Publisher Partners are vital to ABA – they offer support through underwriting, sponsorships, and participation in mailings and events. Publisher support helps get more books into the hands of the vital independent bookselling market, and in turn, helps get those books into the hands of the reading public.
Partnership Program Opportunities and Resources
- Title Consideration for Indie Next List; Awards (Indies Choice Awards, E.B. White Read Aloud); Indies Introduce and Indies First selections; ABC Best Books for Children Catalog; and ABC Summer Reading Marketing Materials
- Red Box, White Box, and Children’s White Box Insertions
- Advance Access
- Advertising
- Event sponsorship
- IndieBound.org Video Portal
Show all Publisher Partner Program Benefits and Resources
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Advance Access*: Advance Access is a cost effective way to get the word out to independent bookstores about new titles. Each month, ABA emails over 1,000 independent booksellers with news of galleys, reading copies or finished books that publishers are offering for review. After receiving a free review copy from you, stores will read and decide whether to carry the title, and may nominate the title for the Indie Next List. Publisher Partners, their imprints, and distributees are entitled to participate in a regularly scheduled Advance Access at no charge. Non-Publisher Partners are welcome to participate at the rate of $150 per title. Members of The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) or the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) can participate at the reduced rate of $75 per title. For complete details regarding the Advance Access program, please contact Pete Reynolds [1].
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Advertising*: Ads on BookWeb.org and in Bookselling This Week [2]are booked through Naylor, a third-party advertising agent.
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ABC Best Books for Children Catalog**: A yearly catalog of select titles, distributed to indie bookstores and ABC Group members in October [3]. Only Publisher Partner titles are considered for inclusion in the catalog; must be an ABA Associate Member.
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Event Sponsorship: Publisher Partners provide financial support for ABA’s educational events – the Winter Institute, the ABC Children’s Institute, the IndieCommerce Institute, and other topic-specific conferences. Sponsorship typically includes bookseller scholarships and one-on-one interaction with ABA member booksellers. Contact ABA Director of Development and Publisher Relations Matt Zoni [4] to participate in the next event or to learn more.
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IndieBound.org Author Affiliate Letter: All of your authors can – and should! -- link to IndieBound.org to offer their readers the option to shop indie. Here is a letter to share with authors and in-house publicists and marketers. [5]
- IndieBound.org Video Portal: Partners can post book video trailers on IndieBound.org product pages. It's an easy three-step process:
1. Go to: http://www.indiebound.org/publishers [6] and create an IndieBound.org user account.
2. For each book trailer video you’d like to post, enter the ISBN, and the URL for the video on YouTube (e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obK4i1oaC70 [7]). You can also note whether this book has been selected for an edition of the Indie Next List.
3. Please allow 1-3 days for review & approval. This is just to ensure that unauthorized parties are not able to add content to book pages. You will receive an email notification when your video has been approved.
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Indies Choice Book Awards & E.B. White Awards: All books that are featured in Indie Next Lists and Kids’ Next Lists are automatically considered for the Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Awards.
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Indie Next List***: Bookseller recommended monthly choices, in printed and electronic formats. Once a book is chosen for an Indie Next List, the publisher will be asked to consider providing funds to support the printing and distribution of the flyers. See Appendices for schedules and rates [8].
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LIBRIS Business Insurance: The ABA-owned business insurance offers liability insurance for publisher at competitive rates [9].
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Mailing List: Publisher Partners are entitled to free use of the ABA store mailing list [2](a $475 value) up to four times per calendar year. ABA Associate membership required.
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Indies Introduce New Voices**: Marketing collateral for middle grade and teen readers featuring select titles from debut authors. [10] Only Publisher Partner titles are considered for selection; must be an ABA Associate Member.
- Red Box, White Box, and Children’s Box Insertions: Regular mailings that offer an easy and cost-effective means of distributing ARCs and other materials, and communicating with ABA member stores. See the Guidebook and Appendices for details. [8]
Interested in Becoming a Publisher Partner?
Traditional publishers of five (5) books or more per year can take advantage of the ABA Publisher Partner Program. You must be an ABA Associate Member [12]for certain Program opportunities. Our Publisher Partner Guidebook and FAQ [13] provide an overview of the Program, and the 2018 Indie Next List and box mailing rates and schedules are available here [8].
To learn more about Publisher Partnership, or to sign up for the Publisher Partner Program, please contact [14]ABA Director of Development and Publisher Relations Matt Zoni [4]. Publishers, to join ABA, click here. [15]
* ABA Associate membership not required.
** Publishers must be an ABA Associate Member and ABC Group subscriber to be eligible for inclusion in the ABC Best Books for Children Catalog and New Voices materials. Publishers may subscribe to the ABC Group at ABA [16] for an additional yearly fee of $50.
***Publishers must be an ABA Associate Member and Publisher Partner to be eligible for inclusion in the Indie Next List.