Posts Tagged Books
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.
Book Bloggers Get in Bed with Baby Boomer Booksellers!
Posted by Wanda in Get in Bed Project, GiB Book Bloggers on July 14, 2010
Get in Bed with a Bookseller #3
This information should not surprise anyone but, for the most part, booksellers are baby-boomers, and bloggers are not. Blogs have only been around in a big way for the past ten years while most bookstores that are thriving today are either brand new, or they are 25+ years old. And herein is an opportunity for you. Surviving and thriving over the last 15 years ensures outstanding bookstores that are well-established in the industry and able to provide you with contacts and information that could take years to gather on your own.
And because booksellers are often baby-boomers (as am I), we may have a tendency to think we know everything and many may need to be convinced to enter these partnerships. But together, we have the tools to convince them. So, what kinds of information does a bookseller want when considering a blogger as partner? Booksellers want someone who shares their passion for books as well as the First Amendment. That said,
FOR WEEK THREE:
1. Create a one-page with information you are willing to share about your blog. How many folks read it? What kinds of books do you review? Which is your most popular post? Where do you get your books from? Are you a customer/browser of their store/blog? What kinds of things can you assist with and what kinds of assistance do you need? How long have you been blogging? Why do you blog?
2. Visit your local independent(s). Introduce yourself. See if the store offers an affiliate program.
That’s it. Stop. Go post something. More next week.
Booksellers & BookBloggers, Spirited & Passionate
Posted by Wanda in Get in Bed Project, GiB Booksellers on June 16, 2010
Get in Bed With a Book Blogger #1
Booksellers are first entrepreneurs. They are spirited and passionate for books and their businesses in a way that many cannot imagine. These are people who want to build a business that serves their community, protects the First Amendment, and provides a cross-section of choices for consumers. And they want to be able to make a living, support their families, and provide for their employees. This is no small feat any time.
And especially now, booksellers are trying to do everything they have always done, and add a whole slew of new things to their day. Blog, Tweet, Post, Website, E-Commerce, Events, Newsletters, on, and on, and on and on. So SIBA wants to help you break it down. Let’s just do one thing a week. This week, I want you to learn about blogging, what it is, what it can do, and how you might not need to do it at all. You might only need to find someone who is already book blogging who can see that your established name in the industry, bevy of contacts, extensive expertise, and unparalleled passion is all they need from you to support you and your store’s efforts.
Take a stroll around The Book Lady’s Blog: Literary Adventures of a Panty-Throwing, Book-Loving Wild Woman. This is the blogger that has partnered with The Fountain Bookstore. Everybody wins. Fountain Bookstore promotes The Book Lady’s Blog at the store website. Kelly shares ARCs & Galleys with Rebecca. Rebecca has introduced some of her favorite authors at Fountain Bookstore’s events, and Kelly and Rebecca went to BEA together where Rebecca garnered favor with Kelly’s contacts, and vice versa. Kelly has enjoyed sales via Rebecca’s blog, Rebecca has garnered advertising for her blog, and both have gained some recognition in the industry as players.
FOR WEEK ONE:
1. Watch this video, Blogs in Plain English (this will help you understand just how blogs came to be and their value)
2. Read a book blog or two (http://bookbloggerappreciationweek.com/index.php/awards/2009) , if you don’t already (learn who these fine folks are and that they love books just as much as you do)That’s it. Stop. Go shelve or something. More next week.
The 2010 Get in Bed Blog Project
Posted by Wanda in Get in Bed Project, GiB Book Bloggers, GiB Booksellers on June 7, 2010
Bookseller & Book Blogger in Bed Together
The 2010 Get in Bed Blog Project is a summer-long project that will consist of weekly challenges to move you closer to getting in bed with a blogger or bookseller. Weekly, I’ll post an activity that will relate in some way to connecting book bloggers and booksellers. Each participant should spend the following week meeting the challenge. Some posts will be a blogger tip, and some will be a bookseller tip. We will begin next week.
If you choose to participate in this project, there is no obligation to participate in every challenge, and you can customize each challenge so it makes sense for your particular goals. Think of the design (and this post, for that matter) as similar to Sophisticated Dorkiness’ Blog Improvement Project (where I got my inspiration) — participate when it makes sense for you. This is a group effort, because getting better is always easier when you have a support system, but the ultimate commitment remains with you — do you want to get in bed with a blogger/bookseller before September 25, 2010?
A word of note — I am no expert. I am not even a book blogger or a bookseller. I read a lot of blogs about books and am interested in social media, and I do everything I can think of to market indie bookstores in the south. One of the reasons I am hosting this project is because I want to support the “circle of books” – the connection between books, their readers and their writers. I believe in support systems, and think this will be a fun way to get in bed & get better together.
Booksellers & book bloggers that would like to be listed as participants need only email me at wanda@sibaweb.com
Increase Your Sales! Information is Power!
Posted by Wanda in Good Gifts & Ideas on January 26, 2010
This article was lifted from a great website that has been added to the Link List – http://trendwatching.com
And references some trends to consider when purchasing gift items for your bookstore. Here a few that fit the criteria from Gifts Galore for Bookstores:
http://www.questmarc.com/
a portable, affordable activity
http://www.accoutrements.com/products/11888.html
the ultimate geek pen
http://www.accoutrements.com/products/11992.html
Mr. Tap Water Bottle
http://www.etsy.com/shop/polarity
expressive, affordable, from recyclables
February 2010 | As we wanted to keep things straightforward and hands-on this month, we’re highlighting “FUNCTIONALL”. Which is all about a new breed of products that are simple, small and/or cheap (with a dash of sustainability), giving them global appeal, from India to Sweden. Now, if that doesn’t warrant a brainstorming session…
FUNCTIONALL | Captures the phenomenon of simple, small and/or cheap products and services designed for low(er)-income consumers in emerging markets, with cross-over appeal to consumers in mature consumer societies. Goods and services especially designed for emerging markets often incorporate one or more of the following characteristics:
- Smaller and/or limited number of features, to keep prices low.
- Simpler, or easier to use, for inexperienced consumers.
- Energy efficient (or not using any traditional energies at all) and/or easy to repair and/or waste-reducing.
- Robust, as some of them are used in rugged conditions.
- Well-designed (the democratization of design is a global phenomenon).
- Aimed at helping owners to generate income, or allow users to create self-sustaining systems.
A few reasons why these products are of interest to consumers in more prosperous economies, too:
- Cheap | ‘Cheap’ is king, both because of the recession (reduced spending power), and because of the shift away from ‘bling’ towards frugality and practicality as new status symbols.
- Simplicity and convenience | Small/simple (and cheap!) also rules because of transient lifestyles (more experiences in smaller, affordable doses), and the continual need for more convenience and simplicity. Look for numerous FUNCTIONALL innovations to especially do well in prosperous metropolitan areas (URBANY!), where busy, transient lifestyles are the norm.
- Design | Aforementioned ‘democratization of design’ means even demanding, experienced consumers will be pleased with products from countries and brands previously not known for high quality and design standards.
- Sustainability | Anything using less or no traditional energy, or causing less waste, or boasting longer life expectancy, will go down well with eco-(status) conscious consumers.
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Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.
15 Links to Twitter Success
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 24, 2010
I hope you have gotten a Twitter account. It is so simple to set up and use…and one day, having a microblogging account will be as expected of a business as having a telephone, or a website. Don’t underestimate the power of this tool. It’s email on steroids
And even if you are unwilling to set up a Twitter account for your store, be willing to search twitter and listen in on what customers are saying about your store. This kind of marketing feedback would have cost thousands of dollars less then ten years ago. The following Twitter tools are great for searching:
http://monitter.com/ monitor twitter
http://search.twitter.com/ see what’s happening right now
http://topsy.com/ a search engine powered by tweets
With an account, there are tons of tools to make posting to your Twitter account easy and effective. A book jacket would be considered a picture. I use tvider.com from my telephone and I am astonished how easy it is to update from the blackberry. To share video or pictures, try one of these:
http://tvider.com easily tweet photos, videos, & audio
http://twitpic.com/ share photos on twitter
http://yfrog.com/ your images & video on twitter
http://twitgoo.com/ share pictures or video
Twitter can also be a great tool for locating content to share with your customers via your blog or newsletter or in store. Here are a few links that will gather twitter content for you and help you manage your own Twitter account:
http://tweetmeme.com/ hottest links on twitter
http://www.tweetdeck.com/ your personal browser
http://hootsuite.com the professional twitter client
And finally, a few for the bookseller that is sold on Twitter and looking for ways to enhance their efforts. These tools allow you to explore twitter aps, find like-minded twitterers, get your twitter ranking, tweet from your phone, and search twitter panels on topics of interest to you and your customers.
http://oneforty.com/ find, rate, collect, share twitter apps
http://twitter.grader.com get your twitter ranking
http://blastfollow.com/ follow people on twitter via #hashtag
http://www.tweetie.com/ tweet panels
http://ubertwitter.com/ twitter for mobile platforms
Vimeo, CrushIt! & GaryVee — all excellent resources
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 12, 2010
Crush It! with Gary Vaynerchuk from Nicki Leone on Vimeo.
Hear Gary Vaynerchuk on indies, silliness, social media, Web2.0, & more.
Southern Social Networking Summit a HIT!
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 8, 2010
I’m back from the Southern Social Networking Summit in Greenville, SC. It was an exhausting & exhilarating two days. I want you to know that I am busy compiling the results of everyone’s efforts. I have nearly 40 oversized pages of notes taken by the break-out groups that I am organizing and will be posting over the next week in this blog. So many people have written blog posts, posted videos & photos, twittered and facebooked, and I want to take the time to thank everyone. And I want to share these links with you. The video clips include testimonials and a word from Gary Vaynerchuk.
Video Clips (posted by Trey Pennington)
Photos (taken by Curtis Rogers from the SC State Library)
Calling All Activists, Artists, Booksellers, Bloggers, Chefs, Crafters, Dancers, Designers, Educators, Festival Organizers, Government Workers, Human Resources, Internet Engineers, Jugglers, Librarians, Marketers, Non-Profit Executives, Publishers, Retailers, Singers, Social Networkers, Twitterholics, Videographers, Writers, Wine Guys, & Zookeepers…
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on November 23, 2009
to the first ever
Southern Social Networking Summit (#ssns)
Meeting on the application of on-line social networking to the arts, humanities & business
Dates:
Wed., Jan. 6, 2010 (starting at 10am) & Thu., Jan. 7 (ending by 3pm)
Location:
Hyatt Regency Greenville, 220 North Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina, USA 29601
Tel: +1 864 235 1234 Fax: +1 864 232 7584
Mention code: SSNS when making reservation
Hotel Reservations Online
Thorny Details:
Registrants should have a working knowledge of the Internet and already be making some social networking efforts. Minimally, you should have a Twitter account and Facebook account set up, and have either a blog or website or both that is maintained somewhat regularly. Meals will be provided except dinner which will be dutch treat.
This event is free to the participants who stay overnight at the Hyatt Regency Greenville. The room rate is $99. If you do not stay at the Hyatt, the cost is $135. There will be no refunds. You will be required to forward your reservation confirmation for the Hyatt Regency Greenville to wanda@sibaweb.com to receive a special discount coupon and avoid the $135 summit registration fee.
You must pre-register by Jan. 1, 2010, Limited to the first 150 people. Every participant is invited to bring promotional materials, products, brochures, or other materials that they would like to share with other participants. Take this opportunity to increase your visibility across the south. We are all in this together.
Motivation and strategy:
The arts & humanities have made strides in applying insights from their field to social networking, particularly those involving reaching their direct constituents. So far, however, it has had a minimal impact on what may be the most significant challenge: reaching the masses. This meeting brings together those from varied domains to brainstorm about policies and programs aimed at invigorating our social networking efforts. The main thrust of the meeting will be to brainstorm about practical solutions to specific problems that are impeding progress in dealing with the ever changing explosive opportunities in social networking. There will be four sessions (see below), each focusing on a different broad topic area. Each begin with a briefing by a domain expert who will provide background information about the topic and propose some concrete problems for the group to address. Brainstorming will then take the form of breakout group meetings followed by larger group presentations. The four topic areas are:
- How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, FourSquare, CloudProfile and so many more…
- What’s on-line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work?
- What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets?
- Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders?
Schedule (subject to adjustments)
Day 1, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
- 9:00-10:00 Breakfast (please come and meet the other participants)
- 10:00–11:00 Welcome and Presentation on Motivation & Strategy for Successful Social Networking with business guru and wine guy Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It! http://garyvaynerchuk.com/
- 11:00-11:30 Break & Book Signing with Gary Vaynerchuk & David Allen
- 11:30-12:30 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, and so many more with the world’s leading authority on personal and organizational productivity David Allen, author of Making It All Work, Getting Things Done, and Ready for Anything. http://www.davidco.com/
- 12:30-1:00 Break & Booksigning with David Allen
- 1:00 -2:00 Breakout group brainstorming (over lunch)
- 2:00 -2:30 Breakout group reports
- 2:30-3:00 Break
- 3:00-4:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What’s on-line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work with social media marketing & viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book. http://danzarrella.com/
- 4:00-4:30 Break & Book Signing with Dan Zarrella
- 4:30-5:30 Breakout group brainstorming
- 5:30-6:30 Breakout group reports
- Dinner 7:00 Table 301 Family of Restaurants (Dutch Treat with a 20% discount to all)
Day 2, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010
- 8:00-9:00 Breakfast
- 9:00-10:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets? Expert to be named soon.
- 10:00-11:00 Breakout group brainstorming
- 11:00-12:00 Breakout group reports
- 12:00-1:10 Lunch to include SIBA presentation
- 1:10-2:10 Introduction and discussion: Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders? Expert to be named soon.
- 2:10-3:00 Group discussion and closing reflections
Twitter Summary:
Southern Social Networking Summit #ssns: Greenville, SC Jan w/Gary Vaynerchuk, David Allen, Dan Zarrella- http://www.sibaweb.com/ssns
SIBA Holiday Catalog Consumer Survey Results to Date
Posted by Wanda in Uncategorized on January 17, 2008
Holiday Survey Results as of 1/17/2008 – we had 728 consumers respond to the survey placed in the Winter Holiday Catalog…that is a nearly 6% return rate
70% (down 3% from last year) of consumers say that the make a distinction between local retailers and corporate chains when making buying decisions.
41% (up 5% from last year) of consumers knew that local retailers contributed up to three times more revenue to their communities than corporate chains.
A whopping 89% (up 2% from last year) claimed that knowing that local retailers contributed more to their communities would influence their buying decisions.
Nearly 20% of the consumers who claimed to make no distinction between local retailers and corporate chains then indicated that the information that local retailers contribute up to three times more revenue than their corporate counterparts would indeed influence their buying decisions. While only 8% (down 2% from last year) had visited the Authors ‘Round The South site, 80% (same as last year) of consumers indicated they would visit the ARTS site in the future…
Lady Banks Bookshelf
