Independent Bookshop Week 2026 (the 20th anniversary): Saturday 13 – Saturday 20 June

Independent Bookshop Week is a celebration of independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland. It aims to highlight the vital role independent bookshops play in their communities, and to encourage consumers to shop for their summer reads with their local independent. The campaign launched in 2006.

Independent Bookshop Week takes place annually, mid-June (the first weekend of the campaign usually overlaps with Fathers’ Day). Hachette UK is the headline sponsor, with support from Gardners and NielsenQ BookData. 

The campaign hashtag is #IndieBookshopWeek. Follow @booksaremybag on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for Independent Bookshop Week updates. 
 
All of the registered members will receive point of sale kits mid-May, and dedicated newsletters (from January through to the campaign end).
 
Publishers are invited to support the campaign by offering members signed stock, indie exclusive editions, early releases, added value items, author signings and events.

More than 700 independent bookshops are registered to participate.

Independent Bookshop Week 2025 activity:
- National Book Tokens launched their High Five for Bookshops initiative during the 2019 campaign and it has quickly become an integral part of Independent Bookshop Week. All participating bookshops receive flyers to pass onto their customers, enabling them to download a £5/€5 National Book Tokens e-gift card to spend back in the bookshop that gave it to them
- Each year we invite a well-known poet to write a bespoke Exclusive Poem for us, in celebration of independent bookshops. We then film the poet performing the poem in their local bookshop and share the video across social media during the campaign. Brian Bilston wrote our inaugural poem in 2021, with Hollie McNish, Dean Atta and George the Poet writing subsequent poems. This year, Michael Pedersen - current Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate) and author of 2023 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards category winner The Cat Prince & Other Poems - has written an exclusive poem which will be shared on @booksaremybag on Tuesday 17 June at 6pm
- Working with Hachette UK, our headline sponsor, we line up three authors each year to act as our media spokespeople and Ambassadors for the campaign. They also partner with bookshops for events across the country during the campaign. This year, we're delighted to be working with Mike Gayle, Lorraine Kelly and L.D. Lapinski
- Indie Twinning involves independent publishers and independent bookshops teaming up to develop bespoke programmes of activity throughout the campaign. This activity helps to drive local media coverage, footfall and social media content, as well as forging relationships within the independent sector
- Publishers, consumers, authors and anyone who values bookshops, are encouraged to go on a Bookshop Crawl at any point during the campaign week
- Authors are encourage to try their hand at a spot of Guest Bookselling. Whether it be for an hour, a morning or afternoon, or a full day, this is a great way to generate social media content, a photo opportunity, and a chance for authors to sign some copies of their books in-store
- The Big Book Club involves as many independent bookshops as possible hosting in-person book clubs at the same time. We encourage the book clubs to choose a title from the Indie Book Awards shortlist to read.
 
Booksellers Association members may opt in or out of participating in Independent Bookshop Week at any point. Please email [email protected] if you would like to check if you are registered to participate, or if you would like to change your participation.

If you are an author, poet, illustrator, agent or publisher and would like to know more about the campaign, please email [email protected]
 

The Indie Book Awards are the only awards curated exclusively by independent bookshops. They showcase the best paperback reads for the summer and help demonstrate the impact of independent booksellers building readerships for the books they love.

The Indie Book Awards comprise four categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s Fiction and Picture Book. Publishers can submit up to three titles per imprint, per category (submission forms will be available in January). Independent booksellers across the UK and Ireland curate the shortlist from the publisher submissions and a panel of judges then decide on the four winners. The Indie Book Awards shortlist and winners are promoted to and by all bookshops participating in Independent Bookshop Week. 

Indie Book Awards 2025 Winners

We are delighted to unveil the winning titles of this year’s Indie Book Awards
Fiction
James by Percival Everett (Picador)
Non-Fiction
Ingrained by Callum Robinson (Doubleday)
Children’s Fiction
Ghostlines by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury Children’s)
Picture Book
The Golden Hare by Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)
 
You will find all social media assets available here: Social Media Assets. Please help us spread the word by using the assets, using #IndieBookAwards and tagging us at @booksaremybag

Indie Book Awards 2025 Shortlist

Fiction
James by Percival Everett (Picador)
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Penguin General)
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry (Canongate Books)
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan (Faber)
The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier (The Borough Press)
Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson (Bantam, Transworld, Penguin)

Non-Fiction
A Bookshop of One’s Own: How a group of women set out to change the world by Jane Cholmeley (Mudlark)
Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee (Transworld)
Ingrained: The making of a craftsman by Callum Robinson (Doubleday Books)
Reading Lessons: An English Teacher’s Love Letter to the Books that Shape Us by Carol Atherton (Fig Tree)
The Garden Against Time: In Search Of A Common Paradise by Olivia Laing (Picador)
Welcome to the Club: The Life and Lessons of a Black Woman DJ by DJ Paulette (Manchester University Press)

Children’s Fiction
Finding Bear by Hannah Gold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Ghostlines by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) 
Murder for Two by Niyla Farook (Piccadilly Press)
The Falling Boy by David Almond (Hodder Children's Books)
Brielle and Bear: Once Upon a Time by Salomey Doku (Harper Fire)
Reek by Alastair Chisholm, illustrated by George Caltsoudas (Barrington Stoke)

Picture Book
Bear by Natalia Shaloshvili (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)
The Dinosaur Next Door by David Litchfield (Magic Cat Publishing)
Farah Loves Mangoes by Sarthak Sinha (Flying Eye Books)
The Golden Hare by Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)
Invisible Dogs by Ruby Wright (Rocket Bird Books)
Runaway Cone by Morag Hood (Two Hoots)

Indie Book Awards 2025 key dates
• 9 January: Indie Book Awards submissions open
• 10 February: Indie Book Awards submissions close
• 9 May: Indie Book Awards shortlists announced
• 19 June: Indie Book Awards winners announced

Find out more about previous Indie Book Awards winners. 
 
If you have any queries about the Indie Book Awards, please contact [email protected]