Administration/Projects
Send project-related
questions (Fall Discovery Show, Winter Catalog, Reading the West Book Awards, Website)
plus bills, invoices,
and payments to:

MPIBA Administration
c/o Kathy Keel
208 E. Lincoln Avenue

Fort Collins, CO 80524

Mark Your Calendar!

Fall Discovery Show (Trade Show) 2016

October 6-8, 2016
The Renaissance
Denver Hotel

MPIBA Announces Reading the West 2015 Shortlist

Adult Fiction

BLACK RIVER: A Novel by S.M. Hulse

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 978-0-544-30987-6; Hardcover $24.00

RED LIGHTNING: A Novel by Laura Pritchett

PGW/Counterpoint Press: 978-1-619-02533-2; Hardcover $25.00

OUR SOULS AT NIGHT: A Novel by Kent Haruf

Penguin Random House/Knopf: 978-1-101-87589-9; Hardcover $24.00

INTO THE SAVAGE COUNTRY: A Novel by Shannon Burke

Penguin Random House/Pantheon: 978-0-307-90892-6; Hardcover $24.95

NIGHT AT THE FIESTAS: Stories by Kirstin Valdez Quade

W.W. Norton & Company: 978-0-393-24298-0; Hardcover $25.95

Adult Nonfiction

THE MAVERICK COOKBOOK: Iconic Recipes & Tales from New Mexico by Lynn Cline

Leaf Storm Press: 978-0-991-41057-6; Hardcover $26.00

THE LAST DAYS OF GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER: The True Story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Thom Hatch
Macmillan/St. Martin's Press: 978-1-250-05102-8; Hardcover $29.99

THE OREGON TRAIL: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck
Simon & Schuster: 978-1-451-65916-0; Hardcover $28.00

LADIES OF THE CANYONS: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest by Lesley Poling-Kempes
University of Arizona Press: 978-0-816-52494-5; Paperback $24.95

ALL THE WILD THAT REMAINS: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner
W.W. Norton & Company: 978-0-393-08999-8; Hardcover $26.95

Children's

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CRAZY HORSE by Joseph Marshall
illustrated by James Mark Yellowhawk

Abrams Books for Young Readers: 978-1-419-70785-8; Hardcover $16.95

BURN GIRL by Mandy Mikulencak
Albert Whitman/AW Teen: 978-0-807-52217-2; Hardcover $16.99

LOOK BOTH WAYS IN THE BARRIO BLANCO by Judith Robbins Rose
Candlewick Press: 978-076-367235-5; Hardcover $16.99

A SERIES OF SMALL MANEUVERS by Eliot Treichel
Ooligan Press at Portland State University: 978-1-932-01079-4; Paperback $14.95

IN THE CANYON by Liz Garton Scanlon
illustrated by Ashley Wolff

Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane Books: 978-1-481-40348-1; Hardcover $17.99

Thank you to the MPIBA booksellers on the Reading the West Selection Committees for their time and dedication to this awards process.

Click here to visit MPIBA's Reading the West Shortlist page.

Click here to view all the nominated titles in this year's Reading the West Book Awards program.

We Are Looking Forward to the April 8 Spring Meeting!

Boulder Book Store

For registered bookseller members
of ABA and/or MPIBA

ABA and MPIBA Programming
10:00am - 2:00pm

MPIBA Advisory Council Meeting: 2:00pm - 3:30pm

Boulder Creek Meeting Room
Boulder Public Library
1001 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80302

MPIBA Author Reception
4:00pm - 6:00pm

Boulder Book Store

1107 Pearl Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302

Elizabeth J. Church, THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF LOVE
Stephen Graham Jones, MONGRELS
Erik Storey, NOTHING SHORT OF DYING
Eleanor Brown, THE LIGHT OF PARIS
Fernanda Santos, THE FIRE LINE
Jerry Nelson, DEAR COUNTY AGENT GUY

April's Great Idea from
The Bookworm of Edwards

Karin Barker from The Bookworm of Edwards

Bookworm's Literary Concierge Service

Looking for the perfect book for yourself or for a gift? Let our booksellers hand-select the perfect book each month! Enroll yourself or a loved one today with this form (on their website; see link below).

You pick the price: up to $15, up to $25, up to $35, or "just send me a great book." (Books selected through our literary concierge service also receive a 10% discount!)
We send anywhere in the United States via flat-rate USPS shipping.
Gift options are available, such as additional books during the holidays and birthday months, custom enclosures, and gift wrapping!
We keep a record of all books sent, so you'll never get the same book twice.

Joining the Bookworm's literary concierge service is an excellent way to support the Bookworm and give the gift of great reading to yourself or someone else each month. Each book is individually picked specifically for the recipient -- we begin thinking about the best book to send weeks in advance, sometimes ordering the perfect title from our warehouse! The program is customizable, and you can join at any time and for any duration.

Get the complete scoop on this program on the store's website.

Share Your Passion for
Books with StoryCorps

Rebecca Fitting, above left, and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo,
above right, owners of Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York,
with StoryCorps founder Dave Isay

This spring, StoryCorps is celebrating booksellers across the country.

f you're passionate about books and readers, if you're committed to literacy in your community, if you felt called to become a bookseller, we want to hear from you.

Record your story at a StoryCorps booth:

https://storycorps.org/reservations/

or with the StoryCorps app for iPhone
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storycorps/id359071069?mt=8

or with the StoryCorps app for Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bottlerocketapps.storycorps

If you choose to record on the app, be sure to tag your interview with the keyword "MyBookCalling." StoryCorps founder Dave Isay may play some of your recordings during his national book tour for the latest StoryCorps book, CALLINGS: The Purpose and Passion of Work, on sale now and available April 19, 2016.

Here are some questions to get you started:

What are your earliest memories of reading?
Tell me how you became a bookseller.
Tell me about your bookstore. What makes it special?
Do you have any favorite stories from your work?
What's the best part of running a bookstore? What's the most challenging?
Why do you do this work?
What lessons have you learned as a bookseller?

For more information, visit the StoryCorps blog:

https://storycorps.org/blog/share-your-passion-for-books-with-storycorps/

Binc Celebrates 20 Years

"Proud to Support Binc" Video
Features Jeanne Costello from Maria's Bookshop
and Meg Sherman from W.W. Norton

Shelf Awareness Celebrates Binc's

"Incredibly Important" Work

With the help of the organization, Shelf Awareness celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation, which does incredibly important work: helping booksellers and their families in times of financial hardship and giving booksellers and their families educational and professional scholarships.

Learn how it is expanding its work--and how you can help.

Click here to view the full article:

Past Accomplishments, Future Goals
Natural Disasters, Medical Problems: Binc's Amazing Help
Binc's Scholarship Help and New Programs
Reps to the Rescue (excerpt below)
What We All Can Do to Help Binc Help Booksellers

"Reps to the Rescue" - Meg Sherman

Likewise, Meg Sherman, a sales rep at Norton, who was an independent bookseller for 13 years, is a major advocate for Binc. "Strong booksellers need stronger bookstores need a stronger book industry," she said.

"When booksellers aren't able to come to work because of things going on in their lives, when they're worried about how to pay their bills, they might leave [the industry] to take another job that they'd rather not take," she continued. "Anything we can do to help with that and keep those stores strong means a stronger industry and stronger communities."

After a series of historic floods in Colorado in 2013, she took notice of Binc's work. "They had worked with several booksellers at Boulder Book Store to help them in midst of the floods," recalled Sherman. "It was so immediate that they got on my radar."

Ever since, Sherman has been advocating for Binc. Sherman's territory as a sales rep covers seven Western states, and while giving rep talks around the region she takes time to mention Binc and the sorts of things they do for booksellers. And if she hears about a struggling staff member while speaking with store owners, Sherman doesn't hesitate to mention Binc. Sherman has also begun talking to other sales reps about advocating for Binc.

Sherman said has consistently been struck by Binc's multi-faceted efforts, which include providing grants to offset bills, advocating on behalf of booksellers while dealing with hospitals, insurance companies and similar institutions, and providing scholarships to booksellers to attend regional and national trade shows. "It really impresses me."

"Reps to the Rescue" - Kate McCune

Two sales reps have been a major help in spreading the word about Binc to bookseller accounts and are now encouraging other reps to do so, too.

HarperCollins field rep Kate McCune worked in bookselling before joining the publisher 14 years ago. "I spent so many years being a bookseller and working with booksellers that I know a lot of people don't have a cushion," she said.

McCune, who is also a Binc board member, initially heard about Binc at trade shows. "My kinship to booksellers kind of made me predisposed to work with Binc," explained McCune.

She also felt that it was critical to support independent booksellers. "This channel is hugely important," she said. "I think it's crucial that we're there to just help people have the lives they want to have and not have it go off the rails. It feels like a no-brainer to help out on that front."

In 2014, McCune and Kit Steinaway put together small, one-sheet kits for sales reps to take on calls. The idea, McCune explained, is for a sales rep to talk about Binc for just 30 seconds to a minute and leave behind some literature. McCune has found that a low-tech, face-to-face method, which she called the "pony express way," seems to be best for spreading information about Binc among both booksellers and sales reps.