The annual trade show of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) opened in Savannah, GA Friday. Among the hottest topics was the surprise news announced earlier this month that beginning in 2018, SIBA will move its trade show to March and take up a permanent home in Atlanta, where it will share a roof with national Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) and international AmericasMart Atlanta (MART).
“This is the most exciting thing to happen to SIBA since I started working with the organization,” SIBA executive director Wanda Jewell told PW. “I firmly believe it will allow booksellers to plan out their year better, it will help them to bring bigger name authors to their stores and add to their bottom line.
Under the SIBA bylaws, it was not necessary for Jewell to poll booksellers or otherwise seek approval before making the change. PW spoke to several attendees at the show who expressed reservations about the decision. One sales rep, who declined to be named, noted that each March he is preparing for and attending sales conference at his company. A bookseller was concerned that locating the event permanently in Atlanta would ultimately favor writers from Georgia and the environs. “One of the benefits of moving the show each year is we get exposed to new authors and new bookstores in each city,” she said.
Kelly Justice, owner of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Vir., noted that the distance to Atlanta will prevent her from driving. “I just won’t be able to bring as many staff,” she said, adding that she understands the appeal of working on coordination with the other two shows, but that not everyone sells remainders, so that might not be as relevant to them. “Having it in Atlanta every other year might be a good compromise,” she said.
ABA’s “New Localism” Campaign Debuts
The SIBA Discovery Show is also the first opportunity the American Booksellers Association has had to present its “New Localism” program in the context of this year's regional trade shows. The program revises and updates the buy local marketing efforts instituted by the ABA more than a decade ago. The new reporting was conducted by the research firm Civic Economics and focuses in large part of the detrimental impact the rise of Amazon has on local retailers, in particular booksellers.
According to the research, Amazon’s growth has resulted in the loss of some 220,000 jobs to the American economy and a loss of $1.26 billion in revenue to state and local governments in 2015. “This also takes into account the job creation as a result of their warehouse expansion,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher to a packed room of booksellers at the show.
“While we know it is not realistic for us to shift all shopping away from Amazon, every little bit helps,” said Teicher. “Of course, we are not urging you to turn your stores into anti-Amazon centers, we do think educating shoppers will help. Every bookstore will have its comfort level with this and the ABA is not recommending what that comfort level will be.”
To this end the ABA is providing a suite of tools that will be available on bookweb.org to help booksellers implement a localism campaign. from printable signage congratulating customers to form letters that can be sent to lobby government officials.
“It’s not an anti-Amazon thing,” said Teicher, “it’s a pro-indie thing.”
