The 40-year-old Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance hasn’t wasted any time putting to use the $40,000 grant that it received from the Reba and Dave Williams Foundation for Literature and the Arts late last year to increase the visibility of Southern indie bookstores.
SIBA announced today that it is using the funds to create the B3! Building Better Booksellers program, part of its 2015 Year of Engagement initiative. To encourage booksellers to engage more with SIBA, members can accrue points for participating in the bookselling community by nominating books for the SIBA Book Awards, sharing SIBA news on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and even opening e-mail from the organization.
The points, in turn, are translated into free admission to the SIBA Discovery Show set for September 18-20 in Raliegh, N.C. If booksellers earn enough points they could earn an all-expense paid trip to Raleigh, paid for by the grant. SIBA executive director Wanda Jewell would like to see every SIBA member attend the annual show this year, but noted that the real benefit for participating in B3! “will be the heightened visibility and recognition [booksellers] receive for their store, and the increased interest they get for the books they are engaged in.”
