Sign-ups to participate close on March 31 through your Member Dashboard*. You must be a logged-in ABA member** to access the form. If you do not know your login credentials please email us at [email protected].  

*If you have ordered exclusives or signed up already, you do not need to complete this form again.

**Independent Bookstore Day is open to those who are members of ABA, as well as their regional booksellers association. If you have not renewed your membership for 2026, please do so now, or your store will not be included on the participating store map.

Check out the Independent Bookstore Day BookWeb page for additional details as well as the planning guide for an additional resource.

Submit Your Plans to ABA (including crawls and passport programs)

We’ve started adding store plans to the IndieBound blog and will link it on the IndieBound Indie Bookstore Day map, including bookstore crawls and passport programs.

If you’re looking for ideas, check out last year’s events from participating bookstores and the replay of February’s ShopTalk: Making the Most of Indie Bookstore Day.

March To-Dos:

Start marketing Indie Bookstore Day.

• Mention the day and any details in your newsletter and on social media. Make your announcement using the digital assets and exclusive item images on BookWeb. New posters and assets have been added!
• If you ordered the free Indie Bookstore Day bookmarks, they will arrive in your March Box Mailing.
• List special events in your events calendar.
• Post images/graphics of exclusive items and other teasers on social media.
• Promote Libro.fm’s sales and offers
• Link: The link for bookstores to share is: Libro.fm/ibd
• Materials: All print and digital materials will be in this Google Drive with more to be added.
• Sale: Indie Bookshop Appreciation Sale will run April 20–26, with bestselling audiobooks on sale and have a new member offer for bookstores to share.

Add exclusives to your IndieCommerce 1.0 or 2.0 sites.

• Join a member of the IndieCommerce team for a live, online instructional webinar on March 25 or 31 (see “Key Dates to Know” below for registration). They will cover how to manage the exclusive product listings and other content for the event, displaying on-hand quantities, adjusting the on-sale date and time for products, managing orders through your IndieCommerce/IndieLite site, and other resources available.
• A Help Document will be made available for adding exclusives as well.

Send a Press Release to your local media.

• Download the template, enter your specific bookstore information (we provided examples!), and you’re ready to send it off.
• Arrange for media coverage — radio, newspapers, websites — in your area if possible.

Join the Global Book Crawl. 

• Independent bookshops in different countries invite readers to walk from bookshop to bookshop, to rediscover familiar places, and to experience books as something shared. The second edition grows in participation, in territories, and in ways of working together. More bookshops, more cities, and more languages. 

Keep an eye out for your Ingram Order on ipage.

Key Dates to Know:

• NEW! March 25, 2:00 pm ET: IndieCommerce 2.0 Webinar
• NEW! March 31, 2:00 pm ET: IndieCommerce 1.0 Webinar
• March 31, 2026: Indie Bookstore Day 2026 General Participation Form closes through your Member Dashboard. (Stores that didn’t order exclusive items can sign up to participate until this date.)
• April 3, 2026: Indie Bookstore Day Searchable Map goes live on IndieBound
• Mid-April, 2026: All exclusives ship to bookstores
• April 20–24, 2026: Indie Bookstore Day Spirit Week
• April 25, 2026, the last Saturday in April: Independent Bookstore Day

Stay tuned for future updates via our newsletters. Missed an issue of the Indie Bookstore Day Newsletter? Catch up on them all on BookWeb.

Questions? Contact Courtney Wallace, Senior Marketing Manager at [email protected].