Posts Tagged Booksellers
#SIBA12 – Authors Serve it Up at Naples Trade Show
Posted by Wanda in Authors as Guest Bloggers, SIBA Trade Shows on September 23, 2012
Authors Serve it Up at Naples Trade Show
by Steve Piacente
Post-feast signing.
Waiting last Sunday to make the first of many rapid-fire pitches to a ballroom full of booksellers, I thought of how Elmer used to gaze at Bugs, smack his lips and imagine Wabbit Stew.
It seemed an appropriate image, for the premiere event at the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) is called the “Moveable Feast.”
The “feast” is comprised of some two dozen authors who move from table to table every eight minutes. The goal, obviously, is to get your book added to the menu in independent bookstores throughout the South.
Any fear heading in was quickly dispelled. The sellers were engaged and personable, and asked questions that made the exercise feel more like a conversation than an interview.
And yet that’s what it was, and what it is anytime you get a stranger to sit still and listen to your pitch. Eight minutes is actually long. In my experience, if you can’t arouse interest in the time it takes the elevator to go from 1 to 12, you’re done.
The other challenge is maintaining your own energy and enthusiasm after uttering the same words over and over. It’s wise to remember that Table 23 doesn’t know you from Adam, and couldn’t care less how sharp you were two tables earlier.
In fact, Table 23 looked a little overwhelmed by the time I got there. They had already heard from several authors and really, how much literary speed dating could anyone handle in an hour?
I kept it short. My novel, I said, is built around a dark secret that will disrupt a historic election. It will take you where CSPAN is never invited, to back rooms where deals are made, futures are decided, and where the line between right and wrong is not so clear. The title, I said is Bootlicker.
I glanced from person to person, saw they were at least interested enough for me to go on. So I did, any thoughts of Wabbit Stew now long vanquished.
Have you had a similar literary speed dating experience?
#SIBA12 – don’t be a PITCH.
Posted by Wanda in Authors as Guest Bloggers, SIBA Trade Shows on September 19, 2012
“What I didn’t know the first time I attended SIBA was how kind, genuine, and supportive the booksellers would be to a 
debut author like me. Being new to the industry, pitching the book is what we’re used to as debut authors and booksellers are looking for us to be ourselves. If authors can stay more relaxed and have conversations with booksellers, the story of your book will come out naturally. So don’t be a PITCH. Be YOU.”
- Sandra Brannan
#SIBA12 – Nobody does it like the south
Posted by Wanda in Authors as Guest Bloggers, SIBA Trade Shows on September 16, 2012
Nobody does it like the south
By: Joelle Charbonneau
I had heard of SIBA. I mean, of course I had heard of it. Lots of my author friends had attended the show in the past. So I knew about SIBA, but I had never been.
Until this year.
I was honored to receive an invitation to be a part of the SIBA 2012 adventure, but while I was excited I will also admit to being nervous since I didn’t really know anyone who was going. Worry was unnecessary because everyone was wonderful. Enthusiasm for books made everyone feel connected. The booksellers I talked to were engaged and energetic. The authors were kind and incredibly talented. I never noticed how long I was standing or talking until after I went back to my room and put on the hotel provided fuzzy robe. (Can you tell I thought the robe thing was really cool?)
SIBA was also a wonderful time to connect with members of my publishing team that I had yet to meet. If you haven’t met Andy Snyder and Emily Holden from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt make sure you introduce yourself. They are rockstars. As were all the sales reps I met. They are unsung heroes who champion books before they ever hit shelves.
The one thing I didn’t know, but learned as I walked around the show floor coveting items on every table was that the words trade show were taken literally. That sometimes I could get a fabulous book or a cool swag item if I bartered for it. Thank goodness I had stuff to trade because the books I brought home to my four-year-old made put me in the same category as Mickey Mouse and Curious George.
But the one thing I really didn’t know is that I didn’t have to pitch my books to booksellers or work to make connections. I just had to be myself and enjoy the people whose passion for books was overwhelming. The rest took care of itself.
#SIBA12: A Neophyte’s Analysis
Posted by Wanda in Authors as Guest Bloggers, SIBA Trade Shows on September 13, 2012
SIBA 2012: A Neophyte’s Analysis
It’s a wrap. SIBA is done for 2012 and with it’s passing it leaves me a trade show veteran. No longer will I just get into a line of authors and follow them around because I’m not really sure where they’re going or if I am supposed to go there too. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the posted schedule, I knew what the schedule said, I just wasn’t exactly sure what it meant, and I sure as heck didn’t want to miss something that could have gotten me a little more time with the booksellers in attendance.
Let’s be real, I had a great time, I had fun with a bunch of wonderful people, and I met a lot of new friends among the other authors that I expect to last for years to come, but I didn’t leave my cancer patients, delay my schedule, and run down to Naples without my family for any of those reasons. I came down to try and convince the members of SIBA that they would make a return on their initial investment of time and effort to try and hand-sell my book and that I would do my part to be a partner with them in doing so.
I’ve pitched screenplays to Hollywood producers, handled investors, and go face to face to explain, as honestly as possible, the extent of their disease to my patients every day. Talking isn’t something that frightens me. But SIBA is a bit different than anything I’ve ever done before; it’s more like a Kung Fu movie with multiple attackers. You never know when the booksellers are going to pop up or where they’re going to come from. I know that there is some importance to badge color and everyone had a badge with their name on it, but I was never quite sure who was who, and it felt awkward to put on my reading glasses to try and figure it out. So I talked to everyone. I had done a three-minute pitch and given a t-shirt to a security guard before I realized he wasn’t a bookseller with a uniform fetish. I don’t regret it, I turned him into a walking billboard in Naples for The Uncommon Thread and maybe even gained another reader, but I don’t think he’s going to go home and order a carton of my books from Ingram whether they’re returnable or not, although I assured him repeatedly and fervently that they were.
Next time SIBA is in my back yard, New Orleans, so my only comment about that is, “Whodat….Whodat…Whodat say dey gonna sell dem books?”
See ya next year (if you invite me or not). New Orleans is just too much fun to miss, I don’t care if I’m only there as a tour guide. Maybe we can get all the booksellers Tabasco Mardi Gras beads or something so I can tell who they are a little better, but, laissez les bon temps rouler.
So, read Occupy Bourbon Street, in my little book, make yourself a list of restaurants you can’t miss, put a smile on your face, and come on down here for a good time in 2013.
Glad to have been a part of SIBA 2012,
Scott Anderson
#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.
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.
SIBA Partners with Writers for the Red Cross
SIBA & WRITERS FOR THE RED CROSS
Booksellers & writers partner to raise awareness for the Red Cross
If there were one word to describe the Red Cross, it would be “community.” Each year, in communities large and small, victims of some 70,000 disasters turn to neighbors familiar and new—the more than half a million volunteers and 35,000 employees of the Red Cross. Through nearly 700 locally supported chapters, more than 15 million people gain the skills they need to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their homes, communities and world.
Independent bookstores share our commitment to community by bringing readers and writers together every day in hundreds of ways, large and small. And these communities continue to grow and be strengthened through online outreach, social media, partnerships with Google ebooks…and through partnerships with national organizations with a similar mission of community—national organizations like the Red Cross.
Booksellers: With your help, we can make a difference!
http://www.writersfortheredcross.org will go live in mid-February, with active fundraising beginning March 1-31. It is modeled on the highly successful “Do the Write Thing for Nashville” fundraiser, which raised $74K in ten days following last spring’s devastating floods.
This national, online event is intended to raise funds for, as well as awareness about, the Red Cross and its work in communities. Writers for the Red Cross (WRC) will be auctioning off publishing related items and services donated by authors, publicists, agents, and editors. They will also have daily guest posts from authors about “What the Red Cross Means to Me” and a daily countdown of “31 Things You Didn’t Know About the Red Cross.”
How can your store participate?
For $0:
Stores which have a website affiliate relationship with SIBA will automatically be included. Key titles on writersfortheredcross.org will be linked to SIBA affiliates for purchase, and SIBA will donate any commission earned for those sales back to the Red Cross on behalf of the bookseller.
If you are an IndieBound eCommerce store and don’t have your affiliate option turned on, there is still time to be included. Email nicki@sibaweb.com before February 15.
For $99
Writers for the Red Cross will include your store and a link on their bookstore “Appreciation Page.” Throughout the online event, SIBA and WRC will be doing call-outs to this page and urge visitors to explore the independent bookstores featured there.
For $199
In addition to a link on the “Appreciation Page,” Your store will be featured prominently as a “featured bookseller” on the home page of the event, along with an image of your choice linked to your store website or email. Your store and image will be featured for at least one day on the site, perhaps longer depending on how many stores choose to participate.
For all participation levels
SIBA and WRC will help get the word out of any event or promotion organized by individual stores in support of the Red Cross. The site will include an online calendar of all bookstore activities supporting the Red Cross (Blood Drives, author events, in-store sales, etc.)—as well as upbeat blog post mentions of bookseller efforts to help the Red Cross.
Ideas for Red Cross initiatives at the individual store level:
- Organize a Blood Drive
- Host an author reading
- Set out a donation jar at the check-out counter for “Writers for the Red Cross.”
- Do a 31-hour in-store or online sale, with a percentage of sales earmarked for the Red Cross. (Red Cross Month is 31 days.)
- Choose a specific book, books, or genre you’d like to promote in March (Red Cross Month), with a percentage of sales earmarked for the Red Cross
Send us news and pictures of your event! We’ll blog about it on our event website. We will also include your event on our on a “Red Cross at the Bookstore” collective calendar.
We will contact participating stores on April 1 with information on how to transfer the funds raised directly to the Red Cross. The Red Cross will also provide documentation of all gifts and donations for tax purposes.
FOR QUESTIONS OR TO PARTICIPATE, CONTACT:
Holly Tucker (holly.a.tucker@gmail.com)
Volunteer, Writers for the Red Cross event coordinator
Amy Kerr (kerra@nashvilleredcross.org)
Director, Major Gifts; American Red Cross
On a Windy Night at #SIBA10
Posted by Wanda in Authors as Guest Bloggers on October 21, 2010
It WAS a windy night and the full moon was covered by shining clouds over the 
ocean as I walked over from the Friday night author dinner (Fannie Flag, Emma Donoghue–and more!) to the late night reading. I was excited to read my new picture book, On a Windy Night, to its very first audience. The booksellers of SIBA were right with me as I read them a “bedtime story” and they looked at George Bates’ delightfully frightful illustrations. Felt lucky to be the only author who could read the whole book in 6 minutes, but enjoyed the other authors’ excerpts, too. Hope everyone got a signed copy that wanted one on the exhibit floor the next day. Had a great time talking to like-minded book people and hated to leave in the morning. Thanks for the enthusiastic reception, SIBA!
Nancy Raines Day, author of On a Windy Night, illus. by George Bates (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Lady Banks Bookshelf
