Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) has decided to take to Youtube to discourage his many readers from taking advantage of the fact that the first book in the Series of Unfortunate Events, #1: The Bad Beginning is now available to be read for free online. By squinting, we can just make out what books Lemony is currently reading: A Century of Horror, The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford and Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine and
Joycelyn M. Elders. Unfortunately Lemony is interrupted before he can tell us his second important message. Take a look:
If you must, you can read the first book in the series here.
Daniel Handler, who writes the bestselling Lemony Snicket books, has moved from HarperCollins to Little, Brown. He signed a deal to write four new Lemony Snicket books and one stand alone young adult title.
In August, Egmont U.K. bought British rights to the four-book series; no U.S. publisher was announced at that time.
The Handler/Snicket team will work with longtime editor Susan Rich who has joined LBYR in the newly created position of editor-at-large. Rich was formerly at HarperCollins Children's Books, first in the New York office and then in Toronto.
A Series of Unfortunate Events was a blockbuster for HarperCollins, selling 60 million copies. We loved the series and can't wait to see Mr. Snicket has in store for us this time.
Lemony Snicket Promises Characters Will Die in Last Book
Newsweekreports that Lemony Snicket has warned fans that two characters die in the last installment of his bestselling series.
Young readers, already worried about Harry Potter, now face a new threat. Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler, 36) says at least two characters will die in his 13th and final "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book, The End. The fate of the Baudelaire orphans and their nemesis, Count Olaf, will be revealed when 2.5 million copies go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on the appropriately unlucky day of Friday, Oct. 13. The first dozen "Unfortunate" books have sold more than 50 million copies.
Booksellers applaud the timing. Mary McCarthy of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee hates to see the series end, but says "certainly 13 is the way to go." In a Potter-less year, "this will fill sort of a void," says Becky Anderson, owner of Anderson's Bookshops in Illinois. On Oct. 13, her stores will hold trivia contests with "unfortunate prizes" like moldy cheese and socks with holes. And Barnes & Noble will raffle off 797 autographed copies (one at each of its stores). "The books have a Dickensian charm," says Josalyn Moran, B&N's VP of children's books. Readers' lives "are a piece of cake compared to the poor orphans."
On Sept. 5, HarperCollins is releasing The Beatrice Letters, a related book with clues to how the "Un-fortunate" series will end. Paramount/Nickelodeon has the rights to more movies. As for The End, the book's editor, Susan Rich, promises that it delivers an "unhappily ever after" finish.
The End will be available everywhere on the planet on October 13, 2006: we can hardly wait to see how horribly it all turns out.
