Indie Next List Adds New Feature to “Revisit & Rediscover” Backlist Favorites

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This fall, the American Booksellers Association is launching the Revisit & Rediscover program to give the independent bookstore channel new opportunities to showcase and support favorite backlist titles. The initiative responds to requests from booksellers and publishers to find new ways of highlighting the strong, backlist works that provide a foundation for both bookstores and publishing houses.

Two panels of booksellers put their book knowledge to work to compile lists of enduring backlist titles they consider critical for bookstores to have on their shelves at all times. The first round of featured titles will debut on the December Indie Next List and the Winter Kids’ Indie Next List fliers, which will land in stores in November.

Going forward, the back page of each month’s Indie Next List flier will feature three adult titles, including both fiction and nonfiction picks, alongside bookseller quotes, the original publication date, and the current ISBN and publisher. To launch the Revisit & Rediscover program, the December Indie Next List will highlight:

  • Wild Swans, by Jung Chang (Touchstone)
  • About Grace, by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
  • Lost in the City, by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/HarperCollins)

The January 2016 Indie Next List will feature:

  • Plainsong, by Kent Haruf (Vintage)
  • The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea (Back Bay Books)
  • Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Vintage)

The February 2016 Indie Next List will feature:

  • The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin (Vintage)
  • Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich (Picador)
  • A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (Vintage)

Each quarter, the Kids’ Indie Next List will highlight three backlist titles each, plus bookseller blurbs, for picture book, middle grade, and young adult readers. On the Winter Kids’ Indie Next List will be:

Ages 4–8:

  • Bark, George, by Jules Feiffer (HarperCollins)
  • A Story for Bear, by Dennis Haseley and Jim LaMarche (Harcourt Brace)
  • The Other Side, by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Putnam Books for Young Readers/Penguin)

Ages 9–12:

  • London Eye Mystery, by Siobhan Dowd (Yearling/Random House)
  • Ida B, by Katherine Hannigan (Greenwillow/HarperCollins)
  • The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson (Puffin Books/Penguin)

Teen:

  • A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly (HMH Books for Young Readers)
  • My Most Excellent Year, by Steve Kluger (Speak/Penguin)
  • The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)

To help booksellers promote the Revisit & Rediscover titles, ABA will make downloadable shelf-talkers for each list’s backlist picks available on BookWeb.

At the Backlist Book Swap, to be held on January 23, 2016, the opening night of Winter Institute 11, booksellers will be able to peruse the nine titles chosen for the Winter Kids’ Indie Next List flier as well as the three titles chosen each month for the December, January, and February Indie Next Lists.

All Winter Institute attendees are invited to participate in the book swap, which will take place in the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel’s Plaza Foyer from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Those planning to attend are asked to let ABA know the backlist pick they will be bringing to share at the swap by completing the Backlist Book Swap form on BookWeb  prior to the event.

Booksellers who are interested in serving on either the adult or children’s panel for the Revisit & Rediscover promotion are asked to send an e-mail with the subject line “Revisit & Rediscover Panel” to ABA Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger. In the e-mail, booksellers should indicate whether they prefer to review adult titles or kids’ titles, or whether they have no preference.

Booksellers serving on the current adult backlist panel include:

Booksellers serving on the children’s backlist panel are:

 

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