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.

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.

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 & 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:

1. Organize a Blood Drive
2. Host an author reading
3. Set out a donation jar at the check-out counter for “Writers for the Red Cross.”
4. 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.)
5. 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

What an amazing experience SIBA 2011 was for me!

As a first timer and a non-southerner, my nervousness was only surpassed by my overwhelming desire to be accepted, not unlike meeting my in laws for the first time.  But just as my new family from Mobile, AL welcomed me lovingly and sincerely into their embrace, so did the wonderful booksellers of team SIBA!  The authors were gracious with their advice as were the people working the trade show.  And the staff at SIBA under the direction of Wanda Jewell make it looks so effortless to be so professional, organized, and hospitable, which we all know takes TONS of work behind the scenes.

To all of you who made me laugh and feel so welcome, thank you for making me feel like I have a home away from home!!

Sandra Brannan
In The Belly Of Jonah

Some of the highlights of my weekend:

Speaking on the panel about books based on southern landmarks. I loved hearing from other authors about how real places in our beloved south inspired them to create.   Meeting many booksellers at the signing after the panel. Their enthusiasm and warm smiles made me feel so welcome. So many seemed genuinely excited about my book. No author can ask for more.

Sitting with book bloggers Kathy Roberts and Heather Figearo at the SIBA dinner. Their excitement for the future of book blogging is contagious!

Hanging out with author Beth Webb Hart, who I knew a bit beforehand but really got to know through the course of the weekend.

Hearing from authors at the SIBA dinner… and getting some great books as I walked in the door. Hand me books and you’ve made a friend for life!   Attending the late night reading… and getting more books! My cup runneth over. And so did my suitcase going home.

Meeting writers like Beth Revis and Lisa Patton. I’d read Lisa’s wonderful book Whistlin Dixie In A Nor’Easter as soon as it came out and it was so fun to talk to her about the sequel that is forthcoming. I’d heard the buzz about Beth’s exciting YA title, Across The Universe which comes out 1-11-11. Isn’t that a cool release date? It was so fun to brag to my friends that I’d met her. They were jealous. Making my friends jealous is one of my life’s goals so that was a bonus.

Walking the floor and being surrounded by books. What a comforting feeling.

Getting to talk on camera with Debbie from SIBA about my book.

Connecting with the wonderful volunteers and staff who make SIBA possible. Many of you work behind the scenes without notice. Thank you from an author who was greatly blessed by the efforts you tirelessly made.

With any luck, I will see you all there next year in Charleston SC! I am already looking forward to it!

BIO: Marybeth Whalen has been married to Curt for 19 years. They have 6 children and regularly answer the questions, “Are they all yours?” “Are they all from the same marriage?” “Are there any twins?” and “How do you do it?” (Answers are as following: yes, yes, no and we have no idea!) When not chasing children or trying to schedule a date with her husband, Marybeth writes novels like The Mailbox (June 10) and She Makes It Look Easy (June 11). You can find her at www.marybethwhalen.com.

Warmly,

Marybeth Whalen
www.marybethwhalen.com
www.facebook.com/marybethwhalen
www.twitter.com/marybethwhalen

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.

Some people are just made for each other. You have the space, the resources, the access to authors, the access to books. She (or he) has the audience, the reputation, the reach, the Internet savvy and the voice. It’s a marriage made in heaven. Or at least, a really fun fling.

SIBA is encouraging its booksellers to seek out partnerships with book bloggers to enhance their presence on the Web and extend their online visibility, not to mention help turn the Internet from something that’s “work” to something that’s fun. This is what Kelly Justice of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA and Rebecca Joines Schinsky of The Book Lady’s Blog (thebookladysblog.com, @bookladysblog on Twitter) have done, and from the looks of the pictures, maybe they are having a little too much fun!

“Kelly and I have created a partnership that works so well for us we want to share it with the whole book world in hopes that other independent bookstores and book bloggers will try it!” said Joines Schinksy, commenting on the mutual benefits of their relationship, “As the owner of an indie bookstore, Kelly is focused on connecting to the local and national book community, bringing in fabulous authors, and maximizing opportunities to grow her store.  As a blogger, I’m all about writing content, getting the word out, and sharing news with my readers, who hail from all over the planet.”

Justice notes that the partnership is flexible in its terms. She allows Joines Schinsky to pick and choose from among the many author events hosted by the bookstore. In return for a chance to interview the authors (and a review copy of the book) The Book Lady’s Blog reviews and promotes the book and event via the blog and on twitter. Justice and Joines Schinsky also work together to promote books that the two avid readers are especially excited about, and have recently begun a book club on Twitter to discuss “under the radar” books they feel worthy of notice.

It helps that bookseller and book blogger are so simpatico. “Kelly and I know that together, we can reach more readers, promote more authors, and help more publishers than we can individually,” says Joines Schinsky, “We’re looking into some cookbook promotions as well where we make recipes, taste and share the results online.”

According to Justice, the key to the success of the partnership is that it has evolved naturally, without hard and fast rules, and that both partners have a good understanding of each other’s mission. Both see themselves as “literary ambassadors” for the Richmond, VA area—dedicated to exposing their city to great writers and great books. “We’re lucky in that we just “get” each other,” says Joines Schnisky, “Fountain Bookstore is about fun, escape, and celebrating books and the people who love them, write them and publish them. The Book Lady’s Blog is about these same things.”

The informal partnership has been good for everyone: The Book Lady’s Blog gets access to more books and authors, and can take advantage of Fountain Bookstore’s industry connections with publishers, publicists, and book media. Fountain Bookstore gets near-constant publicity from The Book Lady’s Blog, free content that is well-written and matched to the store strengths, referred traffic to its Web site and social media accounts, extra promotion for its events and an enhanced standing with publishers—who appreciate the fact that authors sent to the store will receive extra coverage. Fountain’s customers get to find out much more about books and authors than they’d normally hear from standard publicity. And Kelly and Rebecca get to run around town doing photo shoots. It’s a win-win-win.

The success of the partnership between Fountain Bookstore and The Book Lady’s Blog has prompted SIBA to encourage other bookstores to use it as a model to develop their own relationships with book bloggers. In order to help its members find bloggers in their area, SIBA is developing a directory of Southern Book Bloggers that it will help to “match” with area indie bookshops. Booksellers and Book bloggers who are interested in being a part of the project should contact SIBA Executive Director Wanda Jewell at wanda@sibaweb.com.

*photo was taken by P.J. Sykes www.intheblackandwhite.com @PJSykes on Twitter
*bed was located in La Difference in Richmond http://www.ladiff.com/ @LaDIFF on Twitter
*Hair by Jamie Lewis
(All indie business people in Richmond, VA #rva)