Dozens of booksellers have signed up to host Well-Read Black Girl [6] (WRBG) book clubs in their stores this year as part of the American Booksellers Association’s new partnership with WRBG founder Glory Edim.

Now, many of these stores are featured on an interactive map on IndieBound.org [7]; as stores continue to sign up, they will be added to this map so customers can find a WRBG book club near them.

Independent booksellers nationwide are invited to e-mail [email protected] [8] to sign up to host a book club or to share ideas; be sure to include your name, store name, city, and state.

In addition to being featured on the map, stores that sign on to host book clubs will:

• Be included in ABA promotion of the program in print and online
• Receive marketing materials to use in-store and online to promote the book club
• Receive a window display kit from Random House
• Be invited to attend webinars about how to launch and host a WRBG book club

Throughout the year, Edim will promote indie bookstore book clubs on her social media platforms and encourage followers to ask their local store to host a book club. In addition, Edim will lead a workshop at the seventh annual Children’s Institute [9] in Pittsburgh in June to discuss best practices and tips for establishing a Well-Read Black Girl book club.

In September, each participating Well-Read Black Girl book club will read the same title (to be determined), and Edim will visit a number of indie bookstores and Skype into book clubs throughout the fall.

Well-Read Black Girl provides a vital space for black female readers and writers to connect and grow in conversation. Each month, Edim hosts book club meetings, readings, and Twitter chats (#WRBGChat [10]) with emerging and established authors, and the thriving online community now has more than 200,000 Instagram followers, 47,300 Twitter followers, and 13,300 Facebook followers.

Edim is the winner of the 2017 Innovator’s Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and a board member of New York City’s Housing Works Bookstore [11]. Her book Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves was published by Ballantine Books on October 30, 2018.

Keep an eye on upcoming issues of Bookselling This Week for more about this collaboration.