Daniel Handler urges authors, indie stores to pair up for signed copies
Author Daniel Handler wants to bring together independent bookstores and the authors who live near them.
According to , Handler and 鈥渁ssorted interested parties鈥� have created a program called Upstream that aims to have writers link up with indie stores for signed books. As Handler mentions in his to authors, his books are published by Hachette, which is currently involved in a dispute with online bookselling giant Amazon.聽
鈥淲hether or not you are an author published by Hachette (as I am), you may lately feel as if you are engulfed in a rather unpleasant flood 鈥� as if the fate of your books is whirling dreadfully out of your control, battered by the waters of some enormous South American river, the name of which I cannot remember at the moment,鈥� Handler writes in his letter. (If you鈥檙e recognizing the writing style, Handler was behind the 鈥淪eries of Unfortunate Events鈥� books that he released under the name Lemony Snicket. He is currently writing a series detailing the adventures of fictional author Lemony titled 鈥淎ll the Wrong Questions.鈥� The most recent book in the 鈥淨uestions鈥� series, titled 鈥淪houldn鈥檛 You Be In School?,鈥� was released this past September.)聽
Handler wrote that 鈥淯pstream was test-piloted this summer and is now spreading steadily.鈥�
He suggested that authors talk with a store near them and that if they can鈥檛 find one, 鈥渢he good folks at Indies First, coordinated by the American Booksellers Association, can be of service.鈥�
鈥淏oth you and the bookseller will promote this arrangement as best you can, spreading the word not only about an exciting source of signed books, but about a program anyone can join,鈥� Handler wrote.聽鈥淔eel free to tell your publicist you鈥檙e participating. Upstream should be in full swing in time for the holidays, when signed books are good gifts for loved ones and distance acquaintances alike. Will Upstream rescue us all from strife and worry?聽Of course not.聽But the hope is that it will remind both authors and booksellers of their local, less monolithic resources, and to improve general esprit de corps at a disheartening time.鈥�
