Only eight days remain until Independent Bookstore Day 2022, and indies around the country are prepping for author events, giveaways, parties and bookstore crawls.
IBD Spirit Week begins on Monday, with a week full of themed days leading up to April 30. There are digital assets available for bookstores to use, and the theme days are: Crazy Hat Day (Monday), Plaid Day (Tuesday), Bookstore/IBD Shirts (Wednesday), Dress Up as Your Favorite Book Character (Thursday) and Pajama Day (Friday).
Starting on April 25 and lasting through IBD, more than 300 audiobooks will be on sale on Libro.fm, with a specific IBD line-up priced at only $5. Customers will also be able to get a free audiobook when they start a new monthly membership and use the code CHOOSEINDIE. Booksellers can download various IBD and audiobook assets here.
The Cape & Islands Bookstore Trail will return this year, with 21 independent bookstores in coastal Massachusetts participating, from Buzzards Bay to Provincetown and from Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket. The trail will launch on IBD and run through October 31. Customers who visit five or more participating stores will receive a Cape & Islands Bookstore Trail sticker, and those who visit 15 stores or more will be given a chance to win either a $50 or $250 gift certificate to a participating bookstore of their choice.
Trail maps will be available at participating stores and can be downloaded from the Cape & Islands Trail website. The trail event, which debuted in 2019 but could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19, was organized by Eight Cousins Books in Falmouth and Titcomb's Bookshop in East Sandwich with the goal of highlighting the unusual and diverse array of independent bookstores on Cape Cod and the Islands.
Seven bookstores in New Orleans, La., are teaming up for a city-wide bookstore crawl on IBD. Customers who get their IBD passports stamped at Octavia Books, Baldwin & Co., Blue Cypress Books, Community Book Center, Frenchmen Art & Books, Garden District Book Shop and Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop will have a chance to win a grand prize of $175 in gift cards.
IBD will hold particular significance for Tubby & Coo's, as it will mark the first time since March 2020 that the store will be open for in-store shopping. Over the past two years the store pivoted to being an almost entirely online business, though owner Candice Huber and their team have offered curbside pick-up. The store moved in July 2020, meaning IBD will also be the first time community members and long-time shoppers will have a chance to step inside the new space. "I'm so excited for our customers to finally be able to come in person regularly and say hello again," Huber said.
Flintridge Bookstore in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif., is celebrating its 15th birthday on IBD with a slew of giveaways, drawings, a scavenger hunt and author appearances. Customers who make a purchase on Saturday will be entered to win a selection of children's, young adult, poetry adult fiction or adult nonfiction books. The author visits will start at 10:30 a.m. and run until the afternoon, with eight authors scheduled to appear. There will be poetry readings later in the day, as well as appearances from local artists.