![]() I created this graphic with the intention of conveying a concise message regarding the challenges faced by independent bookstores in their competitive landscape. As we are in Prime Days it is vital to show customers what the true cost of Amazon is. It is accessible to bookstores as a downloadable poster and bag stuffer. - Larry Law, Executive Director of GLIBA Please share this week during Prime Days and and tag us on Instagram GLIBA @glibabooksellers Larry Law @wormwood DOWNLOAD 8.5X11" SIGN DOWNLOAD 11X14" POSTER DOWNLOAD 2-UP BAG STUFFER
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![]() We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Brett! With his extensive background in indie bookselling and indie publishing, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to GLIBA. Brett's love and enthusiasm for our region, our bookstores and the Midwest literary landscape is truly remarkable. We couldn't be more excited for you to get to know him. Together, we look forward to forging stronger connections with our community and many new ventures. Brett Gregory has worked with independent publisher Two Dollar Radio since 2016, doing everything from mailing ARCs, to reading submissions, to managing social media, to running publicity campaigns. He is a co-founder and co-owner of bookstore/café Two Dollar Radio Headquarters in Columbus, OH, where he operated the business until 2021. In 2017 he helped launch a music/literature festival called Flyover Fest in Columbus, OH. Flyover has hosted national artists such as Danez Smith, BRONCHO, Open Mic Eagle, Erika Sanchez, and many others. Before Two Dollar Radio, Brett studied English at the Ohio State University, completed an AmeriCorps stint in upstate New York with Habitat for Humanity, worked as a bartender, and went on several unsuccessful (but fun) DIY-tours in a rock band. He now lives with his family in Cincinnati, most recently working for the Public Library. ![]() Co-founded by Pacific Northwest book workers Justin Walls and Spencer Ruchti, the Cercador Prize recognizes works of literature in translation as selected by a committee of independent booksellers based across the United States. Ruchti will serve as the inaugural committee chair. A novel approach to the landscape of literary awards, the Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation will be awarded annually by a committee of five independent booksellers. During the initial prize cycle, each committee member will be responsible for nominating two full-length translations published in the U.S. between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023. Publishers, agents, authors, or translators may not submit titles for eligibility. Instead, committee members rely on organic discovery, discussion, and recommendations to determine their selections. The ten finalists for the Cercador Prize will be announced no later than October 15, 2023, with one winner to be announced no later than November 15, 2023. The committee will award the winning translator(s) a prize of $1,000. Translators based anywhere in the world are eligible for the prize. “The Cercador Prize is about bolstering visibility for translated literature,” says Walls. “It’s also about drawing an explicit connection between the work of independent booksellers and literary translators whose contributions to our reading culture are often similarly obscured. Beyond seeking out the best books currently being published in English-language translation, the Cercador intends to serve as an act of collective curation across disciplines.” The inaugural prize’s five committee members include Thu Doan of East Bay Booksellers (Oakland, CA); Riley Rennhack of Deep Vellum Books (Dallas, TX); Javier Ramirez of Exile in Bookville (Chicago, IL); Gary Lovely of Prologue Bookshop (Columbus, OH); and Ruchti of Third Place Books (Seattle, WA). Details about the prize can be found at https://www.cercadorprize.com/. Justin Walls is coeditor of Du Mois Monthly, a translation-focused pick-of-the-month series launched in 2019, and previously served on the 2020 Best Translated Book Award fiction jury. Spencer Ruchti is the Author Events Manager for Third Place Books in Seattle. He has previously worked for Tin House Books, Broadway Books in Portland, OR, and was the Assistant Events Manager for Harvard Book Store. With Walls, he is the coeditor of Du Mois Monthly. ![]() Downers Grove Bookstore ManagerCalling all bookworms! Anderson’s Bookshop is looking for a store manager to join our team in Downers Grove. We need an organized, friendly booklover to lead our booksellers into the future. This is a rewarding full-time position with benefits. There are some great opportunities for our Downers Grove store in the future, and our small bookselling team needs a natural leader to guide the ship to success. The right person will be a regular presence on the floor of the bookstore and will demonstrate enthusiasm for what we do daily. We are also looking for someone with a flexible schedule as our store is open 7 days a week with varying hours, and an understanding of independent retail and our place in the world of books. The store manager will be responsible for running all operations of this location including scheduling and managing staff, monitoring sales, administrative duties, hiring, training, managing inventory, creating displays, and overseeing receiving, returns, events, and running the local author/consignment program. They will also be responsible for the culture of the store, continuing our exemplary customer service goals, and encouraging and inspiring the staff. They will work in tandem with the Naperville store manager and will report to the General Manager and the owner. QUALIFICATIONS:
Anderson’s Bookshop has been selling books since 1875 and we are proud to be the oldest single-family-run bookseller in the country. Our commitment to books and authors, as well as a devotion to customer service has sustained us for six generations and resulted in dozens of awards, thousands of author events, and millions of books connected to happy readers. To apply, please send your resume, a short statement describing your interest in the position and how it aligns with your professional goals, and a link to a 3–5-minute video of yourself talking about your favorite book of the last three years to andersons@andersonsbookshop.com. No phone calls, please. We can’t wait to hear from you! SPRING FORUM RECAP![]() A huge thank you to our Spring Forum Sponsors: Dan and Gary at Prologue Bookshop, bookstore tour stores: Beanbag Books, Birdie Books, The Book Loft of German Village, Bookspace Columbus, Cover to Cover Children's Books, Gramercy Books, Eric Obenauf, Eliza Wood Obenauf, Brett Gregory and the entire staff at Two Dollar Radio, 7 Stories Press, Sarabande Books, Tin House Press, Biblioasis, Mariner Books, HarperCollins, Peachtree Teen, Chronicle Books, Bloomsbury and She Writes press for making this year's event incredible. We welcomed 75 attendees to Columbus over two days. We started Spring Forum with a seven store Columbus area bookstore tour ending with a reception at Prologue Bookshop. Followed Spring Forum at Two Dollar Radio featuring authors Alex Crespo, Christine Lai, Gabi Burton, Linda Kass, Sara Herchenroether, Thao Thai, Nina Barret and Abra Berens. We had a day full of education, author presentations, lunch, bookselling camaraderie and ended the evening with a poetry reading from Hanif Abdurraqib. SPRING FORUM HIGHLIGHTS
Two Amazing Firsts
Featured Authors Thank you to our featured authors! From left to right: Christine Lai (Landscapes), Linda Kass (Bessie), Sara Herchenroether (The Night Flowers), Alex Crespo (Saint Juniper's Folly), Abra Berens (Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit), Gabi Burton (Sing Me to Sleep), Thao Thai (Banyan Moon), Nina Barrett (The Leopold and Loeb Files) THANK YOU SPRING FORUM SPONSORS!Spring Forum Photos![]() Job Title Executive Assistant Location Chicagoland Area or Remotely from IL, IN, KY, MI, OH or WI Terms Part Time / 20 hours per week Rate $20 per hour About Us The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association is a non-profit bookstore advocacy organization based in the Great Lakes and Midwest region. Covering Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. We provide education, events, social networking opportunities and marketing programs annually. About the Role We are seeking an Executive Assistant to handle day to day tasks of the organization as well as planning and execution of annual events. Responsibilities Assist the Executive Director Manage day-to-day tasks of the organization Bookstore and publisher outreach Tradeshow and large-scale event planning and execution Experience Seeking Experience working on a trade show or on large-scale events Including budgeting, floor plans and publisher relations Bookselling and or publishing experience Marketing experience Budgeting Familiarity or expertise in the following programs and platforms Constant Contact Microsoft Office Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop AirTable Quickbooks TikTok To Apply Please email your resume to glibainfo@gmail.com Independent Bookstore Day is Saturday! GLIBA is thrilled to have worked on three separate state indie bookstore crawls this year! (Illinois, Indiana and Michigan) This newsletter showcases the creativity and hard work that went into planning these events. Following IBD we want to set up a call with the teams that lead each crawl and bookstores that want to participate or set up their own crawl next year. We intend on sharing best practices, workflow, results and what we can learn from each other. Please watch for a meeting invite in the weeks following IBD. Here's a little about what we did this year. ILLINOIS Illinois and Chicago bookstores partnered to host a 40+ bookstore crawl that includes a printed passport & pins. After an Initial $20 purchase customers receive a printed passport containing all participating stores. As they visit stores their passport gets stamped. After visiting 10 or 15 stores participants receive an enamel pin and a 10-15% discount from all participating bookstores for the year! For more info visit chilovebooks.com. Coverage on WGN | NewCity INDIANA Indiana bookstores partnered to create and produce these very cool tote bags. As well, Pete and Freddy's Pages a plenty produced an awesome Zine that features all Indiana bookstores. Stores are selling the totes, using them as qualifying purchases and packaging them with other goodies. Each tote features bright graphic artwork with impactful and supportive messaging. The back of each tote bag lists all participating Indiana bookstores. MICHIGAN Michigan bookstores partnered to create a bingo card & mascot. Simply visit participating stores or complete bookish activities listed on the bingo cards to win prizes and giveaways across the entire state. Please watch for a post IBD meeting invite in the upcoming weeks.
Congratulations to Harvey's Tales (Geneva, IL), Main Street Books (Lafayette, IN) and
Sales Rep Mark Fleeman (Fujii Associates)! All of the finalists for the 31st annual Bookstore of the Year Award have been nominated because of the positive roles they continue to play in their communities by bringing writers and readers together. ![]() I made this graphic because I wanted a digestible message about what independent bookstores have to compete against. I’ve made it available to bookstores as a downloadable poster and bag stuffer. I’ll have printed posters to give away at Spring Forum. Please feel free to share. - Larry Law, Executive Director of GLIBA Contact DOWNLOAD 8.5X11" SIGN DOWNLOAD 11X14" POSTER DOWNLOAD 2-UP BAG STUFFER ![]() Maxwell Gregory started her bookselling career at The Lake Forest Book Store, in Lake Forest, Illinois with owner Sue Boucher in 2006 and became the store manager in 2013. She served on the Indies Introduce 2020 Spring/Summer Debut Adult Author Panel. For the past four years she has been a part of both the ABRAMS Dinner Party and the Ten Speed Ambassador Program promoting and reviewing the publisher's cookbooks. In 2021, Maxwell joined A Mighty Blaze as an Author Liaison and Scheduling Producer for author and investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan's weekly mystery/thriller segment, Crime Time. She currently is affiliated with Madison Street Books in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago as a virtual bookseller and consultant. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago. |
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