Handler Partners With The Booksmith on Upstream

In an open letter last week, author Daniel Handler launched Upstream, an initiative that encourages authors, including participants in Authors United, to join with their local independents to sign stock of their books to keep on hand.

As a great example for how booksellers and authors can partner under the program, Handler is joining forces with The Booksmith in San Francisco, which has been his local bookstore for many years. “We are thrilled that Daniel has announced that he will work with Booksmith as his Upstream partner in the newly launched Indies First campaign starting in October 2014,” said co-owner Christin Evans.

Customers can visit Booksmith’s dedicated Upstream page, which features signed Lemony Snicket titles from A Series of Unfortunate Events (HarperCollins) as well as his newest book, Shouldn’t You Be In School, part of the All The Wrong Questions series (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). Featured titles by Daniel Handler include The Dark and Why We Broke Up (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) and his upcoming We Are Pirates (Bloomsbury, February 2015).

Booksellers are encouraged to reach out to their area authors to coordinate participation in the Upstream program and in Indies First events on Small Business Saturday by sharing the Indies First letters penned by spokespeople Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer and by Handler. Visit Indies First on BookWeb to find quick links to help stores partner with authors and create events.

As a reminder, booksellers should add any planned events to the IndieBound publicity map and share news, events, and photos on social media, using the hashtag #IndiesFirst and linking to Gaiman and Palmer’s Twitter handles, @neilhimself and @amandapalmer.