On Sept. 1, the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association (CIBA) launched its inaugural The Booksellers’ List, a new marketing initiative that highlights the titles most anticipated by Canada’s indie bookstores for the fall 2025 season.
The fall list of 20 books is the first that CIBA plans to release seasonally, four times a year. Of the selected titles, the one with the most votes is named as the top pick of the season. Along with a promotion on CIBA’s website and social media, the initiative provides booksellers with a core promotion that is supported by digital and printable marketing materials supplied by the association. Participating publishers are also encouraged to promote their selected titles as top indie picks.
“Unlike algorithm-driven bestseller charts or critic-curated picks, The Booksellers’ List is built entirely on bookseller enthusiasm,” CIBA said in a press release. “It offers an authentic reflection of the reading tastes, curiosities, and conversations happening in communities nationwide. It captures the buzz of indie bookstores across Canada.”
The inaugural list features seven works of nonfiction, one collection of poetry, and 12 fiction titles. Of the 20 titles, 17 are by Canadian authors. The list does not include children’s books.
The books range from the obviously high profile – Margareat Atwood’s memoir, and new fiction from Louise Penny, Mona Awad, and Shani Mootoo – to nonfiction by Saeed Teebi, Bob Joseph, Marcello Di Cintio, and Patty Krawec and first novels from Kate Cayley and Vanessa F. Penney.
The first top pick title is Pick a Colour, Souvankham Thammavongsa’s first novel. Thammavongsa won the Giller Prize and the Trillium Book Award for her first collection of short fiction How to Pronounce Knife, published in 2020.
Twelve titles are from multinational publishers (spread out among Penguin Random House Canada, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Macmillan Publishers) and eight from Canadian independent book publishers (Biblioasis, Book*hug, Coach House Books, ECW Press, Goose Lane Editions, and Page Two Books).
The initiative is similar to the monthly Indie Next promotion (part of the larger IndieBound initiative) that the American Booksellers Association (ABA) has been running since 2008, but the Canadian program consulted widely.
“We reviewed a number of similar programs and met with the ABA to discuss the Indie Next program, BookNet about Loan Stars, Book People in Australia, and the UK indie bookseller association about their Book of the Month program,” CIBA executive director Laura Carter tells Q&Q. “This allowed us to consider the strengths and challenges of other programs and determine what would work best for the indie market in Canada.”
The list is open to books of any genre and from anywhere in the world, as long as they’re published in the appropriate season. CIBA booksellers can vote for any eligible book – via CataList, NetGalley, or through a voting form on CIBA’s website. CIBA publisher members are also invited to pitch titles for consideration. For the inaugural list, hundreds of votes from more than 60 stores of CIBA’s 200 members were registered, says Carter. Publishers of the top selections are asked to support the titles for the program.
In 2026, CIBA hopes to also launch a children’s list.
The submission process for the winter 2026 list is currently open, with bookseller voting to be completed in early November, and the list publicly announced on Jan. 5, 2026.
Updated Sept. 4, 2025. This article has been updated with additional information from the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association, and to clarify that CIBA members could submit votes for any books, not just those submitted by publishers.
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