More than 1,600 independent bookstores nationwide participated in Independent Bookstore Day on April 26, according the American Booksellers Association, with many reporting sales levels comparable to, or higher than, those of the holiday season.
This year’s successes came in spite of some competition. TikTok Shop conducted a #BookRecs campaign April 23–29 to align with IBD and World Book Day, Amazon held a massive book sale April 23–28, and Barnes & Noble offered a 25% discount on preorders April 23–25 on top of its regular discounts. Even so, most indies that spoke with PW said their IBD sales shattered previous one-day sales records.
Women and Children First in Chicago reported the biggest sales day in its 46-year history, with $3,000 rung up within the first hour. West of the Windy City, Anderson’s Bookshops, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, reported that Saturday sales at its Naperville location were up a whopping 261% over last year—despite B&N opening a store only 800 feet away three days earlier.
Amazon’s sale, many booksellers suggested, may have actually motivated people to visit their local indies. Angela Schwesnedl, co-owner of Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, said the store’s IBD sales were 50% above last year’s, and that “multiple people mentioned that they were pissed off about Amazon’s sale and shopping at independent stores because Amazon was such a bully.” She added, “The average customer may not feel like they can do much to fight Amazon’s predatory pricing, but lining up on IBD is one small thing they can do, and they showed up.”
Cathy Fiebach, owner of Main Point Books in Wayne, Pa., said sales were up 35% over last year after the store publicized Amazon’s sale on social media. “I had people come in angry and wanting to show they support us,” Fiebach said.
An Amazon spokesperson said that “the overlap was unintentional” and that the dates were selected to accommodate additional countries’ participation in the sale. B&N did not respond to a request for comment.
Emilie Sommer, the buyer for East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C., said April 26 marked the store’s best sales day ever. Though Sommer did not hear mention of Amazon or B&N, she suggested that “our neighborhood’s general displeasure with billionaires and their meddling in D.C. might be working in our favor,” noting that Danny Caine’s How to Protect Bookstores and Why and How to Resist Amazon and Why were among customers’ top picks. East City’s weekend bestseller, “by a large margin,” was Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life—Reese’s Book Club’s May pick and a top seller at many stores participating in IBD.
The ABA said more bookstores than ever partnered on crawls, doling out passport stamps for future discounts. Organized crawls ranged from four indies in Columbia, Mo., and five in central Kentucky to 55 in Chicagoland. Customers could visit 37 indies during the Twin Cities crawl, including four stops on one Minneapolis block; participants in Seattle’s 29-store Bookstore Day Passport Challenge had to take a ferry to Eagle Harbor Book Company on Bainbridge Island to collect a full set of stamps.
In New York City, the Nonbinarian Bookstore, which opened six months ago, presented medals to customers for whom the store was at least their 20th stop of the 26-store Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl. “Everyone in the store would erupt into applause” when a medal was awarded, said owner K. Kerimian. “It was a really wholesome moment.”
Seven Atlanta-area indies owned by Black women went big, celebrating IBD and collaborating on the inaugural Black Girl Book Fair, held outside Brave + Kind Books in Decatur. Julia Davis, owner of the Book Worm in Powder Springs, Ga., said the fair made the day her “most successful and most fulfilling IBD yet.”
Political figures even got in on IBD. Oregon governor Tina Kotek made whistle stops in Portland at Powell’s City of Books, Sunrise Books, and Third Eye Books. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Bookshop West Portal used IBD to “engage in some grassroots activism,” said buyer and special project manager Susan Tunis. Customers were encouraged to jot messages to their legislators on store-provided postcards, which the shop stamped and mailed on their behalf.
“We are fortunate not to have issues with book banning in San Francisco,” Tunis said. “But library funding, First Amendment rights, and Amazon’s monopoly affect us all.”
