Amazon is stirring controversy with the timing of its major book sale for 2025, set for April 23–28 — overlapping directly with Independent Bookstore Day.
As highlighted by writer Maris Kreizman in Lit Hub, Independent Bookstore Day is a yearly celebration organized by the American Booksellers Association (ABA), featuring exclusive events, special guests, and limited-edition merchandise across 1,600 indie bookstores. This year, the event falls on April 26 (today).
“I urge you: if you’re lucky enough to live near an independent bookstore (and I know many still don’t — though I hope someday everyone will), please visit,” Kreizman wrote.
Independent bookstores have been experiencing a resurgence in the U.S., according to ABA data from last year. Still, Amazon remains the dominant force — a 2020 House committee report estimated the company controlled more than 50% of the print book market, both online and offline, with an even larger share in e-books.
Against this backdrop, Amazon’s decision to schedule its sale during such an important event for indie bookstores isn’t being received well.
Bookshop.org — an online retailer supporting independent bookstores — sent an email to customers with a pointed message from CEO Andy Hunter. He called Amazon’s timing “a calculated move by a company that already shuttered half the bookstores in the country, controls over 60% of the market, and outsells all indie bookstores combined.”
“The people at Amazon responsible for this ‘Book Sale’ should be ashamed, but they clearly are not,” Hunter added.
Amazon, for its part, claimed the overlap was coincidental, stating: “The dates for our sale this year were set to accommodate additional participating countries.”
While it’s possible that the scheduling conflict went unnoticed at Amazon’s massive scale, ABA CEO Allison Hill told Vulture, “At best it’s thoughtless, and at worst, it feels like an effort to undercut small businesses.”
