New Zealand Booksellers Are IndieBound

Booksellers in New Zealand can now subscribe to their own IndieBound marketing program, launched at Booksellers New Zealand’s 90^th Annual Conference on Sunday, July 17.  Under an arrangement with the American Booksellers Association, Booksellers NZ is licensing for members’ use certain IndieBound designs, collateral, and marketing materials.

New Zealand is the second country in the Southern Hemisphere to adopt IndieBound. The Australian Booksellers Association, which signed on to become IndieBound last July, also launched its program last week.

Booksellers can subscribe to Bookseller NZ’s IndieBound program for free until October. IndieBound will then run as a subscription service in New Zealand with members paying $50 plus goods and services tax (GST) to belong for six months at a time.

Subscription is via indiebound.co.nz, which offers booksellers a marketing toolkit, including designs for posters, T-shirts and more, based on ABA’s Bookseller DIY. Among the designs is IndieBound’s traditional “Eat Sleep Read” poster, but there’s also a new version in the Māori language, created with the help of ABA.  

The IndieBound program was introduced to booksellers at the conference by Hamish Wright, chairman of Booksellers NZ, and Megan Dunn, projects manager.

In his conference welcome, Hamish noted that booksellers need to become brand curators who help customers by creating connections through social media and programs such as IndieBound, reported Booksellers NZ. To grow business, he said, booksellers need to connect strongly with customers, develop their brand and their brand loyalty, and use that to continue to sell books.

Dunn told conference attendees, “IndieBound is not just about marketing. It’s about bookstores and promoting them. It’s about getting people to shop local,” as reported by the Booksellers NZ blog.

Watch BTW for a report on the Booksellers NZ Conference by ABA President Becky Anderson, of Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois, who attended the conference at the invitation of Booksellers NZ.