This Saturday, April 25, will mark the thirteenth annual Independent Bookstore Day (or Indie Bookstore Day), a celebration of independent bookstores, booksellers, and their communities that was launched in 2013 as California Bookstore Day by writer and editor Samantha Schoech, and went national in 2014. This year's event marks the largest celebration yet, spanning independent bookstores in every US state and territory in 2,000+ locations. Participating stores will mark the occasion with exclusive merchandise, special programming, and one-of-a-kind in-store experiences that highlight what makes indie bookstores essential to their communities.
Indie Bookstore Day includes multi-stop bookstore crawls to lively street fairs, each reflecting the distinct personality of the bookstores behind them. Over 40 bookstore crawls are being hosted in more than half the states, many extending beyond a single day and rewarding readers the more bookstores they visit. The Indie Bookstore Day map serves as the ultimate guide to it all, spotlighting hundreds of events and experiences happening in communities nationwide on April 25. Whether readers are on the hunt for exclusive finds or planning a full day (or weekend) of bookstore hopping, the map is the go-to resource for making the most of Independent Bookstore Day.
American Booksellers Association partner, Libro.fm, is offering special promotions throughout the week including a new member offer, a week-long audiobook sale, and the Golden Ticket in-store giveaway for 12 audiobooks. Bookshop.org, where every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores, will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with free standard shipping on all orders on April 25 and 26.
Last year Indie Bookstore Day brought something unexpected—a clash with Amazon, which held a last-minute major book sale that “unintentionally overlapped” with the annual event on the last Saturday of April (Amazon’s inaugural book sale in 2024 was held in May). Outrage from independent booksellers and their advocates about the overlapping events led to consumer backlash and the best sales day in history for many of the more than sixteen hundred stores that participated in the event. As a result, many shoppers who hadn’t planned to visit a bookstore said they came out specifically to support their local bookshop and protest what they saw as Amazon’s stepping on the indies.
On a personal note (and for full disclosure), the first novel in my Scott Drayco mystery series, Played to Death, was chosen for inclusion in the Bookshop.org Indie Author Bookstore Day Adult Fiction free promotion.
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