Six hundred employees at independent bookstores — from Princeton’s The Cloak & Dagger to Sacramento’s Wild Sisters Book Company — will receive $500 holiday bonuses from author James Patterson. Among the recipients are employees at 32 Bay Area bookstores.
The awardees were able to nominate themselves, or be recommended by store owners, managers, peers, community members and others.
“I’ve said this before, but I can’t say it enough — booksellers save lives,” Patterson said in a statement Wednesday. “What they do is crucial, especially right now. I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and their hard work this holiday season.”
One of the world’s most popular and prolific writers, Patterson has given millions of dollars to booksellers, librarians and teachers. In 2015, the same year he began awarding employee bonuses, he was presented an honorary National Book Award for “Outstanding Service to the America Literary Community.”
Patterson has even co-authored a tribute book, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, which Little, Brown and Company will release in April.
