed Dating events in person several times a year. Several dozen booksellers would come to pitch their stores to anywhere from 50 to 80 publicists. Each one enjoyed their "fifteen minutes of fame" and the undivided attention of publicists from all the major publishers as well as many of the small presses. Whenever it is held, Publicity Speed Dating is always a sell-out for NAIBA booksellers, who have come to regard the event as integral to their relationship building with publishers. Stores with active events programs, especially, consider PSD as key to their ability to book authors at their stores.
The New Voices New Rooms partnership gives SIBA booksellers an opportunity to participate in Publicity Speed Dating. The upcoming June event, which is virtual, is open to both SIBA and NAIBA bookstores, with available spots divded equally between the two regions.
Note, this is not a "rep picks" session: publicists will not be pitching upcoming titles to booksellers. Instead, each participating bookstore will have about 15 minutes to present the store to the attending publicists. In effect, one meeting to introduce yourself to upwards of fifty publicists and publisher reps.
It is time worth its weight in gold and an opportunity not to be missed.
If these books aren't on your store radar, look again. Read This Next! highlights new books that are receiving exceptional, and exceptionally enthusiastic, buzz from Southern indie booksellers. Each of the selected books has several enthusiastic cheerleaders among Southern indie booksellers. SIBA always makes a point of putting the store excitement and buzz around these books in front of their publishers, raising store visibility with the industry.
The Say So by Julia Franks
A smart novel about the true power of our choices. It made me think about my own mother and daughter, and how the act of motherhood is as fundamental as it is complex.
– Ashley Warlick from M Judson, Booksellers in Greenville, SC
All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby
Written in his inimitable style, strong yet compassionate, Cosby gets deep into the heart and soul of his characters and makes them come alive like no one else writing today.
– Pete Mock from McIntyre's Books in Pittsboro, NC
Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge : Intimate Confessions from a Happy Marriage by Helen Ellis
Helen Ellis is back with a collection of essays about my marriage...sorry about her marriage. These hit so close to home on so many levels
– Melissa Taylor from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, GA
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
Murder, cults, suspicious locals, and fake blood that isn't looking all that fake these days, will Charity and friends make the final cut? So much bloody fun!
– Kate Towery from Fountain Books in Richmond, VA
Cape by Kevin Johnson, Kitt Thomas (Illus.)
A touching story about grief. Losing someone is never easy and often we never know what to do with those feelings. Cape shows us the beauty of remembering someone we've lost and how through remembrances we can find some peace.
– Keeshia Jacklitch from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
Current Read This Next! books and what SIBA booksellers have to say about them can always be found at The Southern Bookseller Review
Posted By Candice Huber, SIBA Membership Coordinator,
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Hi SIBA Friends!
This month, I would like to focus on making sure you know about our holiday catalog program through RAMP. Hopefully, you’ve seen emails asking you to sign up, but what is it, and why should you participate? I’m here to tell you!
SIBA’s most popular store benefit, the full-color, professionally designed catalog is the centerpiece of SIBA stores’ third and fourth quarter marketing campaigns. Up to 7000 catalogs are provided free of charge, with the option to request more. Store imprinting, drop shipping, and direct and saturation mailing are all available. Digital versions of the catalog (including Bookshop.org!) are also provided free of charge, and stores can opt in to supporting email newsletter campaigns for their customers. On top of the free catalogs, you also receive other resources that make it easy to order and promote the catalog titles, including marketing resources.
Holiday catalog orders are open through June 15. You should place your order by then, as supply chain and production issues still plague us, and unfortunately, if you miss the deadline, there won't be additional print runs or extras. Make sure you place your order by June 15 so you don't miss out on this easy way to boost third and fourth quarter sales!
As for me, I’ve been emailing member check-ins (please look for those), working on recruiting new SIBA members, and about to start doing some research on offering mentorship programs.
I’m so happy to serve SIBA members! I hope you all feel free to contact me any time. I’m happy to email or even video chat, and I love to answer questions and be generally helpful. You can contact me at candice@sibaweb.com any time!
Posted By Janet Geddis, SIBA Board member,
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Dear bookseller,
Years before I opened my bookstore, I opted not to dip my toes in the indie bookselling sea: rather, I dove in head-first. For me that meant volunteering at bookstores, learning about the importance of supporting local businesses, applying for Barnes & Noble jobs I didn’t get, serving on my city’s library board, and attending book industry events.
Diving in is how, in 2009, I found myself all alone in a gigantic, empty conference center hallway in Greenville, South Carolina for something called the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) trade show. I was out of breath and woefully late, having gotten lost on the drive there.
Except I wasn’t alone. I tried to catch my breath, steeling myself to enter a room full of total strangers, fully knowing that my tardiness had blown any chance of my slipping in discreetly. As I worked up the nerve to open the door to the session, I spotted another person peeking at signs, half-twirling to get her bearings in the unfamiliar space. Aha! This woman seemed as lost as I was! She looked at me and said hello; she had a warm smile and an exuberance that made me feel instantly comfortable as I asked, “Are you here for the book conference? I can’t tell if I’m in the right place.”
My hunch was correct: this person was also lost, but—like me!—she was optimistic that things would work out. This kindred spirit was author Laurel Snyder, someone who turned out to be my very first close, trusted friend in the book world. (She still is—in fact, I was texting her right before I opened this Word document!)
I’m not focusing on the kismet that brought Laurel and me together because it was especially extraordinary. While it’s true that, in the grand scheme of things, it was magically remarkable to meet a lifelong friend that way, it’s also true that these sorts of encounters are common in the book world! The start of our friendship is one of many examples of the serendipitous, happy connections that are inevitable when book lovers gather in any number.
Connections like this one are what make the reality of gatherings like New Voices, New Rooms so much more than a sum of their parts. No matter how meticulously planned or beautifully written, no online schedule, collection of speaker bios, or session descriptions can encapsulate the infectious energy and camaraderie that results when book people get together.
Since my experience as a total newbie fourteen (!!) years ago, I have attended as many SIBA gatherings as possible. When I describe SIBA to folks who aren’t in the bookselling world, I am reminded of how rare it is to have access to a trade organization that manages to grow along with you. By that I mean that SIBA has been instrumental to my sense of success and belonging every step of the way, from when I attended the conference as a relatively book-world-uneducated dreamer in 2009 to now, as I serve on the board as an experienced business owner with lots of wisdom to share.
Folks who’ve been involved far longer than I echo my sentiments: SIBA, including and especially our in-person gatherings, has been a key part of their ability to help them weather the storms as well as to properly commemorate their triumphs. But our organization is not just for longtime booksellers: I’m extremely proud to know firsthand that SIBA (its leadership, its board, and its existing members) value new and potential booksellers’ points of view and priorities. Rather than being stuck in its ways or intimidated by novelty, SIBA actively seeks fresh approaches to problems new and old. We want to exchange ideas with industry veterans, potential bookstore founders, and everyone in between.
As is likely true for you, the pandemic helped me focus on what truly matters to me. One theme continually emerges as a central priority in my life, both personally and professionally: I need meaningful connection and shared experiences with others. That includes all of you who are reading this right now: people who treasure their communities and value the ways in which books help us make sense of the world and each other.
I hope you’ll join me for SIBA & NAIBA’s shared conference August 7-10. If you’re on the fence about going or have obstacles that are making it difficult for you to commit, please don’t hesitate to contact the SIBA staff, who will do their best to see how you can participate.
See you in Arlington?
With appreciation,
Janet Geddis business owner/founder, Avid Bookshop + SIBA Board Member
Several of SIBA's staff mention below that they are currently reading -- and loving -- Camille Dungy's new memoir, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden.
Soil is one of the titles that will be featured in May's Special Edition of The Southern Bookseller Review which is dedicated to "Nature and the Environment." Upcoming Special SBR issues include:
Having staff reviews featured in SBR's newsletter is a good way to raise your store's visibility. SBR regularly shares store reviews as part of its social media strategy to promote Southern Indie bookstores. Authors and publishers are tagged when we do. Many of those same authors and publishers also receive the newsletter, which is SIBA's fastest-growing publication.
Booksellers can submit reviews in one of two ways:
Orders are now open for the Holiday Catalog -- a key element in maximizing 4th quarter sales for SIBA bookstores. Although the deadline to place your catalog order is June 15th, there are good reasons to start your catalog order now.
For one thing, stores who have placed their order can be part of the Holiday Catalog Cover contest. Right now publishers are submitting designs for this year's catalog cover, but it is participating booksellers who will vote on which cover design will be used.
More importantly, one of the major benefits of participating in the Holiday Catalog program is the ability to use direct and saturation mail to reach both regular and new customers. Saturation mail -- sending your catalog to residents of a specific zip codes and carrier routes -- is an effective way to get your store's name in front of new customers you have not been reaching. To take advantage of this benefit, you must have your store order at least started by June 1. Don't wait until the last minute.
Stores who ordered catalogs in the past three years: Click here
Stores who need to create an account: Click here
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Read This Next! July is the perfect Summer Reading List!
SIBA’s Linda-Marie Barrett and Nicki Leone attended the first PEN NC Hackathon on June 10th, “Hacking the Literary Ecosystem: Building a Vibrant Literary Community”. They were joined by other members of the NC literary community, including representatives from non-profits, booksellers, writers, and small publishers. The day’s mission was to look at problems, which included threats to freedom of expression, access to literature, diversity in access and opportunity, and the publishing ecosystem. The format included a number of conversation icebreakers and idea prompts before moving into small groups to tackle, or “hack,” specific issues.
n preparation for SIBA’s annual conference in partnership with NAIBA, NVNR, bookstores are invited to create or update their store listing on NVNR’s Bookstore Row. Bookstore Row will function as the store directory for the show, and will also be an ongoing resource for bookstores and publishers through 2023.
Over 50 SIBA bookstores voted in the Holiday Catalog Cover Contest. The winning cover was submitted by Random House Children's Books and created by Doug Salati, the author and illustrator of the 2023 Caldecott medal-winning picture book, Hot Dog, "a universal story about needing to take a break, relax, and enjoy the people and spaces around you."
While the deadline to order your Holiday Catalogs is June 15, if you want to take advantage of the direct or saturation mail options, you have to start your order by June 1. These are hard deadlines, and no extra catalogs will be printed, so if you don't place your order in time, you will have missed the opportunity for this year.
Last week's virtual panel on supporting trans and nonbinary staff and community had over a hundred people registered, and 50+ in attendance. The response to the event has been overwhelming, and many people have reached out to SIBA privately to express their gratitude for hosting the event. 
NVNR's upcoming 
Dear bookseller,
Several of SIBA's staff mention below that they are currently reading -- and loving -- Camille Dungy's new memoir, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden.
