Spring Book Show welcomes Southern booksellers to Atlanta

Atlanta, GA, USA (SANEPR.com) March 4, 2008 -- When Spring Book Show 2008, the South’s largest bargain book show, comes to the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta on March 28-30, the South’s leading independent bookstore owners will be among the largest group of buyers in attendance.

The independent bookstore owners will be at the show not only to buy books for as much as 85 to 90 percent off suggested retail price, but to attend educational sessions organized by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), a membership organization for home-town bookstores.

According to SIBA Executive Director Wanda Jewel, the educational workshops begin at 8:30 a.m. on Friday (March 28), with a keynote presentation by Jeff Milchen of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA),who will cover the benefits of building alliances among community-based businesses, citizens and community organizations. He will be followed at 10:45 a.m. by SIBA and Page & Palette Bookstore President Karin Wilson of Fairhope, Ala., covering sales and marketing strategies for booksellers.

SIBA will present resource roundtables at 1 p.m. Friday. Roundtable leaders include Sally Brewster of Park Road Books, Charlotte, N.C., on book clubs; Karin Wilson on displays that move books; Kelly Justice of the Fountain Bookstore of Richmond, Va., on handselling; Janet Bollum of The Muse Bookshop of DeLand, Fla., on used and remainder books; Elisabeth Grant-Gibson of Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., on regional books; Nicki Leone of SIBA on “Why blog?”; and John Shableski, Diamond Book Distributors, Timonium, Md., on graphic novels.

The Friday afternoon workshops conclude with a 2:45 p.m. presentation by Robert Gray on “What Do Baby Boomers Want to Read?” Gray is a columnist for the popular Shelf Awareness newsletter that focuses on bookstore news.

The Saturday morning session, which convenes at 9:30 a.m., will focus on “Booksellers at the Tipping Point: Leveraging Localism and Independence to Promote Your Store.” That will be followed by an American Booksellers Association lunch and forum.

“We extend a cordial welcome to the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance members to the show,” said Spring Book Show organizer Larry May. “SIBA members have a long history of partnering with the show, helping to make it the largest in the South, and perhaps the largest in the nation.”