What is STARS?

The Southern Traveling Authors Registration Service—STARS—is a specialized “speakers bureau” of sorts created by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and designed to build relationships between authors and independent booksellers.  Authors want to give readings at bookstores. Bookstores are often looking for authors for events. But unless an author’s publisher is really on the ball, setting up events is a haphazard process left entirely to the author, who often is pressed for time, inexperienced in publicity and marketing, and forced to make cold calls to stores without even the benefit of up to date contact information.

STARS was built to help authors and booksellers find each other. Authors who register for STARS can create profiles, enter book information, and most importantly, list their upcoming travel plans and areas they are willing to visit. SIBA will collate this information and forward it to their member independent booksellers as potential events.  The bookstores, in turn, will use STARS as a resource for finding authors, and will promote the site to other organizations in their area that need to find speakers and presenters for events. This includes book groups, civic organizations, libraries, schools and business alliances. Independent booksellers are active in their communities and are often approached as a resource for finding speakers.

Even better, events scheduled by SIBA booksellers are entered onto the ARTS calendar, which is forwarded to media throughout the south every week as part of the Southern Indie Bestseller List, and in the popular monthly newsletter on Southern Literature, Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book.