The Indy Indie Book Crawl is a weekend-long event designed to bring together the book community for a weekend full of book buying, new and special merchandise, giveaways and raffles. Indianapolis bookstores are gearing up for the second annual Indy Indie Book Crawl (IIBC), which will be held Mar. 20 – Mar. 23.
The IIBC helps support local bookstores through their slowest time of year: winter. Jake Budler, the co-owner of Tomorrow Bookstore, and the founder of the IIBC, purposefully scheduled the book crawl for the end of March to be a fun event for book lovers to shop and help support local business through the toughest time of year.
“The book crawl is just a way to bring everybody together; to get people to stores; to get people having fun together; to give people an opportunity to do something that’s fun,” Budler said.
In January 2024, Budler got the idea to start the IIBC from seeing book crawls in other cities across the country. After speaking with founders of some of these book crawls, Budler decided to announce the first annual Indy Indie Book Crawl. This event was supposed to host 18 bookstores in the greater Indianapolis area, but by the time the book crawl arrived in March their bookstore list had expanded to include 23 stores within a 45-minute radius of downtown Indianapolis.
“I love our store, but I love all of the other bookstores too. In Indianapolis over the last two years we have had a really good development of a book community, and obviously bookstores [are a part of that]. But without readers and people buying books, there’s obviously no [need for] bookstores. The readers and the book buyers were already here. So the community has just done a really good job of growing,” Budler said. “We value the bookstore community. Sure, we are all selling books, but we’ve all got different missions. Having a community of bookstore owners and booksellers is an additive. We help each other out when needed. We do things together, we partner on things and it just adds to [the community that] we are trying to build.”
It is safe to say that the first annual Indy Indie Book Crawl was a success, with over 2,000 people participating in the four-day event. Sara Gelston Somers, the owner of Golden Hour Books, opened her bookstore in October of 2023 and participated in IIBC in 2024. She mentioned seeing an overwhelming positive response to IIBC and spoke to how it impacted Golden Hour Books.
“We had only been open a handful of months at that point. So I think everyone kept their expectations pretty realistic, and then those expectations were very quickly blown away,” Gelston Somers said. “When I showed up to work [Thursday] morning and there were people waiting to get in. On a Thursday morning in March, that is not the norm. We had an insane amount of people coming through. Winter is traditionally not a super busy time in retail, and so it certainly carried us through that month and the following month. By the end of the weekend, certain areas of the bookstore had literally no books left. People just cleared us out. We essentially needed to restock the entire store.”
This year, the IIBC has expanded, once again, to include 28 bookstores and multiple literary partners, including Indiana Humanities, Butler MFA, and others. Budler’s goal is that the IIBC will help reach new audiences and encourage people to shop at small businesses instead of retail conglomerates like Amazon and Walmart.
“We’re getting all this amazing press coverage that helped us [reach] new communities of people, and people that are readers who are maybe buying the books online still and haven’t actually gone in to discover why it’s great to go visit a bookstore,” Budler said. “I hope [IIBC] gets more new people to realize that you can go into a bookstore and you just talk to booksellers. They are professional curators and recommenders. [Their job is to] understand what readers like, and that’s just something that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Here’s how it works: customers can pick up an IIBC bookmark from any of the participating bookstores, or attend the IIBC Kick Off Party on Mar. 19th at Maven Space. The bookmark will act as a passport to get stamped at each location. Each location attended is an additional raffle entry to win a Book Crawl Grand Prize. In addition to this, there will be Bingo Cards that customers can participate in for a chance to win a separate raffle prize. Everyone is encouraged to visit as many stores as they can: there is no minimum and no purchase is required to get the stamp, but buying books is always encouraged.
At the end of the weekend, once you have finished your shopping, make sure to fill out the form to be entered into the raffle prizes for visiting bookstores and completing bingos.
Advice From Your Local Booksellers
“Remember that books may be sold out. Be open to discovering some new books. Go buy some books that a bookseller is recommending, and be open to that, because this is not the best weekend for slow browsing.”
– Jake Budler, Co-Owner of Tomorrow Bookstore and Founder of IIBC
“So I think, like a piece of advice for us is that our booksellers are extremely knowledgeable and love recommending so please feel free to ask whoever is working you know to point you toward something that you may not know, and they will be more than happy to do that. And I think for people who have not been on the crawl before, a piece of advice is just to have fun and to go with a friend and to, you know, make it a party, because it certainly is a party to all the bookstores involved.”
– Sara Gelston Somers, Owner of Golden Hour Books
“There’s so many places to visit, and you might not be able to spend an hour or two hours perusing and taking your time in each space. Let this be a chance where you’re almost doing a tasting, to get to know each one, see what they’re about, see what makes each one special. Know that we’re not going anywhere. The book crawl is one weekend, a couple days, but we’re here every day.”
– Ruba Marshood, CEO of Indy Reads
“You know, even if they don’t buy anything, posting about a store, especially in Indy and why you liked it is so helpful for a small business. It helps other people find them, and all of us don’t have big marketing budgets, so that’s really helpful.”
– Tiffany Phillips, owner of Wild Geese Bookshop
“Check out as many bookstores as you can. I think every single bookstore has its own vibe and its own niche. Just because you check out one and it doesn’t fit with you, don’t just cut your luck there. Go to every single one. It really is like a great community builder. People that you don’t even know will be running into you asking what books you got, and what books are your favorite.”
– Casey Culp, Manager of Indy Reads Bookstore
About (some of) the Bookstores
Every bookstore is different and that is why it is so important to visit and support all of them. Keep reading to find bookstores that best fit what you are looking for.
Tomorrow Bookstore
Tomorrow Bookstore is an independent bookstore that focuses on independent publishers, independent authors, and local authors. They also have a program called Authors of Tomorrow where every Saturday morning they will invite a local self-published author to come into their store to meet people and sell books.
“We focus on global stories, and so we’re trying to tap into things from all over the world and find amazing writers, and help you discover books from all over. That’s anything from literary fiction, all the way to pop culture and fancy romance. We try to cover everything,” Budler said.
Indy Reads
Indy Reads is a community bookstore based on supporting community, literacy, and inclusion. At Indy Reads, customers can find new, used, and free books as well as a variety of programs to help support literacy that are free and open to everyone. Donations to the community bookstore are open on the first Friday of every month from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“Indy Reads is a place where we are advancing literacy for all through adult literacy classes and through an accessible community bookstore. There’s so much room for the expression of people who sometimes get left behind in the work of education: particularly in adult education,” Marshood said. “Everybody has a story to tell and everybody has a story to read. We all have something to learn from each other and something to share with each other. I think that this is a space where we really try to bring that to life. Our vision is literacy for all. Our community bookstore is for all and hopefully, everyone who comes in will see themselves reflected here in one way or another.”
Wild Geese Bookshop
Wild Geese Bookshop is located in a house in Franklin Indiana, which is about 18 miles south of Indianapolis. Wild Geese Bookshop offers a wide variety of books and genres that are all curated to make the space feel warm and welcoming. For example, customers can find cook books in the kitchen, and the living room is filled with childrens books.
“I guess [the store is] intentional,” Phillips said. “Every shelf we try to curate with things that are beautiful and useful and hopefully the best of the genre that we’re seeing at the moment. I try not to have anything on the shelves that feel like somebody’s not enough or needs to change their lives. I want people to feel supported and held and respected and appreciated in our space. I’ve heard some people say that it feels like a hug to come into Wild Geese Bookshop, and I certainly hope so. If there was a word, I would hope it’s a comforting space.”
While it is a location that is a little further away than most, Phillips mentioned how she loves when people come to her store and get to explore Downtown Historic Franklin. From coffee and ice cream shops to a theatre and a bowling alley, there are plenty of other activities to explore when visiting Wild Geese Bookshop.
Golden Hour Books
Golden Hour Books is a general interest independent bookstore that is focused on literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s books, and art and design. Sara Gelston Somers, the owner of Golden Hour books used to work in academics as a poetry teacher and she feels as if that background inspired the purpose and meaning of her store.
“We’re very focused on aesthetics and the way the space feels,” Gelston Somers said. “When people visit, they can tell that it’s a thoughtfully curated shop. We try to really push people toward books that we think are essential reads. So we carry all of the best sellers, of course, but we also really pride ourselves on being able to recommend books that are maybe under the radar or something a little unexpected.”
The Indy Indie Book Crawl offers an incredible opportunity for both book lovers and local bookstores to come together in a celebration of community, culture, and literacy. The IIBC continues to foster a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive literary community in Indianapolis, ensuring that bookstores remain a cornerstone of the city’s cultural landscape. Whether you’re a longtime bookworm or a first-time participant, the Indy Indie Book Crawl promises to be an exciting and enriching experience for all.
Elle Rotter is an intern and contributing writer at Indy Maven who loves to cover all things books. Elle is currently a student at Butler University studying journalism and strategic communications. She is also a freelance writer and photographer. You may also see her frequently covering events happening throughout Indianapolis.
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