Bookstores, Industry Professionals Promote #ReadIndieForward

Bookstores and industry professionals have taken to social media to promote #ReadIndieForward, a pay-it-forward campaign that encourages readers to support indie bookstores by gifting books to friends and family.

The steps of the program — which is sponsored by Shelf Awareness and Sourcebooks — are as follows:

• Buy a book from your favorite independent bookstore and send it to a loved one
• Post to social media that you #ReadIndieForward by gifting a book to a loved one
• Tag the person receiving the book, tag the independent bookstore you bought the book from, and use the hashtag #ReadIndieForward

Promotional posts are rolling in, and some readers are already participating. Here are some recent posts in the hashtag:

• On Instagram, Sandpiper Books in Torrance, California, wrote: “Support independent bookstores by sharing your favorite thing in the world — books! — with your loved ones. It’s easy!”
• A bookseller participated, sending book mail from Interabang Books in Dallas, Texas, and Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  
• Foggy Pine Books in Boone, North Carolina, posted to Twitter: “Who do you want to send a book hug to today? Tag them in the comments! Then follow the steps to #ReadIndieForward”
• On Twitter, Alibi Bookshop in Vallejo, California, wrote that the campaign is “another amazing way to support your local indie bookstore!”
• Jocelyn Travis of Sourcebooks Casablanca used the campaign to support Books on the Common in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
• Valerie Pierce of Sourcebooks used the campaign to support Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee.
• On Instagram, Shelf Awareness posted that a customer participated in the campaign by sending a book from Boogie Down Books in the Bronx.
• Libro.fm encouraged Instagram followers to “send a book hug” by participating in the campaign.

Booksellers and publishers can join the movement by visiting readindieforward.com, which features downloadable social media assets they can personalize with their logo, as well as ads to promote #ReadIndieForward to their communities, staff, authors, and readers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Shelf Awareness for Readers will also provide book recommendations for all readers.