British Booksellers Are IndieBound

The IndieBound program, launched by the American Booksellers Association in 2008, has just made its debut in the United Kingdom. As Bookselling This Week noted in an earlier article, the Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland (BA) has licensed IndieBound marketing materials for use in the U.K., and independent booksellers began receiving those materials this month.

IndieBound bags and bookmarks decorate the front window of The Book Inn, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

Several booksellers have shared store photos and early reactions to the program.

"I just wanted to fire you a quick e-mail to say how pleased I am to see the U.K. child of the U.S. IndieBound now taking its first tentative steps here this week. Really looking forward to supporting it here, at Mr B's," wrote Nic Bottomley, general manager of Bath's Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, in an e-mail to ABA Membership and Marketing Officer Meg Smith.

Mostly Books displays a pair of Eat Sleep Read posters.

On his store's blog, Mark Thornton, co-owner of Mostly Books in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, told customers that a "big pack of 'stuff' for the BA's IndieBound initiative arrived this morning -- much excitement in store as the U.S. IndieBound website is one that we have admired from over here, particularly some of the 'Eat Sleep Read' material."

The U.K.'s News & Star reported that Catherine Hetherington, owner of The New Book Shop in Cockermouth, Cumbria, has high hopes for IndieBound's impact on her community. "IndieBound brings together retailers and services, local business development groups and others who believe that healthy local economies help communities thrive, and will encourage our town to become the vibrant place it was, once again," she said. "We hope that Cockermouth can become the first IndieBound town in the U.K. There are real financial benefits for the local economy if people use independent traders and we should be encouraging this." --Sarah Rettger