Best. Indie. Ever.

Tip of the Day: When you're signing books don't use a black pen. Use blue or another color. The booksigning coordinator at the bookstore I'm talking about today gave me this tip and I'm passing it along.

This is Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL (west suburb of Chicago).

I don't mean to brag...okay, I do. I live near the BEST. INDIE. EVER. There is no arguing-- it just is. Let me tell you why:

1) It's in a totally cute location. Really, downtown Naperville is one of the BEST places to spend an afternoon.















Lots of shopping, awesome dining, and a beautiful riverwalk to walk along. You can grab a latte, stop off for some cute candy at a specialty shop, feed the massive amount of ducks in the river, and then pick up some new books.

2) They love young adult books and love young adult authors! If you're a blog reader of authors you'll seriously see every author mention them at least once. Great place to visit.

3) Which bring me to the next one-- everyone comes here! For real! When ever you hear an author is about to start a tour I bet you see Anderson's as one of their very first stops. Here's me and Meg in 2007 (the week I got my publishing deal-- I was a bit delirious).

4) Book selection. Duh, I should have mentioned this earlier but they have EVERYTHING! And this is really a big deal. Let me tell you why. I walk into my local (hmm. Maybe I shouldn't say. It's a chain. We'll leave it at that. I'm sure you can guess. :) ) and I can't find half of what I'm looking for. (I'm not trying to bash this chain but they don't seem to get a lot of the new releases. They mostly just carry the Twilight, Harry Potter, best sellers.) For example, about a month ago I went in with a list of TEN new books that came out in 2009. I found TWO of the ten. Hmph.

5) They hook you up! Anderson's is awesome for hooking authors up with schools for visits.

6) They host an annual Children's Literary Breakfast every year! Very cool. Picture superstar big name authors speaking, 600 or so librarians and educators, 40 or 50 Illinois children's authors hopping from table to table meeting everyone, and yummy food. Oh, and did I mention schwag? I love schwag.

and last but not least

7) They make my social calendar happy. There are always GREAT authors coming to Anderson's . Check out just who is coming this month. Julianne Moore, Lauren Conrad (yeah, THE HILLS' Lauren!),
















and Ally Carter. Next month Lauren Myracle, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Sarah Dessen! (note: they actually have a LOT more authors than this coming-- these are just the people that I want to see!).

So, see what I mean? Best Indie Ever right?

Kristina, Miss Delighted to Debut