e-Newsletter May 13, 2016

In This Issue
Second Independent Bookstore Day Recap
IBD - Changing Hands
IBD - Monkey & Dog Books
IBD - Tattered Cover
Peter Heller to Headline Telluride Literary Arts Fest
The Billings Bookstore Cooperative Hires Gary Robson
BEA 2016 in Chicago
Binc Kicks Off Second "Campaign to Sustain"








Laura Ayrey Burnett
Executive Director
MPIBA

435.649.6079 office

435.649.6105 fax  

 


Association Information
Send publisher catalogs, author information,  
ARCs, and publicity  
to Laura:

3278 Big Spruce Way  
Park City, UT 84098

 

  

 

 




Kathy Keel
Project Manager
MPIBA
970.484.3939
970.484.0037 fax
800.752.0249 toll-free


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
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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
Second Independent Bookstore Day Recap

Independent Bookstore Day "Shelfie-Selfie" Station
featuring Jordan at Changing Hands Bookstore. Customers could
swing by either store location to get their official "author" photo.
On Saturday, April 30, readers flocked to 430 indie bookstores in 44 states across the U.S. participating in the second national celebration of Independent Bookstore Day (IBD).
 
Many booksellers shared stories of successful events and record-breaking sales with Bookselling This Week, and many more posted photos of their fun festivities on social media. The event was so popular that the hashtags #BookstoreDay and #IndieBookstoreDay were trending on Twitter on both April 29 and April 30.

Listening to The Gruffalo at MPIBA member bookstore,
Monkey and Dog Books, a children's bookstore in Fort Worth, Texas
At Monkey and Dog Books, owner Shelley Lowe said the day went even better than she had expected.
 
"I was really excited. I have a teeny tiny little 125-square-foot bookshop, so we were all kind of crowded in here," said Lowe, who this year served cupcakes with tiny books as toppers, ran an origami butterfly workshop, and hosted a Tales and Tunes story time.
 
"Usually on a Saturday we don't do as well, but on Independent Bookstore Day we really did better than I have ever done on Saturday, except for during the Christmas season," she said. "And we had a lot of support. Of the people who came in that day, maybe 40 percent were new customers."
 
Lowe believes a lot of Monkey and Dog's new customers heard about the event on social media.

Her social media manager is a member of the local "Tanglewood Moms" online message board, which Lowe said has been helpful in publicizing events to the local elementary school community.
 
Booksellers who are looking to sell or trade leftover IBD items with other stores can use IBD's Bookstore Day Trading Post to list the items they have for sale and to search for items they would like to buy, including items from the previous year's celebration. Stores must contact one another directly to coordinate any trades or sales.
 
 -Bookselling This Week, May 3, 2016 

For Independent Bookstore Day, Tattered Cover Book Store(s)
worked with Litographs to adorn their customers with lines
from ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
 

Peter Heller to Headline
Telluride Literary Arts Fest     
Take a road trip next week to Telluride for LitFest, and celebrate the joy of reading and writing!

This power-packed weekend (May 20-22, 2016) features everything from performance poetry, author talks, and literary burlesque, to moderated panel discussions, birding forays, and fun, hands-on bookish events for kiddos.
 
This mindful gathering is cobbled together by a coalition of regional writers and literature-loving organizations and businesses, supporting (and sustaining) the literary arts. Its organizing entities include the Ah Haa School for the Arts, Between the Covers Bookstore, Telluride Institute's Talking Gourds Poetry Program, Telluride Arts, and the Wilkinson Public Library.

The event is a collective nod to wordcraft
and to the West's ongoing literary history.

With an award-winning library, a thriving poetry scene that includes several resident Poet Laureates, an arts school that hosts writing workshops and a nationally recognized bookbinding academy, and an indie bookshop that's been serving the literary needs of the area since 1974, Telluride is a town that sincerely embraces the literary arts.
Featured guest is Peter Heller, pulling a "hat trick" as poet, panelist, and spotlight author.


Peter Heller, an MPIBA Reading the West Book Award winner for THE PAINTER, is the author of three nonfiction books and two novels, and is a longtime contributor to NPR. He is also a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and Men's Journal. Peter will speak in some capacity on each day of the festival.

Click here for descriptions of his books and his bio.

For more information and a full schedule
of events, please click here.

 

Billings Bookstore Co-op Hires Gary Robson    

Gary Robson, owner of Red Lodge Books & Tea
The Billings Bookstore Cooperative has hired Gary Robson as its general manager
and purchased the assets of Robson's store, Red Lodge Books & Tea (in Red Lodge, Montana).
 
The new hire is exciting news for the co-op because Robson, 57, brings expertise in a variety of areas, including publishing and writing. He and his wife, Kathy, purchased the Red Lodge bookstore in 2001 and expanded it, adding a popular tea shop with 1,500 varieties of tea.
 
The Red Lodge store will close in mid-June, but some of the employees, including the tea shop manager, will be hired to help run the Billings store. The Billings Bookstore Cooperative is planning to renovate the former Wendy's restaurant, 2906 Second Ave. North, and open by the end of summer.
 
"We've been working on the bookstore co-op
for over a year, and all the pieces are falling
into place,"
said co-op board president Carrie La Seur. "Hiring Gary and buying the assets of Red Lodge Books & Tea significantly reduces the time it will take to get the Billings bookstore up and running."
 
Robson has extensive bookstore managing and publishing experience, and like La Seur and several other co-op shareholders, he is a published author. He is best known for his "Who Pooped in the Park" children's series, which have sold 400,000 copies. His latest in the series, "Who Pooped in Central Park?" is coming out in late May.
Robson isn't happy about leaving Red Lodge with no bookstore for the first time in 30 years. He said there is a possibility that the Billings Bookstore Cooperative could open a satellite bookstore in Red Lodge in the future. At one point, Robson operated a satellite bookstore in Absarokee.
 
"Being a part of a larger community - and being located just down the street from MSUB, Rocky and the Billings Library - gives us a whole new set of opportunities that don't exist in a small town like Red Lodge," Robson said.
 
The advantage of operating an independent bookstore, instead of a chain bookstore, is that the inventory can be carefully curated to reflect the community, Robson said.
 
"As a full-service bookstore we'll have a little of everything, but the focus will be on regional authors and topics, educational books, nature and science, classics, and a strong children's section."
 
"I'm completely thrilled; this is going to be awesome," Robson said. "I see nowhere but up on this."
 
To read the full article, please click here.

-The Billings Gazette, May 2, 2016
 
 

BEA 2016 in Chicago     
Booksellers are the best people!
 

Binc Kicks Off Second
"Campaign to Sustain"

   
This year marks Binc's 20th anniversary.

In order to continue to provide the crucial financial safety net to bookstore employees across the country, Binc has set the goal of adding another 50 sustaining donors during the month of May, in their second annual Campaign to Sustain.

Ongoing funding
from the campaign  
will ensure that bookseller assistance programs such as serious medical expenses, domestic violence, homelessness prevention and funeral expenses will continue to be provided by the Foundation for years to come. 

For more information, and to become a sustaining donor, please click here.