Posted By Angela Trigg, The Haunted Book Shop,
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Using apps to remind customers to pick up their orders.
I’m always trying to streamline and take out friction points in customer service and one of the big ones for us is calling/texting folks when their book comes in or, more egregiously, when we need to remind them to pick it up. We’re always busy, and this task falls down the priority list most of the time. My special order system (via Jira + Integromat) sent out emails when books arrived but that’s it, and most didn’t have emails.
Anyway, I found a way to take care of calling by integrating Jira with Twilio via Integromat. While I was doing this, I also integrated the script with Manychat (for Facebook messages) and TextMagic (for texting). Now, it will call, text, send FB messages, or emails depending on their preference.
But because an automated call could be deemed impersonal, I found a way to make it fun and on-brand for us here at The Haunted Book Shop. Twilio allowed me to pick different accents and voices, and so I picked a female UK voice, and I start with the script saying, “This is the ghost of Jane Austen calling from The Haunted Book Shop...” I made sure to get that info out in front of the script so my customers wouldn’t think it was a spam call and I made the rest of the script match her era’s syntax. It’s on-brand not only because it’s a “ghost” but also my customers most likely are aware she’s one of my fave authors (we have a shelf dedicated to JA merchandise).
I ran the script a week ago Saturday to remind anyone who’d had a book arrive and it worked! 3 people came in who’d had theirs sitting here for a while and now I have it set to run any time a book has 1) arrived 2) been here for exactly 2 weeks 3) been here for exactly 30 days. Since then people have been coming in quicker than in the past. Those who’ve gotten the automated calls were extremely tickled by it. It’s now one less thing for my staff to do as well.”
To unearth the truth, she must embrace the legend within.
For eighteen-year-old Lexi, freedom is a luxury. She’s spent her life evading capture for a genetic gift that feels more like a curse. Her bulletproof immunity and monstrous disfigurement are of great interest to the secret organization, but they aren’t the only ones. Through a chance encounter that sets off a chain reaction, Lexi is thrown into a world of myths and legends, but things are not always as they seem.
Tempest, part of The Veil Chronicles, gives readers a modern twist on ancient Irish mythology. With heightened themes of image, worth, identity, and the age-old struggle of facing the evil and weakness within ourselves, readers will find these deeply layered worlds an enticing place where concepts are challenged, beliefs are questioned, and the impossible becomes possible.
About the Author
CJ Campbell is a successful and highly popular author of award-winning fanfiction surrounding JRR Tolkien's character The Elven King, which has garnered thousands of online fans. Growing up on her grandfather's farm in Ireland, CJ was surrounded by Irish folklore and the mysteries of the Tuatha de danann people, which has inspired this newest fantasy fiction series The Veil Chronicles.
Recent studies show that a switch towards plant-based diets is vital to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. To support our planet’s environmental health, meals at SIBA-sponsored in person events, beginning with a gathering planned for October in Chapel Hill, NC, will feature a vegetarian menu as the primary option.
Vegan, gluten-free, and meat options will be available by special request. To reduce carbon footprint and support local farmers, SIBA will work with hotel and restaurant partners to locally source dairy, eggs, fruits, vegetables, fungi, and grains. SIBA will request that BIPOC farmers and suppliers be given first consideration.
The Summer Reading List, Energized!
Announcing Read This Next! 2021 Summer Edition
(Asheville, North Carolina) Southern indie booksellers have selected the 2021 Summer Read This Next! List: their favorite picks for new summer books. Titles are chosen from books publishing from July through September, representing the
full range of reader interests. Each of the fifteen has the enthusiastic support of southern booksellers, marking them as hand-sell favorites for the summer. Read This Next! is the "You've got to read this!" list of the season.
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Bloomsbury YA, July
"A queer, Black book inspired by The Secret Garden and Little Shop of Horrors with a flower-powerful, badass girl at the center trying to unravel a family
mystery. I simply can’t love it more. It’s amazing and you need it in your life." --Rayna Nielsen from Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, LA
The Way She Feels by Courtney Book
Tin House Books, July
"When I picked up Courtney Cook's book, I immediately read from start to finish. Cook's personality is bright and poppy, friendly and relatable, and somehow this book maintains a level of kindness and vulnerability even when talking about the scary parts of living with Borderline personality disorder. The
Way She Feels is the representation of BPD--from confusing and distressing, to joyful and funny--that is needed right now." --Cat Chapman from Oxford Exchange in Tampa, FL
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
Dutton, July
"Mott's latest is no joke. Charlie Kauffman-esque in its surrealism that devolves into almost fever dream with the most unreliable narrator I've ever read. Fantastic writing, and meaning, and it should be read by the masses. 'Memory and death are countries that know no geography.'" -- Amber Brown from Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC
The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel
Gallery Books, July
"The Forest of Vanishing Stars is about a young girl kidnapped from her wealthy German parents and raised in the forests of Eastern Europe. From her earliest years, she is taught to survive in the woods. When her captor dies, she is alone until she comes upon a group of Jewish people fleeing from the Nazis. She decides to do whatever she can to protect them until a family secret threatens everything. Atmospheric with hints of fairy tale, The
Forest of Vanishing Stars is a stand out in WWII Historical Fiction " -- Jessica Nock from Main Street Books (NC) in Davidson, NC
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Berkley, July
"It turns out all those hours I spent watching 1980s (and beyond) horror films weren't wasted. From the detrious of popular culture and our own obsession with nostalgia comes up a blistering horror novel that savages society with the same percision and bloodletting as the killers savage their victims. Hendrix's fans will be ecstatic."--Tracie Harris, The Book House in Mableton, GA
Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda
Simon & Schuster, July
"You can't always believe what you see. Megan Miranda brings the reader to an idyllic neighborhood, but it's what all the porch cameras don't show that makes this story the heart pounding thriller it is. " --Kate Towery from Fountain Books in
Richmond, VA
Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light by Helen Elliz
Doubleday, July
"The thing about Helen Ellis is you can feel her delight in her friends, her husband and the world at large with every sentence. Everything she writes is worth reading and Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light might be her best yet." --Chelsea Bauer from union ave books in knoxville, TN
The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Tordotcom, July
"The Past Is Red is an electrifying parable for this era of climate change, as bitterly optimistic and cheerfully furious as this dire hour demands. All that, and its hilarious and heroic protagonist is sure to steal that gorgeous garbage patch in your chest you call a heart.." --Megan Bell from Underground Books in Carrollton, GA
My Mistress' Eyes are Raven Black by Terry Roberts
Turner, July
"Roberts creates a spookily atmospheric setting and a gutsy detective duo. But Roberts offers more than a compelling atmosphere. My Mistress’ Eyes explores what brings humans to predicate superiority based on genetic expression. What is behind the belief that this assumed superiority excuses the right to commit violence?" --Erin Fowler from Malaprop's in Asheville, NC
The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters
HarperTeen, July
"Eerie and chilling to the bone, The River Has Teeth is a razor-sharp novel that had me devouring its secrets late into the night. Unique magic and two girls set on their own quests for vengeance will keep readers turning these pages - and looking over their shoulder for any monsters in the night. ." --Brad Sells from Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
Ecco, August
"While the ghosts of genocide lurk in the heart of many of the characters in Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties, what comes through in this beautiful collection is the liveliness, humor, love, and tenderness in every character navigating growing up, sex, loss, and family. " --Luis Correa from Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA
King of Ragtime by Stephen Costanza
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, August
"Gloriously illustrated, this glimpse into the South during Reconstruction made me hear my childhood piano lessons and the syncopations of Scott Joplin's ragtime melodies. " --Lisa Yee Swope from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Riverhead Books, September
"Lauren Groff shows us women's desires in an entirely new way and in a place where desire, especially women's desire, is considered sin. Groff builds a world where the men are periphery, yet the patriarchal structures are still palpable. It is a fine line to walk for any woman who dares to go against the grain, and Groff walks that line beautifully through Marie."--Alsace Walentine from Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, FL
The Love Hypothesisby Ali Hazelwood
Berkley, September
"If, like me, your catnip is the taciturn, brainy, hot hero who is secretly a big squishy marshmallow at heart, you can look nor further than this awesome debut!" --Angela Trigg from The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Tordotcom, September
"Lee Mandelo's Summer Sons, a queer horror that sneaks up on you and then tries to possess your body, forcing you to see truths you'd rather ignore." --Faith Parke-Dodge from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Updated: Wednesday, June 9, 2021
For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2021
NVNR Presents: The VIndies! A Celebration of Indie Bookstore Videos
(From A Bookstore Not Very Far Away) -- Lights, Camera, Fiction! New Voices New Rooms, the collaborative partnership between NAIBA and SIBA, is launching The VIndies to recognize the spirit and creativity of independent bookstore videos.
NVNR and an academy of judges drawn from the bookselling community will award prizes to videos created by independent bookstores in the SIBA and NAIBA territories from January 1, 2020 through June 1, 2021.
“We are constantly amazed at the creative talent shown by bookstore videos,” said SIBA Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett. “They have moved us to tears, or made us laugh, or both! Bookstore videos offer glimpses into their worlds, and highlight just how important they are in their communities.”
“I think these videos demonstrate just how flexible and responsive independent bookstores can be to any situation,” added NAIBA Executive Director Eileen Dengler. “They are a testament to the resiliency of small businesses.”
Winners will be announced at the VIndie Awards Ceremony, which will include viewings of the finalist videos, and will take place during the New Voices New Rooms Fall Conference Sept 27-October 1. Prizes will be awarded to the winning stores.
The Award Categories are:
Best Drama
Best Comedy/Musical
Best Animated
Special Category for 2020/21: Best Covid-Related Video
To be eligible, videos must have been created by a SIBA or NAIBA member bookstore and must have been publicly exhibited – appearing on the store’s website, in their social media channels, or in their store newsletters -- between January 2020 and June 1, 2021. Nominations may come from independent bookstores or any fan of independent bookstores. Only one nomination per category, per store. Click here to nominate:
Gay, Catholic, and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion
by Greg Bourke
University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date September 1, 2021
Paperback $26.00
"Greg Bourke’s remarkable memoir Gay, Catholic, and American is about how he and his husband became plaintiffs in one of the most pivotal Supreme Court cases in LGBTQ+ history. . . . Throughout, he refuses to accept that his sexual orientation and his religion cannot coexist. His text is inspirational, humble, and engaging." —Foreword Reviews
In this compelling and deeply affecting memoir, Greg Bourke recounts growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, and living as a gay Catholic. The book describes Bourke’s early struggles for acceptance as an out gay man living in the South during the 1980s and ’90s, his unplanned transformation into an outspoken gay rights activist after being dismissed as a troop leader from the Boy Scouts of America in 2012, and his historic role as one of the named defendants in the landmark United States Supreme Court decision Obergefell vs. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.
Over many years and challenges, Greg and his husband Michael have successfully navigated the choppy waters of being openly gay, deeply involved in their local parish community, and raising two adopted sons. Their faith provides the framework for this inspiring memoir of their struggle to overcome antigay discrimination by both the BSA and the Catholic Church and fight to legalize same-sex marriage across the country.
A limited number of signed galleys are available. Email Michelle Sybert at msybert@nd.edu for more information or to request a signed print galley.
Niloofar Rahmani was born in 1991 in Kabul, Afghanistan. During the rise of the Taliban, her father took his young family to Pakistan, where they lived for nine years as refugees. Then, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the international coalition's invasion, the Rahmani family returned to their home in Kabul. In 2010, for the first time since the Soviets, Afghanistan allowed women to join the armed forces, and Niloofar entered Afghanistan's military academy. Niloofar had to break through social barriers to demonstrate confidence, leadership, and decisiveness—essential qualities for a combat pilot.
Niloofar performed the first solo flight of her class—ahead of all her male classmates—and in 2013 became Afghanistan's first female fixed-wing air force pilot. Yet some Afghan soldiers refused to fly with her, while others disparaged and harassed her. In 2014 the Taliban threatened Niloofar, her father lost his job, and extended family members disavowed them. The US State Department honored Niloofar with the International Women of Courage Award and sent her to the United States to meet Michelle Obama and fly with the US Navy's Blue Angels. But when she returned to Kabul, the danger to her and her family had increased significantly, forcing them to move every few months. In 2015 the US military brought Niloofar back to the US to learn to fly C-130s, but before graduation she learned she couldn't go home, and requested political asylum. She was granted US asylum in 2018, and her family is still in hiding.
The NVNR New Owners Retreat coming up July 19 – 22 has announced the schedule of topics and programming for the event. The retreat will be held in the evenings, after dinner, to accommodate the limited availablity of store owners during the work week.
Seasoned booksellers and special guests will be on hand to guide you through your growth, share their experiences, help you envision your future, and answer your most pressing questions. It is a perfect opportunity to step away from the store, look at your operations, finances, and resources for perspective, ideas, and solutions.
This event is geared for stores that have opened in the last five years and/or owners who have purchased an existing store in the last five years.
Bookseller veterans share their biggest mistakes and best moves in their early years
A publisher shares best practices on working with publishers, and etiquette for industry meetings, dinners, and conferences
An overview of resources, including ABACUS
A look at a store’s working documents, including mission statement, employee handbook, and procedures manual
Tuesday, July 20:
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Bookseller veterans will discuss the importance of locations and leases, managing store operations (including the daily tasks of accounting, receiving, placing orders, working the sales floor, and cleaning the bathrooms), followed by Q & A
A special presentation on Designing Your Space by Lisa Uhrik, president of Franklin Fixtures
Wednesday, July 21:
6:30 - 8:00 PM
A bookseller veteran will discuss prioritizing profitability
Breakouts for stores on topics of finances, publisher terms, growth opportunities, buying and returns, stock turns, and more.
Thursday, July 22:
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Bookseller veterans will discuss human resources, hiring/firing, marketing, authorless events, subscription services, hybrid stores (cafes, pop-ups, nonprofits)
Closing with an inspirational talk: “Why I Am a Bookseller” by Janet Geddis, founder and owner of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA
Beginning in June, the Reader Meet Writer Author Series will expand its bookseller participation to include bookstores from the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), SIBA's sister association to the north. NAIBA territory includes West Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.
Reader Meet Writer is hosted by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) in cooperation with its -- and now NAIBA's -- bookstore members. The Author Series features bestselling authors and fresh new voices, fiction and nonfiction titles, in an engaging and accessible format. Participating bookstores are invited to include the events in their regular event schedule, with their own store brandings.
General Event information:
RMW events are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:00 PM Eastern
Each event is fully moderated and hosted, with plenty of time for author Q & A. Current host is Wiley Cash, author of When Ghosts Come Home (William Morrow, 2021)
All events are recorded and available to stream at SIBA's Reader Meet Writer TV YouTube channel.
The recent launch of the RAMP Summer email program [you can still sign up] has highlighted for bookstores the ongoing importance of email in their day to day business. Social media outreach has been a great tool in raising the visibility of small businesses in their communities, but email remains the most familiar, convenient, and direct way to communicate with individual customers.
That is why email remains on of the most reliable tools in your marketing toolbox. Also, one of the most cost-effective. On average, email generates $38 for every dollar spent. That is better than any social media channel.
The first step to creating a good email marketing program is to start with a good subscriber list.
If you send out regular newsletters, or participate in one of the book industry's marketing programs like Edelweiss 360, IndieNext, Shelf Awareness for Readers, or RAMP, then you don't have to worry about creating a beautiful email -- these programs will take care of that. As will whatever service you use to send out your own store emails: Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, iContact, to name a few.
But a great newsletter won't do any good if it is never received and never read. So here are three basic email list maintenance tasks you should do if you have an email newsletter or are using a program like RAMP:
Actively, and organically grow your subscriber list.
Don't purchase or rent lists from third party services. They are often of poor quality and using them can result in you being flagged as a spammer. Instead, run periodic subscription campaigns in your store and on your social media channels. And make a point of linking to your newest newsletter in social media whenever it goes out.
Clean up your list.
Remove duplicate addresses, fix or remove addresses with typos, update or remove invalid addresses, and remove any bouncing addresses. None of these are doing you any good and sending emails that have a high "bounce rate" can have a negative impact on your sender reputation with internet service providers and email servers, which may in turn put emails you send into spam folders.
Have a "sunset policy" for unengaged contacts.
Periodically send out emails to the addresses that haven't opened your messages in the last 6-12 months, inviting them to confirm their subscription. You can try to incentivizing them to re-engage, or remove them if they don't. Most bulk email services will be able to tell you which addresses on your list never open your messages. They aren't doing you any good and in fact are bringing down your email open and click rates.
Doing these three things regularly will result in a high-quality engaged subscriber list, which in turn will mean more responses and more sales from the newsletters you do send out, either yourself or via a program like RAMP or IndieNext.
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) are coming together again for their fall virtual conference, New Voices, New Rooms (NVNR) September 27-October 1. NVNR will offer our beloved community of booksellers, publishers, authors, and other industry partners a week of opportunities for education, networking, innovation, and fun. Our official theme for NVNR 2021 is “Opening Doors.”
New Voices, New Rooms returns with a fresh format that includes two days of education and bookseller-to-bookseller networking and idea-sharing, plus three days of new title discovery, author panels, and the hugely popular Rep Pick of the List and Editor Buzz panels. Every day will feature interludes of poetry readings, creative play, wellness tips, and more.
We’ll be working with our publisher and vendor partners to enhance their studio (fka “booth”) offerings to promote bookseller and sales rep one-on-one meet and greets, creation of new accounts, and bookseller support of upcoming promotions. Our NVNR conference site will also feature a bookseller-friendly galley room called “Readers of the Lost ARC,” easy Zoom access to all programming, and a dedicated Slack channel to message peers, set up appointments, and stay in contact after the conference.
Also New to NVNR 2021: The VIndies! NVNR and their “academy” of judges drawn from the greats of our bookselling community will award prizes to videos created in 2020 by independent bookstores in the SIBA & NAIBA territories. The award ceremony, which will include viewings of the finalist videos, will take place during the conference. Look for a separate call for submissions for the VIndies in the coming weeks.
The Blues : The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture
by Chris Thomas King
On Sale Date: June 8, 2021
9781641604444, 1641604441
Hardcover
$30.00 USD, $40.00 CAD
Music / Genres & Styles / Blues
Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black
Music / Ethnomusicology
All prior histories on the blues have alleged it originated on plantations in the Mississippi Delta. Not true, says author Chris Thomas King. In The Blues, King present facts to disprove such myths. For example, that as early as 1900, the sound of the blues was ubiquitous in New Orleans. The Mississippi Delta, meanwhile, was an unpopulated sportsman's paradise—the frontier was still in the process of being cleared and drained for cultivation. Moreover, this book is the first to argue the blues began as a cosmopolitan art form, not a rural one. Protestant states such as Mississippi and Alabama could not have incubated the blues. New Orleans was the only place in the Deep South where the sacred and profane could party together without fear of persecution. Expecting these findings to be controversial in some circles, King has buttressed his conclusions with primary sources and years of extensive research, including a sojourn to West Africa and interviews with surviving folklorists and blues researchers from the 1960s folk-rediscovery epoch. They say the blues is blasphemous; the devil's music—King says they're unenlightened. Blues music is about personal freedom.
Welcome new bookstore owners to a retreat designed just for you. (By new, we mean 5 years or less.)
NAIBA and SIBA, through their joint event platform, New Voices New Rooms, is hosting a series of evening meetings July 19 – 22. Monday through Wednesday will be from 6:30-8pm ET and Thursday will be 7-8:30pm ET. This schedule is out of respect for your limited availability during the day while you work your bookstore.
Seasoned booksellers and special guests will be on hand to guide you through your growth, share their experiences, help you envision your future, and answer your most pressing questions. It is a perfect opportunity to step away from the store, look at your operations, finances, and resources for perspective, ideas, and solutions.
This event is geared for stores that have opened in the last five years and/or owners who have purchased an existing store in the last five years. The registration fee is $25 pp. Members and nonmembers are welcome.
Graceland, At Last : Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South by
Margaret Renkl
On Sale Date: September 14, 2021
9781571311849
Hardcover $26.00
Literary Collections / Essays
Nature / Essays
Travel / United States / South / East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN)
Political Science / Civics & Citizenship
From New York Times contributing opinion writer and author of the TODAY Show book club pick Late Migrations Margaret Renkl comes a selection of her beloved weekly essays for the Times, presenting a multifaceted view of the contemporary American South, forthcoming this September.
“People have often asked me how it feels to be the ‘voice of the South,’” writes Renkl in her introduction. “But I’m not the voice of the South, and no one else is, either.” There are many Souths—red and blue, rural and urban, mountain and coast, Black and white and brown—and no one writer could possibly represent all of them. In Graceland, At Last, Renkl writes instead from her own experience about the complexities of her homeland, demonstrating along the way how much more there is to this tangled region than many people understand.
In a patchwork quilt of personal and reported essays, Renkl also highlights people who are fighting for a better future for the region. A group of teenagers who organized a youth march for Black Lives Matter. An urban shepherd whose sheep remove invasive vegetation. Church parishioners sheltering the homeless. Throughout, readers will find the generosity of spirit and deep attention to the world, human and nonhuman, that keep readers returning to her columns each Monday morning.
Orders are now being taken for the Winter Catalog and newly-launched Summer Email Campaign via the new bookseller and publisher portal at Rampbooks.com
SIBA has joined four other regional associations -- NAIBA, GLIBA, NEIBA, and MIBA -- in the Regional Association Marketing & Promotion (RAMP) catalog consortium. In the remarkable year that was 2020, five regional independent booksellers’ associations joined forces to produce consumer print and digital catalogs, leveraging a combined 150 years
of winter and holiday catalog production and distribution. Bookstores across the Mid-Atlantic (NAIBA), Great Lakes (GLIBA), New England (NEIBA), Midwest (MIBA), and South (SIBA)
reached 10 MILLION CONSUMERS with new title recommendations during the holiday season.
Publisher Booking Deadline: June 15
Bookstore Ordering Deadline: July 31
New for 2021: RAMP Emails
Building on the success of 2020’s newly-added direct mail campaigns, 2021 promises to be even stronger with 8 new Summer and Winter Email campaigns direct-to-consumer.
Did you know:
Roughly 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months. (HubSpot, 2020)
35% of marketers choose to send three-to-five emails per week to their customers. (HubSpot, 2020)
From a study of 1,000 small business owners, email marketing was ranked as the second most effective medium for building brand awareness. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Email marketing has the highest return on investment for small businesses. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
The RAMP email campaigns are designed to avoid any potential conflict with other national direct to consumer campaigns such as IndieCommerce or Shelf Awareness for Readers. Summer topics are Wellness (May), The Great Outdoors (June), Hot Summer Reads (early July), Back to School/Work (late July).
When I was a bookseller in Chicago, I got a series of emails from a man named Keith Botsford about his magazine, News from the Republic of Letters. He’d founded the broadsheet with the Nobel-, Pulitizer-, and every-other-prize- winning Saul Bellow in 1997, and Botsford wanted to make sure that my store, which had been Bellow’s local shop for a time, still stocked it. I was just barely twenty-two years old, and the name of the magazine was an exciting one that conjured up a nation and a lineage, spread out across continents and time, but unified by something I was only beginning to wrap my head around: the community of books.
In the summer of 2019, I got to experience the breadth of that community anew. With my coworkers from House of SpeakEasy and Rob Spillman from Narrative 4, I rolled through Floyd County, Kentucky, then Nashville and Jackson; we visited Lafayette, Arnaudville, and New Orleans; made stops in Atlanta, Montgomery, Spartanburg, and Durham. And everywhere we stopped, people came out to meet us and receive the books we were there to give away. We called it Poetry to the People and I’m entirely certain that we changed a few lives here and there. I’d been to regional shows like SIBA, to Winter Institute and BookExpo, and every other kind of gathering of book people. I’ve hosted dinners and rep nights in a dozen cities and read books from all over the world. Working as I did in this community of books, I saw myself as a permanent resident of the Republic of Letters. But this was something better, something free that excluded no one. In the streets of the South, I got to recover something of the novelty and excitement of sharing a book for the first time, the moment when you get to press a book into the hands of a person who, suspecting nothing, is going to read and love that book for a lifetime, take it with them from house to house, lend it to friends and family, internalize it and make it a part of who they will become. It’s a thing booksellers get to do every day, and the reason why I’ll always say that working in a bookstore is the happiest I’ve ever been. And why I got involved with Open Borders Books and The Bookstore at the End of the World.
I’m in a new role now, handselling to the handsellers, but I’m coming to you with a great deal of affection for the South and its readers, and bringing some very good books. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you, and if there’s something you need from IPG to get independently-published books into the hands of eager readers at independent shops. As the more corporate parts of this industry contract, you and I are very much in this Independent Republic of Letters together. You’ll be hearing from me soon.
Jeff Waxman
East Coast Trade Sales Rep
Independent Publishers Group
814 N. Franklin Street | Chicago, IL 60610
312-568-5443 jwaxman@ipgbook.com
SIBA Bookstores are reporting a successful Independent Bookstore Day -- in some cases surpassing not only 2020's virtual version, but 2019's "normal" IBD as well:
"We had a great day. Folks were excited to see exclusives and seemed genuinely pleased to be out for an event. It was a bit out of our comfort zone to be promoting an in person event as we are not fully vaccinated but everyone was respectful of our rules and boundaries. I was very pleased with the hybrid in person/virtual tone that was taken this year. We had sales for exclusives both in person and online during the day and capped off with a virtual author event. We definitely have folks that support our shop from all over the country and it felt like all could be a part of celebrating our shop and indies in general this year." -- Michelle Cavalier, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, LA
IBD was a big success for us in spite of the deluge of rain all day here. We were super busy, like more than Christmas numbers busy. -- E.Shaver, booksellers in Savannah, GA
Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA has not yet opened the shop, but celebrated virtually, posting to their customers, "TFW your long-distance-because-of-pandemic-related-reasons bookseller Julie FaceTimes with the in-store booksellers and gets to point at the logo she created for the National Independent Bookstore Day (IBD) initiative as well as the balloons Luis bought in homage to said logo. ☹ IBD hasn’t looked or felt quite right since spring 2019, but the booksellers’ thoughtfulness and creativity paired with YOUR support are making us feel grateful for today’s celebration."
Snail on the Wall had a busy day at their pop up location:
“Independent Bookstore Day was a joyful day at The Snail on the Wall. Our customers made a special effort to stop by our pop-up store to shop, but they also stopped by to simply say hi, tell us about their latest reads, introduce us to their family — all in the name of supporting their local independent bookstore. Some even talked other customers into buying their favorite books. We saw wonderful sales comparable to a Saturday in December, but more important, we connected with the people that are so passionate about the indie bookstore movement." -- Lady Smith, Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, AL
As spring approaches, we wanted to take this opportunity to give you an update on the state of your
foundation. As with all of you, here at the Binc Foundation, 2020 was all about COVID. The pandemic led to a record breaking amount of assistance reaching owners and employees of bookstores and comic shops quickly and efficiently. Here are some highlights:
COVID-specific assistance - 2,150 stores and individuals were helped with $2.7 million
Non- COVID emergency financial assistance - $162,000 went out to 84 individuals and families
Total funds disbursed in 2020 was $2.9 million (For perspective, in just 8 weeks we help more people than we had in the previous 8 years combined!)
COVID wasn’t the only disaster, by any means. Binc helped booksellers put their lives back together
after experiencing hurricanes in the gulf, wildfires in the pacific northwest, ice storms in Texas, and tornados across the plains.
While we are not seeing the number of request that we saw 12 months ago, our new normal rate if
inquiry seems to be around twice the level of 2019. This is a good thing, because it means that book and comic shop employees know they can call us when facing hardships.
As we continue to assist with lives “regular” emergencies, we are seeing some trends.
COVID has added another layer to the already intricate and hectic lives of booksellers, making
relatively simple problems much more complicated and further upsetting the balance of
household finances.
Booksellers are dealing with the on-again off-again nature of lay-offs, hours reductions, and store closings as the stores navigate the ever-changing local restrictions.
We hear a lot of anxiety around the expiration of moratoriums on eviction, foreclosure, and utility
shut-off.
We are experiencing an increase in medical and dental bills arising from delayed care during
the pandemic.
We continue to monitor these trends and are ready to address them in any way we can.
Binc’s Scholarship Program pivoted as well during the year. With the cancellation of all in-person
meetings and shows, professional development scholarship funds were redirected to help the regionals and the ABA with virtual meetings.
On the fundraising side, an important takeaway from last year is how the industry at large came
together quickly with financial support to make certain Binc could help all of you. Book and comic publishers (of all sizes), trade associations, distributors, authors, creators, sideline companies, agents, book and comic stores, readers, and musicians all found ways to creatively support you. This coming together made it possible for Binc to help every eligible applicant in need – no one who needed help was turned away. We are humbled and grateful for all the support Binc received.
One grateful bookseller wrote:
“After being in a freak bicycling accident in the fall I found myself with a huge pile of bills from the hospital, pharmacy, x-ray tech, surgeon, etc. Even after insurance the amount I owed was unmanageable. Then to top things off, my job laid me off the day after my doctor released me to return to work. Add in pandemic times and it took awhile to find a temp job just to pay basic bills.
I was reminded of Binc and filled out the application. The next day Kate called to get more info. She was incredibly kind and helpful. The day she emailed to say the grant had been approved will forever be one of the best days of my life. She made the calls to get the payments made on my behalf and this has been a game changer. The amount of stress relieved from this grant is amazing.
Once I'm fully back on my feet and have the means, this will be where I send a donation. It's my goal to be able to help someone else feel as wonderful as I did.”
This bookseller’s thanks was sent to Binc, but is directed to all of you who support us by donating, volunteering, advocating, and being our voice in the stores.
If you know someone who needs help - encourage them to call Binc. You can also refer a colleague or employee through our website form as well. This is your safety net, your foundation and we want to hear from you.
With our sincere thanks,
The Binc Team
866-733-9064
General questions - info@bincfoundation.org
Assistance questions - help@bincfoundation.org
www.bincfoundation.org
SIBA is seeking nominations for candidates for the SIBA Board. Nominees must be from a SIBA member store in good standing, and self-nominations are encouraged.
When this call is sent out each spring, we usually say something like "SIBA Board members are a hard working bunch. Serving on the board is both rewarding and enlightening." This past year has demonstrated just how true that is. If SIBA has been at all helpful or a resource for your store during the pandemic crisis then you have felt the leadership of its board in action.
SIBA functions under the Carver Method. Board members attend a training session and three meetings per year. They are not paid for service but expenses are reimbursed. Do you have or know someone with the leadership skills SIBA needs?
SIBA’s 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge began on Monday, April 12. 90 booksellers and book industry professionals from across the country are participating, receiving daily prompts for learning, reflection, taking action, and digging deeper. Challenge prompts can be accessed on the Challenge homepage, to read and share with colleagues. We’re hosting a Challenge Bulletin Board where participants can share links and post comments. So far, the response has been inspiring. We've also compiled a list of resources to check out as well, for future reading.
We were inspired to offer the Challenge when we learned of Food Solutions New England’s (FSNE) 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge during the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) 2020 conference, “How Local Businesses Can Survive and Thrive: Building Equity in the Local Economy Movement.” FSNE graciously granted us permission to adapt their framework for booksellers and the book industry. We’ve been working on the Challenge since the fall, compiling resources, discussing what we could contribute through format and design, to accomplish the goals of raising awareness around racial equity and racism, changing behaviors and patterns, providing helpful resources, and building community. Once we completed the main work on the Challenge, it was vetted by Cultures Connecting, LLC. We very much appreciate their encouragement and professional counsel.
Putting together this programming required a lot of staff time and professional guidance. When SIBA first issued its statement against racism, it recognized it was committing to a course that would require deep involvement from the organization and deep engagement from its members.
To that end SIBA has created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund dedicated to supporting DEI programming and training to its members, and supporting and amplifying BIPOC voices our membership and industry. We’ve created a Donation portal to support SIBA’s commitment to amplify and support BIPOC voices in our membership and industry, and offer future DEI educational opportunities. We're deeply grateful to Sasquatch Books, Sourcebooks, and HarperCollins for their early and generous support for this initiative.
Here in the SIBA Offices we have also been taking the Challenge, using it as a springboard for re-examining organization policies and habits that may not have changed since they were created decades ago. It has been a slow but exhilarating process, marked by busy discussions in chats and Slack channels. The general mood around the virtual office is “hopeful” and “excited.”
We will keep improving and updating the Challenge so that it becomes an annual event. If you are participating in this year’s Challenge and/or have ideas to share, we welcome your feedback, always.
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS
The Summer Reading List, Energized!
(From A Bookstore Not Very Far Away) -- Lights, Camera, Fiction! New Voices New Rooms, the collaborative partnership between NAIBA and SIBA, is launching The VIndies to recognize the spirit and creativity of independent bookstore videos.
The NVNR New Owners Retreat coming up July 19 – 22 has announced the schedule of topics and programming for the event. The retreat will be held in the evenings, after dinner, to accommodate the limited availablity of store owners during the work week.
The recent launch of the RAMP Summer email program [
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) are coming together again for their fall virtual conference, New Voices, New Rooms (NVNR) September 27-October 1. NVNR will offer our beloved community of booksellers, publishers, authors, and other industry partners a week of opportunities for education, networking, innovation, and fun. Our official theme for NVNR 2021 is “Opening Doors.”
"We had a great day. Folks were excited to see exclusives and seemed genuinely pleased to be out for an event. It was a bit out of our comfort zone to be promoting an in person event as we are not fully vaccinated but everyone was respectful of our rules and boundaries. I was very pleased with the hybrid in person/virtual tone that was taken this year. We had sales for exclusives both in person and online during the day and capped off with a virtual author event. We definitely have folks that support our shop from all over the country and it felt like all could be a part of celebrating our shop and indies in general this year." -- Michelle Cavalier, 
“Independent Bookstore Day was a joyful day at The Snail on the Wall. Our customers made a special effort to stop by our pop-up store to shop, but they also stopped by to simply say hi, tell us about their latest reads, introduce us to their family — all in the name of supporting their local independent bookstore. Some even talked other customers into buying their favorite books. We saw wonderful sales comparable to a Saturday in December, but more important, we connected with the people that are so passionate about the indie bookstore movement." -- Lady Smith, 
SIBA’s 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge began on Monday, April 12. 90 booksellers and book industry professionals from across the country are participating, receiving daily prompts for learning, reflection, taking action, and digging deeper. Challenge prompts can be accessed on the