The Midwest Indie Bookstore Roadmap, now in its fifth year, is a promotional tool that increases awareness about the thriving independent bookstores in our region, with the ultimate goal of driving sales to stores.

The print map features Kevin Cannon's custom drawings of the bookstores in our region. The back of the map features a beautiful collection of ad panels, providing year-round exposure to thousands of proven bookstore customers. The online version of the map is part of our new Midwest Indie Bookstore Shopping Guide, where we'll also host your ad.
We post the roadmap on the wall by our front door, and customers, especially those from out of town, comment on it and take their own copy. ​During Small Business Saturday and Independent Bookstore Day, we insert the maps in our promo bags along with other swag. It’s a great conversation starter and we appreciate that it gives us a way to promote indie bookstores throughout our region. We’ve also used our personal store graphic for everything from our Facebook profile picture to our store t-shirt, and even the back of our bookmobile. Our customers rave about the map, and we love it!

​--Carla Ketner, Chapters (Seward, Nebraska)
Sample promo panels above. See all of them from 2019.
Read all about how our booksellers use the roadmap in Bookselling This Week!
The roadmap is the perfect way to promote independent bookstores in the region, and we have run out of them each year.  Our customers say that they love seeing how many stores they can visit, and we’ve heard that some have it up on their walls.  We had to put our framed map away when we ran out, since customers were asking for a copy!  I also love to use the graphics from the map, especially of our store.

​--Carol Blizzard Dunn, Northwind Book & Fiber (Spooner, WI)
Cost
  •  Half panel: $750 
  • Quarter panel (landscape or portrait): $550 
Your ad is featured in the following ways
Print
  • Midwest Indie Bookstore Roadmap with a circulation of 75,000+
Online Specs
  • Print: Full color, jpg or PDF, CMYK and at least 300 dpi
  • Digital: Submit the same file, but with these specs: jpg, 72 dpi, provide click-through URL​
Deadlines
  • Confirm your ad(s) ASAP to help us best manage this project; last date to place an ad is 2/26/2021
  • Final art deadline: 3/5/2021 
The print roadmap is released via our stores on Independent Bookstore Day
  • Association support via the #bookstoreroadmap hashtag as well as a monthly and annual gift card drawing
We keep the roadmap up on the wall next to our cash register and customers are always drawn to it! Kids (and adults) love to find their hometowns and favorite bookstores. Book lovers are delighted to be able to take a copy of the map. I always tell them, "It's the best way to travel!" and they agree. Customers also tell us they found us from the map.  

​--Gwen Danfelt, Drury Lane Books (Grand Marais, MN)

Cover

Inside front

Inside back