At last weekend’s general meeting of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association at the fall trade show in Denver, Colo., executive director Laura Ayrey announced two new programs intended to help booksellers and to generate income for the organization: an ad-driven program called Bring on Your Books (BYOB), and a consumer Web site called Buzzaboutbooks.org.
Like the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, which has signed booksellers to participate in a Circle of Sites banner ad program, in November MPIBA will launch BYOB. Bookstores that sign up for the program will have their membership fees waived in exchange for allowing MPIBA to place book ads on their store Web sites above the fold.
Buzzaboutbooks.org, which is the organization's first consumer Web site, is aimed at helping booksellers sell signed books and antiquarian titles. “We saw a lot of opportunity in our signed stock,” said MPIBA president Meghan Goel, children’s book buyer at BookPeople in Austin. “We thought it would be a great way to extend our reach.” There is no fee to booksellers to participate and sales are directed back to them. MPIBA benefits from the ad revenue generated by the site, which is currently in beta.
Both these initiatives, though, do not point to trouble within the organization, the MPIBA said. The MPIBA has plenty of cash in the bank and finished out the year slightly ahead. But there is some concern, given the economy, about finding ways to rebuild its coffers. Like many regional associations, the winter catalog, the trade show, and membership dues continue to be MPIBA’s primary sources of income.
