After the success of last November’s Indies First campaign, when Sherman Alexie challenged other authors to join him and handsell at their favorite independent on Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving), and Indies First Storytime Day six months later, the American Booksellers Association-sponsored program will expand.
As reported in Bookselling This Week, the Thanks for Shopping Indie program, which enabled booksellers to order featured titles from a variety of publishers at special discounts that they could then pass on to their customers, will return as part of Indies First.
Indies First/Small Business Saturday will once again be held over Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 29), and ABA will create an Indies First Author and Illustrator Index. To support this fall’s Indies First campaign, Penguin Random House is supplying tote bags and American Express is providing co-branded Indies First/Small Business Saturday bookmarks.
