Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA)

MIBA by the Month: April 2015 — Midwest Connections

MIBA Staff — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 00:01:21 +0000

Midwest Connections

A few years ago, MIBA staffers and booksellers decided there must be a way to better connect Midwestern booksellers with frontlist books that are important to our region. After all, we all know the power indie booksellers have to make a book successful. After a trip to New York and some creative brainstorming sessions, Midwest Connections was born. This program offers booksellers cash incentives for getting behind key regional titles.

Today, bookstore participation in Midwest Connections risen to an all-time high. Publishers are vying to have their books featured in stores’ remarkable face-out displays. With the ethos of Shop Local pervading our culture, bookstores are making a big difference in the launch of Midwest Connections books.

Midwest Connections helps us achieve many things as an association of bookstores, but most importantly, it helps booksellers sell books. Read on to find out how.

Helpful Links

Current and forthcoming picks

Rebates

POS materials

Display gallery

Opt In!

Midwest Connections is an is opt-in program. Please email Robert Martinto get on our list and receive our great monthly POS package.

Dragonfly Books (Decorah, IA) on Midwest Connections:

“I really like the direction that Midwest Connections has taken over the past year. The books are generally a very good fit and I have LOTS of customers who browse our Midwest Connections table when first coming into the store.”

For National Poetry Month this year, we’ve created a Midwest Connections Poetry List. Click below to download!

Watch a brief video about Midwest Connections

1. Title Curation

Every month, a committee of MIBA’s staff, board, and member booksellers select three frontlist titles with a regional angle. We do our best to keep two of these books below a $20 price point, though the program is especially valuable to publishers marketing new hardcover titles, and as such we often have difficult decisions to make. The picks will always reflect our region and our readers, and we strive to make them all an excellent match for handselling.

If you’d like to be included in the selection committee, we’d love to hear from you–email Robert to let us know.

2. Monthly POS Package

Each month MIBA sends participating stores a packet with full-color, branded materials to help get these books into your customer’s hands. We include shelf-talkers, bookmarks, stickers, and informational flyers, as well as a handy “cheat sheet” of information about each of the books being promoted, so that in case you don’t have time to read the whole book, you’ll still be prepared to talk about it to anyone who asks. Booksellers say these are all great tools for getting your staff involved in the program.

3. Rebate Requirements

To request your rebate, just follow these three steps:

Track your sales for a two-month period (if a book is a January pick, track sales for January and February)
Use the free POS items in a display and document your display with a photo
Send us the photo with your rebate request form by the 15th of the month after the promotion ends (if a book is a January pick, rebate requests are due on March 15)

Rebates are rewarded as follows:

$50 for displaying the books using the free POS items
Up to 3 additional rebates of $25 each for additional promotional strategies, such as author events, book club recommendations, paid radio or print ads, or social media activity
Up to $125 per month in rebates, at no cost to booksellers

Midwest Connections Picks: June 2015

MIBA Staff — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 15:41:05 +0000

The Jesus Cow

A Novel by Michael Perry.
April 29, 2015. Hardcover, $25.99.
Harper. ISBN: 9780062289919

Life is suddenly full of drama for low-key Harley Jackson: A woman in a big red pickup has stolen his bachelor’s heart, a Hummer-driving predatory developer is threatening to pave the last vestiges of his family farm, and inside his barn is a calf bearing the image of Jesus Christ.

“His writing is beautiful and immediate and elegant.” — Wall Street Journal

“Perry writes vividly about rural life; peck at any sentence…and you’ll find a poetic evocation of barnyard grace.” — Publishers Weekly

“Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, sometimes both.” — Wichita Eagle

Harley’s best friend, Billy, a giant of a man who shares his trailer house with a herd of cats and tries to pass off country music lyrics as philosophy, urges him to avoid the woman, fight the developer, and get rich off the calf. But Harley takes the opposite tack, hoping to avoid what his devout, dearly departed mother would have called “a scene.”

Then the secret gets out—right through the barn door, and Harley’s “miracle” goes viral. Within hours pilgrims, grifters, and the media have descended on his quiet patch of Swivel, Wisconsin, looking for a glimpse (and a percentage) of the calf. Does Harley hide the famous, possibly holy calf and risk a riot, or give the people what they want—and raise enough money to keep his land—and, just possibly, win the woman and her big red pickup truck?

Harley goes all in, cutting a deal with a major Hollywood agent that transforms his little farm into an international spiritual theme park—think Lourdes, only with cheese curds and t-shirts. Soon, Harley has lots of money . . . and more trouble than he ever dreamed.

Michael Perry is a humorist, radio host, songwriter, and the New York Times bestselling author of several nonfiction books including Visiting Tom and Population 485. He lives in northern Wisconsin with his family.

New Prairie Kitchen

A Cookbook by Summer Miller.
May 12, 2015. Hardcover, $29.95.
Agate Midway. ISBN: 9781572841673

Beautiful full-color photography and terrific storytelling will lead readers through a wonderful diversity of cooking styles and recipes sure to appeal to any palate.

“A testament to the taste of place in all the best ways possible — these recipes, stories, and profiles of chefs, farmers, and artisans are all abundantly steeped in the particular character of our country’s prairie region. This beautifully written and photographed book hits all the perfect notes for anyone interested in regional cuisines, no matter where they live.” — Tracey Ryder, Co-Founder of Edible Communities, Inc.

“Summer has given us such a gift with her book New Prairie Kitchen: The beautiful prose, touching stories of the Great Plains, and incredible photography are reward enough. Then come the recipes. Mouthwatering, interesting, soul quenching dishes that are sure to become favorites in every kitchen. This is more than a cookbook—it’s a love letter to the heartland.” — Taryn Huebner, Private Chef—Oprah Winfrey

“Be prepared for spectacular photos that leap off the page, interesting profiles of people who grow, cook, and prepare local foods, and four seasons of wondrous recipes created to entice your taste buds. Summer Miller has written a delightful cookbook that might double as a coffee table book, if, that is, you let it out of your kitchen.” — Jean Teller, GRIT magazine

New Prairie Kitchen profiles 25 of the most exciting and groundbreaking chefs, farmers, and producers of artisanal goods from Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Their personal stories are interspersed with more than 50 chef-contributed recipes that range from refreshingly simple to exquisitely gourmet. Organized by season,New Prairie Kitchen will transport readers to a revitalized Midwestern heartland where traditional favorites interweave with inspiring new flavors and techniques.

Author Summer Miller introduces readers to the phenomenal talent emerging from America’s breadbasket: farms that grow asparagus thick as your thumb and tender as a strawberry; dairies that produce fresh, natural milks and cheeses; and nationally recognized restaurants that make these mouthwatering ingredients into edible art. Pioneering chefs across the prairie have taken an old-meets-new approach to their cuisine, sourcing traditional staples from local sustainable farms, and incorporating them into recipes in new and thrilling ways.

New Prairie Kitchen will reveal a fresh take on farm-to-table cooking and inspire Americans from coast to coast to try everything the prairie has to offer.

Summer Miller is a freelance writer based just outside the urban fringes of Omaha, Nebraska. Her writing has appeared in Saveur, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Edible Omaha, Edible Feast, Nebraska Life, Omaha Magazine, and the Reader. She blogs at scaldedmilk.com.

Download the sell-sheet for New Prairie Kitchen here.

Download a BLAD for New Prairie Kitchen here.

Wherever You Go

A Children’s Picture Book by Pat Zietlow Miller
Illustrated by Eliza Wheeler
April 21, 2015. Paperback, $17.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
ISBN: 9780316400022

An inspiring and beautiful celebration of life and new experiences–perfect for graduations and fans of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

“Miller’s verse, infused with musical momentum, communicates the emotional arch of a journey with beautiful brevity…The sunshine-hued, delicate artwork embraces both the panoramic vastness of the countryside and the definitive details nestled in its valleys, meadows, towns and treetops…Children, thanks to captivating artwork and rhyme, will want nothing more than to ride his handlebars, bouncing and merry. At the mountain’s summit, young readers will glow with the understanding that roads connect more than places-and the assurance they can retrace this reading journey nightly. ” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Join an adventurous rabbit and his animal friends as they journey over steep mountain peaks, through bustling cityscapes, and down long, winding roads to discover the magical worlds that await them just outside their doors.

Award-winning author Pat Zietlow Miller’s lilting rhyme and bestselling illustrator Eliza Wheeler’s enchanting, lush landscapes celebrate the possibilities that lie beyond the next bend in the road–the same road that will always lead you home again.

Pat Zietlow Miller is the award-winning picture book author of Sophie’s Squash who loves exploring new places and learning new things. Some of her favorite travels have led her to Hong Kong, China, and Canada.

Eliza Wheeler grew up in northern Wisconsin in a family of artists, musicians, and teachers. Her picture book,Miss Maple’s Seeds, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Eliza has illustrated other children’s books, including The Grudge Keeper (Mara Rockliff), and the Newbery Honor Book Doll Bones (Holly Black).

MIBA by the Month: March 2015 — Sales Reporting

MIBA Staff — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 20:31:29 +0000

Bestseller List and Reporting Your Sales

Every week, we email the Heartland Indie Bestseller List to 1000+ people throughout the industry. This email features the topselling books in our region subdivided by multiple genres, and it also indicates which titles are selling better in our region than in the country as a whole.

Compiled by the ABA and Bookscan, our weekly Bestseller List is a tool to help you select and sell your inventory, but it’s also something more. It’s a snapshot of the health of the indie bookstore sales channel.

If you aren’t a sales-reporting store, we ask you to please consider reporting to ABA/Bookscan and/or the New York Times. Doing so will help us highlight 1) how our region’s indie sales stack up to the rest of the country, and 2) which titles customers in our region are purchasing.

Read on and visit our Bestsellers List: How to Report page to find out why it’s worth adding to your weekly task list.

Links

MIBA’s Bestseller page

ABA’s reporting page

NYT’s reporting page

Download the most recent Heartland Bestsellers List

How to Use MIBA’s Bestseller Lists

1. Check your inbox every Wednesday

2. Download the bestseller list pdf

3. Print and display the bestseller list for your customers

You can also…

Visit MIBA’s Bestseller List page any time to see current bestsellers and download the most recent bestseller list.

Visit ABA’s Indie Bestseller List page to see the National list.

Valley Bookseller on the Heartland list:

“We have a section in the store where the top 15 fiction and nonfiction, hardcover, and trade paper titles from the Heartland Indie Bestseller List are featured as Notable books. In the trade paper section, both fiction and nonfiction especially, this generates terrific sales for us. Customers see that display as they enter the front door. It’s almost a daily task to refill those shelves.”

1-minute video about bestseller lists and sales reporting

Incompatible POS system?

Not a problem. Both the ABA and NYT accept sales reporting via manual entry. Just fill out readymade template spreadsheets with your weekly sales and either email or upload them at the designated time. Click here for more information.

Benefits of Reporting Your Sales

Increase publisher attention for our region

Publishers only know how active Midwest readers are if we show them by reporting our sales. The stronger a picture we present, the more marketing and event support we’ll receive.

Increase your author events

If a publisher sees that your store’s sales figures can affect a book’s position on a bestseller list, they’re more likely to include your store on an author tour.

Strengthen the bookselling image of our region

Our region is vibrant for bookselling. Sales reporting and publisher collaboration is a great way to share that identity with the rest of the country.

Improve inventory management

Tracking your store’s bestsellers can help maximize turn, improve inventory flow, and free up necessary assets.

How to Report Your Sales to ABA

Reporting sales to ABA is fast, easy, and confidential. There are three ways to do it, depending on your software and preference:

If your POS is synced with Bookscan, it will happen automatically, as ABA sources Bookscan for their figures.
You can upload your report directly from your POS. Instructions for all major POS systems are available here.
You can manually upload your report into the ABA’s reporting site.

Include your sales from Sunday through Saturday, and and submit your report by 3am eastern time each Tuesday. If you report via Bookscan, submit your report by 5pm eastern each Monday.

How to Report Your Sales to NYT

Reporting sales to the New York Times Bestseller List is also fast, easy, and confidential. If you don’t yet report, send an email to nytbestsellers@nytimes.com and simply state that you’d like to report. Once your store is confirmed you’ll be asked to follow a few simple steps:

Use the provided template to fill in your stores sales from Saturday through Sunday each week.
Email your report to the address above, or use the NYT reporting portal to upload your report everyTuesday by noon eastern time.

That’s all it takes to increase your store’s profile and let the industry know how vital the Midwest is for bookselling.

Reporting your sales to the New York Times also comes with a few free perks. Please see our website for more info.

Midwest Connections Picks: May 2015

MIBA Staff — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:33:28 +0000

Beneath the Bonfire

Short Stories by Nickolas Butler.
May 5, 2015. Hardcover, $23.99.
Thomas Dunne. ISBN: 9781250039835

From the bestselling and award-winning author of Shotgun Lovesongs, a dazzling collection of stories sure to surprise readers as often as it moves them…

“The stories in Beneath the Bonfire pack a sincere, emotional punch. Nickolas Butler’s territory might be the Midwest (which warms this particular reader’s heart), but the losses–and hard-won gains–are universal. This writer is the real deal.”– Peter Orner, author of Last Car over the Sagamore Bridge

“These stories kept me reading all night and filled my heart all day. From the surreal to the surprisingly spot-on, Nickolas Butler’s greatest gift is his ability to report the rusty truth while still allowing the stainless steel soul of his characters to shine through. For every　struggler, scrabbler and dead-ender in these stories, triumph—when it comes, if　it comes—may be ragged, but it is triumph nonetheless.”– Michael Perry, author of Coop and Truck

Young couples gather to participate in an annual “chainsaw party,” cutting down trees for firewood in anticipation of the winter. A group of men spend a weekend hunting for mushrooms in the wilderness where they grew up, and where some still find themselves trapped. An aging environmentalist takes out his frustration and anger on a singular, unsuspecting target. A woman helps another get revenge against a man whose crime extends far beyond him to an entire community.

In these ten stories, Nickolas Butler demonstrates his talent for portraying “a place and its people with such love that you’ll find yourself falling for them, too,”* evoking an American landscape that will be instantly recognizable to readers enchanted by his debut, Shotgun Lovesongs.

Nickolas Butler was born in Allentown, PA, and raised in Eau Claire, WI. His writings have appeared inNarrative Magazine, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. A bestseller in both the U.S. and France, his debut novel,Shotgun Lovesongs, received the Midwest Booksellers Award, the Great Lakes, Great Reads Award, and France’s Prix PAGE/America. Butler graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison before attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and lives in Wisconsin with his wife and two children.

Enchantment Lake

a YA Mystery by Margi Preus.
March 15, 2015. Hardcover, $16.95.
University of Minnesota Press. ISBN: 9780816683024

A disturbing call from her great aunts Astrid and Jeannette sends seventeen-year-old Francie far from her new home in New York into a tangle of mysteries. Ditching an audition in a Manhattan theater, Francie travels to a remote lake in the northwoods where her aunts’ neighbors are “dropping like flies” from strange accidents. But are they accidents?

“After playing a detective on TV, seventeen-year-old Francie travels to idyllic northern Minnesota to help her aunts. People are dying in strange accidents on Enchantment Lake, and the deaths seem to revolve around a treasure—could it be hidden at the bottom of the lake? In this charming first mystery, Francie finds the answers to most of her questions and even a bit of enchantment for herself.” — Mary Logue, author of Lake of Tears and Sleep like a Tiger

“Minnesota’s master storyteller Margi Preus gives us another gem of a novel—funny and moving, gorgeously written, and suspenseful. As much as this book is an absorbing mystery, it’s also a deeply felt love letter to our uniquely enchanted northwoods. This is a book to lose yourself in.” — Anne Ursu, author of Breadcrumbs and The Real Boy

On the shores of Enchantment Lake in the woods of northern Minnesota, something ominous is afoot, and as Francie begins to investigate, the mysteries multiply: a poisoned hot dish, a puzzling confession, eerie noises in the bog, and a legendary treasure that is said to be under enchantment—or is that under Enchantment, as in under the lake? At the center of everything is a suddenly booming business in cabin sales and a road not everyone wants built.

To a somewhat reluctant northwoods Nancy Drew, the intrigue proves irresistible, especially when it draws her closer to the mysteries at the heart of her own life: What happened to her father? Who and where is her mother? Who is she, and where does her heart lie—in the bustle of New York City or the deep woods of Minnesota? With its gripping story, romantic spirit, and a sly dash of modern-day trouble (evil realtors and other invasive species), Enchantment Lake will fascinate readers, providing precisely the charm that Margi Preus’s readers have come to expect.

Margi Preus is a New York Times–best-selling author of books for young readers, including Shadow on the Mountain, West of the Moon, and Heart of a Samurai, winner of a Newbery Honor and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature. She has been a lover of mysteries since she was allowed to stay up past her bedtime to watch Perry Mason with her dad. Enchantment Lake is her first mystery.

Midwest Maize

Nonfiction by Cynthia Clampitt.
March 17, 2015. Paperback, $19.95.
University of Illinois Press. ISBN: 9780252080579

A vital crop’s impact on human history, industry, and eating.

“A comprehensive, clear-eyed view of the plant that made America what it is today. The author’s focus on the Midwest provides both a fresh look and a splendid overview of the importance of this central region, not only in building our nation but also in establishing our place in the world’s agriculture and economy.”– Betty Fussell, author of The Story of Corn

“Cynthia Clampitt tells the lively saga of maize’s rise from obscure origins in Mesoamerica to the Midwest’s–and America’s–most significant crop. It is consumed in seemingly unending ways, from straight off the cob to ingredients in thousands of processed foods. It is the main ingredient in animal feed and it is even converted into the ethanol that powers our cars. Corn is inextricably linked to Midwestern history, and Clampitt tells the incredible tale well. Midwest Maize is carefully researched, insightful and delightful to read.”– Andrew F. Smith, author of Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American History

“Readers will not want to miss a single detail of this modest grain’s story as it rises from a simple foodstuff for Native Americans found here by the early settlers, to one of the most important farm products of today’s century. Brava. This superb book, clearly a work of enormous curiosity and passion, is truly a job very well done!”– Linda and Fred Griffith, authors of Onions, Onions, Onions, winner of the James Beard Award

Food historian Cynthia Clampitt pens the epic story of what happened when Mesoamerican farmers bred a nondescript grass into a staff of life so prolific, so protean, that it represents nothing less than one of humankind’s greatest achievements. Blending history with expert reportage, she traces the disparate threads that have woven corn into the fabric of our diet, politics, economy, science, and cuisine. At the same time she explores its future as a source of energy and the foundation of seemingly limitless green technologies. The result is a bourbon-to-biofuels portrait of the astonishing plant that sustains the world.

Cynthia Clampitt is a food historian and travel writer, and the author of Waltzing Australia.

Bookseller/Author Cocktail Party and Book Signing – April 11, 2015

Carrie — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 19:18:02 +0000

Booksellers – Participate in an inspiring literary day at AWP then join MIBA booksellers for a mighty fine party featuring up to 20 notable authors!

MIBA’s member booksellers are invited to our author book signing reception and cocktail party on April 11, 2015. Were hosting it during AWP so booksellers can meet with a diverse group of authors. (SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW CONFIRMED AUTHORS.)

AWP is the annual conference of the Association for Writers and Writing Programs and the largest literary conference in North America. Thousands of people from the literary world attend this conference, which features over 2,000 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and literary conversations. The bookfair (Saturday 4/11 only) is an exhibit hall that features over 700 presses, journals, and literary organizations from around the world.

On Saturday, April 11…

9:00 am-5:30 pm: Attend the bookfair for just $40 (at the Minneapolis Convention Center). Register here through AWP
6:00 pm-9:00 pm: Attend our FREE cocktail party (at the Millennium Hotel Minneapolis, a 5-minute walk) with intriguing authors and free books. RSVP by emailing Robert at robert@midwestbooksellers.org. Bookstores owners/managers and their entire staff are encouraged to attend. There will be hors d’oeuvres and an open bar

Millennium Hotel Minneapolis
1313 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis MN 55403
(612) 332-6000
Meeting room: Avenues 1-3

Why attend AWP’s bookfair? Check out their inspiring presentations about the Midwest, plus there is a multitude of additional sessions to take part in.

Beyond Lake Wobegon: Minnesota Writers of Color
Poetry of the Plains, High Desert, and Prairie
Flyover Fiction Series 10th Anniversary Reading
The State You’re In: A Reading by Minnesota Writers from Nodin Press
“Letters from the Snow Belt”: Writing in the Land of Blizzards and Cabin Fever
The Midwest as an Imaginary Landscape

CONFIRMED AUTHORS

Cathy Wurzer
Amelia Gray
Jabari Asim
Karen Babine
Wesley Chu
Jim Ruland
Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes
John Hildebrand
Paul Griner
Kate Riggs photo to come
Geoff Herbach
Leah Stewart
Rachel Coyne
Madelon Sprengnether
Margi Preus
Michael Coffey
Bridgett Davis
Pareneshia Jones
Joni Tevis
Erica O’Rourke

MIBA Booksellers take part in National Readathon Day

MIBA Staff — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:39:18 +0000

On Saturday, January 24, the National Book Foundation launched a nationwide campaign called “National Readathon Day.” Spurred by the hashtag #timetoread, the campaign urged readers everywhere to pledge their love of reading for devoting a four-hour block of time to reading. Many independent booksellers got behind the idea and created space in their stores for customers to perform this reading.

In a recent newsletter to customers, Watermark Books in Wichita Kansas writes, “Many thanks to Saturday readers who read during the first annual Readathon; Shelly set up a cozy reading area on Saturday with a core group sticking to the whole four hours, accompanied by numerous drop-in readers. And for those of you who donated to the National Book Foundation, THANK YOU.”

Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis Minnesota hosted a marathon reading of Beowulf, tweeting “Beowulf marathon reading #inaction! #timetoread #NationalReadathonDay @ Magers & Quinn Booksellers. National Book Award-winner William Alexander even stopped by to perform some of the classic text.

According to the National Book Foundation, “On January 24, 2015, readers across the country demonstrated their love of literature by pledging to read for four hours. With their support, we raised over $100,000 for our education programs.”

Click on the map below and zoom in on our region to see which bookstores participated.

MIBA by the Month: February 2015 — Spring Meetings

MIBA Staff — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 18:53:28 +0000

Spring Meetings

Once a year is not enough to enjoy the energetic feeling that comes from spending time with colleagues. To keep us buzzing throughout the year, MIBA hosts gatherings in the spring that allow booksellers to meet in an informal, intimate setting to get to know one another and have a conversation about independent bookselling.

At these meetings, you’ll pick up new ideas, meet authors with newly released and forthcoming books, and have an opportunity to talk directly
with the staff from both MIBA and the American Booksellers Association.

You’ll leave these meetings feeling connected to indie booksellers from your region, especially since we’re designing them to have more time to socialize. We look forward to seeing familiar and new faces.

Spring meetings include lunch and are free for all members. We hope to see you there!

Links

Important Dates

February 28

Last day to RSVP

March 11

Omaha, NE

Meeting at the Market Basket private dining space. Author reception at The Bookworm

March 26

Spring Green, WI

Arcadia Books

Both meetings are scheduled from 10:30 am until 5:00 pm

Confirmed Authors

More authors will be posted in the weeks to come. Check this pagefor updates.

Omaha

Spring Green

Each meeting will feature ABA staff and programming. Oren Teicherwill present an educational seminar and lead us through an open forum over lunch.

Exploring New Markets

Thoughtful innovation, combined with organized planning and execution, is key to successfully tapping new and profitable markets. This session will review a number of opportunities in both customer demographics and proven sales and marketing initiatives while emphasizing the practical steps necessary to implement new programs in your store.

Watch a 1-minute video about Spring Meetings

How To Participate

1. RSVP by Feb 28

If you’d like to attend one or both of these meetings, send Carrie an email, including the names and emails of every person from your store who would like to attend. All member booksellers are welcome.

2. Attend

Before attending, please consider any topics you’d like MIBA and ABA to address. There will be an open forum where booksellers have the floor. Pack a notebook and a tote bag to bring home the free books that will be available to you. There is no entry fee and lunch will be on us!

March 11, 2015: The Bookworm, Omaha NE

We’ll host our meeting in a private dining room ofMarket Basket, a indie restaurant that’s a stone’s throw from the Bookworm. We’ll convene for the author reception at The Bookworm in Loveland Center, located at 2501 South 90th street, suite 111, Omaha NE 68124.

March 26, 2015: Arcadia Books, Spring Green WI

We’ll host our full program in the lovely cafe inside Arcadia Books. Spring Green, located just west of Madison, WI, is centrally located in our region.

Midwest Connections Picks: April 2015

MIBA Staff — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:46:42 +0000

April is National Poetry Month, and the Midwest is one of the most prolific regions in America when it comes to poetry. From hosting several of the top MFA programs in the country to housing the pastoral landscapes that have inspired poets for decades, our region boasts an incredible amount of first-rate collections. Help your readers connect with our region’s literary achievements by downloading and distributing this year’s Midwest Connections Presents: National Poetry Month pdf, and for the edification of you and your staff, download our Midwest Poetry Title List excel spreadsheet to be sure you have the right books in stock for this national celebration.

Find our more about National Poetry Month, and download additional handselling resources here.

A Reunion of Ghosts

A Novel by Judith Claire Mitchell.
March 24, 2015. Hardcover, $26.99.
Harper. ISBN: 9780062355881

A compulsively readable literary masterpiece, A Reunion of Ghosts is the shared confessional of three sisters who have decided to kill themselves at the end of the 20th century, honoring the dark legacy that has haunted their extraordinary family for decades.

“I enjoyed this story from the start. I found Mitchell’s sisters and their family attractive, humorous, sympathetic, and dynamic. But then the story continued to get stronger, the events more interesting, more deeply drawn, and the more I read, the more I identified, the more I cared, the more I enjoyed.” — Allen Murphey, Joseph-Beth Booksellers

“A rich portrait of a complicated family, at turns violent and hilarious, shot through with love and death and the scars that reappear generation after generation, through decades and across continents. – Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers

How do three sisters write a single suicide note?

In the waning days of 1999, the Alter sisters—Lady, Vee, and Delph—finalize their plans to end their lives. Their reasons are not theirs alone; they are the last in a long line of Alters who have killed themselves, beginning with their great-grandmother, the wife of a Jewish Nobel Prize-winning chemist who developed the first poison gas used in World War I and the lethal agent used in Third Reich gas chambers. The chemist himself, their son Richard, and Richard’s children all followed suit.

The childless sisters also define themselves by their own bad luck. Lady, the oldest, never really resumed living after her divorce. Vee is facing cancer’s return. And Delph, the youngest, is resigned to a spinster’s life of stifled dreams. But despite their pain they love each other fiercely, and share a darkly brilliant sense of humor.

As they gather in the ancestral Upper West Side apartment to close the circle of the Alter curse, an epic story about four generations of one family—inspired in part by the troubled life of German-Jewish Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of chlorine gas—unfolds. A Reunion of Ghosts is a magnificent tale of fate and blood, sin and absolution; partly a memoir of sisters unified by a singular burden, partly an unflinching eulogy of those who have gone before, and above all a profound commentary on the events of the 20th century.

Judith Claire Mitchell, the author of The Last Day of the War, is an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing. A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, she currently lives in Madison with her husband, the artist Don Friedlich.

Watch a trailer for A Reunion of Ghosts below:

Listen & Other Stories

Short Stories by Liam Callanan.
April 7, 2015. Paperback, $17.95.
Four Way Books. ISBN: 9781935536543

The new collection by acclaimed author of novels The Cloud Atlas and All Saints demands that readers do just what its title asks them: to Listen, as the book crosses the country—and decades—to uncover secrets characters never thought they’d share.

“A lot of the folks in Liam Callanan’s fine new collection of stories are on the cusp of making important decisions. And perhaps those decisions are a bit constricting, and just to amplify that point , a number of characters are physically trapped… Past decisions are equally debilitating, and that sometimes leads to an attempt to preserve the lost, perhaps through their voices, or their breath. Whatever their foibles, it’s hard not to connect with the life-infused characters of Listen and Other Stories, blessed as they are with the author’s grace and good humor.” — Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee Wisconsin

“The protagonists in these disparate, nuanced stories are connected by the universal need to be heard. That moment might be precipitated by an event, life-changing or not… Callanan [lets] events unfold without resorting to pathos. Listen carefully.” — Milwaukee Magazine

“Listen to these lovely stories, indeed; each one is memorable, and each one different from the last.”– Alix Ohlin

“…a wonderfully readable and hugely pleasurable collection.” — Margot Livesey

“Here is what makes these stories necessary and timeless: Liam Callanan’s incisive ability to render not just our desires and the choices we make to fulfill or thwart those desires, but the mystery behind those choices….” — Michael Parker

The characters in Listen aren’t the type of people who often get listened to—even though they should. These characters’ trials, missed connections, and sundry challenges are full of surprises—some good, some bad, some funny, some wise, and some all this at once. Perhaps most surprising of all, there’s tenderness here and a lot of heart—which often gets the collection’s characters into a lot of trouble.

Liam Callanan is the author of the novels The Cloud Atlas, a finalist for an Edgar Award, and All Saints, a Target Bookmarked Breakout book. A frequent public radio essayist, Liam has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Born in Washington, DC, and raised in Los Angeles, he now calls Wisconsin home. He’s on the web at liamcallanan.com.

View a video trailer for Listen below.

In Mary’s Garden

A Children’s Picture Book by Tina Kugler and Carson Kugler.
March 17, 2015. Hardcover, $16.99.
HMH Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 9780544272200

Milwaukee Natives Tina and Carson Kugler present an inviting picture book biography of Wisconsin artist Mary Nohl.

“This quiet, engaging offering celebrates the artist’s vision and her idiosyncratic work.” — Booklist

We meet the artist as a young girl, just discovering her talent, and watch as her front yard sculpture garden comes to life. While the rest of her classmates were making pastries in cooking classes, Mary Nohl was making art-anything she fancied out of anything she could find. Inspiration struck Mary even when she wasn’t looking for it. Mary used common objects to make uncommon art. And one day, her garden was a gallery.

Mary Nohl passed away in 2001 at the age of eighty-seven. Her famous garden gallery is located in the front yard of her Fox Point, Wisconsin, home to this day.

Tina Kugler spent ten years drawing storyboards in the animation industry for studios such as Walt Disney, Nickelodeon, and Warner Bros., and is also known for her iconic Sputnik Girl posters for Manitowoc, Wisconsin’s annual Sputnikfest. She also owned a children’s bookshop and worked in the youth department of a public library (where her singing made small children weep with terror). Carson Kugler has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and received his teaching certification from Silver Lake College, Manitowoc, WI. They currently live in Los Angeles with their three boys and an enormous hairy dog named Harryhausen.

Watch a book trailer for In Mary’s Garden below:

Midwest Connections Picks: March 2015

MIBA Staff — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:32:26 +0000

Bettyville

A Memoir by George Hodgman.
March 10, 2015. Hardcover, $27.99.
Viking Adult. ISBN: 9780525427209

A witty, tender memoir of a son’s journey home to care for his irascible mother—a tale of secrets, silences, and enduring love

“The idea of a cultured gay man leaving New York City to care for his aging mother in Paris, Missouri, is already funny, and George Hodgman reaps that humor with great charm. But then he plunges deep, examining the warm yet fraught relationship between mother and son with profound insight and understanding. This book looks outside, too, offering a moving lament for small-town America. Hodgman tenderly evokes the time before family farms and small businesses were replaced by meth labs and Walmarts. Yet he’s not sentimental about that lost world—he knew its cruelties firsthand. As George and his mother come to terms with one another at the end of her days, the book begins to shimmer with something much more rare than love: a boundless, transcendent, and simple kindness. Bettyville is a beautiful book about the strange plenitude that comes from finally letting go of everything.” —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

“Bettyville is a beautifully crafted memoir, rich with humor and wisdom. George Hodgman has created an unforgettable book about mothers and sons, and about the challenges that come with growing older and growing up.” —Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club

When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself—an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook—in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can’t bring himself to force her from the home both treasure—the place where his father’s voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict: Betty, who speaks her mind but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay.

credit Sigrid Estrada

As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town—crumbling but still colorful—to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair. Evocative of The End of Your Life Book Club and The Tender Bar, Hodgman’s debut is both an indelible portrait of a family and an exquisitely told tale of a prodigal son’s return.

George Hodgman is a veteran magazine and book editor who has worked at Simon & Schuster, Vanity Fair, and Talk magazine. His writing has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Interview, W, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other publications. He lives in New York City and Paris, Missouri.

Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League

A Novel by Jonathan Odell.
February 4, 2015. Hardcover, $27.95 / Paperback, $16. Maiden Lane Press. Hardcover ISBN: 9781940210025. Paperback ISBN: 9781940210049

Minnesota resident and author of The Healing Jonathan Odell has teamed up with indie publisher Maiden Lane Press to release a repackaged and revitalized version of his early novel The View from Delphi with the new title Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League. A native of Mississippi, Odell’s novel is a personal tale of overcoming prejudice within the epicenter of the civil rights movement. The book’s re-release is timely for those struggling to understand the recent events in Ferguson, MO, and with the Oscar-nominated Selma soon to hit theaters.

“Odell is taking it all on: issues of class as well as race— hope, love and idealism along with evil, greed, downright meanness and cruelty. You will fall in love with both main characters… [who] are as deeply complex as the times. MISS HAZEL AND THE ROSA PARKS LEAGUE is a big brilliant novel whose time has come.” —Lee Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Girls and Guest on Earth

Set in pre-Civil Rights Mississippi, Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League is the story of two young mothers, Hazel and Vida – one wealthy and white and the other poor and black – who have only two things in common: the devastating loss of their children, and a deep and abiding loathing for one another. Embittered and distrusting, Vida is harassed by Delphi’s racist sheriff and haunted by the son she lost to the world. Hazel, too, has lost a son and can’t keep a grip on her fractured life. After drunkenly crashing her car into a manger scene while gunning for the baby Jesus, Hazel is sedated and bed-ridden. Hazel’s husband hires Vida to keep tabs on his unpredictable wife and to care for his sole surviving son. Forced to spend time together with no one else to rely on, the two women find they have more in common than they thought, and together they turn the town on its head. It is the story of a town, a people, and a culture on the verge of a great change that begins with small things, like unexpected friendship.

Jonathan Odell is the author of two novels, The Healing published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in 2012 and The View from Delphi published by MacAdams/Cage in 2004. Odell was born and raised in Mississippi, growing up in the institutional segregation of a small town. In college he became an activist and sold The Ebony Pictorial History of Black America door to door in black neighborhoods across the South while the Klan tried to discourage him. He now resides in Minnesota.

The Big Seven

A Novel by Jim Harrison.
January 27, 2015. Hardcover, $26.
Grove Press. ISBN: 9780802123336

Midwestern icon and 2013 Voice of the Heartland Award-winner Jim Harrison is one of our most renowned and popular authors, and his last novel, The Great Leader, was one of the most successful in a decorated career: it appeared on the New York Times extended bestseller list, and was a national bestseller with rapturous reviews. His darkly comic follow-up, The Big Seven, sends Detective Sunderson to confront his new neighbors, a gun-nut family who live outside the law in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Detective Sunderson has fled troubles on the home front and bought himself a hunting cabin in a remote area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. No sooner has he settled in than he realizes his new neighbors are creating even more havoc than the Great Leader did. A family of outlaws, armed to the teeth, the Ameses have local law enforcement too intimidated to take them on. Then Sunderson’s cleaning lady, a comely young Ames woman, is murdered, and black sheep brother Lemuel Ames seeks Sunderson’s advice on a crime novel he’s writing which may not be fiction. Sunderson must struggle with the evil within himself and the far greater, more expansive evil of his neighbor.

In a story shot through with wit, bedlam, and Sunderson’s attempts to enumerate and master the seven deadly sins, The Big Seven is a superb reminder of why Jim Harrison is one of America’s most irrepressible writers.

Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, MI in 1937. He is the author of 19 books of fiction, four books of nonfiction, and 17 books of poetry. Harrison became a novelist after he fell off a cliff while bird hunting. During his convalescence, his friend Thomas McGuane suggested he write a novel. Wolf: A False Memoir (1971) was the result. His works have been set throughout the Midwest, from Nebraska to Minnesota to his most common locale, rural Michigan. He currently lives in Arizona and Montana.

Watch Jim Harrison’s acceptance speech for the 2013 Voice of the Heartland Award at the 2013 Heartland Fall Forum, in which he discusses The Big Seven, below:

Stickers, Bookstands & Window Clings

MIBA Staff — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:48:22 +0000

Stickers

MIBA produces and ships three varieties of book jacket stickers:

Signed Copy
Local Author
Staff Choice

Each sticker is 2″ wide and 1″ high. “Signed Copy” is gold on white and the other stickers are white on red. The adhesive is effective, but light, allowing stickers to be very easily removed. Order 250 stickers (1 roll) for $10.00. (Price includes tax and shipping.)

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Bookstands

MIBA is able to manufacture a large number of these high-quality acrylic bookstands, thereby lowering the cost per unit and passing these savings on to you. The bookstands were custom-made for MIBA according to bookseller specifications — and they are an ongoing success. Book stands are 5.5″ W x 5.5″ H. The base is 7″ deep. The shelf is 2 3/4 ” deep. Order bookstands 10 per box for $90.00 (includes tax and shipping).

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Sarah Bagby, owner of Watermark Books, says, “I was hesitant to buy a case of the book stand easels because of the price, but when they arrived at the store, my staff was SO impressed, they asked how soon we could get more. My staff doesn’t ask me for much, but when they do, I listen. To keep the expense spread over time, I ordered a case a month for an extended period. The store looks better, my staff is happy and the books are on stands that will support them and not dig into the pages.”

To order, please fill out the order form below and return it by email to Robert@MidwestBooksellers.org. Be sure to save the form to your computer before and after filling it out.