Love Your Bookstore Challenge Currently Underway

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Readers around the country are sharing their love of bookstores by taking part in the second annual Love Your Bookstore challenge. The weeklong celebration is currently underway, taking place this year from Friday, November 8, to Saturday, November 17.

To take part in the Love Your Bookstore Challenge, readers can:

  • Go into their local bookstore and take a picture of the book they are most excited to gift this holiday season or a book they love or want to receive.
  • Post the photos to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter between November 8 and 17 with the hashtag #loveyourbookstore to be entered to win bookish prizes. When posting, challenge three to five friends to go love their favorite bookstores, too.

Booksellers can use these digital assets to promote the 2019 Love Your Bookstore Challenge and spread the word about this year's event. Available assets include save-the-date ads, social media posts, logos, ads and banners, and flyers.

Here are some of the posts being made to the hashtag:

Two readers promoted Books & Books in Florida.

Maritza and Maika Moulite posed with copies of their book Dear Haiti, Love Alaine (Inkyard Press) at Books & Books in Florida. 

Valley Bookseller in Minnesota encouraged their community to vote on Twitter.

Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, Minnesota, encouraged their community to post on Twitter.

One reader on Instagram recommended Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, North Carolina.

This reader recommended Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, North Carolina, on Instagram.

The Love Your Bookstore steering committee, which organized the inaugural event in 2018, is comprised of Becky Anderson, co-owner of Anderson’s Bookshops and past president of the American Booksellers Association; Carl Lennertz, executive director of the Children’s Book Council; Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks; Michael Jacobs, president and CEO of Abrams; and George Slowik Jr., president of Publishers Weekly.

This year's sponsors of Love Your Bookstore are Sourcebooks, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Charlesbridge, GLIBA, MPIBA, PNBA, SIBA, Grove/Atlantic, Raincoast Books, Penguin Random House and PRH Canada, PubWest, HarperCollins, NetGalley, Abrams, LitHub, Peachtree Publishers, the Children’s Book Council, BookCon, and Libro.fm.

Authors, readers, publishers, and bookstores can access more information and materials for the 2019 event on the Love Your Bookstore website.