Recap: Lunch and Learn with Daniel O'Brien / IPC
On April 8th SIBA hosted Daniel O'Brien, Executive Director of the Independent Publishers Caucus (IPC), in the first of SIBA's Lunch and Learn Industry Partner Series designed to connect SIBA booksellers with important tools and resources in the book industry.
IPC was founded to raise awareness and foster community among small and independent presses, and to act as a bridge between indie presses and booksellers, libraries, literary magazines, and other industry partners. "We essentially operate like a trade association," O'Brien said when describing the role of IPC, which at this point is a member-based organization that represents over 100 small publishers.
Facilitating relationships with booksellers is one of IPC's priorities. For example, IPC created the Books Across Borders Fellowships to connect indie booksellers with the international literary world by sending them to major book fairs. SIBA's continuing sponsorship of Books Across Borders ensures that each year, a SIBA bookseller will have the opportunity to attend one of the great international book fairs such as Frankfurt, London, and Bologna. Melissa Taylor from E. Shaver, Booksellers in Savannah, Georgia, was able to attend the RISE Bookselling conference when it was held in Latvia in 2025
Applications are open for the 2026/2027 Fellowship Season
Indie-to-Indie Program
Most of the conversation with O'Brien focused on IPC's Indie-to-Indie program, which was created specifically to help booksellers stock and promote small press titles. Through Indie-to-Indie, booksellers receive monthly topical "playlists" for displays, access to galleys, lists of essential backlist titles, and a directory of indie presses that includes distributor and sales rep information.
IPC also spearheads "March is Indie Press Month" and runs a $500 display contest and a social media campaign to raise awareness for indie presses and the bookstores that love them.
And most recently, IPC is working with the American Booksellers Association to create the Independent Press Top 40, a weekly bestseller list of indie press titles being sold by independent bookstores.
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