Indie Booksellers Name the 20 Indies Introduce Debut Titles for Summer/Fall 2020

Publishers are once again offering specials on 10 adult titles and 10 kids’ titles chosen by panels of American Booksellers Association member booksellers from across the U.S. as the top debuts of the upcoming publishing season.

The Summer/Fall 2020 Indies Introduce program features titles for adults, young adults, and middle grade readers, all publishing between June and October 2020.

“I am so grateful to this committee,” said panelist Kathy Burnette of Brain Lair Books. “It brought back my joy of reading! And helped me to relax! And helped me through this pandemic. It was so helpful being around people who understood the struggle but still made time to smile.”

This year, the Indies Introduce panelists and authors will take part in two special events to present the chosen titles. The virtual events will take place as follows:

• Adult titles: Thursday, June 4, at 3:00 p.m. ET
• Kids’ titles: Date to be announced (to be held this summer during a virtual Children’s Institute program)

Watch Bookselling This Week for more news about these events.

For stores that have taken part in past Indies Introduce promotions, there’s no need to sign up to take advantage of publishers’ Summer/Fall offers; however, stores that are new to Indies Introduce must complete the Indies Introduce sign-up form by June 15 in order to participate in the program.

To access the list of titles with bookseller blurbs and full details on publishers’ offers, booksellers will need a BookWeb.org login name and password (email [email protected] for login information). Titles are also listed on Edelweiss. The Indies Introduce logo is available for download in the Marketing Assets section, which is located under BookWeb’s “For Booksellers” tab.

Traditionally, an adult panel and a children’s panel for the next season would be forming now, with reading and Zoom discussions happening from early June through late August. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, ABA is gathering information from both publishers and booksellers before deciding whether to move forward with the Winter/Spring 2021 season or take a hiatus. Taking into consideration that some booksellers currently have more time on their hands and some have less, ABA is asking that member booksellers who have both the interest and time to commit to participating on a panel reach out to let us know. Booksellers should take into consideration that due to constraints on the publishers’ end, many of the reading materials may be provided digitally.

The Summer/Fall 2020 Indies Introduce Adult Debuts are: