9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Bookseller School – “How To” Backwards & Forwards  – Room 6
(Cost: $75 per store, includes breakfast and lunch)

9:00 – 12 Noon – How to Use Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr and Become the Center of Your Customers’ Online Community

Discover new ways to connect with your customers online and convert your online fans into customers by building a community of readers with your store at its center.Identify creative and effective ways to utilize your store’s social media platform(s)

• ·
• Learn about hashtags and community-building memes like #fridayreads and #bookstorebingo
• Use your online connections to promote store events, increase attendance, and help your customers connect with authors and other readers online, in-store, and at special events like Club Read.

Join social media mavens Bethanne Patrick and Rebecca Joines Schinsky for a workshop that will renew your excitement for online engagement.

Noon – 1:00 PM – Enjoy lunch with your fellow booksellers and presenters.

1:00 – 4:00 – How to Save Thousands in Taxes and Become Invincible to Lawsuits

Discover the tools independent booksellers can use to become invisible to lawsuits, save thousands in taxes, and achieve financial peace of mind. By the end of the presentation independent booksellers will know how to:

• Protect 100% of independent booksellers assets from lawsuits. Independent booksellers will learn how to make themselves so unattractive to a plaintiff attorney that they will never pursue a lawsuit against independent booksellers.
• Save thousands of dollars each year in taxes. Independent booksellers will learn five tax reduction strategies most people fail to utilize which could save independent booksellers more than $10,000 each year in taxes.

Avoid probate and eliminate all estate taxes. Independent booksellers will be taken plan. Independent booksellers will learn what independent booksellers should be doing now to prepare for successful business and estate secession.  Presenter: G. Kent Mangelson, American Society for Asset Protection
It takes a lifetime to accumulate assets. Take an afternoon to protect them.

SIGN UP FOR #SIBA11 TODAY BEFORE IT”S TOO LATE! – http://www.tradeshow.sibaweb.com/

Contact: Diane Blanco
diane@LipstickDigest.com
281-380-7939

Tour of England to Include the American Queen

Since Prince William slipped that stunning ring of Diana’s on the delicate
left hand of darling Kate, America has paid rapt attention to their every
breath. Their royal fairy tale wedding only revved up our interest.
Headlines scream, “Kate wears same jeans three times on trip” or “Kate buys
her own groceries and cleans her own house!”  We remain atwitter at their
every move. I suppose it is refreshing that this royal couple is displaying
the first signs of normalcy since…surely one of them was once normal. I just
can’t bring them to mind.

Isn’t it time that we showed the English our royalty? I am not referring to
Beyoncé and Usher, although they are a lovely couple. I am speaking of the
Queen, herself, the Pulpwood Queen, that is, the woman who brought her love
of books to the people in the strangest of places, a beauty shop. And that
is where the legend began.

Kathy L. Patrick was a born book lover who parlayed that love into a career
as a publisher’s representative in California. Hard economic times cost her
a career that she loved. Never without internal resources, Kathy embraced
her second love, turning limp, lifeless hair into a masterpiece, a “crowning
glory” for all she touched.

Unable to give up her love of books and her desire to spread that love, she
opened the world’s only Beauty Shop/Bookstore, Beauty and the Book, in the
tiny kingdom of Jefferson, Texas.

Build a better mousetrap or taller beehive and the world will beat a path to
your door. Not only did clients come to have their hair done, her friends
from the publishing industry soon took notice and Beauty and the Book became
a regular stop on author’s book tours.

Kathy found her love of books was contagious and what began as one book club
multiplied and divided until they numbered over 500 across the U.S. and 12
foreign countries

Kathy opened Beauty and the Book on January 18, 2000 , an event covered by
Oxford American Magazine. “That article, entitled, “Hairdresser to the
Authors”, literally put me on the map.  Authors have been coming in droves
ever since and so has the media. To me it is just combining my two passions
in life, beauty and books. Since John Grisham was the magazine editor at the
time, I have a shrine to him in my shop.”

She is now undeniably the Pulpwood Queen of America and her subjects turn to
her every month for reading guidance and introductions to emerging new
authors. Once a year, in what is definitely the coldest month of the year in
Jefferson, Texas, she holds her Annual Girlfriend Weekend, where club
members and more than 50 well-known authors come for a love-fest of reading,
giddiness and more than just a few tiaras.

The weekend is filled with author panels, book signings and fun events where
authors serve meals or stage a humorous production, which may or may not
involve some cross-dressing. While it is all fun, the highlight of the
weekend must be the Great Big Ball of Hair Ball, where costumes and over the
top hair are de rigger. This year’s theme is The Circus—“The Greatest Book
Show on Earth”, as if it wasn’t already wild enough. Someone will most
likely arrive riding a pony. The pony may or may not be wearing a tiara.

Kathy has been seen on TV screens across the country on shows such as Oprah,
The Today Show, and Good Morning America. Now it is time to show England
what we’ve got. Kathy will travel across the pond to England on December 6
as the featured guest on the Stately English Homes at Christmas Tour,
sponsored by Kingwood Travel and LipstickDigest.com.

The tour departs Houston on Dec. 6 for London and includes visits to the
historic Peak District and Stratford-upon-Avon, Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth
House and Shugborough Hall, concluding with 2 additional days in London for
sightseeing and shopping. The cost of the tour, from Houston, is $2450, per
person, double occupancy, which includes roundtrip airfare on Continental, 6
breakfasts, 2 lunches a 3-course dinner, the services of a professional
Trafalgar guide, deluxe motor coach and all transfers. The tour returns
December 13.

This is the perfect opportunity for women who love books and, of course,
traveling with royalty to also experience the beauty of historic English
homes decked out for the holidays. It is also time for the English to take
notice that in America, a woman with a good book, a strong will and a tiara,
can be a queen.

For more information about joining the Stately English Homes at Christmas
Tour or discovering your own inner Pulpwood Queen, visit
www.LipstickDigest.com or email diane@LipstickDigest.com. Visit The Queen’s
website at www.BeautyandtheBook.com. Her best-selling book, The Pulpwood
Queen’s Guide to Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Life, is available in
bookstores and online.

Guiding us through the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Epiphany, Neely takes us into the woods in search of the perfect red cedar Christmas tree. He’ll remind us of the real reason sweet potatoes were part of holiday meals. In this long anticipated volume, we’ll hear tales about a flaming Advent wreath and the Christmas tree emergency that required an exterminator.

In each chapter, you will enjoy the wit and humor we have come to expect from Kirk Neely. You will find spiritual depth, wisdom, and insight garnered from his pastoral and personal experience.  Sometimes you will chuckle, sometimes you will shed a tear, and sometimes both will come within the same reading.

Walter Edgar, author of South Carolina: A History and The South Carolina Encyclopedia, as well as the genial host of “Walter Edgar’s Journal,” heard regularly on National Public Radio (NPR), has called Kirk Neely an old-fashioned Southern storyteller.

This collection includes several of Kirk Neely’s best loved stories: “Santa Almost Got Caught,” “A Kentucky Thanksgiving,” “G. I. Joe and Baby Jesus,” and “Christmas at Croft.”

Many of these tales are joyful accounts of personal experiences that will make you laugh out loud. Others are poignant, gleaned from years of pastoral ministry. Kirk Neely gives us a clearer vision of the season, reminding us that for some people the holidays are a time of absence and grief. Even in the face of heartache, he helps us find comfort and joy.  He also shares from his own pilgrimage those epiphany moments that are highlights in his journey of faith.

These stories will help us take a deep breath and seek a less hectic pace so our holidays can become holy days. Each brief reflection can be read in one sitting while waiting in a carpool line to pick up a child, lingering over a morning cup of coffee, or before turning in at night.

This book is a treasure you’ll want to give to everyone on your shopping list. Keep a copy for yourself. You’ll come back to it year after year. Santa Almost Got Caught promises to become a holiday classic.

The Great American Bargain Book Show-the sister show to the Spring Book Show in Atlanta–delivers a bit of “southern comfort” this year. A great line-up of educational sessions featuring some familiar faces and designed to help booksellers make the most of their bargain, remainder and used book inventory to maximize profits.

Bargain Books: “What I Buy & How I Use Them”
Wednesday – Aug 10   8:30-9:30 am, Room 110

How does one approach the exhibit floor?  Describe your criteria / decision process when buying?  Besides marking the books for sell in your shop, how else do you use them?  As incentives to buy newer books by the same author?  As a partner book with a new book on a given topic?  As prizes for store programs?  Presenters:  Janet Bollum, The Muse Book Shop, Deland, Florida; Jeff McCord, Bound to be Read Books, Atlanta, GA; Doug Robinson, Eagle Eye Bookstore, Atlanta, GA

Used Books: Buying, Pricing, Stocking & Shelving
Wednesday – Aug 10, 9:40-10:30 am, Room 110

How do used books get on your store shelves?  Do you buy from customers?  How do you price them, both to buy, and then to sell?  Where do you keep them before they get on the shelf?  How do you shelve them?  Have you tried different ways?  Does one seem to work better than another?  Is rotation and fresh product the answer? Presenters:  Jill Hendrix, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC; Jeff McCord, Bound to be Read Books, Atlanta, GA; Doug Robinson, Eagle Eye Bookstore, Atlanta, GA

Antiquarian Books:  “How to Spot Them & How to Sell Them”
Thursday – Aug 11, 9:00-10:00 am, Room 111

What’s the difference between used & antiquarian?  Do you develop the customer first, and then find the antiquarian book?  Where do you find them?  What kind of research is involved?  How do you price them?  How do your customers know you have a given title?  What about book repair?  Presenter: Janet Bollum, The Muse Book Shop, Deland, Florida

All Seminars will be held in the Hynes Convention Center.

Register here!

By John Hart, author of IRON HOUSE, on sale now

Tour is a strange time for an author. Just saying it feels odd.

“Tour…”

“I’m going on tour…”

Tours are for rock stars and celebrities, for people with well-known faces, limousines and handlers that drink top-shelf liquor and tip with folded bills and cupped palms. Not that we authors are shy or overly-retiring – we’re usually not – but we do spend most of a year shut up with our imaginary friends.  We live in the stillness of our minds and have learned to be wary of questions asked at cocktail parties and by the pool.

It’s not that people are unkind with their questions. In fact, most are warm, wonderful people with genuine curiosity about how this whole writing thing works. That’s not the problem, at least not for me. I’m a superstitious guy when it comes to writing. I don’t like to talk about what I’m doing for fear that such conversation might drain some vital energy or sap my will in a nefarious way. The net result is that I keep to myself when working on the next book. I stay with my family or near the close friends who long ago lost whatever fascination they might have had with writing, writers or the number of books I’ve sold.

I remind myself that without the reader I cease to matter in the world of books.

Tour, however, is a very different animal. It’s a sustained commitment to openness, a carefully orchestrated reinsertion into the human race. This is a good thing, of course, but only if I prepare for it. The tour for IRON HOUSE is six weeks long, so I store up time with my loved ones. I exercise and lose weight, ready myself for photo-shoots and TV spots. Most importantly, though, I remind myself that without the reader I cease to matter in the world of books. This is no platitude, so let me say it again: Readers matter. It’s an easy thing to forget, especially as successes mount and career rises behind me like a plateau so tall and broad it might have always been there.

Thing is though, it hasn’t.

My success came through hard, consistent effort. It came from talent and drive, from a belief in myself so searing and clear it could be laser-cut. So, I’m not ashamed to feel proud. This is a brutal business, after all, and few become bestsellers. What’s most important, though, is to remember the other side of the equation, the readers and reviewers, the publishers and booksellers who put gas in the tank and keep the pedal floored. Writing may be solitary, but success is shared.

Tour is the time to celebrate that mutual endeavor.

This means the most important preparation for tour is not the haircut or the new suit. Rather, it is a careful, heartfelt reminder that though I may have heard the same question a hundred times, it’s new to the reader asking it. It’s a mental note that these are real people with busy lives, free thinking souls who care enough about what I do to show up and share their feelings. They stand in line to tell me why my books matter to them. They tell their friends about what I do. They turn off the television and read.

Think about that.

So, as the tour unfolds, I remind myself every day what matters. If I’m giving a talk, I give the best damn talk of my life (never mind that I’ve given it two-dozen times already). I don’t shake hands and smile like I mean it. I mean it.

Tour is not about me.

It’s about them.

BEFORE –

1.  Visit www.tradeshow.sibaweb.com/exhibitors and look to the right to log in with your User Name & Password.  If you don’t know your User Name & Password, email nicki@sibaweb.com and she can have it sent to you.  Once logged in, you will see extensive instructions also to your right.
2. Once logged in, you will be at Submit a Listing.  This listing is used in the trade show directory (first 50 words), in emails to booksellers, and here on the SIBA Trade Show site.  A good listing shares with booksellers why they should visit your booth.  Offering a show discount of free shipping, or increased terms, a raffle, or the opportunity to meet an author are all good ways to interest booksellers in coming by the booth.  So is individually wrapped candy, giveaways and announcements of new products or services.
3. Once you save your listing, please go look at it and make sure it looks like you want it to look.  If it does, then Tweet it with the provided Tweet button.
4. Speaking of Tweeting, follow @SIndies and use #SIBA11 when talking all things fall & all things bookselling – Hundreds of booksellers follow & track these items on Twitter and you want to be part of the conversation.
5. Encourage your authors who will be featured at #SIBA11 whether at the show in person or not, to follow and tweet about SIBA as well as share info on Facebook that we can support with our social networks.
6. Share your participation at #SIBA11 on your Facebook page as well.  I only learned today that if you have both a personal Facebook, and a few pages (SIBA hosts 3 facebook pages – http://www.facebook.com/ReaderMeetWriter, http://www.facebook.com/ClubRead, and http://www.facebook.com/SouthernIndependentBooksellersAlliance ) that you can go to the upper right hand corner, click on account, and choose Use Facebook as Page; and Friend or Like from that point of view.  Who knew?  Use these free tools.
7. Email me wanda@sibaweb.com and let me know you & your author Twitter & Facebook accounts so we can support you thru our extensive social networking efforts to southern booksellers and the industry as a whole.

It’s great to meet you via Wanda’s blog! I’m delighted to introduce myself to you as the new sales rep for Tristan Publishing for the Carolinas*, specifically Piedmont and eastern NC and all of South Carolina. In the near future, I’ll be adding some other publishers, covering them in all of NC and SC and possibly other states. Updates to come! [* Please note: Another new Tristan Publishing sales rep soon will be covering the western part of North Carolina, plus Tennessee, and northern Georgia. Until she gets started later this summer, please feel free to contact me if you’re a bookseller in western NC -- or anywhere else in the SIBA region. I’ll be happy to help you and connect you directly with the publisher.]

For the past 23 years, I was the Executive Director of the Midwest Booksellers Association (thus Wanda’s colleague) and was based in Minneapolis, MN. My book industry experience goes back to 1975, however, and includes marketing, publicity, advertising, and promotion positions with Dell Publishing Co, Simon & Schuster, and B. Dalton Bookseller (on both the store and national level), as well as my own author media escort business in the Twin Cities.  I’ve recently moved back home to North Carolina from Minnesota, and I’ve brought some of the best from the Upper Midwest with me — Tristan Publishing’s books.

Tristan Publishing is the publisher of perennial bestsellers such as THE NEXT PLACE (over 550,000 copies sold) by Warren Hanson, A CUP OF CHRISTMAS TEA (1.7 million copies sold) and the PEEF picture books for children by Tom Hegg & Warren Hanson, and I AM AMAZED and other titles by Jodi Hills. I expect you know these popular inspirational books, and I hope you sell them in your stores already.

You may not be familiar, however, with the rest of Tristan Publishing’s highly gift-able titles for both adults and children – all books with a message from the heart. Take a look at this video in which publishers Brett and Sheila Waldman – two of the nicest people you’ll ever know! — share their vision and enthusiasm with you.

Tristan’s illustrated books are eye-catching, beautifully designed and produced, and truly well priced at under $20, most in the $9.95 to $16.95 range. Many are strongly appealing and inspiring to women, others offer comfort and reassurance to all adults and children in every stage of life.  All these books make excellent gift suggestions you can hand sell to your customers with confidence.

One of the newest Tristan titles, …and she sparkled by Joan Steffend, is a terrific gift book for women of all ages to give to other women and to themselves – just the type of book that women will buy in multiple copies. (I’ve seen them do it!)  Author Joan Steffend explains her book eloquently in her video, too.

Other popular titles that are selling steadily include Warren Hanson’s latest, TODAY’S SPECIAL…YES IT IS; the yoga-inspired FRIENDSHIP: THE ART OF THE PRACTICE; Jodi Hills’ FRIEND.; and the picture book that inspires kids to embrace change, THE LEAF THAT WOULDN’T LEAVE.

The very best way to appreciate Tristan Publishing’s books is to see them, of course. I have copies of all titles, which I’d love to show booksellers in person. Over the coming weeks, I’m contacting bookstores in the Carolinas and scheduling appointments, and I’ll travel to any and all stores in my NC and SC territory.

I’m also happy to schedule phone appointments and send catalogs and sample copies of books to interested booksellers around the SIBA region, or put you in touch with the publisher directly. I plan to exhibit for Tristan Publishing at the SIBA Trade Show, too, and I look forward to seeing many of you there.

FYI — Tristan Publishing books are very easy to purchase, either direct from the publisher through me, or from Ingram and B&T. Please contact me for more info.

Many thanks for reading this blog!

Susan Walker & Associates
Independent Marketing, Sales & Promotion Consultants

Susan E. Walker
Cell Phone 612-382-5868
E-mail susan.walker.books@gmail.com
1022 South Street
Cornelius, NC 28031
Phone/Fax  704-439-4596
(call first to set up fax)

Calling All Book Bloggers !  SIBA wants to make a trade.  Place a “Find an Indie Bookstore” badge above the fold on the homepage of your website and SIBA will waive your $195 dues.  Just let us know when the badge has been placed and we will mark you current.  There are many benefits to membership in SIBA.  Let us count the ways!

1. Receive a complete contact list of all of SIBA’s member stores on demand—including contact names, email addresses, phone and mailing addresses via email.
2. Three passes to the #SIBA11 Trade Show.
3. Reduced prices for advertising & table rental at #SIBA11.
4. Be informed.  Stay in the loop.  Don’t miss the numerous SIBA opportunities to connect with each other, indie booksellers, and the industry-at-large across the south.

We’re all in this together!

Steps to Love an Indie and become a member of SIBA for Free:

1. Choose a badge and embed the appropriate code on your website, “above the fold.”
2. Email wanda@sibaweb.com when your badge is on your site, and we will give you a free membership in SIBA ($195 value!)

Love an Indie Badges!
Choose a badge and copy and paste the appropriate code below on your website

Badges
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