Book lovers and independent bookstore connoisseurs are driving business in Iowa City’s independent bookstores as many of them embark on Iowa’s Indie Bookstore Tour, which features 45 independent bookstores across the state.
The tour started on July 1 and goes through September 30. Participants receive a “passport” intending to travel to as many of these independent bookstores as possible before the tour is over. After this, prizes and winners will be announced.
On this book tour, there are four stops in Iowa City and one a few miles away in West Branch. Sidekick Coffee and Books is a small business located on Melrose Avenue that has tons of books and a built-in coffee bar that serves food and drinks throughout the day.
The store has lots of sitting room for customers to sit and relax, especially customers who come a long way to visit Sidekick on the tour. Katy Herbold, store owner, was ecstatic that Sidekick was named a location on the tour for a second year in a row.
“They [tour management] reached out to all the independent bookstores,” she said. “They emailed and posted on social media and did the best they could to include everybody. The bookstores would respond to the outreach and let them know that you want to be a stop on the tour. You sign up and then each store pays a fee to help with the advertising and marketing.”
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This tour is not only a fun way to spend the summer but also a chance for small stores to gain recognition and foot traffic. The first year of the tour was last year, and after seeing how independent stores benefited from it, there was no hesitation when deciding whether or not to continue doing this.
Herbold said that Sidekick’s slowest month is July due to a dip from people traveling and students being out of town. However, the tour jump-started business during their slowest time of the year and helped keep business mostly steady.
Any purchase made at Sidekick Coffee and Books gets a sticker with it, whether it be a S’mores Latte or a bookmark.
Prairie Lights Bookstore, The Haunted Bookshop, and Captain’s Book Shoppe, also located in Iowa City, are also listed on the bookstore tour.
Another stop on the book tour is a former winery turned bookshop on Main St. in West Branch. The Black Rose is celebrating its first month in business and is seeing more and more tourists coming through their doors.
Ashley Kofoed is one of the owners at The Black Rose and an active book lover. Before the store even opened, Kofoed reached out to the tour to see if the store could be a stop when the tour officially started.
“I heard about the tour on TikTok and had no idea it even existed. I emailed them asking to be a part of it, and it’s been one of the best decisions the store has made so far,” Kofoed said. “We are seeing lots of traffic from all over…Des Moines, Tipton. The people coming in have been amazing, and I will be doing it again next year.”
As The Black Rose is seeing more traffic, Kofoed has been encouraging visitors to visit other local stores in West Branch as well as other bookshops.
“This tour has created a community,” she said. “I keep meeting all these people that I would have never met before if it wasn’t for the tour. I want the visitors to not only visit our store but also the many other small businesses in West Branch.”
Book passports may be turned into any of the participating bookstores by Sept. 30 in order to qualify for prizes.
The tour offers different categories of prizes that participants can enter. For those visiting 2 or more bookshops, each stamp received is an entry into the drawings for bookstore gift cards. The bookstore gift card is determined by the winner and can be used at any independent bookseller in the state.
The grand prize is eligible to those who visit 40 or more bookshops and receive stamps. The Grand Prizes of $300 and $100 gift cards to the bookstore of choice will be drawn from the eligible passports.
Other prizes for this tour include the hashtag prize and the bingo prizes, which also offer a gift card or a free audiobook trial.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the accurate number of Iowa City independent bookstores listed on the tour.