Greetings,

March is here which means warm weather and Canadian Independent Bookstore Day are right around the corner!

This month, we’re pleased to bring you a review of our member survey, upcoming events, interviews, and more.

Let’s get into it.

2024 Member Survey in Review

Thank you to all the Bookseller Members who took the time to fill out the 2024 Member Survey. Your participation in engagement opportunities like member surveys is vital to ensuring our efforts and resources appropriately serve member needs and priorities.

We’ve put together some key findings from the survey and additional information about how we plan to address your questions and insights.

You can read the review now on our Member Blog.

CIBD 2024 Toolkit Now Available

Canadian Independent Bookstore Day will be here before we know it!

Our campaign toolkit is now live for CIBA members. It includes activity ideas, sample social posts, digital assets for promotion in-store and online, resources for outreach to local media and government officials, and more. Members can log in to access the toolkit here.

Our plan is to publicly launch the campaign on Tuesday, April 2. We'll ramp up promotion throughout the month until April 27. With support from our publishing partners, you will also see significant promotion from Canadian authors and illustrators in the lead up to the big day.

Don't forget to keep us in the loop about your plans! We are keen to boost the signal on bookstore activities. Please tag @indiebookstoresCA in your posts and use #CIBD2024 so we can share them on our channels.

The Bookseller Forum is the place to talk shop with your fellow members. This month, we asked: “What are you planning for CIBD 2024?”

Please visit the forum to join the conversation. Peer-to-peer sharing helps strengthen the industry overall. Plus, it allows helps us keep your store at top of mind when we begin promoting bookseller activities in April!

Register Now: Upcoming Events

Email Marketing for Bookstores: Tips for Success
Tuesday, March 26
4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT, 7pm ET, 8pm AT, 8:30pm Newfoundland 

Demystify the power of email marketing and building a mailing list in this beginner-friendly workshop. Learn how to choose a platform, create an optimized mailing list, and devise a content plan that will drive engagement and sales for your business. Whether you're just starting out or want to revamp your current e-newsletter, Ariel Hudnall—a seasoned marketer in the book publishing industry and current Managing Director at Zg Stories—will take you through all the steps required to get communicating with your customers in new and exciting ways!

Book Industry State of the Nation 2024
Tuesday, April 2
11am PT, 12pm MT, 1pm CT, 2pm ET, 3pm AT, 3:30pm Newfoundland 

Join BookNet Canada’s President and CEO Noah Genner for an in-depth presentation of the most recent data on Canadian book buyers, readers, and consumers.

Data Demystified: A Gentle and Totally Non-Intimidating Introduction to BNC SalesData
Tuesday, April 16
4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT, 7pm ET, 8pm AT, 8:30pm Newfoundland

Are you currently reporting your bookstore’s sales information to BookNet Canada? What even is BookNet Canada? There’s a good chance you are (especially if you’ve received or applied for the CBF's Support for Booksellers program) and in this session you’ll find out what this actually means! Led by SalesData expert (and expat bookseller), Kalpna Patel, this introduction will show you:

• What happens to your sales data, and who can see it
• How reporting your sales will benefit the Canadian book industry, your friendly sales reps, and your store
• How to start using the SalesData website and tool to find out what’s selling in independent bookstores across the country
• How other booksellers currently use SalesData in their day-to-day operations to make informed buying decisions, do basic market research, and discover their new must-have titles

Join us for the first installment in this new, informal, and informative series designed for data dabblers and number nerds alike. Each session will be an opportunity to ask questions and learn how to use SalesData one feature and report at a time. No spreadsheets, we promise.

Bookstore Events: Getting Creative and Building Community
Tuesday, April 23
4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT, 7pm ET, 8pm AT, 8:30pm Newfoundland

Events have always been a staple of the bookselling business. But in a post-pandemic world, tour plans for authors are not as robust as they used to be. If your store is outside of a major urban centre, you may be missing out entirely. Never fear—if you think outside the box, you can have your cake and eat it too! Get inspired by our panel of booksellers who are taking innovative approaches to curating bookstore events (including non-author events) whilst building new communities of readers.

Event Recording

Ask the Bookseller: Browser Friendly Children’s Sections

Children’s books can bring joy (and eager customers) into any generalized bookstore but designing a children’s section can be a lot of work. Unlike a specialized store, you may not have the shelf space to showcase all the books that a customer might want to buy. Don’t miss the recording of our panel of booksellers discussing this and more.

Not a CIBA member? Join now to access a range of benefits, including access to live events, recordings, and other business resources.

Interview: Strategic Planning for Booksellers

There are thousands of decisions that go into running an independent bookstore. A business or strategic plan can help you to summarize your goals and provide a blueprint for executing them. CIBA approached three booksellers for their insights.

“It’s very easy in retail just to get through the day and never feel like you're caught up or accomplishing what you want. We like having these grounding moments and meetings, where we can stop to breathe and see if we’re still on the right path. Having more than one location, it’s very important that we keep a lot of the operational parts of running the store in line (i.e., accounting).”

– Lori Cheverie, on behalf Bookmark Booksellers (NS/PE/NB)

Visit the Member Blog for more comments from Lori as well as from Shelley Macbeth (Blue Heron Books, ON) and Cole Davidson (The Spaniel’s Tale, ON).

Notable Public Dates for April-June

To help members plan their marketing activities, CIBA manages a living calendar that features key dates like public holidays, themed days/weeks/months, awards announcements, and more. This resource is accessible as a list-by-date and as a traditional calendar.

We also create an easy-to-read printable resource for the coming quarter. Members can access the April-June resource and the full calendar here.

We will continue to add to the calendar as information becomes available. If you have any questions or wish to add a key date that may be of interest to all members, please email Kayla Calder.

Meet Our Member: Shorebound Books

Shorebound Books is the only independent bookstore in Shelburne, NS. The shop serves local readers with a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction titles, as well as local interest books, Canadiana, music, movies, games, and more. We spoke with owner Trasie Sands about the store and her vision for the future.

“I have never felt more at home in my life.”

Read the profile here.

Co-Op Opportunity for Carol Shields Prize

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence and creativity in fiction written by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the US, awarding $150,000 USD to its winner, and $12,500 USD to each of its four finalists. The 2024 longlist was revealed on March 8, during International Women’s Day. Read about the books here.

The shortlist will be revealed on April 9 and the winner on May 13.

Booksellers: If you're interested in co-op opportunities for in-store displays and online promotion, please reach out to Natália Affonso at your earliest convenience.

New Reader-Facing Mailing List

IndieBookstores.ca is growing every day and we are so excited to begin promoting it in tandem with Canadian Independent Bookstore Day.

As you may have seen, we recently set up a new reader-facing mailing list via Mailchimp. As with IndieBookstores.ca, this mailing list will allow us to reach readers, encourage buying from indie bookstores, recommend books, promote events, and more. Although emails will be sporadic for the time-being, booksellers can also use this content for a plug-and-play way to engage customers.

CIBA Bookseller Members have been initiated onto the mailing list by the team at Zg Stories to ensure you’re in the loop. Not sure if you're on the list or want to update your genre preferences? Click here to subscribe.

We encourage you to share this sign-up form with your staff. If you were added to the mailing list but do not wish to receive these emails, let us know.

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