Shelf-talker Featuring Indie Next List Submission Deadlines Serves as Aid for Bookstore Staff

The American Booksellers Association has created an attractive, easy-to-read Indie Next List shelf-talker that booksellers in the IndieBound movement can print out to keep in their stores’ back rooms as a reminder to staff to nominate books for the monthly Indie Next List.

ABA's new shelf-talker will remind booksellers to submit blurbs to the Indie Next List.

This resource contains all of the deadlines for sending in new book blurbs for the 2019–2020 Indie Next Lists (the January 2019 list through the February 2020 list). While the deadlines on the flier are for the printed list, booksellers are invited to send blurbs whenever they finish reading; this applies to any book, any format, and any genre, backlist or frontlist.

Indie Next List fliers are sent out in the monthly Red and White Boxes to member bookstores that have opted into the IndieBound movement, though the boxes must be “earned”: the more you do, the more robust your box is.

The Red and White boxes will be combined starting in 2019, and booksellers will receive one monthly mailing that includes the contents of both, as well as a quarterly Kids’ Box if the bookstore is eligible. The new Monthly Box will contain in-store marketing materials provided by publisher partners, copies of the following month’s Indie Next List flier, and selections of ARCs and books from publishers for review and recommendation.

To submit a blurb to the Indie Next List, booksellers can fill out the form on BookWeb.org, submit via NetGalley or Edelweiss, or e-mail recommendations to [email protected].