The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) offered its first consumer day at its annual trade show, held Sept. 18-20 in Raleigh, N.C, and the event, Triangle Reads, which closed out the show on Sunday, was a success, said Wanda Jewell, SIBA’s executive director. “I didn’t know what to expect. I felt like it was different. I felt like it was a really great event.” SIBA was the first regional association to add a day for consumers to its annual show.
The trade show itself saw 176 booksellers and around 300 exhibitor attendees. Around 120 people attended Moveable Feast, the luncheon that kicked off Triangle Reads. This included 48 consumers. The remaining events for the day – a number of panels featuring 25 authors and a conversation between Elin Hilderbrand and Anne Bogel, who writes the Modern Mrs. Darcy book blog – saw around 150 attendees, Jewell estimates.
“I felt really good about all the panels,” she said. “All the chairs were filled and I was happy. The booksellers were selling books. All around it was very positive.”
SIBA partnered with the online book club She Reads, which has been interested in producing events that connect authors and readers, to create Triangle Reads. She Reads cofounder Marybeth Whalen said she was thrilled with the event. “What ultimately became our wish was that every single person, whether they were a bookseller, an author, or a reader, walk away and say, ‘I’m really glad I did that,’” she said. “And that’s what happened. I kept hearing from people that it enriched their life in some way. Booksellers said it. Readers said it. Authors said it. You can’t ask for more from a first event.”
Five North Carolina bookstores – Flyleaf Books, The Regulator Bookshop, The Country Bookshop, McIntyre’s Books, and Quail Ridge Books & Music – handled book sales for the event. Though sales numbers won’t be available until the end of October, Jewell said the booksellers were kept busy in between panels. “But all the booksellers said the value for them above book sales was that those five stores really had the chance to talk to each other for the first time,” she said.
Whalen and Jewell said both organizations are interested in offering a similar event during next year’s trade show, which will be held in Savannah, Georgia. But it depends on the willingness of bookstores in that area to get involved, Jewell said. “If the stores are willing and eager to do this, then I’m motivated to do it.”
Jewell also hopes Triangle Reads serves as a model for booksellers. “She Reads is willing to bring these kinds of events to stores outside the SIBA trade show,” she said.
Whalen said, “We’re not saying no to anything. This is all so new and exciting that we’re just open to whatever this might lead to for us.”
