siba’s shop south

Matchbook is excited to collaborate with SIBA to promote excellent Southern fiction! The Shop South program will promote Okra Pick, Circle of Sites, Southern Book Prize, Conroy Legacy titles and more by featuring them on bookstore websites, and where possible, link them to online sales pages.

THE PROGRAM:

SIBA develops and maintains a series of book lists and awards to promote Southern books. Matchbook Marketing will work with booksellers to incorporate these promotions into their websites, and where possible, link them to online sales pages. The prize lists include the Southern Book Prize, Circle of Sites/Lady Banks, Okra Picks, Southern Indie Bestsellers List, and the Pat Conroy Legacy.

BENEFITS:

Once stores sign on, the Shop South lists will be updated on their sites automatically, without consuming staff time.
Those with online sales platforms will benefit from increased sales of the promoted books.
These lists are often generated by bookseller selection, so sellers will have the added benefit of promoting the books they are most excited about!

HOW IT WORKS:

Matchbook will add a drop down to the Shop (or similar) menu for each participating website called “Shop South.”
This menu item will link to a page with all five prize lists, laid out in 5 rows, with the list header, a brief description, and a carousel of 5 or 6 titles with a link to “more” in that prize list.
The corresponding linked pages will include more information about that specific prize, and the full list of award winning books, with purchasing information.
Matchbook will change titles out according to a schedule set by SIBA.

Matchbook will also provide an optional linked visual image for the homepage promoting the Shop South page.

For IndieCommerce sites, the jackets in the lists will link to online shopping carts to encourage online purchasing. We are still exploring what this will look like for IndieLite, Handseller, and other sites. For non-commerce sites, this information will be visual only.

SIBA SUPPORT:

SIBA will provide the lists to Matchbook to allow the automatic population of each site. SIBA will also offset the basic start-up price of $80 with 8,000 B3 SIBA points, which can be exchanged for SIBA dues, meal tickets to the SIBA Discovery Show, and even free travel and hotel accommodations. For more information about the B3 program, click here.

WHAT IT COSTS:

$80 setup (one time) plus $40/month; monthly contract with 3 month minimum commitment

All participating booksellers will be required to have an active SIBA membership. A minimum of 10 stores total will be required to sign up before the program can be launched.

PACKAGE DISCOUNTS:

Active Shop South participants qualify for:

$200 discount on a full website development package
10% discount on up to 3 hours of website revision
10% discount on website maintenance packages
Read more about our website services here.