Congratulations to Heartland 2016 scholarship winners! The booksellers listed below will receive a $400 scholarship to defray their lodging travel expenses and help contribute to a well-attended and successful show. 

Booksellers praise the show in their scholarship applications. Kathleen Angelone from Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN, said, "the interaction with other booksellers and book professionals stokes my enthusiasm. Every year, I am reminded why I love being an independent bookstore owner. I return to Indianapolis re-excited by the world of the written word."

Thank you to the following publishers and people for generously donating to our scholarship fund. Since the founding of Heartland, we've made it our goal to maintain a generous scholarship fund to help two regions of bookseller more easily travel to the show. It's your help that makes this a reality! Thank you!

​HarperCollins, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Scholastic, Macmillan, BINC, Roy & Judi Schonfeld, and the GLIBA Karl Pohrt scholarship fund

The winners are...
​
Gillette L Kempf, An Open Book, Wadena, MN
John Christensen, Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI 
Melanie Green, Bluebird Books, Hutchinson KY
April Gorski, Book Vault, Oskaloosa, IA
Joanna Parzakonis, Bookbug Kalamazoo, MI
Kathleen Angelone, Bookmamas  Indianapolis, IN
Chris Fairchild, Bookshelf, Batesville, IN, 
​Mary Gehring, Bookshelf, Batesville, IN
Kate Weiss, Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, KY
Nadine Melahn, CoffeeTree Books, Morehead, KY
Ethan Hill, Craft Port Washington, WI
Kate Rattenborg, Dragonfly Books, Decorah IA
Leslie Huerta, Francie & Finch Bookshop, Lincoln, NE
Shirley Mullin, Kids Ink Indianapolis, IN
Tamzin Malone, Main Street Books, Lafayette, IN
Joanne Berg, Mystery to Me - Madison, WI
Kathy Magruder, Pageturners Bookstore, Indianola, IA
Shelley Olsen, Paperbacks and Pieces, Winona, MN
Jill Miner, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI
Dana Schulz, Snowbound Books Marquette, MI
Beverly Bartczak, The Fine Print, OH
Connie Reece, The Windowsill, Ludington, MI
Nathan Montoya, Village Lights Bookstore, IN
Sean FitzGerald, Village Lights Bookstore, Madison, IN
Rebecca George, Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL

If you have questions about our scholarship program, please contact Deb Leonard at deb@gliba.org.

The Boards of Directors of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association take great pleasure in announcing that the Wendell Berry is the recipient of the 2016 Voice of the Heartland Award.

This award is given in recognition of a life of dedication and service to independent bookselling, and there are few writers in our region who fully embody this dedication more than Wendell Berry.  His body of work encompasses more than 50 volumes of essays, poems, and fiction, all with an eye to celebrating the local and the Independent--two values that are very dear to the hearts of our members, and central to our mission as independent booksellers.

His writing is inspired by the landscape of the Heartland, both the natural world and the people who live there. As a promoter of Localism long before the term existed, Mr. Berry has championed the both the spirit of independent bookselling and publishing.

Mr. Berry’s national honors include the National Humanities Medal, a Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities at the Kennedy Center, a Stegner Fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and in 2013 The Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, among many, many others.

​The Voice of the Heartland Award will be presented to Mr. Berry at the Book Awards Dinner at the Heartland Fall Forum on Wednesday, October 5 at 7:00 pm at The Depot in Minneapolis, MN.

We'd like to share excellent news from Kate Rattenborg, owner and founder of Dragonfly Books in Decorah, IA. (The above picture is courtesy of Driftless Magazine.) Kate recently told us about the beneficial changes of buying the building her bookstore is located in. Congratulations, Kate!

"I don't think there is anything scarier than a bookseller facing losing their lease. Since I opened Dragonfly Books five years ago, it seems like I've either read of or spoken with numerous shops/owners that have had to change their business plans due to the whims of a landlord.

This past summer, my landlord talked with me about his desire to sell the building I've been renting. Over the years, we've had some discussions about long-range plans for the building, and I knew that at some point I would need to decide if purchasing the building would be both feasible and the appropriate decision to make. After much thought and negotiation, I closed on the building in mid-November. Whoa! I'm now the proud owner (with assistance from my local bank) of a two-story, 1894 brick building located in the middle of historic downtown Decorah, Iowa. Our college-town community of 8,000, in the heart of rural northeast Iowa, is extremely supportive of shopping locally, and the security of knowing I'll be able to stay in my prime location is wonderful.

Why purchase, other than it gives me control over the use of the building? First, there are some financial benefits to ownership. Second, I now have access to a bit more space, including an apartment on the second level. The rental income from the apartment covers the higher financial costs of owning the building, such as increased liability insurance costs and property taxes. There is also an additional 800 square feet available on the main level, that can, after major renovations in the next few years, provide the store with staff space and/or a dedicated event space. I'm most excited about the opportunity to have the additional space for events! As much as I want to do a complete remodel of this back room space *immediately*, doing so will be a future project, as I don't want to get overextended.

​If you find yourself in the vicinity, stop on in!"

We'd like to share a winter catalog success story, once again proving that independent booksellers are an indispensable force in the bookselling industry. 

Last year, we offered booksellers a new form of direct mail called "saturation mailing." It allows booksellers to literally "saturate" entire zip codes with our holiday catalog chock full of gift-worthy books. Every catalog sent via saturation was customized with the bookstore's own logo and identity, bringing customers directly into those stores where displays of catalog titles were waiting. 

On the back end, we helped booksellers select zip codes to saturate by targeting neighborhoods without bookstores or by reviewing the demographic information about those areas. 

All told, in the first year alone, we had 25 bookstores saturate their areas with 90,000 catalogs!

Watermark Books targeted a neighborhoods that aren't represented well on their in-house list of customers and increased their sales by 386 percent, "definitely brining in new customers." 

Alice Meyer, owner of Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, Iowa, saw a 217 percent sales increase. Here's what she says about the program.

"We had done a limited catalog mailing in the past, but saturation mailing was a very attractive and affordable option. We targeted our immediate neighborhood and a neighborhood with an upscale shopping district, but no bookstore. It was so satisfying to see customers coming into the store with their catalogs. They say our display upon entering the store and were more than happy to order a book if we didn't have it. As a result, our catalog sales were up 217 percent and we were thrilled! Many customers were new to the store and we've seen a lot of repeat business. We would definitely do this again, and I think it will only be more successful." 

This year, we're promoting this method to our stores again, and last year's success stories will help us reach even more bookstores and customers. Happy book selling!

Ten bookstores in the Twin Cities teamed up to create a passport program for Independent Bookstore Day on April 30, 2016. Featuring Kevin Cannon's wonderful artwork and hand-drawn illustrations of each of the stores, the passport awarded anyone who visited all 10 participating stores a $10 gift card to all 10 stores. Media outlets from CityPages to MPR and the Pioneer Press reported on the program leading up to the event, and the turnout and participation surpassed our expectations.

The passport was based loosely on a similar program held in Seattle in 2015 encouraging book lovers to visit 17 stores. Only one individual accomplished the task, so bookstores in the Twin Cities had modest expectations--that is, until doors opened and passports started flying off of counters. When the dust cleared, more than 100 bookstore customers had tweeted us photos of their finished passport, with the vast majority having completed the challenge of visiting all 10 stores over the course of the day. 

The responses were colorful and heartening. A mom and her two kids completed the whole passport and took colorful photos at every store. Some people bought a book or two (or three?) at every store and included photos of their loot. Others completed part or all of the passport on bike, notably Tracy Mumford, the Minnesota Public Radio reporter who shared photos of each stop and even a map of her route. 

Participating bookstores were thrilled at the success of the program. Angela of Moon Palace Books, whose store created a Twin Cities Bookstore Map that was given out alongside the passports, said, "100 winners is awesome! The more the better, as far as I'm concerned. I consider it some of the best money we could spend for advertising since it got people to walk in through the door. If we do it next year let's try for 200--that's how excited we are."

Holly of Red Balloon Books added, "Wow! That is great! We had a fantastic day. Sales were way up from last year and lots of people came in with the passports." Matt Keliher from Subtext also saw an exceptional sales increase. "The passport was a SMASHING success. It really made the day a lot of fun, and it will continue to bring people into all of our stores for the weeks and months ahead. Yes, 100 $10 gift cards sounds like a lot, but honestly, if even half of the people who succeeded in getting the reward return to all ten stores and buy another book, that is fantastic. This was a tremendous success. Subtext had our best sales day in history!"

While not every community can support a campaign like this one, MIBA is hard at work conceiving of how best to support similar efforts in other metropolitan areas in the region.

One wonderful aspect of using Twitter to track participant's completed passports was getting to see the enthusiasm for Independent Bookstore Day and for each bookstore they visited. Take a look at some of the tweets MIBA received below.

The Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation announced today its second annual Campaign to Sustain.  Last year 49 generous contributors added their support to Binc’s programs by pledging to become monthly sustaining donors. This ongoing funding has ensured that bookseller assistance programs such as serious medical expenses, domestic violence, homelessness prevention and funeral expenses will continue to be provided by the Foundation.  

This year marks Binc’s 20th anniversary. In order to continue to provide this 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.

Executive Director, Pam French added, “To mark this milestone we are asking new and current supporters to take our 20 for 20 challenge.  If you are not a sustaining donor start at $20 a month, if you are a donor bump your donation up to $20 or add $20 for this year. By becoming a sustaining donor you are ensuring the safety net is available when a bookseller is in need.”

So far this year nine booksellers have received grants for situations ranging from loss of income due to disability to disaster assistance after a house fire to homelessness prevention.  Last year Binc was able to assist 28 booksellers and their families with over $54,000 in financial assistance. Binc’s scholarship program provided higher education scholarships to 53 booksellers or their family members totaling $200,000 in educational assistance.
 
If you are interested in making a donation to Binc’s Campaign to Sustain, please visit the donation page: https://secure.donationpay.org/bincfoundation/yearend.php​

In addition, BINC board members and regional directors Deb Leonard and Wanda Jewell have put out a challenge to all independent bookstores to join in and support their fellow booksellers. During the month of May, bookstores can begin or increase a sustaining donation to earn points. The winning region will win a special party from BINC during their fall trade show. Challenge your staff to support booksellers in need. ​

From our board president, David Enyeart

​March was quite a busy month. The ABA came to the Twin Cities in full force. Carrie, Nancy Simpson-Brice, and I were part of an educational task force to review the recent Winter Institute in Denver, and we also met with the ABA and booksellers from the upper Midwest in a special focus group to look ahead to Wi12 in Minneapolis. 

At the same time, March's spring meeting kicked off with a lively discussion about the Shop Local movement and where it can go in the future. We covered a lot of topics, but perhaps the most important message was that booksellers often underestimate our ability to influence lawmakers and public policy. As both small businesses and tastemakers, we have valuable messages to share--and not just for the customers in our store. If you weren’t able to attend, you can find the materials in the ABA’s New Localism Toolkit. The afternoon concluded with a fun and lively author social. We learned about a dozen of the spring’s most interesting books direct from their authors. The conversations were animated, and it’s hard to tell who had more fun, them or us. Follow the links for the full list of authors and photos from the afternoon. 

Last but not least came the March meeting of MIBA’s board. We devoted a full morning to strategic planning. Thanks to all who participated in our recent survey. We took your comments to heart as we reviewed our goals for MIBA’s future. We’ll wrap up our planning process this summer, and we’ll have a summary and report to share with you then.

Planning is well underway for the Heartland Fall Forum--October 5-7, 2016, at The Depot in Minneapolis. We’re especially interested to hear your suggestions for education sessions. What do you want to learn this fall? And what authors are you keen to meet? Please send your ideas to Carrie Obry (carrie@midwestbooksellers.org), or be in touch with any of us board members.

Best to all,
David Enyeart

One of the biggest pleasures of working with booksellers throughout the Midwest is watching a new bookseller grow a store from a concept that exists only in their imagination to bonafide, successful brick-and-mortar independent bookstore. Melanie Green, owner of Bluebird Books, is one such bookseller.

We first met Melanie at a spring gathering in Wichita, KS when she was doing research on how to open a bookstore. Today, she owns a remarkably creative destination bookshop in Hutchinson, KS that puts a smile on your face before you walk in the door. Melanie tapped into an amazing network to make her dreams come true. A friend is an interior designer. Her husband works with metal. Another relation is a coffee roaster in Manhattan, KS. She joined ABA and MIBA and attended a Paz workshop. With a combination of vision, consistent hard work, and years of advance planning, Melanie can now say she is the owner of a beautiful bookstore, cafe, and event space. ​

Her branding is powerful. The store's iconic bluebird logo is featured everywhere, painted on the book-delivery bike, cut into the beveled edges of her metal bookcases, stenciled on the ceiling, laid into mosaics on the floor, and stickered onto the coffee bean bags, chocolates, and bookmarks. 

Melanie says, "Based on feedback I received from Paz, I knew that if I opened a store in Hutchinson, I would need to make it a destination." To do so, Melanie let her creativity run free, stripping a built-up space that once housed a computer shop down to its former glory, revealing concrete floors, lead-paned windows, exposed bricks, and sun-drenched skylights. To all this, she added whimsical architectural details, eclectic furniture, and an excellent selection of new books and covetable sidelines. One of the attending booksellers declared it "heaven."

Since Hutchinson is a bit off the beaten path for our traditional events, we decided to forego formal programming and simply invite area booksellers to come visit the store with us. Melanie led us on a tour and served lunch out of her new cafe. Beth Golay of Books and Whatnot joined us an led a casual marketing roundtable, sharing good ideas for engaging with customers, such as using Facebook's new scheduler, the beauty of Tweet Deck, and checking out Riverhead's Snapchat account, which she called the best in the industry. 

​Thank you to the booksellers of The Toy Store (Lawrence), Blue Dragon Books (Derby), Rivendell (Abilene) and Watermark (Wichita) for joining us. Thank you Beth Golay for your marketing prowess. And thank you Melanie for inviting us into your beautiful shop!

Chris Livingston, owner of The Book Shelf in Winona, Minnesota, recently announced to his customers and recipients of the bookstore's newsletter that the store will be closing after fourteen years in business. Here is a passage from that letter:

The store's inventory and fixtures will be sold at liquidation prices as long as they're available.

Ten bookstores in the Twin Cities are teaming up to produce a Bookstore Day Passport to be given out on the second annual Independent Bookstore Day, April 30 2016.
​
The passport was inspired by Minnesota illustrator Kevin Cannon's recent campaign to draw a Minnesota Bookstore every day for 31 days. Cannon agreed to allow bookstores to use his illustrations for the passport, and even went so far as to create additional illustrations specifically for the project, including the passport cover below.

Customers pick up a copy of the passport at any of the participating stores and receive their first stamp. Any individual who travels to all ten stores during business hours on Independent Bookstore Day and receives a stamp from each store will receive a $10 gift card from every participating bookstore--$100 in total value. When all the stamps have been collected, customers snap a photo of their completed stamp page and send it to the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association via twitter (@MidwestBooks), and we will gather contact info and send them their gift cards.

Moon Palace Books in South Minneapolis will also be producing a new and updated edition of its Twin Cities Bookstore Map, which will include all bookstores in the Twin Cities, not just those participating in the passport, Independent Bookstore Day, or members of MIBA.

To view or order Kevin Cannon's bookstore illustrations and other works, please visit his website at www.CannonMaps.com.