Indies Choice Book Awards
These awards celebrate the best Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Picture Books*, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Debut Adult and Debut Children's voted by indie booksellers.
2026 Awards* Timeline
The winning titles from each category receive $1,500.
October 14: Voting Opens for Longlist
*Member booksellers have a chance to win a waived Winter Institute 2027 registration fee if they vote for the shortlist AND finalists!
Bookseller Resources and Assets
Marketing assets, list of winning and shortlisted titles, and resources to promote the shortlisted and winning titles across seven categories, all voted on by indie booksellers. To be added on November 4.
Eligible Titles
Titles have appeared on ABA's 2026 Indie Next List, Kids' Indie Next List, and/or Indies Introduce lists. These lists have been compiled by indie booksellers through reporting bestsellers, submitting quotes for Indie Next List and Kids' Next List titles, and serving on Indies Introduce panels.
We support human created work. No AI created titles will be included.
Voting Process**
The longlist is created from the titles nominated on the Indie Next List, Kids’ Next List, and Indies Introduce list in 2026. When the longlist voting opens on October 14, ABA member indie booksellers with a BookWeb.org login can select up to 3 titles in each award category. A title cannot be chosen more than once in each category. Each indie bookseller will only be able to submit the form once. An excel sheet of the eligible titles will be made available to encourage member booksellers to review before submitting their selected titles per category. Booksellers do not have to submit a selection for each category and are not required to select the maximum of 3 titles in a respective category.
After the longlist voting closes, a shortlist of the top five titles voted from each category will be announced, followed by a final round of voting to determine the winners. Indie booksellers will be able to select 3 titles in each category from the shortlist. An excel sheet of the shortlisted titles will be made available to encourage member booksellers to review before submitting their selected titles per category.
If you are an indie bookseller at an ABA member store and do not have a BookWeb.org login, contact our Membership Team at [email protected].
**New for 2026, two additional award categories have been added: Indie Press Fiction and Indie Press Nonfiction.
2025 WINNERS
Past Winners
From 1991 to 2000, the award was known as the American Bookseller Book of the Year (ABBY). Relaunched in 2000 as Book Sense Book of the Year, then as the Indies Choice Book Awards in 2009 and renamed the Indies Choice Book Awards / E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards in 2010, the awards previously coincided with BookExpo America and were postponed in 2019.
Award Recipients: 2009–2019
Questions and inquiries about the Indies Choice Book Awards can be directed to [email protected].