How Bookstores Are Celebrating The 10th Indie Bookstore Day!

In celebration of the 10th Independent Bookstore Day (April 29), independent bookstores have been sharing their plans, including special events, speakers, and bookshop crawls. If you are interested in partnering with a store or want to connect to learn more about their plans, feel free to reach out. Additionally, if you have something planned for Indepedent Bookstore Day this year, let ABA know. 

Find resources, assets, and more on the Indepedent Bookstore Day page. We’ve also compiled a list of ideas on BookWeb.org to help!  

Here are how some bookstores plan to spend the day, listed by state:

Alabama

The Haunted Book Shop

Area fan favorites will be signing copies of their books, representing a few of our favorite genres — young adult, middle grade, romance, and thriller.

California

A Seat At The Table Books

• 11:30 am storytime with Jeff Kubiak
• 12:00 pm discussion of trans representation in children’s books with Lisa Bunker and Sarah & Ian Hoffman
• 1:00 pm discussion of fantasy series writing with Andrea Stewart and Megan Reyes

Crawford's Books

Read the Region book tour with nine independent bookstores in Sacramento. Coffee and bagels available in the morning. Live music in the afternoon. Children’s scavenger hunt all day.

Meet Cute Romance
We will be participating in IBD by offering IBD exclusives, as well as participating in the San Diego Book Crawl 2023!

Octavia’s Bookshelf

We will have instant poems on a typewriter, food, a scavenger hunt, snacks, prizes and an illustrator to draw cartoon portraits for customers.

Sistah Scifi
Sistah Scifi Author Expo celebrating indie Black and Indigenous Speculative Fiction Writers in collaboration with the Bay Area Book Festival: Eventbrite Link

Colorado

Shop at Matter

SELLING BOOKS! Making connections, supporting other bookstores, and sharing the love!

Florida

Little Bus Books

Lakeland Booksellers will host the 2nd annual Lakeland Book Crawl, a week-long event where all six of the Independent Bookstores will have a designated day to highlight their store through an event, discount, promotion, etc. Attendees will have the opportunity to win a giveaway that includes a gift certificate to each store.

Little Bus Books will be featured on Friday, April 28, in which 50% of proceeds will go towards the purchase of Spanish translated books. These books will be provided to community partners who participate in our non-profit initiative, No Covers — Free Mobile Bookshop, where LBB gives away books to individuals and families within the community who lack adequate access to libraries or bookstores.

Georgia

Underground Books

• Buy 4 books get the 5th free sale (*5th book is of equal or lesser value)!
• Make a purchase of $150 and get a totebag full of advance reading copies (ARCs)! (*While supplies last. This is in addition to the free Underground Books tote-pak or t-shirt we always offer at $150!)
• Take 20% off the rare books in the glass case!
• Find the single Golden Ticket hidden in the bookstore and win 12 audiobook credits — a year of audiobooks! Plus our audiobook provider Libro.fm will have some of our all-time favorite audiobooks on sale for $5 and lots more! (Learn more about Libro.fm's IBD plans, and be sure to select Underground Books as your bookstore to support when creating an account or starting a subscription!)

Illinois

Peoria Book Rack
We are hosting an Alice in Wonderland Very Merry IBD Party! The whole store will be decorated in Alice in Wonderland decor; I will be dressed in an Alice costume and my husband will be the White Rabbit. He will be running all around the store with a watch, saying “I’m Late, I’m Late”. We will have an Alice backdrop for photo ops for the customers, an entire Alice themed dessert bar that is free. We have 15 local authors and bookish vendors setting up out front. We also have a mobile candy truck coming and a local company that makes cookies! Lots of free giveaways including Alice themed totes that say “We're All Mad Here at the Book Rack”! And sales all day long on books and sidelines! It’s going to be so fun!

Indiana

Fables Books
Inviting customers to gear up for Independent Bookstore Day with IBD Spirit Week.

• Tuesday: Plaid Tuesday. Dress in plaid for a free advanced reader book.
• Wednesday: On Wednesdays, We Wear Bookstore Shirts. Where a bookstore shirt from another bookstore and recieve a free advanced reader book.
• Thursday: Book Character Dress-up Day. Visit the store dressed as your favorite book character and receive a free advanced reader book.
• Friday: Story Time & Stuffie Sleepover. Kiddos are invited to come in their jammies for storytime, then leave their stuffies at the store. We’ll post photos of the stuffies playing and reading around the store without their humans. Then the next day, families come in to pick up their stuffies and enjoy the Saturday Festivities.

On Saturday from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, meet three local authors:

• Adam Fleming, author of Old Roads, New Friends, a memoir.
• Chelsea Williams, author of There's Something About “I Love You”, a children’s picture book.
• Roger Carlson, author of A Celebration of Mothers in Rhyme, a children’s picture book.

All day Saturday, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, enjoy treats, prizes, exclusive items, and more.

• Every purchase gets to Spin the Prize Wheel
• Purchase $25+: Pick a Mystery Galley Book
• Guess the Shredded Book giveaway

Iowa

Swamp Fox Bookstore & Swamp Fox Kids

We will be hosting an author fair featuring local authors plus an appearance by NYT Bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf.

Kentucky

Butcher Cabin Books

• Free exclusive merch like bookmarks, stickers, and mini notebooks
• Activities for kids
• Special book deals and bundles
• Mystery grab bags with books and goodies, free with purchase
• Free mini book pins, made in-store throughout the day
• Free tote bags with $100+ in purchases
• Plus other surprises!

Massachussetts

Booklovers’ Gourmet

We are hosting author Tom Ingrassia from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, who will be signing and talking about his book One Door Closes: Overcoming Adversity by Following Your Dreams, which is celebrating 10 years in print. We will also have exclusive items for sale and special giveaways. Everyone who stops in will have a chance to win a $25 gift card.

High Five Books
All day long, kids from our community will wear our bookselling aprons and take turns as Junior Booksellers, sharing their readers’ advisory picks for shoppers. Shifts will change on the hour, and outdoors we’ll have our friends from Wake the Dead Donuts frying up hot mini-donut sundaes!

lala books

Surprise discounts & prizes at register, free ARCs with purchase of $50 or more, raffles, and select discounts.

Minnesota

Paperbacks and Pieces

Meet local authors:

• Shawn McGuire 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
• Andrew Pruett 10:00 am – 4:00pm
• Klover Rae 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
• Niki Bergler 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
• Jolene Goodman 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
• Ruth Bures 10:00 am – TBD
• Local Winona Driftless Kettle Corn will be setup outside selling tasty treats from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm (possibly later).

Missouri

River Reader Books

• 10:30 am: Storytime & Personalized Bookmark Craft
• In-Store Selfie Scavenger Hunt
• In-Store Face Painting with Look At My Face, Face Painting — Prices from $8-12
• Selfie Photos with Cowbell
• Local Young Artist: Madison Flanigan will have her artwork on display, Madison will have Custom Designed “Cowbell” Merchandise for Sale
• Local Musician Kerry Beach will providel live music, weather permitting.
• Drawings and giveaways throughout the Day!
• Discounts on Select Sections
• Local Kindergarten 4th Grade Students: In honor of “Children’s Book Week” May 1–7, 2023, River Reader Books is hosting its 2nd Annual Bookmark Contest.  Students have been asked to design and draw a bookmark using the theme “Read Books to Spark Your Imagination”.  Voting will take place In-Store and on Our Facebook Page, Saturday, April 29. Winners will be Announced, Monday, May 1.

Michigan

Fenton’s Open Book
Our theme is books are the art of the mind. We are using an artist palette with books all around, lithograph prints, giveaways, mystery bags with lithograph T-shirts, prizes, balloon artist, local authors and illustrators, and more.

Island Books & Crafts
Book reading/signing with local author Sue Harrison with her new book The Midwife's Touch from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. ARC giveaway with each purchase.

Montana

This House of Books
Throughout the day, we will have regular drawings for FREE gift giveaways, several local authors will be on hand at various times to sign books, and at 1:00 pm, we will have a special National Poetry Month performance of selections from Chaucer and Beowulf in the original language with a related discussion about the evolution of English.

Nebraska

Chapters Books & Gifts

Bookstore crawl with nearby stores, author signing with ten Nebraska authors, and a book release celebration for author Tosca Lee’s new book, as well as spirit week and exclusive merchandise.

New York

Alice, Ever After Books

• Four local authors as guest booksellers
• Buffalo Bookstore Passport
• Three “performers” throughout the day
• Cookies from local bakery
• New t-shirt/swag design

The Bookworm & BW Gifts
Raffles, Local authors Jon Kaledin (11:00 am – 1:00 pm) and Dennis Adams (1:00 pm — 3pm), coffee sampling from Kornerstone Cafe & Juice Bar 

Strand Book Store & Strand at Columbus Avenue

In-store events, online discounts, giveaways, events, and more!

The Lit Bar
The usual party and giveaways, but this year we're also launching a Lit. Bar x Vans x Kith apparel collection.

Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria
This Independent Bookstore Day, we’ll be holding the Tom Burgess Memorial Uptown Record Fair, a daylong celebration of music, books about music, and the dear departed Word Up volunteer Tom Burgess, whose collections kickstarted our community arts space at Recirculation. As it is Independent Bookstore Day, we’ll focus on music books, with a special appearance by Dan Charnas, author of Dilla Time, recent winner of a PEN award for best biography. Signed author copies of new and notable music book releases will be available as well! Plus we’ll be featuring 10+ tables of vendors selling LPs, 45s, tapes, CDs and more, including special items from Tom’s collection. DJs will be spinning all day.

See you on Saturday, April 29, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm ET at Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

North Carolina

Bookmarks

We are going to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with the launch of our third annual Book with Purpose summer initiative, featuring the book Dear America by Jose Antonio Vargas. Guests can come pick up their copy of the book, make donations to support book donations to schools and other community organizations, and create art about what it means to be American. Guests will have several opportunities to enter a giveaway to win the chance to create an endcap for one month this summer to showcase their own identity.

We will also be holding a special edition of our monthly Book Trivia hosted by our Inventory Manager. In honor of Independent Bookstore Day, trivia teams can draft a Bookmarks staff member to join their team — while supplies last!

Editions Book Store & Coffee Shop
15 bookstores in the greater Charlotte area are planning a book crawl. We are starting the beginning of April and really focusing on April 29–May 1.

Flyleaf Books

Special children's storytime event at 11:00 am! Free cookies & beverages for customers (while supplies last)

Page After Page
We will host adult and children’s authors, free refreshments, games and prizes!

South Main Book Company
We are so excited to be a part of the #greatercharlottebookcrawl this April! Check out the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl site for all the details — and you can even print your passport to visit the 15 participating stores in our area!

Oregon

Annie Bloom’s Books

We’ll celebrate the support of our neighborhood and beyond!

Roundabout Books

• First 50 customers get a $10 Independent Bookstore Day Tote bag filled with free books and gifts. The total minimum purchase required is $50 (including the $10 tote).
• Author Event from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Leila Philip presents Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. Co-sponsored by Deschutes River Alliance, and with an appearance by Chewy the Beaver.
• Exclusive Independent Bookstore Day Merchandise All Day
• Lots of spirit week fun from April 24 to April 29
• Free giveaways, free popcorn and snacks all day long!
• All month long — contribute to our community mural and share your Oregon Love!

Pennsylvania

Cupboard Maker Books

We will be hosting a scavenger hunt and a social media contest as well as participating in the IBD instagram display contest. Details for our activities will be made available on our Facebook events page.

Let’s Play Books Bookstore
We are opening our SECOND STORE, at 3055 Tighlman St. in Allentown. Join us to see the new space, and meet and greet a number of local authors including Robin Gow and Maria Rodale.

Main Point Books
We are celebrating our 10th anniversary and store expansion on IBD. It will be our grand re-opening with an expanded children’s space and dedicated event space. So far we have signed up 12 local children’s authors and the number is increasing daily.

Rhode Island

Curiosity & Co.
Independent Bookstore Week at Curiosity Bookstore & Winebar

• Wednesday, April 26 @ 6:00 pm — Join us at Curiosity Store for a wonderful evening of conversation with author and activist Jan Krause Greene as she sits down to discuss her latest novel, The Space Between Dark and Light.
• Thursday April 27 @ 6:00 pm — Join us at Curiosity Store for an incredible evening of conversation as acclaimed author Rachel Beanland (Florence Adler Swims Forever) sits down with Reading with Robin’s Robin Kall to discuss Beanland’s latest novel, The House Is on Fire.
• Friday April 28 @ 6:00 pm — Flight Club: Kiss the Book! Celebrating local, independent bookstores and the exceptional workers who make these spaces of wonder possible. Flight Club Friday is an exceptional four-wine flight curated by resident sommelier Emma McLaughlin, a stack of incredible vinyl records to set the groove, and truly dope humans like yourself taking a minute to toast to the goodness that is wine and books.
• Saturday April 29 @ 1:00 pm — Stories In The Key Of Life: An Afternoon with Valerie Tutson. Join us at Curiosity Store for a sensational afternoon of storytelling with acclaimed storyteller and educator Valerie Tutson. Steeped in inspiration from folktales, personal recollections, and historical stories with an emphasis on Black traditions, Stories In The Key Of Life is an experience the whole family can enjoy.

Tennessee

Parnassus Books
Story time, special coloring sheets, local author signing lines (featuring Tyler Merritt, Jeff Zentner, Ann Patchett, and more!), and an online auction whose proceeds will benefit the Parnassus Foundation, which buys books for students in Metro Nashville Public Schools and other local organizations.

Utah

The Book Bungalow

• We’re part of a big (about 20 stores) state-wide Bookstore Crawl
• We’re welcoming customers on our front porch with “Puppetry on the Porch” (not set yet) and/or “Poetry Poser on the Porch” (a volunteer dressed up as Emily Dickinson, spouting some of her poems...this is set) as they get their bookstore maps stamped
• We’re hoping to host a special Story Time at Noon with local author/illustrator Micah Player talking about his new book, La Guitarrista (not set yet)
• We’re definitely hosting poet Michael Lavers with “Proper Poet on the Patio” at 2:00 pm as he reads from his new anthology, The Inextinguishable
• And of course we’re doing some giveaways throughout the day, including a special $50 gift coupon in one of the capsules in our GAP machine (a gumball machine with 2" capsules inside containing either poetry or art), which we're debuting on April 1 in honor of National Poetry Month

Washington

Ballast Book Company
We will have door prizes of delightful plants every hour on the hour, and other mystery giveaways!

Vermont

Bridgeside Books
Reveal of 2023 One Town One Book read, 2 local authors, free ARCs, prize wheel, and reveal of our new tote bags.

Virginia

Birch Tree Bookstore
Birch Tree is thrilled to host an afternoon farmer’s market style fair spotlighting our local and aspiring authors located in our newly-renovated outdoor space with live music and a local wine or beer tasting! 

New Dominion Bookshop
Shop Local on Saturday, April 29
Come visit the shop on Independent Bookstore Day. We will be open from 9:30 am to 8:00 pm.

Buy Books, Get Gift Cards!
This year, we will be offering a special Independent Bookstore Day promotion. For every $100.00 you spend in the shop on April 29, you will receive a $10.00 gift card to the shop, good for May 1, 2023–May 31, 2024. Gift cards are only good towards future purchases. Purchases must be made on Saturday, April 29, in the shop to qualify.

Join Us for Our Annual Rose Garden Party
Our Rose Garden Party is back! Join us out in the Rose Garden from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm for refreshments and a general celebration of spring. Everyone is invited. Our Rose Garden is located outside, behind the shop, and is accessible from the alley off 4th St. In the event of rain, the Rose Garden Party will be held inside the shop.

Enjoy a Free Balloon (For Kids!)
We will have free balloons available in the shop for children, while supplies last!

Check Out Our Independent Bookstore Day Exclusives
Keep an eye out on social media for a preview of the exclusive Independent Bookstore Day items we will have in-store. These exclusives are made just for independent bookstores, and in years past, we have featured everything from signed books to limited edition prints, and even literary onesies! Please note that we are not able to put Independent Bookstore Day exclusives on hold, and we are not able to sell them until Independent Bookstore Day.

Share the Love on Social Media
Share a photo of your book haul (or a selfie in the Rose Garden or in front of the shop), and tag New Dominion Bookshop in the post. You can find us on Instagram at @new_dominion_bookshop, on Twitter at @ndbookshop, or on Facebook at facebook.com/newdominionbookshop. We will share our favorites throughout the next week!

Scrawl Books
Visits from the following authors and illustrators:

• 11:00 am – 12:00 pm: INK Publishing (Story Time)
• 12:00 – 2:00 pm: Alma Katsu
• 2:00 – 3:00 pm: Lillie Lainoff
• 3:00 – 4:00 pm: Ben Hatke
• 4:00 – 6:00 pm: Margaret Rodenberg