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On March 15, MIBA and friends convened at Main Street Books in St. Charles, Missouri to conduct our first of three spring meetings of the year.Located just outside of St. Louis, the brick roads and riverside charm of St. Charles were the perfect place to gather, discuss trends in bookselling, and hear about new titles that will soon be hitting the shelves. Discussion was lively, and we felt at home in the cozy fireplace room upstairs in Main Street Books, owned by Vicki Erwin. The bookstore (located, of course, on historic St. Charles’s “Main Street”), is a wonderful mix of new and used books and sidelines in a historic landmark two-story building. The ground level even has a separate mezzanine area for children’s books and toys–all perfectly tuned to the area’s charm.
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Attendees
In addition to our hosts at Main Street Books, attendees included booksellers from Subterranean Books (St. Louis, MO), The Archive (St. Louis, MO), Left Bank Books (St. Louis, MO), The Book House (St. Louis, MO), Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Bookstore (Edwardsville, IL), and Courtyard Books (Keokuk, IA), as well as publishers, authors, and sales reps.
We began with a conversation about what’s known locally as “the Indie Alliance“–a coalition of the area’s independent bookstores.
 Vicki Erwin from Main Street Books, Kelly von Plonski from Subterranean Books, and Jarek Steele from Left Bank Books discussed the Alliance’s formation, its achievements thus far, and the benefits of joining forces within your community.”We got together to gripe about bookselling,” Steele said, “and discovered that February had been brutal for others as well.” These booksellers soon discovered that they rather enjoyed each other’s company, and decided to plan a few events together to bolster awareness of St. Louis’s thriving independent bookstore scene. From their brainstorming sessions, and through their combined efforts, a unique new alliance was born. One goal of the Alliance has been to move beyond the confines of their own brick-and-mortar stores and get people to think about books out in the rest of the world. One of their first events was a “Bookstore Cruise“–a tour of the area’s literary history with stops at bookstores for author events–as well as “Literary Speed Dating”–which Kelly von Plonski described as “Basically just speed dating, except everyone brings one of their favorite books and you have to tell the other person what you like about it.”The greatest success of the alliance has to be the ReadMOB–a flash mob style read-in underneath the St. Louis Arch. Jarek Steele said, “It’s probably the proudest I’ve ever been of our literary community.” Check out a video of the ReadMOB below, and visit the Alliance’s website for videos of their other great events.
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Sales Reps
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Author Presentations
Throughout the day, we had the pleasure of hearing from a few authors with notable forthcoming books.
  During lunch, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld talked about her career arc, the dual life of being both a writer and a mother, and what led her to the subject matter of her forthcoming novel (her fourth), Sisterland. “I have sisters,” Curtis said, “but there’s a different kind of connection between twins. I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘I’m a twin, and you nailed it,’ and so that’s really gratifying.”
  Scott Phillips’s new international noir Rake started out as a screenplay for a French television series, then turned into a novel about a teleplay for a French television series. Scott was thrilled to be speaking to independent booksellers, because, he said, “They’re the ones who gave me my career. When my sales went down, B&N stopped stocking me because they only pay attention to numbers. The independents have that human element.”  Debut novelist Courtney Elizabeth Mauk is drawing attention with her book Spark, published by Engine Books. The meeting was a homecoming for the Brooklyn-based Mauk, who grew up in Missouri. “It still feels like home,” she said, adding that it was great to be back and a thrill to read at Left Bank Books a couple of days prior. Mauk spoke about the universal fascination with fire and how it has manifested in her own life.  Cole Gibsen traced the inspiration for her super-human YA novel Senshi to her own childhood. Gibsen shared that the book stemmed from a desire to provide children a way to escape from hard times. “When I was young and going through hard times, I always wished a samurai warrior would possess me in my moments of weakness, so I wrote a book about a strong female character who has this capacity to protect herself.”
  Antony John was on the schedule to appear as well, but touring prevented him from joining us. We received copies of his new book Elemental, and we’re happy to share! It’s the first book in a new series from Dial. Let us know if you’d like to receive a copy and we’ll send one out to you.
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