Spring Roadtrip 2019
|
Read Dragonfly Book's personal invite encouraging you to join us in Decorah, IA
|
Join Us!The booksellers at Dragonfly Books are inviting you to beautiful downtown Decorah, Iowa to immerse yourself in all things independent business. Please join us for education and networking with your fellow independent booksellers as well as a reception with a group of the season's new titles and authors!
Hosted at Dragonfly Books and Hotel Winneshiek, both located in the heart of Decorah’s vibrant downtown retail district, this event will educate and inspire booksellers of every level. March 24 at 7:00 pm: Pre-event Literary Open Mic Dragonfly Books invites everyone to Pulpit Rock Brewing Co. for a Literary Open Mic Night. Prose, poetry, fiction, memoir -- all original work is welcome. Emceed by local KDEC radio host Jeni Grouws and featuring MIBA bookseller and author Danny Caine, the Literary Open Mic Night is a high-energy celebration of literary talent. Performers will have 3 minutes or less to share their original work. Performers can sign up online, call Dragonfly Books, or sign up at the door. Registration does not guarantee you a spot, but gets you on the list (and helps us start planning the evening!). You will also have the opportunity to sign up on the night of the event. Don’t want to read, but love a good literary performance? Grab a pint of local brew and enjoy the show! This free event is sponsored by Dragonfly Books, Decorah Bank & Trust, and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, and will be hosted at Pulpit Rock Brewing Co., 207 College Drive, Decorah, IA. SIGN UP HERE. March 25: Education an Author Event 10:00 am-11:45 am: The Power of Independent Businesses Session and breakout conversation Dragonfly Books is joined by Decorah Chamber of Commerce Director Kristina Wiltgen and local business owners to share creative ideas and programs for building strong business relationships and thriving business communities. Decorah’s business community actively engages chamber and business resources targeted to the business community as a whole. This includes collaborative advertising, coordinated communication, and shop local campaigns inspired directly from the ABA/Civic Economics Amazon and Empty Storefronts report. We’ll present strategies to build a strong chamber of commerce, identify ways businesses can be effective voices in their chambers, show how business-led initiatives can generate whole community sales boosts, and discuss steps towards building better business communication and collaboration. Following the session, we’ll crowdsource ideas for further small group discussion so booksellers can dig deeper into the successes and challenges in their business communities. 11:45 am-12:30 pm: Promoting Midwest Connections books, Dragonfly style Midwest Connections is a co-op program that gives booksellers tools to display and merchandise participating titles as well as cash rebates for their promotions. Through branded displays, point-of-sale materials, and rebates for premiere placement, we help stores promote and sell regional titles of interest. Dragonfly Books is an active and creative Midwest Connections store. Sarah Krammen will walk us through the steps she takes to let her customers know about these great titles. 12:30-2:00 pm: Lunch, and also, What's new at Midwest Booksellers? From new members to the Roadmap to Heartland going on the road, Midwest Booksellers' board and staff will update you on important association information for you and your store. 2:00-4:00 pm: Author presentations The second part of the day is dedicated to meeting a group of authors whose books will feature well in independent bookstores, and likely be available for events in the upcoming season. Authors will individually present their new books, and we will follow up the presentations with a book signing and free galleys. The reception includes time for authors and booksellers to mingle together at Dragonfly Books. 4:00-5:00 pm: Reception at Dragonfly Books Booksellers, authors, and friends -- Join us for wine and snacks at Dragonfly Books! |
Publicists
1. Pitch us your authors. Follow this link for info, and read below for details about the program. Attendees 1. Register for the March 25 meeting 2. Sign up for the Literary Open Mic on March 24 3. Book your room at one of two options.
For Hotel Winneshiek, please note the following:
About Dragonfly Books"Dragonfly Books is the stuff of a little Driftless town’s dreams. Kate and her two daughters, Sarah and Rachel--who often work alongside mom--make sure displays are fun and thought-provoking, events coordinator Kate Scott schedules great local, regional, and national (sometimes even international) authors for readings both in-store and around the community, and, most importantly, the shelves are totally stocked with a well-curated collection of books." --Inspired Driftless Magazine
"It was hard to believe that on the week day morning of my visit in this small Iowa town, Dragonfly was enjoying a steady stream of business. How fortunate for this community to have a vital, energetic bookstore. Lots of towns around the country would be lucky to have a bookstore like this." --The Indie Bob Spot “This is a small book shop in a small town, and they have more events than many bigger bookshops. They are always working hard to get authors (often local ones) into the shop for talks. I have found more signed books here for that reason than any other place I have ever been. They try extremely hard and it pays off. Additionally, the staff are all extremely friendly. They make sure to supply editions of classic books with beautiful covers (some that I haven’t found in other places). Once I had one of these get damaged but I had moved away from Iowa at that time. I sent them a Facebook message and they pulled another copy of that book off the shelf to hold for me without me having to pay online. They work extremely hard to put customers first. This book shop will always be my home away from home.” —Anna Wehde for Atlas Obscura |
