Independent Bookstore Day features exclusive, limited-edition merchandise that is a mix of old and new designed to appeal to indie bookstore fans. The deadline for bookstores to order most of the exclusive limited-edition merchandise has passed, but some items are still available, and a few are free.
ADULT
Signed copies of Lightlark by Alex Aster (Amulet, $19.99)
A limited printing of 1,000 copies of book one in the bestselling Lightlark romantasy series by Alex Aster includes the author's signature and three collectable page overlays featuring Isla, the heroine, and her two love interests, Grim and Oro. Aster is a popular BookTok author who has also written the Emblem Island series.
Signed copies of Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay (Morrow, $30)
The Indie Bookstore Exclusive Edition of the latest horror novel by Paul Tremblay (The Pallbearers Club, The Cabin at the End of the World) has a 4,000-copy printing that features Tremblay's signature, a special cover, and sprayed edges. Horror Movie is about a cursed arthouse film made in 1993 getting a big-budget remake with the help of the first movie's only surviving cast member. Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book Awards.
Exclusive paperback edition of What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (Hanover Square Press, $18.99)
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library follows enigmatic Tokyo librarian Sayuri Komach and five of her patrons. Komach recommends the perfect book for each of them to navigate a major crossroads in their lives. A 3,000-copy Indie Bookstore Day exclusive edition of What You Are Looking for Is in the Library has bonus content. Michiko Aoyama has worked as a journalist, editor and publisher. She has won the first Miyazakimoto Prize, the 13th Tenryu Literary Prize, and was a runner up for the 2021 Japan Booksellers Award. This is her English-language debut.
Late Night Book Club Mini Tote
Publisher Out of Print offers a 10.5"×10.5" mini-tote bag perfect for carrying lunches, sundries, and, of course, books. Made with cotton canvas; retail price $18.
Late Night Book Club Hat
Publisher Out of Print offers a one-size-fits-most, adjustable strap hat perfect for late night readers. Retail price $28. Since 2010, Out of Print has been turning literary works and tropes into book-themed apparel.
Independent Bookstore Day Blackwing Pencils
For the fifth year in a row, Blackwing and Independent Bookstore Day present new limited-edition pencils for indie bookstores. Each box contains 12 incense-cedar pencils featuring Blackwing's iconic firm graphite with a retail price of $32.
Independent Bookstore Day Tote Bag
Publisher Drawn & Quarterly presents the 2025 Independent Bookstore Day Tote Bag designed by illustrator Adrian Tomine. The tote bag is cotton canvas with a gusseted bottom, 8"×14.5" with 9" handles. 10,000 are available through vendor Enviro-Tote, with a $15.99 retail price. Adrian Tomine is a graphic novelist, screenwriter, and New Yorker cover artist as well as the author of 11 books, including Q&A, Shortcomings, and his memoir The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist. (T-shirts and sweatshirts featuring Tomine's design are also available on Bonfire.)
KIDS
Signed copies of On Again, Awkward Again: A Novel by Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia (Amulet, $19.99)
Bestselling and award-winning authors Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia signed 500 copies of their YA rom-com On Again, Awkward Again. Each includes an embroidered "Love is so awkward" patch. Erin Entrada Kelly has won the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space. She is a professor of children's literature in the graduate fiction and publishing programs at Rosemont College. Kwame Mbalia is an illustrator and author whose debut middle grade novel, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, was a Coretta Scott King Author Honor title.
Signed copies of Hot Mess: Diary of a Wimpy Kid #19 by Jeff Kinney (Amulet, $14.99)
2,000 signed copies of Jeff Kinney's latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Hot Mess, will be available for Independent Bookstore Day. Each copy includes a slice of artificial moldy cheese, perfect for playing real-life games of Cheese Touch. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide. Kinney and his wife own An Unlikely Story bookstore in Plainville, Mass.
Frog and Toad Coloring Book by Arnold Lobel (HarperCollins Children's Books, $7.99)
Originally published in 1981, the Frog and Toad Coloring Book is returning exclusively for Independent Bookstore Day. This coloring book includes black-and-white illustrations from all four classic books of Frog and Toad adventures (Frog and Toad Are Friends, Days with Frog and Toad, Frog and Toad Together, and Frog and Toad All Year). A Frog and Toad animated series was recently released on Apple TV+. Arnold Lobel (1933-1987) illustrated nearly 100 children's books and was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his book Fables in 1981.
Free
Guess How Much I Love You Baby Milestone Cards (Chronicle)
To mark the 30th anniversary of Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, illustrated by Anita Jeram, and to mark Independent Bookstore Day, Chronicle is printing 500 packs of baby milestone cards, in which parents can set up photos of their babies--one for each month until they are a year old. Each pack contains 12 cards. Sam McBratney (1943-2020) and Anita Jeram's story about Little Nutbrown and Big Nutbrown Hare has been a bedtime classic for decades.
Zora Neale Hurston's The Life of Herod the Great Poster
This limited edition 6"×20" poster celebrates Zora Neale Hurston's The Life of Herod the Great, which was written in the 1950s but remained unpublished until Amistad released it earlier this year.
Finlay Donovan Loves Independent Bookstores Print
This 11"×14" Independent Bookstore Day poster is based on the Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano and is available from Minotaur Books. There are five contemporary mystery Finlay Donovan novels, the latest of which, Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave, was published this month.
We Love Indies Coloring Book (Quarto)
This coloring book features the favorite independent bookstores of Quarto artists and illustrators. Every illustration includes an author quotation describing why they love each bookstore.
We Love Indies Kids Activity Book (Quarto)
This book from Quarto contains a maze, crossword, indie bookstore scavenger hunt, draw your own book cover, build your own poem and other activities for children created by Quarto's authors and illustrators.
American Horticultural Society Flower Seed Packets
Cool Springs Press, an imprint of Quarto, is releasing packets of perennial flower seeds with the cover of American Horticultural Society's Essential Guide to Perennial Gardening on it.
Murdle by the Book: 5 Mystery Logic Puzzles
This 32-page booklet from St. Martin's Griffin features five mini logic puzzles based on the Murdle by the Book series by G.T. Karber, in which readers solve deadly mysteries using logic alongside Deductive Logico. The series has four entries, with a fifth to be released this July.
"I <3 My Independent Bookstore" Stickers
Some 175,000 "I <3 My Independent Bookstore" stickers are available from Ingram, with one roll of 250 stickers per store. Each sticker is two inches in diameter.