Bookstores Encouraged to “Get on the Map!”

As the third annual celebration of Indies First on Small Business Saturday approaches, booksellers are urged to enter their stores’ event details into the Indies First Activity Registry so their plans for November 28 appear on the national Indies First map on IndieBound.org.

Since the inaugural Indies First campaign was envisioned by author Sherman Alexie in 2013, each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving hundreds of independent bookstores across the country host authors as honorary booksellers to help sell and sign books, share their literary recommendations, and give readings. In 2014, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) introduced Upstream, a program that connects authors with their local independent booksellers to offer signed books.

On IndieBound’s Indies First map, consumers can look for Small Business Saturday events at indie bookstores (represented by blue dots), as well as stores with an Upstream partnership (represented by red dots), which indicate an author’s signed stock is on hand.

In addition to IndieBound’s map, American Express, which founded Small Business Saturday and has sponsored the yearly shop local initiative since 2011, has created its own consumer map. However, events added to the IndieBound map will not automatically appear on American Express’s Shop Small Map. Bookstores that accept American Express cards can sign up to appear on AmEx’s map and receive free promotional materials here.

Booksellers who haven’t already arranged to host authors on Small Business Saturday are encouraged to review BookWeb’s Indies First Author-Illustrator Index to find local authors who have expressed an interest in being guest booksellers and then invite them to their stores. In addition, booksellers who will be hosting authors on Small Business Saturday can check out the list of specials on frontlist and backlist titles from publishers to see if they include titles that their guest booksellers will be hand-selling during their visit.

Full details and resources for booksellers and authors who would like to take part in this year’s Indies First celebration are available here.