Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Presents

It is the mission of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) to provide its member bookstores with the tools and resources they need to become better, more successful businesses. As a sponsor of the Professional Booksellers School, SIBA is pleased to provide the following collection of courses free of charge to its members. 

PBS courses have already helped many booksellers grow in their profession, creating a stronger bookselling community for everyone:

“Each class was an eye-opener, and I was impressed that every question was answered with experience and encouragement to the student to explore what works for them. Learning from real booksellers reshaped how I think about inventory and sales. It’s changed how I guide indie authors—anchoring publishing in what actually sells.” –Selena Teems, Black Wall Street Books, Miami, FL

View the Classes

Scroll down the page to view all the content, or click the title of each class to jump directly to the class. Handouts, if available, can be downloaded under each video.

Bookseller Tools & Resources

Bookstore Financial Literacy (three videos)

Budgeting for Buying

The Power of Ingram

Frontlist Buying Through Edelweiss

Establish Terms and Save Money (free to you from PBS Sponsor MVB)

Bookseller Tools & Resources

Entering the world of independent bookselling is exciting, and can also be disorienting - so many new terms, buzz words, acronyms, and industry groups to get to know. This class from our Basic Bookselling Course will introduce you to the major companies and organizations, introduce you to industry vocabulary, and help you see the world through booksellers' eyes.

Download Bookseller Tools & Resources Handout

Click for sound

37:31

0:00

Bookstore Financial Literacy

These 3 mini-classes were created by Bookstore Finances Dean Candice Huber as the best way to begin to understand your store's finances and how to manage them. There are no handouts for this class. The topics are:

• Understanding Profit & Loss
• Cost of Goods Sold
• Managing Cash Flow

Understanding Profit & Loss

Click for sound

32:02

0:00

Cost of Goods Sold

Click for sound

34:33

0:00

Managing Cash Flow

Click for sound

33:04

0:00

Budgeting for Buying

How many of us fly by the seat of our pants when it comes to budgeting for inventory?

In this session, Candice Huber, Dean of Bookstore Finances for the Professional Booksellers School, will present practical and actionable steps for budgeting for buying, even if you're starting from scratch.

This session is inclusive of a variety of business models.

Click for sound

33:37

0:00

Download Handout: Budgeting Steps

Download Handout: Budgeting Tricks and Tips

The Power of Ingram

This class from our Inventory Management Course shows book buyers all the ins-and-outs of ordering through Ingram. You'll learn Ingram terminology, Ingram Publisher Services, how to choose primary and secondary warehouses, and strategies to meet the minimum requirement for reduced shipping. 

Click for sound

0:29

0:00

Download the Power of Ingram Textbook Chapter

Frontlist Buying Through Edelweiss

This class from Inventory Management is designed to help book buyers learn to improve discounts and margins by shifting frontlist buying directly to publishers using Edelweiss in conjunction with a publisher rep. It includes Edelweiss terminology, using markup catalogs, and how to create Edelweiss export rules.

Click for sound

1:08:30

0:00

Download Frontlist Buying Handout

Establish Terms and Save Money

From a PBS sponsor MVB, this seminar will hep you learn more about how your store could be saving money by switching to terms with publishers and with Ingram.

Speakers include

• Jill Hendrix of MVB, former PBS Dean of Inventory Management

• Jason Rice of Ingram

• Emanuel Figueroa, Co-owner of Snug Books, Baltimore, MD

• Valerie Pierce of Sourcebooks

Click for sound

1:10:03

0:00

Download MVB Electronic Ordering Handout

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