Voting Ends March 20 to Choose Backlist Titles for ABA’s Summer Reading Group Flier

Booksellers have until Wednesday, March 20, to vote for their favorite backlist titles from independent publishers, as part of a new initiative by the Independent Publishers Caucus (IPC) and ABA, to help indie publishers promote their best backlist titles in a way that is commercially advantageous for indie bookstores.

In this new program, IPC publisher members will have the opportunity to bring key backlist titles back into the spotlight, as the titles they have nominated will be chosen by indie booksellers to appear in a special “indie publishers” section of ABA’s Summer 2019 Indie Next List for Reading Groups flier and for promotion at indie stores.

Formed in 2017 by a collective of independent publishers at Winter Institute in Minneapolis, IPC was created as an advocacy group with the mission to help foster a mutually beneficial sense of community among independent publishers, between publishers and booksellers, and with readers. IPC recently asked its publisher members for titles that have a notable sales track in the indie channel and the potential to capture new sales in this channel.

ABA member booksellers can vote now for any of these 21 titles via this webform hosted on BookWeb.org, and write blurbs for their top five choices. A blurb is not required, but will carry more weight when votes are tallied.

After the voting period ends on Wednesday, March 20, the top five vote-getting titles will be selected for the Reading Group Guide, and one blurb for each of the top five titles will be chosen to accompany it. The guide, to be mailed to member bookstores in ABA’s May Box Mailing, is ideal for use as a handout at author events and reading group nights and as an in-store takeaway.

Booksellers with questions about the program can contact ABA Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger.