INDIES FIRST at Small Business Saturday

Independent-Bookstore


This Saturday, on November 26,  named the “Small Business Saturday”, independent booksellers will be celebrating INDIES FIRST for the third time.

The idea behind INDIES FIRST has quickly taken hold and bookstores in this and many other countries will be participating.  They will be organizing author events, flash storytimes, discounts, and coffee or cake as a way to offer their customers a relaxed alternative to the frenzied shopping experience of Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday countdown sales season.
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INDIES FIRST is the Brainchild of Sherman Alexie.
Alexie hired a party bus to take him and a group of authors to visit three local Seattle bookstores this year.  This year’s INDIES FIRST spokesperson, Lena Dunham, will be visiting Book Soup in Los Angeles. She touted independent bookstores as “places for learning, community-building, and falling in love with strangers.”
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Bookstore Events Planned for this Saturday:

  • Eso Won Books of Los Angeles is offering a special sale all day along with food from Marcus Samuelsson’s The Red Rooster Harlem.
  • New York City’s Books of Wonder will hold events with Caldecott medalist Jerry Pinkney and Caldecott Honor artists Melissa Sweet and Pamela Zagarenski, among others.
  • In Palmyra, N.Y., The Dog Eared Book is also participating in Candlelight Night, which will take place on the same day in its historic village. Carols and a hayride on Main Street are part of the festivities.
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To support the independent booksellers’ efforts, some of the publishers and book distributors made special offers around the INDIES FIRST day on November 26:

  • Distributor Baker & Taylor provides extra margins and faster shipping on all trade books this week and next.
  • Libro.fm, the digital audiobook provider, is working with 35 stores to give away a free audio-book on INDIES FIRST.  The goal is to drive traffic to independent bookstores.  Customers will get to select from more than nine digital audio-books, including  “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, the first young-adult fiction work by Sherman Alexie, a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and songwriter who has previously written adult novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays.
  • Parnassus Books in Nashville is donating a portion of its day’s sales to two local charities: Book ‘em and Nashville Humane Association. The store is promising “a bevy” of local authors who will be hand-selling their work.
  • Get on the Indies First publicity map, which now features nearly 500 stores — with room for more!
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Why Buy Books in Your Local Independent Bookstore?

  • You’ll be shopping on your local main street
  • You’ll be helping create local jobs
  • You might just find a book you never knew existed
  • You’ll find great gifts for friends and family
  • You can talk to real people about books they know and love
  • You’ll be part of your local book-loving community
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