More Than 30 Publishers Offering Specials for Indies First

As of today, 33 publishers have signed on to offer specials to indie booksellers during various dates between now and January 2019. These publisher and university press specials, which apply to a wide array of frontlist and backlist titles, are being offered in support of the American Booksellers Association’s sixth annual celebration of Indies First on Small Business Saturday, to be held this year on November 24.

Details will be announced in Bookselling This Week as more publishers sign on to offer specials, but booksellers are encouraged to revisit the list frequently to see the new offers available.

As each special offer becomes available, booksellers can use the promotional codes listed on a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that is accessible from the ABA Book Buyer’s Handbook and from the Indies First homepage on BookWeb (members will need a username and password to access the spreadsheet; e-mail [email protected] for login information). The spreadsheet will continue to be updated as publisher offers come in.

In addition to traditional publishers, this year, nearly a dozen university presses are offering specials on titles in celebration of Indies First as well as University Press Week 2018, which takes place November 12–17.

Indie booksellers are celebrating the sixth annual Indies First this year with a special “Indie Bookstores Give Back on Small Business Saturday” campaign. Over 500 independent bookstores have signed up to participate in the campaign, for which ABA and American Express are working together with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing to make available 20,000 special edition copies of author Jason Reynolds’ Ghost (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books) to young readers in underserved communities this holiday season. Reynolds will kick off the campaign in November at the Miami Book Fair, during which more than 600 students will see him speak and take home a copy of Ghost.

Learn more about Indies First on BookWeb or follow the hashtags #IndiesFirst and #IndiesGiveBack on social media.