Posts Tagged Amp
#SIBA11 Exhibitors – A Step By Step Guide to Making the Most of Your Money!
Posted by Wanda in SIBA Trade Shows on July 21, 2011
We are looking forward to seeing you in Charleston. We are in touch with all of the southern booksellers and they are excited to see you in Charleston as well. We want to help you make the most of your time before, during, and after the #SIBA11 Trade Show. We’ll start with BEFORE and we’ll do during, and after soon.
BEFORE –
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Love an Indie #SIBA11 Membership Offer for Book Bloggers
Posted by Wanda in GiB Book Bloggers on May 6, 2011
Love an Indie #SIBA11 Membership Offer for Book Bloggers
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!
- 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.
- Three passes to the #SIBA11 Trade Show.
- Reduced prices for advertising & table rental at #SIBA11.
- 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:
- Choose a badge and embed the appropriate code on your website, “above the fold.”
- Email wanda@sibaweb.com when your badge is on your site, and we will give you a free membership in SIBA ($195 value!)
| Badges |
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<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/baby175.jpg” alt=”I want to grow up in an indie bookstore!” width=”175″ height=”162″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/redhead175.jpg” alt=”Dahling! Let’s meet up at an indie bookstore.” width=”175″ height=”175″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/goldfish175.jpg” alt=”Gotta go…to an indie bookstore!” width=”175″ height=”164″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/monsters175.jpg” alt=”all the cool aliens and monsters are at the independent bookstore!” width=”175″ height=”175″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/prettygirl175.jpg” alt=”Going my way? I’m going to an indie bookstore” width=”175″ height=”175″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/werelost175.jpg” alt=”I know we’re close to an indie bookstore” width=”175″ height=”130″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/flowerpower175.jpg” alt=”Find an indie bookstore” width=”175″ height=”175″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/catanddog175.jpg” alt=”We need a good home at an indie bookstore” width=”175″ height=”185″ border=”0″></a> |
<a href=”http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/bookstore.php”><img src=”http://www.sibaweb.com/luv/moovealong175.jpg” alt=”Moooove along to an indie bookstore!” width=”175″ height=”194″ border=”0″></a> |
Knit Your Own Dog?!
Black Dog & Leventhal (dist. by Workman) is holding a really unique bookseller contest. It centers around an incredibly charming spring title, KNIT YOUR OWN DOG by Joanna Osborne and Sally Muir. People and Entertainment Weekly both featured this book, and sales have been outstanding.
So, the contest: the bookseller will get one knit dog modeled after a photograph of their dog, custom knit by the authors. (They charge around $350 to do this normally.) Last day for entries is May 15, 2011. Winner will be contacted via email. To enter, booksellers should email info@blackdogandleventhal.com with their contact info and photograph(s) of their dog.
RoundTable Results #SBS11
Dozens of booksellers gathered at Spring Book Show to discuss a variety of topics including store traffic, the economy, and maximizing sales.
Ideas for Attracting Store Traffic
Use Twitter to make friends, not for the hard sell. High Give:Ask ratio.
Use Get Caught Reading!
Keep sign-up sheet for Emails at Point of Purchase area.
Use Facebook!
Exploit B2B! Reach out to schools, non-profits, gift shops, museums, realtors, libraries, etc.
Making the Most of Each Customer; Maximizing Sales, Creating Repeat Customers
Advanced Hand Selling – Place the book in the customer’s hand and take the book out of the customer’s hands, both create ownership and sell books.
Offer a ‘money back guarantee” book; get the staff to agree on pushing selected staff picks.
Sell to any & all that enter the store to sell you.
Getting the Customer to Return, And Bring a New Customer
Give automatic local discount based on zip code.
Daily Word Challenge – game where a purchase must be made to play; win something from the “fabulous prize box”, in this instance filled with mini candy bars.
In the case of used books, have receipt show how much has been saved.
Host an in-store Ereader Class inviting customers to bring in their e-readers and demonstrate how to buy books from your website.
Print off bibliographies for your customers of their favorite writers or genres.
Other Ideas
Post on Facebook when you get in a large quantity of books.
In Search of a Great Idea!
Post pictures of books on quirky subjects.
Get on email list of other bookstores.
Make your emails relevant.
Gifts Galore for Bookstores
Do “If you like this, then you’ll like this…” signs.
Design bookmarks with other local business logos & coupon to place in other businesses.
Create Gift Registry for new baby, bride, housewarming, etc.
Offer services such as SAT Tutoring
What Booksellers Want!
Booksellers Benefits Package from SIBA.
SIBA Membership Dues Form
From a Savvy Bookseller
By Heather Hebert, Children’s Book World
We are about to head into the time of year when fall galleys start flooding into our stores. It always starts out nice and organized and then inevitably the galleys completely overtake your office, your back room, your storage area. Your instinct is to get rid of them, but wait, DO NOT GET RID OF YOUR FALL GALLEYS until you read this first. We have been running a program for the last twelve years that brings customers in repeatedly, builds a sense of community, generates tons of goodwill and it costs nothing, and takes next to no time set up and run. It is our read and review summer program for children, tweens and Young Adults.
Every summer we take most of the fall galleys we receive put them in crates according to age group (3rd- 5th grade, 6th -8th and YA). We then send out an email inviting our customers to read and review these ARCS for us. Each child is allowed to take out one book at a time and keep it for up to two weeks. A one page review sheet is given with each book. We do not want this to feel like homework so we keep the questions light and simple. They can either be answered with pretty much one sentence (or even one word) such as , “would you recommend this book to your friend?” and some of the questions are even in scale form, such as “rate this book on a scale of 1 to 10 – one being awful and 10 being totally awesome!” Everytime a book and review are turned in, a dollar store credit is given. At the end of the summer, these credits can be redeemed.
One Book, Many Readers
The Richland County Public Library in cooperation with many city & county partners is launching their One Book, One Columbia city-wide read and we are reading Having Our Say: The Delaney’s Sisters’ First 100 Years, and it got me to thinking how many one-read programs are out there. And what do they read?
I heard from Lisa Sharp of Nightbird Books that Fayetteville, AR is planning it’s 3rd community read. It’s called One Book, One Community and is a fall event. The first year we read The Devil’s Highway by Luis Urrea, last year was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, and this year we have yet to choose. Wonder what it will be?
I heard from Fran Bush at Booklover’s Bookstore in Aiken, SC. The Aiken County Public Library has Aiken Reads with a selection per quarter. “Last summer we hosted Mary Alice Monroe with Swimming Lessons as the summer selection for adults and Turtle Summer for the children. In October 2011, The Aiken Women’s Club is sponsoring a county wide reading program named The Big Read to encourage reading at any age. They wanted to find books that were inexpensive and readily available. The selection for high school and adult is The Call of the Wild by Jack London; upper elementary and middle school is Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George; the younger kids selection is One Wolf Howls by Scotti Cohn. The club will be giving books to the libraries and school libraries throughout the county. There are several alternate selections for those who have already read the selection.” This project should get a lot of publicity.
Emily Bell shared that Page & Palette has seen great success with the One Town One Tale concept. “Our picks have included Three Cups of Tea, The Poet of Tolstoy Park by Fairhope’s own, Sonny Brewer; Alabama Moon by local writer Watt Key; A Thousand Splendid Suns by NY Times bestselling author, Khaled Hossieni; Peony in Love by NY Times bestselling author Lisa See; and The Noticer by Andy Andrews of Orange Beach.”
Jill Hendrix of Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC shared Greenville’s The Amazing Read. The book for this, the 4th year, is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. The past 3 years picks were Velva Jean Learns to Drive by Jennifer Niven, Saints at the River by Ron Rash, and The Pleasure Was Mine by Tommy Hays.
Here are a few resources I found about OneBook programs:
This is a somewhat out-of-date listing of OneBook programs out there but the only list I found.
#EmailSci with Dan Zarrella & What I Learned
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on February 11, 2011
I attended yesterday’s webinar with Dan Z. and 20,000 other friends, and after looking at over 1 billion emails, he shared a ton of surprising & valuable info. Here’s what I learned!
1. Schedule email newsletter to deliver on Saturday morning between 6 and 7 AM.
2. Make all email newsletters link-dense.
3. Never send email newsletters on Tuesdays.
4. Thursday is the best week-day to send an email newsletter.
5. Determine if your email newsletter looks like spam on your smart phone, and it it does, fix it.
6. Include reference information in your email newsletter.
7. Give subscribers special access.
8. Send email from someone they’ve heard of.
9. Newest subscribers are the best subscribers.
10. Don’t afraid to send too much email!
Check out the blog post with top questions asked during the webinar!
Show Your Love & Enter to Win
Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on February 7, 2011
SIBA’s Welcome Kit & Twitter Contest!
The SIBA Welcome Kit, newly updated for 2011, is an extensive piece that outlines the many benefits of SIBA Membership. Download a copy and make sure you are getting the most out of SIBA.
Along with encouraging you to spend an afternoon exploring the ins and out of the SIBA Welcome Kit, we also want to promote the most valuable and popular benefits in a new monthly column Bennie & the Gets!
Bottom Line: Any core member who follows @SIndies and tweets the following: I read Bennie and the Gets! will be entered into a drawing for a free ALL PASS meal ticket at #SIBA11. The deadline for tweets is Valentine’s Day.
We will be hosting a Twitter Contest in every SIBA eInk between now and August, 2011.
A First-Time Bookseller Shares #SIBA10 Experience
Posted by Wanda in SIBA Trade Shows on October 16, 2010
As a first timer to SIBA (or any book industry trade show for that matter), I was a little overwhelmed by what was offered. The bookseller education seminars were interesting. I sadly missed out on the one about Book Clubs, but I hope there will be some kind of recap of the seminars for those who found themselves choosing between two things they really wanted to hear about. Getting to interact with authors a bit was a blast. I learned about a ton of new and older titles through them. One in particular is worth relating. I stopped to see Sharyn McCrumb on Friday and our chat led to the fact that she has a novella about the town my store is in, Augusta. I was unaware of this and went to my phone immediately to see if I could get a copy (which I ordered used right away so I could have it waiting for me to read when I got home). While it’s no longer available in hardcover, I saw the mass market is still available and ordered a few for the store. We have a number of McCrumb fan’s who will surely be interested in the book, but also because of the historical ties of the story to Augusta, Sharyn’s going to be getting new exposure as an author to our customers as I handsell the book. Fantastic win-win eh?
I did make a number of other contacts, though on coming back home, almost too many, so I am trying to find time to review them all and follow up. One lesson I learned from this show: DON’T leave your business cards at the store! I took a lot of cards, but didn’t really have cards to give away due to that oversight and I would probably have some of these authors/agents following up with me if I had been able to give them a card. Next year I’m going to try to write down a little recap for myself after each event too… I have a feeling better organizational skills will help me make better use of what I learned.
On Saturday & Sunday, I walked through all the booths that were set up. Besides learning about product, I found a new POS that we’ll be implementing in the first quarter of next year should all go well and really enjoyed meeting the B&T people. They set me up with a theretailerplace.com account and hopefully well have that up and running this week or next at the latest. Though it’s not an answer to our every online need, it gives us a sales presence online and we can really push people who want to support us to use it over other online or boxstore offerings (especially for things we don’t really carry like Movies and Music which we don’t carry and have no locally owned non-box store alternative to get them from).
Of course, Sunday I attended the Moveable Feast of Authors, which was lots of fun. I really wish we had been able to meet more of the authors at our tables and I don’t know if this experience was universal or not, but I feel like we could have spent less time with each author and gotten to see more of them and made that personal contacts. Afterwords at the signing tables, it was pretty hectic and I wondered if the authors had all flatsigned the books beforehand and had them waiting in a bag for each attendee at the end if we couldn’t have gotten to see everyone by extended the lunch to that third hour we spent in the signing room and given each author 7-8 minutes per table. Either way, I will definitely attend the Moveable Feast at SIBA 2011.
Regards,
David Hutchison
The Book Tavern
http://www.booktavern.com/
1026 Broad Street
Augusta, GA 30901
706.826.1940
Awesome Readers Taking the Time to Share
Posted by Wanda in Get in Bed Project, GiB Book Bloggers on June 30, 2010
Get in Bed with a Book Seller #2
Celebrate independents week!
No single thing can endear you more to an indie bookseller than an authentic understanding of the economic, cultural, & social ramifications in the potential extinction of local retail businesses generally, and bookstores specifically. So, this week, we are going to get that authentic understanding.
Hello Book Bloggers, meet AMIBA; AMIBA, say hello to this thriving online community. AMIBA is short for American Independent Business Alliance, and Book Bloggers is short for Awesome Readers Taking the Time to Share.
This is taken directly from the AMIBA site as I could not say it better:
When in the course of human events, it becomes appropriate for communities to assert their independence, to denounce uniformity and celebrate their uniqueness, a respect for freedom and human creativity requires independent businesses and peoples to declare those elements which make them interesting. Join us in this annual celebration of our Independents!
Think of your favorite shop, restaurant, bookstore or service provider. We’ll bet it’s a home town business. Independent locally-owned businesses are essential to a vital local economy and community character. They use the goods and services of other local businesses, serve as community hubs, and are vital components of healthy neighborhoods and strong city centers. They’re where the locals go. They’re owned by our friends and neighbors, or maybe even by you.
The threat to our communities is real. Dependence on absentee-owned businesses and corporate chains carries many unhealthy consequences. It’s not just local businesses who suffer — our communities are losing social, cultural and economic strength, a place for entrepreneurship, and the ability to determine our own futures. But we have a choice.
AMIBA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping communities and independent business thrive. Our proven organizing models and assistance can help prevent the displacement of local independent businesses, ensure ongoing opportunities for entrepreneurs, and advance citizen engagement in community social, cultural and economic well being. The evidence of success isn’t just anecdotal; concrete data demonstrate the power of these local Alliances.
FOR WEEK TWO:
1. Read about independents week.
2. Celebrate a local business in your blog this week. If you want to get in bed with a bookseller, I’d make it about an indie bookstore, and I’d stop by the store to take some photos and let them know about the blog post. Let your readers AND your local businesses know that you care.
3. Share the blog post with me so I can link back to it.That’s it. Stop. Go post something.
More next week unless you’d like to do this *****BONUS ACTIVITY*****
Lady Banks Bookshelf
