Cheryl Strayed Named Official Spokesperson for Indies First Celebration

Posted on September 17, 2015

The American Booksellers Association announced that Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild, Tiny Beautiful Things, Torch and Brave Enough, is the official spokesperson for the 2015 Indies First celebration. The national campaign will take place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day in independent bookstores across the U.S.

The celebration was the brainchild of author Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This is the third annual celebration of the the event in which authors show up at their local independent bookstores to meet fans, sign book stock, give readings and handsell books to customers. The event takes place on Small Business Saturday, which is November 28, 2015.

In a letter to authors and illustrators she writes about why she took on this challenge and to ask her fellow authors and illustrators to join in the fun -- either by helping out at a local indie bookstore or by supporting them online.

Cheryl talks about the idea behind the date of the celebration, saying, "That day is Small Business Saturday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, coming as it does right before the holidays. It’s a great time for you to make your best pitch on behalf of the books you love (and also the books you wrote) to shoppers who are looking for good books to read and give as gifts."

She also discusses the concept of hand-selling -- a strengh of independent booksellers -- in the modern, digital era and why it's so important: "I love that term, 'hand-selling.' It reminds us that humans are involved, humans with a passion for language and stories and pictures. Hand-selling is the bookseller at The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vermont who recently wandered the store with my nine-year-old daughter until they were both satisfied they’d found a small stack of appropriately terrifying page-turners. It’s the artful window displays at Powell's Books in my hometown of Portland, Oregon that always compel me to learn more about the featured books. It's the people who put out the folding chairs for my -- and your --book events at stores across the land so we can connect with readers face to face. It’s the store employees who place our books prominently on the 'staff recommended' shelves that lead us to readers we might have never otherwise found."

Cheryl will be spending the day at Broadway Books in her neighborhood, the same place she's been the last two years. Authors can find out how to support the celebration online and register to work at a bookstore that day by going here.