Indie Press Month 2026
IPC is excited to celebrate our third-annual Indie Press Month in March 2026! We’ll be providing marketing assets for bookstores, libraries, and indie publishers to help promote indie press awareness, in addition to a list of promotional titles from IPC member presses for brick-and-mortar displays and digital promotion on websites and social media.
indie press month timeline
February 2026
IPC, Ingram & publishers will promote Indie Press Month titles
Bookstores sign-up for the Indie Press Month display contest ; bring titles into store
Bookmarks will be available at Winter Institute
Librarians bring titles into the library and/or identify what indie press titles you have in your existing collections
A display contest is in the works for libraries in 2027!
march 2026
Publishers: Post Indie Press Month promotional titles on social media and tag @indiepubs; re-share bookstore and library posts featuring your titles!
Bookstores: Indie Press Month in-store displays and events! Post to Instagram and tag @indiepubs
Libraries: Indie Press Month displays and events! Post to Instagram and tag @indiepubs
April 2026
Display contest and co-op marketing winners are announced in Shelf Awareness
Bookmark bundles will be available to stores for pick-up at Winter Institute. We’re sorry we don’t currently have the ability to mail bookmarks to individual stores.
How to Participate
Sign-up!
Bring Indie Press Month promotional titles into your stores! (Airtable and CSV list below)
Starting planning your in-store display! We'll make marketing assets available for you in February!
Post your displays and/or a cool slide deck/reel about Indie Press Month on Instagram during March.
Tag us on Instagram @indiepubs (tagging us in the caption copy doesn't count; we won't see the post unless you tag us properly!)
Tag the indie presses your display features (optional but advisable!)
The IPC and participating publishers will amplify your posts
Don’t have social? That’s ok! You can still join the display contest.
For bookstores without social media: Submit photos/videos of your display by March 15 to indiepubsmarketing@gmail.com
Get ready to win! Winners and runners up will be announced in Shelf Awareness in early April.
$500 + custom bookmarks for the winning display by an independent bookstore
$100 for runner up
$50 co-op for top 25 most creative instagram posts
Indie Press Month Display Contest for Bookstores
Questions, ideas, marketing asset requests?
Let us know at info@indiepubs.org!
*IPC currently only uses Instagram. If you want to post a TikTok, please do, but for the contest post we’ll be focusing on Instagram. Reels are welcome! Additionally, make sure you tag us in the photo, not just in the caption, or we might not see your post!
Marketing assets for 2026 will be available February 1, 2026.
2025 Winners & Co-Op Recipients
First Prize:
Page1 Books, Albuquerque, NM
finalists:
Aaron’s Books, Lititz, PA
Magic City Books, Tulsa, OK
Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Co-Op Recipients:
Honest Dog Books, Bayfield, WI
Prologue Bookshop, Columbus, OH
Seminary Co-Op, Chicago, IL
Tomorrow Bookstore, Indianapolis, IN
Black Rock Books, Buffalo, NY
Read more about the winners and finalists in Shelf Awareness.
for IPC Member Presses
Indie Press Month is a program of Indie-to-Indie, a partnership with The Independent Bookseller.
Special thanks goes to our 2026 supporters:
