Presenters Sarah Goddin, buyer and former General Manager of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC, and Kimberly Daniels Taws, buyer and manager of The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC will discuss their organization, The Independent Bookstores of Piedmont, NC. This organization , which represents 12 stores, offers a unique Independent Bookstore Day promotion involving a calendar featuring a store a month, with incentives to visit all 12 stores to receive a discount card and be entered into drawings.
Tom Lowenburg, co-owner of Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana, will discuss their local spin on the national IBD event. Because the national date conflicts with NOLA's Jazz Fest, they've worked together with other New Orleans indies on a "New Orleans Independent Bookstore Day," which takes place at a later date and encourages participation and multi-store visits with a scavenger hunt and a passport.
About our presenters:
Sarah Goddin is a buyer and former general manager of Quail Ridge Books, a 9000 square foot store in Raleigh, NC. She has been a bookseller for 40 years, starting with Waldenbooks in 1978, then opening and running her own store, Wellington's Books, in Cary, for 10 years, finally landing at Quail Ridge Books in 1996. Sarah has served on various ABA committees such as the Booksellers Advisory Council, Education and Abacus task forces, and as chair of the Spring 2017 Indies Introduce adult book selection committee.
Kimberly Daniels Taws is the manager and buyer for The Country Bookshop, a thriving bookstore located in the heart of Southern Pines, North Carolina. She's responsible for day to day buying, management, public relations, author events, and general retail business. She's Past President of the Southern Pines Business Association and the SIBA board.
Tom Lowenburg is co-owner, with Judith Lafitte, of Octavia Books in New Orleans, LA. He has served on the boards of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association. He is currently on the board of AMIBA, the American Independent Business Alliance.
Some of the reviews submitted this week on Edelweiss+ from your fellow SIBA booksellers. SIBA members earn B3! points for every review if they join the SIBA community on Edelweiss. Email nicki@sibaweb.com to be added.
9781496441539A Long Time Coming 1/7/2020
"Great character development and a compelling narrative. I think this will make a good book club pick for its family dynamics and themes of family secrets, infidelity, and end-of-life issues. Despite all of its heavy themes, it's a joy to read. Granny B, with all her flaws, is a treasure." -- Angela Schroeder, Sunrise Books, High Point, NC
9780525534938We Wish You Luck 1/14/2020
"A quiet novel with big payoff. I was immediately intrigued by the narrative voice; the story of what happened at a low residency MFA program (the students meet every June and January and go home to their regular lives the rest of the year) is told through the cumulative voice of the residents, minus the three most talented writers at the center of the story. These writers (Hannah, Leslie, and Jimmy) are wildly different from each other, but they form a tight bond during the first residency; this bond is irrevocably changed during the second residency, and two of them take their elaborate revenge in the third. Surprisingly heartfelt, this book is a must-read for fans of the campus novel. "-- Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, NC
9781644450109Homie 1/21/2020
"Navigating the conflicting but closely connected emotions of joy and grief, celebration and mourning, and love and pain, Danez Smith’s Homie is a lyrical force of reckoning. Through the evocative power of memory, Smith’s collection delves deeply into stories and hurt that we might try to run from in order to transform them into odes—odes of childhood, of loss, of the person from high school that you always wanted to tell you admired for their strength and confidence. Through an intimate understanding of the people that have populated their life, Homie creates a complex but undeniably honest portrait of human connection." -- Morgan McComb, Square Books, Oxford, MS
9781984878618The Authenticity Project 2/4/2020
"Interwining the stories of five strangers who reach out and help each other after reading and sharing their stories in a common journal, the author deals with issues of truth, falsehood, loneliness, friendship and generosity of spirit. Book clubs, in particular, will find this book rich with opportunities for discussion." -- Lia Lent, WordsWorth Books, Little Rock, AR
On Wednesday, December 4 at 2PM EST, Andy Hunter, CEO and Founder of Bookshop and Sarah High, Bookseller Liaison, discussed Bookshop, its mission, and how it will partner with independent bookstores. Set to launch in January 2020, Bookshop is an online bookstore with an explicit mission to help promote and financially support the brick-and-mortar bookselling community. Built-in collaboration with the ABA, independent booksellers, Ingram, and some of their favorite book and magazine publishers, Bookshop will be a way for websites, authors, indie stores, magazines, and bookstagramers to easily promote and purchase the books they love online without driving sales to Amazon.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Dear Booksellers,
Many of you have heard about Bookshop (https://bookshop.org), our new bookselling platform with a mission to financially support independent bookstores like yours. We’re about three months from when we hope to launch (after Winter Institute, 2020) and I wanted to let you know more about who we are, our plans, and our goals.
I am a book publisher, of Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull press. I am also a web publisher, of Literary Hub, CrimeReads, and Book Marks, and before that, I founded Electric Literature. I am thoroughly invested in the culture around books, and I understand how important bookstores are to to that culture.
It has been wonderful to see how resilient bookstores have been over the past decade. But I worry about the future when I see Amazon growing from 37.7% of Bookscan’s reported sales in 2015 to over 50% in 2019, and e-commerce’s share of the US retail market growing 14% year-over-year. I believe indies need a piece of online sales to safeguard their future. Some have adapted: approximately 150 stores have websites that reach five figures in annual revenue; about 25 stores reach six figures--but the majority of stores do not.
Like all of us who have made books the center of our lives, I have a deep and abiding love for bookstores, which I have known since childhood as places to find meaning. Books allowed me to discover myself and the world, and they still do. Bookstores are the physical roots of book culture, necessary for literature, ideas, our social conscience, and our understanding of ourselves and the world, and if we don’t nurture and protect them, people won’t simply find other places to get books, they’ll read fewer books. Without your stores, books will become a smaller part of our culture, and that would be bad for individuals, society, and the future, which is already so fraught.
I hope that Bookshop can help strengthen the fragile ecosystem and margins around bookselling by providing an alternative to Amazon for socially-conscious online book-buyers.
Bookshop will be a B-Corp, which is a corporation that puts our mission and the public good above financial interests. It is written in Bookshop’s bylaws that we will never sell the company to Amazon or any major US retailer. Our investors are individuals who appreciate the necessary function that bookstores serve in our society and culture. There’s no venture capital in Bookshop; we are in it for the long haul. Bookshop will have three independent booksellers on our seven-member board, and we are going to create an advisory board to ensure full transparency and community participation in our decision-making. (If you’d like to be on the advisory board, email us at info@bookshop.org.)
It’s important to us that everyone in the bookselling community understand that we’re building this for your benefit. We are always going to be listening to booksellers and growing the platform in the way that benefits you the most. Digital projects need to experiment and evolve to succeed, so you can expect us to change and improve a lot in our first year, and you can help by offering feedback and guidance.
Our goal is to build a sustainable platform that helps solve three problems:
First, authors, publishers, media, and fans need a universal site they can link to that supports you. Sales conversions for IndieBound.org have been too low. When we ask authors and publishers to do the right thing and support indies, they shouldn’t have to forego sales.
Second, affiliate programs are changing the Internet. Amazon has a huge funnel, across most popular sites on the web, that pays 4.5% commissions on books that are sold through their affiliate links. Advertising dollars have dried up and magazines, newspapers and websites who cover books need the revenue (affiliate fees are 20% of an average digital publisher’s revenue) but their only viable option is Amazon. Even if Bookshop did nothing else, building a successful affiliate program that benefits indies is critical if we don’t want to cede the whole affiliate market to Amazon. Our affiliate program will give 10% of the list price to the affiliate and 10% to indie bookstores, and provide meaningful analytics. We expect to launch with major affiliate partners, including all the big 5 publishers, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Conde Nast publications, Literary Hub, Electric Literature and many more. By fall, 2020 we expect to have thousands of affiliates.
Third, a number of bookstores do not generate meaningful revenue online. All brick-and-mortar stores need to retain their customers when they shop online, yet so many of your customers shop in your stores in person, but go to Amazon when they need convenience. We want to help resource-strapped stores with a simple solution that requires no technical knowledge, no financial investment, and no internal resources (inventory, picking, packing, shipping, customer service) and allows them to easily sell books using social media, email, and the web.
Beginning in early 2020, IndieBound.org’s direct sales function will be replaced with Bookshop. IndieBound is not going away; it will remain a place to locate independent bookstores, discover the Indie Next list, and host other ABA resources. But all “buy” links to individual books on IndieBound.org will be redirected to Bookshop.org.
Ingram’s direct-to-consumer business will handle our orders, inventory, picking, packing, shipping, and returns. Ingram is excited to support our effort and eager to help.
How will Bookshop support your store?
Just take our money. 10% of the list price of everything we sell goes to a pool for indie booksellers with brick and mortar stores who are ABA members. Sign up and we’ll send you a transparent accounting and a check every six months. We don’t require anything more than your sign up: email sarah.high@bookshop.org for more information.
If you want to be a Bookshop affiliate and sell books using our platform, you can. Brick-and-mortar ABA members earn 25% of the list price of any sale, much more than the normal 10% affiliate fee. If you don’t have a website that sells books, or just want to experiment, you can use Bookshop links to sell books. Authors or organizations who love your store can use your Bookshop to help support you; customers can buy from your bookshop page to ensure their purchases to benefit your store; and you can contribute staff picks and book lists and get the affiliate fee if our visitors buy based on your recommendations.
After paying the publisher, distributor, discounts, and processing fees, Bookshop’s net revenue will be about 30% of a book’s list price. For a media-partner like Literary Hub, the affiliate sale will be split as follows: a third goes to the affiliate, a third to the bookstore pool, and a third to Bookshop.
Bookstores get a better deal than media affiliates. We believe any bookstore-driven sale should benefit that store in particular, rather than going into a general pool. So bookstores get the 10% affiliate fee, plus the 10% that would normally go towards the pool, plus an additional 5% (because supporting stores is our mission). When we give 25% of the sale to a store, Bookshop makes less than 5%, just enough to keep the platform going.
Customers on Bookshop will be able to search for their favorite store and buy from them. Stores who provide recommendation lists (the staff picks, reading lists, shelf talkers, etc, which can appear on Bookshop’s homepage, category pages or product pages) will also get 25% of those sales (if there are multiple recommendations for the same books, they will be given equal exposure). So when a Bookshop customer adds a book to their cart based on your recommendation, you’ll get the affiliate commission. Email kevin.chau@bookshop.org to create lists for us.
When we promote Bookshop, we are going to be careful to target customers who are not already shopping at indies online. We’ll do this by convincing influencers and publications to link to Bookshop rather than Amazon. We want to convert socially-conscious Amazon customers, not yours. We hope we can also lead some customers into their local indie’s sales channel:
We are not doing signed pre-order campaigns; we are telling publishers to select indie partners for those.
We will put information about a customer’s local bookstores on every email receipt, encouraging all our customers to visit. After launch, we’ll add local bookstore events, too.
We ask all our customers if it is okay to share their email addresses with their local bookstore, and if they agree, we will provide their email to local store(s), based on their proximity.
If your store uses a Bookshop link to sell a book (on the web, social media, or email), you are entitled to their contact information - they are your customer.
Bookshop is not a replacement for your IndieCommerce or IndieLite site. We recommend that stores contact the ABA’s Indiecommerce team to build full-featured websites that can sell merchandise, handle event orders, do in-store pickup and more.
Our affiliate profiles pages are simple, with a photo, short bio, recommended book lists, and search. We expect thousands of curated pages from bookstores, authors, chefs recommending favorite cookbooks, travelers, celebrity bookclubs, mainstream media, blogs, instagrammers, and many more. We want to create a buzzing hive of book-lovers, and a rich collection of recommendations from all the people who make up the community around books. That will be a true alternative to Amazon - a site that puts humans and human recommendations first.
We hope to launch in the last week of January, 2020, right after Winter Institute. We will launch with something simple, and improve on it every week thereafter. When Bookshop launches, it will have bugs and rough edges; all new platforms do. But we will keep working to make it a little better every week, with actual customers giving us feedback. We will work to deliver a good experience, be a good partner to bookstores, and try to make the right decisions. We will eventually add features like bookseller and/or customer book reviews, used books (with indie partners through Biblio), and much more. That phase, the continuous small improvements phase, will never really end. To be a robust alternative to Amazon, with something special to offer our book lovers, we will have to continuously evolve.
If you want to be a bookshop affiliate, have questions, or would like to receive more information about Bookshop, please email Sarah at sarah.high@bookshop.org
Thank you for reading. We look forward to working with you.
Authors, booksellers, publishers, distributors, and others with ties to the book industry are invited to nominate their favorite bookstores and sales representatives for the Bookstore and Sales Rep of the Year Awards. (Please note that candidates cannot nominate themselves, nor can family members nominate them.) Finalists will be named at Winter Institute 15 in Baltimore, Md., in January. Winners will receive a write-up in the pre-BookExpo issue of Publishers Weekly’s print magazine in May 2020 and will be honored at an awards ceremony in New York City at BookExpo.
Bookstore of the Year: PW will honor an independently owned bricks-and-mortar bookstore in the U.S. that has been in operation for at least four years. In your nomination, please note what makes the bookstore special and provide contact information, including your name and industry affiliation. Bookstores that have previously received the award cannot be considered, nor can their sister stores.
Sales Rep of the Year: PW welcomes nominations for outstanding telephone and house reps as well as independent sales representatives. Please include an example of the rep’s commitment to excellence, as well as contact information, including your name and industry affiliation. Sales representatives can only win the award once.
Please email nominations for PW’s 2020 Bookstore and Sales Representative of the Year Award to: Judith Rosen at PWawards@publishersweekly.com.
SIBA will be upgrading its website on Monday, December 2. The upgrade will begin at 10 am and will take several hours to complete. During that time visitors may experience some site slowness or downtime. We're sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. If you need to access your SIBA account and are having trouble, you can contact us directly at any of the following:
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Ingram Service Alert:
Ingram Wholesale and the Ingram distribution brands are anticipating a busy holiday season. We expect the closer we get to Christmas Eve, our parcel and less-than-truck load carriers will experience sporadic service delays due to growth in package delivery volume.
Occasionally, we may split shipments that have qualified for free freight at fifteen (15) units shipped. Our objective is to ship complete, but should we have to split a shipment that has qualified for free freight, Ingram will ship both shipments free freight and will only apply a single fuel surcharge. If a shipment is "split," your delivery of the second shipment will likely be the following day.
The weeks of December 9th and December 16th will be the highest volume weeks throughout the carrier network. We encourage you to order as early as possible and, when possible, in quantities of 15 units or more during this week to mitigate network volume pressure later in the week. Of course, for all orders to Ingram, we commit to our standard Ingram order cut-off and processing times.
As always, our Customer Care team is standing by and ready to help you have a successful holiday season. Customer Care hours through December and January are 7:00am to 7:00pm CST. Effective February 3rd, Customer Care will be 7:00am to 6:00pm CST.
We wish you great success during this season and will continue to update you through ipage and through your sales representative if carrier and supply chain conditions change.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2019
In the first couple weeks of voting, SIBA has already received hundreds of ballots for the 2020 Southern Book Prize, from customers of over 40 SIBA member bookstores. SIBA encourages its members to get their customers involved. The ballot will stay open until February 1 -- plenty of time for everyone to #VoiceYourChoice for the best Southern book of the year. www.SouthernBookPrize.com
SIBA has a developing toolkit of resources to help stores get the most out of the Southern Book Prize voting season:
Ballot Postcard: Because when it comes to placing a vote, some folks just prefer a paper ballot! If you have run out of postcard ballots to hand out to your customers you can download the ballot to print more.
Ballot embed code: You can place the online ballot directly on your website and encourage your customers to vote without leaving your site.
Action Checklist: What to do and when to do it in order to make the most out of the Southern Book Prize for your store.
Customizable Press Release: Let your local media know that you are a sponsoring partner of the Southern Book Prize, and that their readers have a voice in choosing the best Southern books of the year.
Social Media Links: All the social media tags, handles and accounts you need to promote the Southern Book Prize finalists. Be sure to tag the author when you are talking about their book.
Bookseller Reviews: A collection of the reviews your fellow SIBA booksellers have written about the finalist books.
Social Media Graphics: Right-click on any of the images below
to save them to your computer, then upload them to your website, social media or for email and other marketing. SIBA will publish new ones every week.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Some of the reviews submitted this week on Edelweiss+ from your fellow SIBA booksellers. SIBA members earn B3! points for every review if they join the SIBA community on Edelweiss. Email nicki@sibaweb.com to be added.
9780385541213The Starless Sea 11/5/2019
"As expected, from the author of The Night Circus, simply magical. Words feel inadequate to capture the experience of reading this. An entirely immersive experience. second to none." -- Tricia Nocti, Reading Rock, Dickson, TN
9781524717667Shine 11/5/2019
""Shine on!" is the catchphrase of Piper's favorite astronomer, but Piper feels like she will never shine, especially when her dad's new job moves her to a fancy private school. Piper's story is full of heart, science, and doesn't shy away from figuring out who you are. This book was made for middle schoolers."-- Chelsea Stringfield, Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN
9780525538110On Swift Horses 11/5/2019
"In this mesmerizing debut novel, Shannon Pufahl uses a delicate stroke to paint a vast picture of the 1950s American West through the eyes of Muriel and Julius, two loners connected by an unspoken truth that lingers in the air like dust. They are both filled with a fierce tenacity; Muriel's flame is reserved, slow-burning, while Julius' is rambunctious and wide-spreading. But both are fires, manifesting at their own pace... Written with a piercing beauty and subtle grit, Pufahl has achieved a marvelous feat of lyrical prowess that gives an explosive voice to the quiet queerness of an already often-forgotten time in history. This book left me absolutely breathless from beginning to end. " -- Gage Tarlton, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC
9781335929099Every Other Weekend 1/7/2020
"Adam's life has fallen apart. His oldest brother died a few years ago and his parents are still falling apart. His dad has moved away to a run down apartment building that he's rehabbing for free rent. Adam and his other brother come visit him every other weekend, bit Adam isn't happy about it. Until he meets Jolene. She's there in a similar arrangement to visit her dad every other weekend. But she has a host of problems of her own. Every Other Weekend has SO much emotion and heart. The "insults" between Adam and Jolene were absolutely perfect. This one had me alternately in tears and laughing. Absolutely recommend this one. -- Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser, Roswell, GA
Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Florida created a wonderfully entertaining and instructive promotional video that emphasizes the power of "Actual Intelligence" over "Artificial Intelligence." In the video, a man asks an artificially intelligent device for book recommendations, to which the device responds with a series of unhelpful answers. The man then visits Midtown Reader, where a friendly bookseller quickly ascertains which book he is looking for (he can’t remember the title, only the illustration on the cover) and shows him where it is. The bookseller’s name? Alexis. (Her name is actually Alexis, and she’s an actual Midtown Reader bookseller.)
Fundamental to the mission of Midtown Reader is a belief that independent bookstores remain cultural treasures because they offer something online retailers cannot. In a brick-and-mortar bookstore with flesh-and-blood booksellers, recommendations are both personal and powered by actual intelligence (as opposed to the artificial variety). What’s more, with regular events like author readings and book clubs, independent bookstores function as community spaces where people can connect over stories, ideas, and perspectives.
Midtown Reader was opened in November of 2016 by Sally Bradshaw, who, after a career in politics, decided to make her childhood dream of owning a bookstore a reality.
“My sister and I spent many hours in our small Mississippi Delta hometown at both our local library and our neighborhood bookstore, sadly long gone now, a victim of Amazon,” Bradshaw wrote in the store’s email newsletter. “Books led me to believe I would grow up to be a detective (thank you Nancy Drew), or a lawyer (thank you Atticus Finch). Ultimately, I settled on public policy, and left home with dreams of changing the world in the political arena. I never imagined that my best and lasting chance to change the world would come in a bookstore.”
After only three years in business, Midtown Reader has become a “destination bookstore” and a bustling community space, with multiple events every week and meaningful partnerships with community organizations and non-profits across Tallahassee. Bradshaw believes that it’s this kind of connectedness, along with caring, knowledgeable booksellers and warm, personal customer service, that make independent bookstores disruptive in an age of online retailers and invaluable always.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Would you like to begin a festival in your town? It’s a lot of work, but can add another dimension and revenue stream to your bookstore, deepen your relationships with community partners, publishers, and authors, and foster a greater appreciation for reading and author interactions in your region and beyond. Listen to four veterans discuss the book festivals they initiated or partner in, and learn some great tips on how to do it right and have fun doing it.
The deadline for booksellers to nominate new titles for the Winter 2020 Okra Picks is November 15. Booksellers can submit through the Okra Picks Nomination Form or through a review on Edelweiss. Nominated books must release during January, February, or March of 2020, and be southern in nature, but can cover any genre, not just fiction, and not just adult titles. The Okra Picks are a baker’s dozen fresh titles chosen each season that SIBA booksellers want to handsell. Let us know your favorites by nominating!
The late Nancy Olson was a legendary bookseller, a first-class wit, a remarkably gentle soul, and a tireless supporter of writers, especially new writers looking for a chance in the publishing world. Simply put, she was one of the best folks to ever work in the book business, and her Quail Ridge Books was—and is—a literary institution. An admirer of Nancy’s, in conjunction with SIBA, will be awarding two $2000 gifts in her memory on December 18, 2019. The Nancy Olson Bookseller Award will then become an annual program. All SIBA booksellers—but not owners—are eligible for the awards. Writers, readers, and/or storeowners may submit a name and any helpful information via email to SIBA at lindamarie@sibaweb.com . Also, individual booksellers may nominate themselves. While the emails should explain why a particular nominee deserves to be selected, there are no hard and fast rules or requirements or guidelines for the submissions—the hope is to simply honor Nancy and recognize special booksellers. The winners will be selected from these nominations by Sarah Goddin from Nancy’s Quail Ridge Books, SIBA’s Linda-Marie Barrett, Nancy’s husband Jim, and the donor of the gifts. The deadline for e-mail nominations is 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10, 2019.
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Some of the reviews submitted this week on Edelweiss+ from your fellow SIBA booksellers. SIBA members earn B3! points for every review if they join the SIBA community on Edelweiss. Email nicki@sibaweb.com to be added.
9781984824257Wine Simple 11/19/2019
"Award-winning sommelier Aldo Sohm by all rights should be a stuffy, snobbish autocrat who will scoff at you, you wine ignoramus! By some miracle, however, he is, instead, a gently intelligent guide to the world of wine, making this confusing subject easy to approach. He shares his wisdom in this fun-to-read guide." -- Anne Peck, Righton Books, St Simons Island, GA
9780525542315Would Like to Meet 12/3/2019
"When a romantic comedy is perfectly executed, it leaves one with this giddy, full-hearted, warm, and intoxicating feeling that makes one believe in actual honest-to-goodness happy endings, and this book delivers all of that and more in a way that I haven’t experienced in a good long while. Rachel Winters’ debut novel is a lovely, funny, witty, and heartwarming homage to the entire rom-com film cannon, and I absolutely adored every single page of it! It unfolds like all the best rom-coms do, with lots of laughs (from full-bellied exclamations to cheek burning chuckles), more than a few empathetic grimaces (also usually accompanied by some laughs, and more than a few “oh no’s”...), and an abundance of heart. I only wish that this gift of a story came out sooner, as I am itching with the prospect of recommending it to people! I guess I’ll just have to content myself with making it my March 2020 romance book club pick ??"-- Lucy Perkins-Wagel, Copperfish Books, Punta Gorda, FL
9781616208592Creatures 1/7/2020
"Evie must confront her unstable upbringing on an island off the coast of Los Angeles, a father who used and sold drugs, a mother who was mostly absent and the constantly changing moods of the Pacific Ocean. Dealing with loneliness and abandonment, she is constantly searching for love and stability while she mostly raises herself. There is a lot to unpack here as Crissy Van Meter has created so much depth (an ocean pun, hah) to Evie's life on Winter Island that I could have been easily convinced the place actually exists. I read this in one sitting, it is such a truly beautiful book." -- Carl Kranz, Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA
9781593765866Imaginary Museums 1/14/2020
"Hysterical, vivid, ominous, fervid, outrageous, captivating: can one collection of short stories be all of these things? Once you read Imaginary Museums, you'll see the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Polek's collection is filled to the brim with unforgettable characters: pretentious academics, nervous brides, sneaky landlords--they're all here and then some. Imaginary Museums transports you to places that are wholly another world and yet also undeniably familiar. Short fiction is having a moment, and if you haven't delved into some of the great short fiction that's being published, a great place to start is with Nicolette Polek's masterful and engrossing work." -- Morgan McComb, Square Books, Oxford, MS
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), a regional not-for-profit trade association, seeks an experienced and entrepreneurial-minded leader to serve as its next Executive Director. The right candidate will be passionate about books and bookstores, have a solid familiarity with the region and the book industry, and have the strategic and administrative acumen needed to help the organization thrive in the future.
SIBA is a not-for-profit trade association of independent booksellers and others who are an integral part of the booksellers’ success – authors, publishers, vendors and publicists. SIBA’s membership includes 158 core members who are independent, “brick and mortar” bookstores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The organization is governed by a five-member Board of Directors with each Director serving a three-year term. SIBA is deeply committed to upholding the principles of the Carver Policy Governance Model which makes a clear distinction between the policy-making role of the Board and the implementation role of the Executive Director. The staff, which is currently composed of two full-time positions and one contractual employee, operates virtually with each staff member working remotely. The annual operating budget is approximately $500,000. Wanda Jewell, the incumbent, is retiring after a thirty-year tenure as Executive Director.
Current programs are designed to provide skills, informational resources, and tools to enhance booksellers’ success and visibility. They include the annual Discovery Show and SIBA in the Springtime – high energy networking and educational events which draw hundreds of booksellers, authors, publishers, and vendors. Special awards, social media, and marketing tools are designed to increase sales and public awareness of indie bookstores. Also, SIBA’s Peer Review Trust acts as an archive of best practices for bookstores and offers peer review assessments for stores who feel they would benefit from some outside assistance. Priorities for SIBA’s next Executive Director are to continue strong governance practices, enhance strategic capabilities, promote organizational sustainability, build advocacy and partnerships, strengthen communication, improve programmatic and operational focus, seek opportunities to improve diversity and inclusion, and pursue ways technology can enhance SIBA’s overall efficiency and effectiveness.
Additional details about the position and qualifications sought are available on the Position Profile. Organizational information can be found on SIBA’s website – www.sibaweb.com Inquiries about the position and the search process should be addressed to: EDjob@sibaweb.com
SIBA is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes a diverse pool of candidates.
What made you decide to come to the SIBA Discovery Show?
We wanted to continue meeting people from stores in the South. SIBA was at the top of our list when we were figuring out our fall schedule. We’re glad we could make it too Spartanburg, because SIBA offers so many good opportunities to get to know people.
Did it meet your expectations?
Yes! We’re based in Vermont, and when we first did SIBA (New Orleans, 2017) we barely had a presence in the South. We are now carried in quite a few shops throughout the South, and it’s much easier for customers to find our products. I’m glad we could return this year.
What did you learn from attending the show?
I learn a lot at every show, but I think what I especially like about SIBA and other regional book shows is that you get to meet so many people who are passionate about the importance of bookstores. I like to learn about the history of each store, and about how people came to own or work in the store. Bookstores usually come with a lot of history, and they are run by people who care deeply about their communities. The Haunted Book Shop, for example. I really liked talking with Angela about how she ended up running the store, which has such a rich history in Mobile.
I also continued to learn about how stores incorporate sidelines into their product mix. I can’t remember the exact percentage, but someone told me that around 25% of their sales come from non-book items. Storymatic is a fun, literate sideline, and it was interesting to talk with people who are just beginning to diversify their offerings to include more than books.
Why do you think the independent bookstore market is important?
Independent bookstores have importance that goes way beyond the economic impact they have within their communities. Books change people’s lives. I have a ton of respect for independent bookstores. Indies pay rent, employ people, and make important contributions to society. It’s important to me that customers can find Storymatic in actual bookstores around the country, that they can hold it in their actual hands, and that they can buy it from an actual person. When you work or shop in an independent bookstore, you have experiences and interactions you cannot have online. You gain knowledge that cannot be transmitted through fiber optic cable. You make memories and friends you cannot make online. Bookstores are very, very important.
On a personal note, when I was 16, I started working at Railroad Street Books in Great Barrington, MA. The store is long gone, but it made a huge difference in my life. I worked there off-and-on through college, and I’m grateful for that experience. Being around books and readers helped me begin to think of myself as a reader and writer. Working in the bookstore gave me a glimpse of what it’s like to run a community-based business. Often, when I package up an order for a bookstore, I imagine a younger version of myself at the other end of the shipment, opening it and showing it to a customer.
Describe Storymatic Studios and how it got started
I made the first Storymatic several years ago while leading a fiction workshop at Marlboro College in Vermont. I then took that first Storymatic to my high school classes at The Putney School Summer Programs. I added to that first Storymatic year by year, class by class. All the while, students told me I should make more than one Storymatic, because they wanted to buy it and use it outside of class with their friends and families. Finally, I took their advice. Really, if it weren't for the excitement and support of my students, there would be no Storymatic.
After the first Storymatic came out, parents started asking me to make one for younger kids. So I took their advice and made Storymatic Kids. Even though it’s called Kids, it’s great for all ages.
And then my poetry and memoir students started going, “Hey, what about us? Where’s the poetry one? Where’s the memoir one?” So I modified some of the memory prompts we use in those classes to make Rememory, which helps you recall and share moments from your own life.
I thought I was pretty much done at that point, but then students started asking me why I hadn’t done anything with one prompt that involves writing sentences that mix up your senses, and another prompt where people ask questions about your story and you have to give an answer, even if it’s about something you’ve never considered before. That’s how Synapsis came out. It gives you a different way to make up stories.
So now we have four different products that help people explore their imaginations and memories. I think it’s important to do that. Stories keep our minds nimble. Inventing characters can help build a sense of empathy. I’d like to see a little more imagination and empathy in the world.
We’re based in Brattleboro, Vermont. We have a lovely little space in an old mill, alongside a variety of small, independent businesses.
The “we” that I keep mentioning is me and my wife, the photographer Vaune Trachtman. Sometimes people think Storymatic has a bunch of people. But it’s really just me and Vaune.
What are your newest products for the holiday season?
Synapsis!
It’s a conversational, somewhat improvisational way to open doors to your imagination. In Synapsis, you’re prompted to turn two or three words into a sentence, which you pretend comes from a certain kind of story. Then you answer questions about that story and begin to flesh things out. I love how in just a few minutes you can go from a couple of random words to knowing all about the characters, settings, motivations, and arc of a story.
You can use Synapsis by yourself as a writing prompt, or you can make an evening of it with your friends. It’s super adaptable, so you can make your own ways to play. I like how Synapsis offers a different way of thinking about how stories are created, so it can be a little challenging at first. But challenges are good things. We like to think of Synapsis as being a little box of Yes.
Who should booksellers contact if they want to place an order?
You can contact me directly at brian@thestorymatic.com or leave a message at 802-451-0050. Thanks!
On Wednesday, December 4 at 2PM EST, Andy Hunter, CEO and Founder of Bookshop and Sarah High, Bookseller Liaison, will discuss Bookshop, its mission, and how it will partner with independent bookstores. The session will also provide time for your questions about the program and how you can benefit. Set to launch in January 2020, Bookshop is an online bookstore with an explicit mission to help promote and financially support the brick-and-mortar bookselling community. Built in collaboration with the ABA, independent booksellers, Ingram, and some of their favorite book and magazine publishers, Bookshop will be a way for websites, authors, indie stores, magazines, and bookstagramers to easily promote and purchase the books they love online without driving sales to Amazon.
Posted By Cat VanOrder, Bookmarks,
Monday, November 4, 2019
Updated: Thursday, October 3, 2019
First, I’d like to thank the Reba & Dave Scholarship for allowing me to attend SIBA wherein I was able to experience a scene of community and belonging like I’ve never felt before. Second, I’d like to thank the independent booksellers, reps, and authors that are a part of that community, for making me feel entirely welcome, because that’s what my entire experience was. Like stepping into a home of a friend and knowing that no matter what, you belong there. I learned that independent booksellers absolutely do not care about showing vulnerability, that they will always reach down a hand instead of pulling up the ladder.
I had never been to anything like this before, at least definitely not on this scale, that made me more positive than I had been before that this was what I want to spend my life doing. Helping my community connect and grow through the words and worlds of the authors that rely on, and support us the way we support them. That was something I hadn’t expected, or thought about; just how much independent booksellers mean to authors, but after hearing literally every author that spoke bring it up, it’s very much in the forefront of my mind now. A grave responsibility to be sure.
The roundtables were a bit of a conglomeration of my favorite things from SIBA coming together, in that it was where I truly got a good helping of knowledge from those determined to make sure we all succeed. From learning more about Ipage, which I thought I had known a lot about already (I hadn’t even scratched the surface), to learning how to up our display game, I came home with a ton of ideas that I immediately hopped on trying to figure out how to make it all happen, and I’m very excited for it all.
From the panels where I learned how to help make Independent Bookstore day a success, to the authors I chatted with that want to help make our Teen Advisory Council have some pretty cool meetings and events in the future, I’d say I achieved the goals I had going in. I connected with the people I wanted to, the people I didn’t expect to, and I made so many friends and opened up in a way that was incredibly shocking for myself. I explored the exhibition floor mostly on my own and found a ton of arcs to take home and review, and felt entirely comfortable doing it, like I was making an impact of my own. I came home from SIBA that Sunday knowing full well what I was going to be doing and why I was doing it, helping my fellow booksellers bring Bookmarks into a bright future for our community. ~Cat VanOrder, Bookmarks, NC
Southern independent booksellers have selected the finalists for the 2020 Southern Book Prize, representing bookseller favorites from 2019 that are Southern in nature—either about the South, or by a Southern writer. Nominations were submitted by bookstore members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) and culled from books that have received strong reviews from Southern booksellers. The sixteen finalists which received the highest number of nominations are a collection of the most beloved “hand sells” in fiction, nonfiction and children’s literature of the year.
The finalists are now placed on the 2020 Southern Book Prize ballot. Winners in each category will be chosen by popular vote from readers who support Southern independent bookstores. Participating bookstores will distribute ballots to their customers, which can be returned to be entered into a raffle to win a complete set of the finalist titles. An online ballot will also be available at www.southernbookprize.com.
Voting opens the week of the Love Your Bookstore Challenge, November 8-17, building on the momentum of the grassroots campaign to encourage book buying at local bookstores and giving store customers chances to win more prizes. Voting will run from November 8 through February 1, 2020.
2020 is the second year the Southern Book Prize has been opened up to a popular vote. SIBA launched the public ballot for the 2019 prize, shifting the voting period to build momentum and excitement during the holiday season.
“The response from our member stores and the general public was overwhelming,” said SIBA Executive Director Wanda Jewell. “Everyone got involved – booksellers, readers, authors – in the end nearly 3500 ballots were submitted from all over the South. It was a wonderful affirmation of how important and beloved our member bookstores are to their communities.”
Southern Book Prize winners will be announced on February 14, Valentine’s Day.
2020 Southern Book Prize Finalists
Fiction
Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson (William Morrow) Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (Ecco) The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (Harper) The Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handler (Hub City Press) The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books)
Nonfiction
Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy by Cassandra King (William Morrow) Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis (Doubleday) Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions) I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott (Atria Books) Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (Knopf)
Childrens
Hum and Swish by Matt Myers (Neal Porter Books) Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner (Crown Books for Young Readers) I Will Be Fierce by Bea Birdsong (Roaring Brook Press) The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (Wednesday Books) The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes (Nancy Paulsen Books)
For more information contact:
Wanda Jewell, Executive Director
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
803-466-8853 wanda@sibaweb.com
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS
The late Nancy Olson was a legendary bookseller, a first-class wit, a remarkably gentle soul, and a tireless supporter of writers, especially new writers looking for a chance in the publishing world. Simply put, she was one of the best folks to ever work in the book business, and her Quail Ridge Books was—and is—a literary institution. An admirer of Nancy’s, in conjunction with SIBA, will be awarding two $2000 gifts in her memory on December 18, 2019. The Nancy Olson Bookseller Award will then become an annual program. All SIBA booksellers—but not owners—are eligible for the awards. Writers, readers, and/or storeowners may submit a name and any helpful information via email to SIBA at 
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), a regional not-for-profit trade association, seeks an experienced and entrepreneurial-minded leader to serve as its next Executive Director. The right candidate will be passionate about books and bookstores, have a solid familiarity with the region and the book industry, and have the strategic and administrative acumen needed to help the organization thrive in the future. 
We wanted to continue meeting people from stores in the South. SIBA was at the top of our list when we were figuring out our fall schedule. We’re glad we could make it too Spartanburg, because SIBA offers so many good opportunities to get to know people.
Describe Storymatic Studios and how it got started
Southern independent booksellers have selected the finalists for the 2020 Southern Book Prize, representing bookseller favorites from 2019 that are Southern in nature—either about the South, or by a Southern writer. Nominations were submitted by bookstore members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) and culled from books that have received strong reviews from Southern booksellers. The sixteen finalists which received the highest number of nominations are a collection of the most beloved “hand sells” in fiction, nonfiction and children’s literature of the year.
