From left to right, Wanda Jewell, SIBA executive director (celebrating her own 25th year anniversary with SIBA) along with Dave Williams, Reba White Williams and Julia Williams

From left to right, Wanda Jewell, SIBA executive director (celebrating her own 25th year anniversary with SIBA) along with Dave Williams, Reba White Williams and Julia Williams

It was an exciting weekend for book geeks around the southeast when the Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) celebrated its 40th anniversary in Raleigh, NC. Hundreds of booksellers attended, all there to catch up on industry trends and see what books will be best poised to jump off their fall shelves.

For any authors who haven’t had the opportunity to attend a booksellers convention, it’s an exciting insider’s view to what’s important to book stores. Among the dozens of authors who did attend (many by invitation of publishers and SIBA) they participated in panels and did book signings, giving away hundreds of sample books to grab the attention of book store owners, both to be carried on their shelves, and to organize possible store events.

Book Event Pitch Do’s and Don’ts

Author Pattie Welek Hall signs copies of her upcoming A Mother’s Dance, engaging with book sellers during SIBA. Behind Pattie, her publisher, Terri Ann Leidich of BQB/Write Life Publishing.

In an early session given by Robin Cutler of Ingram Spark, we had a chance to hear some of those book seller comments when it comes to authors pitching a booksigning. Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts:

1. DO be a customer of your local book store before you just pop in to ask for a book signing favor.
2. DON’T demand time of a book seller unless you’ve made an appointment. (As one bookseller said, “I get pitched by five or six authors a day, and that takes time away from my customers. I tell authors that even Random House has to make an appointment.”)
3. DO have a tip sheet available that you can leave with the book store. (Don’t have one? We have examples in our Templates & Tutorials in the Winner Circle.)
   

   Author Clay Stafford, founder of Killer Nashville, reads from his latest book at an evening gathering during SIBA

4. DO be patient and recognize that a book store owner is like any other business owner — they’re in business to make money.
5. DON’T be discouraged if a book seller says “no.” Learn why you may not be a good fit and use the knowledge for the next book store you pitch!

If you do get lucky enough to get a book signing, then do everything you can to help bring people into the store for your signing!

Great Book-Selling Tool for Book Stores

One tool we loved seeing was from Matchbook Marketing. These mini-newspapers are printed six times a year, with eight interior pages of book recommendations. Then, the book seller can add four pages of their own to the outside “wrap” — allowing them to promote local favorites, announce book events, hours and more.

We found this to be a clever idea for book stores to “co-op” their printing costs, and a nice benefit both for authors to get print features about their books, and readers to get a “takeaway” of recommended reads when they visit their local bookstore!

Many book stores already using Matchbook also include the pdf of the paper on their websites; some even have the news mailed to their favorite customer lists. Smart book marketing…

Publishers Work Hard to Sell Your Books, Too!

Bennett Coles of Promontory Press came all the way from Vancouver to promote his authors with “southern flair.”

SIBA was also a great place to see how publishers promote books to book stores. Dozens of publishers lined the exhibit hall and gave freely of sample titles and advanced reader copies. Booksellers’ arms were stretched with stacks of books.

What impressed us most was the passion the publisher reps, from small publishers up to all the big guns represented, displayed about all their titles. Publishing representatives were knowledgeable and eager to talk about the “next great read.” It made us wonder — do authors realize how hard these folks are working to promote books, too?

Our hearty congratulations to SIBA on another successful book event, and on its 40th anniversary. And a shout-out to all the authors and publishers with books to entertain a new wave of readers this fall… Write on, READ on!