March is Indie Press Month, and SIBA is so excited to celebrate our favorite small presses! The Independent Publisher’s Caucus has some excellent resources for indie presses, so we thought we’d share with you in the spirit of the month!

The Bookseller Landing Page lists all the initiatives IPC has for booksellers, including:

• Indie-to-Indie Conversations, where indie booksellers, presses, reps, and more discuss how indie presses and indie bookstores can better support and uplift each other.
• Galley Offer Page, where IPC member presses post both digital and physical ARC opportunities.
• Monthly Indie Playlists, which are booklists of great books from indie presses releasing during the month! March’s focus is Women’s History Month.

IPC also works closely with Books Across Borders, which is primarily funded by indie presses and provides fellowships to international book fairs and overseas bookstore residencies for booksellers.

Anna Thorn, IPC’s Director, also mentioned a few exciting upcoming projects! This June, stores can join the Indie Playlist Display Contest, which includes co-op and prize money. The theme is queer pride! You can get more info on the contest here and sign up here. 

This Spring, IPC is launching a Backlist Essentials Database, which lists the Top Ten Titles for each IPC member, which will help buyers with decisions. It will also allow buyers to filter by a variety of themes to help with diversity efforts, regional titles, genre, etc. IPC is also launching a New Bookstore Package, which will be an opt-in introduction to the indie press ecosystem for new stores (or new booksellers). The highlight is that you get ten free finished copies from the presses you're most excited about! Finally, IPC will make it easier to identify indie press galleys by creating a logo for their members to put onto galleys.

We hope you take advantage of some of these fantastic offerings and that you celebrate small presses this month!