Posts Tagged Benefit
An Open Letter to Governor Haley
An Open Letter to Governor Haley
Honorable Governor Haley,
We met in the lobby of the state house in February and had a short but critical discussion concerning Amazon. (You were wearing some fierce high heels.)
I appeal to you on behalf of South Carolina’s long-standing, home-grown businesses.
Thousands of businesses have collected and dispersed sales tax back to the government diligently and without any special consideration, some for 25, 50 or 100 years. These are our families and friends, folks who are here in South Carolina because it is their home, not because they need any incentive to work here, live here, or raise their families here, and they pay their full due of taxes on every level.
The sales tax break for Amazon is such an injustice and an insult to those who have spent their lives building business in South Carolina for the benefit of all of her citizens. Please exercise your power to fight this bully.
Sincerely,
Wanda Jewell
Bennie & the Gets! Southern Indie Bestseller List
Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on February 14, 2011
Connect your customers with this free, popular benefit of SIBA.
This weekly list is emailed directly to your inbox and archived at AuthorsRoundtheSouth.com (ARTS). It includes bookstore events posted at ARTS and is seen by thousands of southern readers. Printable versions for in-store use are available at authorsroundthesouth.com/ bestsellers or in the SIBA Document Library.
New for 2011: If you have an affiliate arrangement with SIBA, books that are special to the Southern List are linked as available for sale from your store’s website. The Southern Indie Bestseller List is printed in dozens of newspapers and carefully watched by publishers, who love to see their books climb up the lists. More regionally distinctive than national bestseller lists, the Southern Indie Bestseller List is used by SIBA stores for displays and promotions.
Bennie and the Gets! FBSP
Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on January 19, 2011
This month’s highlighted benefit of SIBA Membership is the Free Book Stimulus Plan (FBSP) Any core member store can participate and it is a high-value perk for which the bookstore has to do very little.
Check out this link for materials for both in-store and on-line. You will see where we have added a new facet to FBSP via the Caught U Reading Program that came out of the Good Ideas Breakfast at #SIBA10.
We have core member stores who have placed the FBSP website on their receipts and stores that have printed out the mail-back form as a bag stuffer. SIBA has collected a contact list of hundreds and hundreds of southern readers via this program and does outreach on members’ behalf regularly. We have had many participants from Alpharetta, Suwanee, and Duluth, GA; Elizabeth City and Franklin, NC; and Tampa, FL. We’ve given away over 2000 books. It is a great way to thank your customers and who doesn’t love getting a free book in the mail?
Bottom Line: Anyone who shops in your store can mail their receipt attached to the form found at www.freebookstimulusplan.com and they are mailed a free book handpicked by me from my library of books from 20 years with SIBA.
Bennie and the Gets! (Win stuff for reading SIBA eInk)
Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on January 12, 2011
A play on Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets here. Here I will write a monthlyish column on SIBA benefits that core members get. Survey results indicate that booksellers are very aware of some membership benefits and less aware of others. It may be that booksellers do not find some benefits valuable but before making that decision, I want to make certain that booksellers know of the benefit, try it, and then accept or reject its value to them. So here and in the monthly SIBA eInk, I will be highlighting underused benefits to make certain that core members are aware of them.
First, let’s look at the latest survey results. Core members indicate the most valuable benefits of SIBA Membership are: SIBA Book Awards, Southern Indie Bestseller List, the Holiday Catalog, Indie Bookseller Revivals, and Find a Bookstore
And rated less valuable? SIBA eInk, Southern Indie Lit Crossword Puzzle book, Wanda’s Wonderful Book Blog, Free Book Stimulus Plan, and The Document Library.
So this first post will deal with SIBA eInk, SIBA’s monthly newsletter directed at SIBA’s core indie bookstore members and distributed to the industry. This email newsletter takes the place of SIBA’s bi-monthly print publication of previous years and is the best, direct way to communicate with you about valuable upcoming opportunities. In addition to the SIBA listserv, this is the must current up-to-date material to assist you in maximizing your membership.
To pump up interest in this monthly electronic publication, SIBA will be offering a Twitter Contest each month where core members will be entered to win a FREE All Pass to #SIBA11. This will require setting up a FREE Twitter Account and following @SIndies. If you need help with that, please give me a call, and I will walk you thru it. Very easy, very economical, very efficient! The SIBA phone number is: 803.994.9530
Lady Banks Bookshelf
