Act Now to Keep Indies First Momentum Going

The American Booksellers Association is sending members a few follow-up requests to help keep the momentum of Indies First going:

• Indies First is not meant to be a one-day event. It is also about encouraging authors — and anyone else with a website — to place an indie “buy” button above all other e-retailer choices on their sites year-round. Raising an indie “buy” button physically on a webpage helps raise consumers’ awareness of their independent options.

  Authors should also be reminded that they can receive referral commissions via their indie “buy” button in two ways: (1) If an IndieCommerce store has its own affiliate program, authors can join it and link to the store site; (2) If an ABA member store doesn’t have an e-commerce site or does not currently participate in an affiliate program, authors can link to the store webpage as a recommended URL and receive referral commissions through the IndieBound Affiliate Program.
   

• All stores that were part of the Indies First movement are asked to send a final list of their participating authors to ABA Industry Relations Assistant Anne Caldwell. It’s great that going into the event ABA could say that more than 1,000 authors were participating at more than 400 indie stores across the country, but that number actually increased on the day of the event itself.
   
• ABA would like to send a thank you note to as many participating authors as possible to express appreciation for their support and to provide them with information about the extent of the celebration. ABA has the contact information for authors who signed up through BookWeb, but the association is asking stores to provide author contact information for additional participants. ABA will use the author contact information solely for this purpose.
   
• Booksellers are asked to share their thoughts on the Indies First process with ABA by filling out a short survey. Insights gained from the survey will go a long way towards streamlining the process in the future for bookstores and authors alike.
   
• Each new photo shared with ABA helps solidify the message of Indies First. The efforts of each and every bookseller who took part in the celebration and who forwarded photos and stories from their local media are greatly appreciated. ABA is encouraging booksellers to send additional photos to ABA Marketing Manager Greg Galloway and press stories to [email protected].
   
• Last but not least, Indies First T-shirts in blue-on-white and white-on-blue will be available soon — if not now! — on Zazzle.com. Stores can order just one T-shirt or as many as they desire. DIY files that booksellers can customize and take to their local printer to create unique Indies First merchandise — hats, socks, pet ensembles, baby onesies, and more — are available now in the Designs and Downloads section of BookWeb.org.