Linda Cannon, 2017 Sales Rep of the Year

NAIBA is honored to present the inaugural Kristin Keith Sales Rep of the Year award to Linda Cannon of Parson Weems.

“I was stunned, thrilled, honored and humbled when I got the call from Todd Dickson telling me I was to be given this award,” said Linda. “My second thought was I wish Kristin was still with us, she was an amazing rep and friend, receiving this in her honor is high praise indeed.”

“From her very first visit to Lititz, Linda has taken the time to get to know us and understand our store. Her visits are always productive and invariably a delight. Out of her great big bag of catalogs, she helps us find the hidden gems will stand out for our customers. She is a true professional, a tireless worker, and an extraordinary troubleshooter, and she has become a true friend,” said Todd Dickinson, co-owner of Aaron’s Books in Lititz, PA, and NAIBA’s president.

Linda joined Parson Weems in 2003. She spent eighteen years as a bookseller in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Kent, Ohio and was a commission rep in the mid-west and Texas, and a house rep in the San Francisco Bay area. Linda left publishing in 1989 and was marketing manager for a software company in Marin County, CA, then becoming operations manager of an Internet start-up company. She moved back east in 2003 for family reasons, and joyfully returned to publishing. Linda moved to Baltimore in 2005. She became a partner at Parson Weems in October, 2005 and a co-owner in 2014.

“Working with NAIBA and the amazing and passionate booksellers in the mid-Atlantic has been as fun and rewarding as anything I have done in my decades as a bookseller. Through the good times and bad, we persist.   Thank you to one and all for your hard work and support and, for this fabulous award.  I’m feeling fine on Cloud 9.

NAIBA Rechristens Sales Rep of the Year Award to Honor Kristin Keith

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association will rename the William Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year award to the Kristin Keith Sales Rep of the Year award.

The award was first given to Bev Chaney in 1987, and named after the beloved William Helmuth of Book Travelers. At the inception, NAIBA wanted to recognize the sales rep “who is the sort of person who does their homework all the time, is patient and tolerant of customers and colleagues, who makes mistakes from enthusiasm, then owns up to them.”

In 2013, Kristin Keith won this award for her dedication and enthusiasm for the book industry and book people. Sadly, we lost Keith to cancer in 2017. In kind, this same industry wants to immortalize her dedication, enthusiasm and heart to a new generation of book people through the renaming of the Sales Rep of the Year award.

In honor of Kristin Keith, starting with the 31^st presentation of the annual Sales Rep of the Year award in Cherry Hill, NJ on October 7, 2017, this award will be a tribute to her and forevermore be called the Kristin Keith Sales Rep of the Year award.