June Indie Next List Flier Offers Customer Sweepstakes, Easier Store Branding

Booksellers will note a couple of changes in the June 2016 Indie Next List flier, arriving in stores in the May Red Box mailing later this month. The improvements are part of the Indie Next List “Years of Discovery” Campaign, launched by the American Booksellers Association this month to celebrate more than a decade and a half of passionate handselling by ABA member booksellers that began in 1999 with the “Book Sense 76” and grew into the Indie Next List.

The most evident change to the Indie Next List flier is a box on the front page that makes it easier for booksellers to co-brand the list by providing a prominent space for the store name and logo. The list also features three additional “Now in Paperback” titles, for a total of nine.

For three months, starting with the June Indie List, the flier includes a sweepstakes coupon that gives customers a chance to win all 20 of the month’s Indie Next Great Reads. Stores are encouraged to display the INL flier prominently, use it as a bag stuffer, and distribute it at events so that as many customers as possible will enter for a chance to win in June, July, and August, courtesy of your store. Full rules and details are available here.

The Years of Dsicovery Campaign also features incentives for booksellers to promote the Indie Next List: Stores that create a monthly INL display for titles appearing on the May, June, July, August, and September lists and post a photo each month to Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram will automatically be entitled to bring an additional person, above the usual three booksellers per member company, to the 2017 Winter Institute. From those qualifying stores, 10 will be chosen to win a complimentary registration fee to the Winter Institute.

Plans are also in the works for a special Winter Institute Indie Next List author session and appearances by Revisit & Rediscover authors at the second annual Backlist Book Swap Party.

Booksellers with questions about the display contest and social media entries should contact ABA Social Media Manager Catherine Cusick; questions about the INL Years of Discovery Campaign should be addressed to Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger or Development Officer Mark Nichols.