The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is hosting its first Southern Social Networking Summit with a goal of "conquering the world one hashtag at a time!" #SSNS will be held January 6 and 7, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency, Greenville, S.C. Detailed information about the program and schedule is available on SIBA's website.
The summit is a collaborative effort between SIBA and other arts organizations, nonprofits, bookstores and marketing entities, with the objective of using social media more cooperatively and effectively to increase audiences and constituencies and better respond to the changing environment and trends in the communities they serve.
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Author Neil Gaiman, who will be the centerpiece for the 2010 Naperville (Ill.) Reads campaign, "just has a different take on the world," said Gail Wetta of Anderson's Bookshop, one of the organizers of the celebration.
This was "exactly what organizers from the bookshop, library and Naperville school districts were looking for when they went hunting for an author to build next year's program around; the kind of writer with widespread appeal who can bring large segments of the community together to discuss his work," the Daily Herald reported. Gaiman will be in Naperville February 23-25 for several appearances.
"We know he has a following here in Naperville. He was certainly high on our wish list," added Candace Purdom of Anderson's. "If you're selected for Naperville Reads, we're going to make good use of you.
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Cool Twitter idea of the day. Beginning next Monday, Electric Literature will conduct a "Grassroots Exercise in Participatory ePublishing" as it invites Twitter users to become co-publishers of Rick Moody's new short story, "Some Contemporary Characters," which was written in 153 bursts of 140 characters or less and will be serialized every 10 minutes, 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m., from November 30 through December 2.
Electric Literature's (@ElectricLit) plan: "We're concocting a kind of pyramid scheme: We each tweet the story to our respective followers. We tell our followers to retweet. They tell their followers to retweet the retweet, etc. With enough co-publishers and citizen re-tweeters, together we can drown Twitter in literature (twitterature?) for three days straight."
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Book trailer of the day: Participants in International Buy Nothing Day (celebrated on Black Friday) may eventually want to consider reading Raj Patel's The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy (Picador).
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Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Va., has launched two marketing campaigns: "possibly the first-ever independent bookstore jingle" and an IndieBound Hanukkah poster, a collaborative effort with the local Jewish Community Center, Bookselling This Week reported.
The two posters read "Eat Sleep Read Spin" and "Nap. Nosh. Read." and are available for download from IndieBound. Hear a sample of the Fountain jingle at the beginning of this YouTube clip.
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A Cappella Books, Atlanta, Ga., celebrates its 20th anniversary December 5 and 6 with a "Weekend of 20 Authors," local authors who will talk about their books and their favorite books by other authors, according to Bookselling This Week.
The 2,000-sq.-ft. store in Little Five Points stocks some 15,000 titles and shares space with a photo gallery. Founder and owner Frank Reiss comes from a family of booksellers that includes his father, Jake Reiss, III, owner of the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, Ala.
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Unshelved has wheeled in the winners of its annual Pimp My Bookcart contest, sponsored by Smith System. Among the top vote getters: a kind of Good Humor book cart, a barbecue book cart and the Low Rider book cart. Check out the winners here.
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This Saturday, November 23, at 2 p.m., Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, Ga., is hosting an event for Red Dog Rising by Jeff Schettler (Alpine Publishing), which will be released next Tuesday, December 1.
Unfortunately Schettler is undergoing treatment for cancer and has put a planned book tour on hold. But his publisher has created a video of him talking about the book; see it here.
Red Dog Rising is Schettler's tale about his life and his relationship with Ronin, his K-9 partner, who were part of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team K9 Assistance Program for more than 11 years.
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AuthorBuzz has launched a holiday ad campaign focused on the theme, "Buy books--you can't buy a more entertaining gift for less." Each ad is individually tailored to the two dozen books involved, drawing attention to the lure of its being more thrilling or more magical, etc. The promotion will link to major online retailers, including IndieBound, which is offering stores a PDF of shelf talkers for each book in the program.
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Random House has expanded its Books=Gifts program with changes that include a redesigned logo that is generic; a Twitter campaign in which Books=Gifts representatives recommend specific titles each day and on Fridays (promoted as "PSFriday" through online and e-mail messaging); Books=Gifts personal shoppers available to make customized gift recommendations to individual consumers via Twitter and e-mail through personalshopper@randomhouse.com; and a Facebook "What’s My Type of Book?" quiz application and widget.
Also featured are Personal Shopper Kits for booksellers, which Random House designed to "promote the invaluable service that bookstores can offer customers: the ability to help select gifts, and to match the right book to the right person. The kit includes in-store signage promoting this free service, Personal Shopper buttons for store staff, and ideas for creating in-store 'Personal Shopper' nights to help customers find wonderful gifts at this very busy time of year. The posters and buttons do not include any RH-specific branding, and will be distributed to land immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday."
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That first edition copy of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species that was discovered in the bathroom of a British home (Shelf Awareness, November 23, 2009) "fetched £103,250 (US$171,000) at auction on Tuesday, around twice its pre-sale estimate," according to Reuters.
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Paul Von Drasek has been named book trade sales manager at Capstone Publishers, a new position.
Before joining the company, Von Drasek was director of field sales at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade, where he helped integrate the Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt field sales forces. Earlier he was executive director of sales at Harcourt and held sales management positions at Little, Brown, Houghton Mifflin and Penguin.
Von Drasek is also a longtime board member of Curbstone Press, Willimantic, Conn.