Author Jason Reynolds will be the 2017 official spokesperson for Indies First, the American Booksellers Association announced. Indies First takes place on Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which this year falls on November 25. On that day, indie bookstores host authors, who handsell their favorite titles, sign books, give readings and act as honorary booksellers.

Jason Reynolds (photo by Ben Fractenberg)

"Bookstores aren't just for selling books, they're also community spaces and we need that," Reynolds said in a video to authors, readers and booksellers. "Make sure you show up, that we're there, that we're communing with one another, that we're buying books but also that we're talking to our neighbors, that we're giggin' on other people. Booksellers are heroes." Reynolds will spend Indies First day at East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C.

Reynolds is the author of the novels When I Was the Greatest, Boy in the Black Suit, and co-author of All American Boys. His As Brave As You was a Time Book of the Year (and one of Shelf Awareness's Best Books of 2016), and Ghost, the first book in his middle-grade Track series, was a National Book Award finalist. He is also a Kirkus Award winner, a Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. He has two books coming this fall: Patina, the next installment of the Track series, and Long Way Down, a YA novel. His Miles Morales: Spider-Man, a YA novel, was recently published.

Indies First was created by Sherman Alexie in 2013. An Indies First social media sweepstakes for readers will be announced in the coming weeks.