Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz for my book club. A window into another world, one of immigrants who work 12 hour days for little money, who hide their illnesses because they can’t afford healthcare or losing a day’s wage, who devote much of their income and living space to helping others with less opportunities. Moving, funny at times, and eye-opening, a perfect read for this moment.
Listening: To thunder rumbling in the distance and then a big rain.
Watching: Young Sheldon. I adore Sheldon’s earnest quirkiness and the different ways his family responds to his neurodiversity. It’s a big-hearted show that always delivers laughs and some poignant moments, too. .

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Packing up to move is preventing me from really sinking into any of the doorstop novels I like to spend my summers with. But on the flip side, it's wonderful the treasures one finds on one's own bookshelves. Last week is was a collections of feminist fantastical stories from Chilean and Argentinian writers, this week it is Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Music at Long Verney, and Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald.
Listening: I am packing boxes of books to the storytelling of Simon Prebble reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. At over 32 hours, it will get me through a lot of bookshelves!
Watching: Not much. There is my usual morning 15 minutes of the news, which I turn on and brace myself, then turn off and go outside for a walk. In the evenings I just pick a movie that makes me happy. Last night, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I took my time reading Michael Koresky's new book, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness, and I am so glad I did. It's equal parts a behind-the-camera account of several iconic films and a reinterpretation of decades of film history.
Listening: I finished listening to the audiobook of Jeff Hiller's thoughtful, honest, and hilarious memoir Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success, and it was even better than I hoped it would be. He's a deep, warm, and funny soul and it made me sad all over again that Somebody, Somewhere and his character Joel aren't returning for a fourth season.
Watching: I went to a local theater production this past weekend, which featured an actor who played the love interest of Meryl Streep's daughter (who shares the same first name with MY daughter) on TV. It was a small theater and he yelled a lot and I was practically within spitting distance, so I ran the numbers and I think that makes me 2.785 degrees of separation from Meryl Streep! The point being, obviously, is that Gilded Age has returned for its third season and I'm watching it.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: Zomromcom by Olivia Dade, to get excited for Bookstore Romance Day in August. It's spicy and fun!
Listening: One of my neighbors is doing some kind of loud work on their home today and I do not care for it.
Watching:The Ultimatum: Queer Love! I am going to have a hard time waiting between episode drops.

Genre Buzz is an event unique to NVNR, a book conversation among booksellers about recently released and forthcoming books in their favorite genres.

This year, NVNR is hosting a Genre Buzz Lunch on Monday, August 4th -- a full hour to sit with fellow fans and talk about what is new in the wonderful, sometimes weird, world of genre books. There will be tables for Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Cooking, Religion/Spirituality, In Translation, Childrens, and Young Adult. Printed lists of suggested titles will be available at each table, and can also be downloaded in the event app. Links to Edelweiss collections will also be available in the app and via QR code.

The Genre Buzz Lunch is a keystone in NVNR's commitment to title discovery. Driven by NVNR's bookseller attendees, genre buzz discussions are a great way to find new titles to enhance a section in the store, try a new display, or find new books to recommend to in-store genre based book clubs. Genre books are among the fastest growing areas of the book market, and genre readers are voracious and fanatically devoted to their favorite authors. A robust selection of genre titles can significantly improve inventory turn and overall sales.

Share your love for genre books!

NVNR is seeking moderators to encourage discussions at the Genre Buzz Lunch. If you are attending NVNR and are an enthusiastic reader / evangelist of a particular genre, email Eileen Dengler if you are interested in being a Genre Buzz Lunch moderator.

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is pleased to announce that the Sarah McCoy Grant will be awarded to Cortney Casey, Bookseller and Leadership Team at Books and Books in Coral Gables, Florida, and Beth Brown Ables, Marketing Manager at M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina. Each will receive a grant of $1500 to be used toward writing craft development.

 

A native of Michigan, Cortney Casey is an award-winning journalist, author, small business owner and bookseller living in Miami with her husband and her rescue Chihuahua. She's currently a member of the leadership team and the merchandising manager at Books & Books, a beloved independent bookstore in Coral Gables, Florida. She's represented by Kim Witherspoon of InkWell Management and is preparing to go out on submission to publishers soon with her upmarket family drama/mystery, Still Life with Dandelions.

"I firmly believe in pursuing constant improvement, says Casey, "and I credit online courses taught by P.S. Literary agent Cecilia Lyra for helping me fine-tune my writing over the past few years. I spent the last 20+ years as a newspaper reporter and then a freelance magazine writer, but needed to shore up my rusty fiction skills." Casey plans to use her grant to continue studying with writers like Lyra, and to attend the DFWCon writers' conference in Hurst, Texas, this fall.

When Beth Brown Ables received the news she would receive the McCoy Grant, she was overwhelmed with gratitude. "Thank you for reading my words and saying yes for seeing something in this project and giving me encouragement at just the right time," she said. "As a writer, it's easy to assume nobody sees this solitary work we're doing, and to not only be seen but also encouraged to keep going is nothing short of a literary blessing."

Ables is the marketing manager for M. Judson, Booksellers, and a contributor for several publications including Vessel and Garden and Gun., She is also the author of the cookbook zine series, A Place Here.   She’s an avid home cook, enjoys finding significance in the mundane, and is horrible at doing laundry. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her husband and two children.

Ables plans to use her McCoy Grant to spend some concentrated time revising the first draft of her lyric memoir, Ordinary Time. "A financial gift like this," she says, "means I can submit portions of my work for publication (which often include fees), seek out workshops for feedback and direction, and perhaps set aside time for a dedicated writer's retreat. Margin to create, to set aside time like this, while not worrying about the financial portion is freeing."

The McCoy Grant for Bookseller-Writers was created by New York Times bestselling author Sarah McCoy, (Mustique Island) in partnership with the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) for any unpublished southern women or nonbinary booksellers who harbor ambitions to be published writers.

McCoy created the grant as a way to give back to the community of book people that supported her work as a writer. Calling it "a love letter" to writers who struggle to create while managing financial and time straits, she says "I can’t wait to see how the 2025 recipients use the grant to further their writing aspirations. Congrats to Cortney and Beth!”

SIBA Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett notes that SIBA is appreciative of the many ways authors step up to support Southern independent booksellers, "This incredibly generous grant from author and friend Sarah McCoy will make a real difference in the lives of unpublished southern bookseller women/nonbinary writers."

Both grant recipients will be honored during SIBA's upcoming meeting at their annual conference at New Voices New Rooms in August.

For more information about the McCoy Grant, visit SIBA at sibaweb.com.

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Hot Desk by Laura Dickerman. Although marketed as a rom-com, this novel is much deeper and often very poignant. Set in two time periods, one storyline involves two editors competing for the rights to an unpublished manuscript by a literary lion who recently passed. The other storyline takes place forty years earlier, when the lion’s charisma attracted young writers to work for him as interns, and his fame shielded him from accountability for his actions.
Listening: The cicadas have moved into the next stage of their existence and are no longer humming (one neighbor compared their sound to a car alarm that never stops), so it’s very quiet, except for the occasional songbird. Love it.
Watching: Just finished the final episode of Younger, a delightful series that didn’t involve people dying in small English villages or bleak Scottish islands. Will return to Young Sheldon.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Still with Katherine Mansfield's In a German Pension, because I'm on a Mansfield binge. And still waiting on my order of Zhang Yueran's Cocoon. In the meantime, I've been packing up books and in the process discovered -- as one does -- a long forgotten anthology called Secret Weavers: Stories of the Fantastic by Women of Argentina and Chile. I love me some feminist fantastic fiction! As thebook's editor Marjorie Agosin puts it, "These tales were told by mothers and by grandmothers and their beauty resided in their poetic imaginations, where women, under the disguise of the fantastic, dared to enter worlds filled with subversion."
Listening: Still enjoying the audio of Peter Marshall's Storm's Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney.
Watching: I finished off the last season of Dark Winds and am now stuck waiting on a new season, whenever that happens.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I finished Taylor Jenkins Reid's Atmosphere a few days ago and it's obviously the book of the summer. Currently in progress (I need to get a grip): My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn, for book club; Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness by Micheal Koresky; Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel.
Listening: If you watched the show Somebody, Somewhere you loved it (sorry, those are the rules), and if you loved the show you double triple loved Jeff Hiller as Joel. I have a long solo car trip coming up and the audiobook of his new memoir, Actress of Certain Age, will let Jeff/Joel be my travel buddy.
Watching: Sick and Dirty prompted a rewatch of Tea and Sympathy (1956), directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Deborah Kerr and John Kerr (no relation). It's harrowing in ways I don't think were possible in 1956, but also in ways that haven't changed a bit since 1956.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I brought back sooooo many books from Children's Institute that I can't wait to get into but I'm having a little decision paralysis.
Listening: The most recent episode of Handsome really got me in the feels. One of the hosts is going through a lot this year and she was talking about it, and all the support she's getting from all over.
Watching: Still stuck on Lego Masters AU. I can't get enough!

110 SIBA bookstores have signed up to participate in the 2025 Winter Catalog program, representing over 40% of SIBA's membership, and the largest rate of participation since SIBA began the program.

22 stores are first-time participants, also a record number and indicative of SIBA's growing membership numbers.

Book listings are ongoing. The full winter catalog will feature up to 100 titles. Bookstores looking to plan their 4th quarter orders can view the growing list of titles in the catalog on at:
https://rampbooks.com/2025-winter-catalog-edelweiss-collections.

Things to do / Things not to miss

1. Sign up for the NVNR Orientation

A must if you are attending NVNR 2025 in Atlanta. The orientation will cover key information about the program, the Atlanta location, and what booksellers can expect from the conference. There will also be a chance for booksellers to ask questions of the event organizers.

Bookseller Orientation: 7/16 at 11:00 AM ET
Exhibitor Orientation: 7/16 at 3:00 PM ET

2. Book your hotel room for NVNR 2025

The deadline to reserve your room at the conference rate is July 17. Already registration for the conference has surpassed 2024, and NVNR has had to increase its room block to accommodate the higher demand. So the earlier you book your rooms the better.

NVNR Hotel Reservation Link
Contact Linda-Marie at lindamarie@sibaweb.com if there are any issues

3. Go over your store emergency preparedness plan

As we come into hurricane and forest fire season, bookstores should revisit their plan for emergencies and crisis situations. Taking steps now can mean weathering a crisis more safely, and recovering more quickly.

• Cavalier House Books Emergency Prep Check List
• SIBA's Crisis Relief and Resources Hub
• SIBA's Store Emergency Contact Form

4. Send SIBA a Spark

"SIBA Spark" focuses on uplifting and inspiring news from members of the SIBA community fighting the good fight! SIBA will share bookstore projects and initiatives with the industry and readers. Tell us what your store is doing.

Current Newsletter: Read These Next! June Books

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Kimberly Todd, Square Books in Oxford,
•  Suzanne Lucey, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
• Kayla Saxon, M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina
• Laura Taylor, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida
• Leah Fallon, Birch Tree Bookstore in Leesburg, Virginia
• Bianca Eckhoff, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Mandy Harris, Angel Wings Bookstore in Stem, North Carolina
• Barb Rascon, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
• Jodi Laidlaw, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Sarai Rivera, Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida
• Kelli Dynia, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida
• Meghan Haile, The Lynx in Gainesville, Florida
• Sam Miller, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
• Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia
• Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
• Rayna Nielsen, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana

Book Buzz Feature: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
I like my stories to be immersive. I am a visual person when writing and reading. So to me, it’s all part of the characterization: the way that they wear clothes, what the clothes look like, what they look like. I also want it to be a lived-in world. So let’s talk about getting dirty. Let’s talk about taking baths. Let’s think about chapped lips. When I watch particularly fantasy content, I almost look for these things because it is a layer of grittiness that I like, a texture in a story, that I feel is real. The Knight and the Moth was really fun, like gossamer versus armor. You can look into themes of these things too and apply them to the story, or you can decide to read them very literally.

― Rachel Gillig, Interview, Harper’s Bazaar

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
A beautiful book that made my heart ache in the best ways. Another masterpiece from Applegate that teaches us a little about ourselves while weaving a tree and the community where it lives.
― by Rayna Nielsen, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana

NEW REVIEWS | SUBSCRIBE | SUBMIT A REVIEW | FOR PUBLISHERS

It is not unusual during the summer for stores to find the need to change their store hours, or even close for a specific event. Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia, closes for election day, for special projects like inventory or a renovation, or even because the whole staff is away for the New Voices New Rooms conference.

Owner Janet Geddis created a checklist to follow when the store plans a change in hours or to be temporarily closed for a period, in order to ensure customers and suppliers are informed well in advance and don't find themselves standing in front of the locked door to a dark and empty shop:

Avid Bookshop Store Closure/Change of Hours Checklist

More bookseller-created and road tested resources can be found in the Peer Bookseller Resource Library. (requires log in)

Over the last couple of weeks SIBA has covered the many benefits of using the Winter Catalog as a marketing tool, and shared some of things bookstores to get catalogs into the hands of both their regular customers, and new customers (see here and here).

One of the best things about the catalog program is that your box(es) of catalogs come with a fully-fledged set of marketing tools, at no extra charge:

• A digital catalog page created linked to your bookstore's e-commerce system
• A set of shareable graphics optimized for social media and email newsletters
• A set of downloadable files for in-store signage, including bookmarks, shelf talkers, and flyers.

All materials are professional designed to be on brand with the current catalog and are ready to use.

According the US Postal Service, 49% of catalog purchases occur online, and 33% of catalog recipients immediately visit a retail website. Integrating digital channels into your catalog plans can have a big impact on sales, new customer recruitment, and current customer retention.

Order the Winter Catalog

Back at the beginning of the year, when orders had just opened for the Indie Summer Reading Guide (aka "the Summer Catalog") SIBA posted some ideas for how tiny stores could use 500 catalogs. SIBA now claims pop up stores, bookmobiles, and many other very small, creative business models in its community of members, for whom the usual approach to store catalogs -- piles of inventory taking up lots of prime floor space -- simply don't apply. But booksellers are nothing if not creative, and have found many interesting ways to use SIBA's catalog program not only as a powerful sales tool, but as an important tool for reaching new customers, creating relationships with their community, and building brand recognition.

As it turns out, according to the US Postal Service, people like to get printed catalogs. They enjoy reading them, tend to hang on to them, and even more importantly, have more trust in the companies that send them. More trust means more sales. People who get catalogs tend to buy things from them, and even better, tend to buy more things than they do from digital marketing like email newsletters.

If your store is new to the catalog program, the Winter Gift Catalog is a great way to give your store's visibility in the community a big boost. If you signed up for the summer catalog, which just landed in May, then the impact you are making now is something you can build on in the 4th quarter with the winter edition.

Order the Winter Catalog

The minimum order for imprinted catalogs is 1000. Imprinting is partially subsidized by SIBA so it costs only $110.  Assuming you can hand out 250 to customers in your store over the holiday season, here are 11 ways to use the rest if you are a tiny store:

1. Send one to everyone on your mailing list or who has ever ordered from you online. Don't neglect out of town addresses. (100)
   
   
2. Do an exchange with another business near you -- they pass out your catalogs to their customers, you pass out their "free coffee" coupons to yours. Add new businesses to this program, especially ones that have just opened and might appreciate the partnership. (100)
   
   
3. Include a catalog in all special order book shipments and/or subscription boxes. (50)
   
   
4. Mail catalogs to your top 50 customers with a handwritten thank-you note. (50)
   
   
5. If your store does pop-ups, offsite events, or bookmobile routes, seed places on your scheduled route with catalogs and info to purchase books online from the digital version, or order and pick up when you are in the area. (100)
   
   
6. Send one as part of a store information packet to your local city council, mayor, county commissioners, or other business community influencers with a letter about the importance of their support for local businesses. Continue to add groups to this list: Chamber of Commerce, local small business alliances, etc. (50)
   
   
7. 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. (100)
   
   
8. Send catalogs to school librarians, county librarians, and teachers with a handwritten appreciation note and invitation to order. (50)
   
   
9. Bring catalogs to local independent and/or assisted living communities and take orders. (50)
   
   
10. Send catalogs to members of the book clubs you host or work with. (50)
    
    
11. Make the catalogs part of any Shop Local campaign organized by business alliances in the community. (100)

250+100+100+50+50+100+50+100+50+50+50+100 =1000 catalogs and a successful holiday shopping season!

Order the Winter Catalog