A call to ‘book nerds’ rouses 1,000 author volunteers

As part of Small Business Saturday, authors will help out at 400 independent bookstores.

Best-selling novelist Wally Lamb, a two-time Oprah Book Club pick, has signed thousands of copies of his books. But he’s never sold one, at least the way booksellers do.

That will change Saturday, when Lamb and more than 1,000other authors become volunteer booksellers for a day at more than 400 independent bookstores.

It’s part of Small Business Saturday, which began three years ago as way to support local businesses in an age of online shopping and national chains. This year, author Sherman Alexie added a literary twist he dubbed “Indies First.”

In an open letter to other authors in September, Alexie, best known for his semi-autobiographical novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, urged “book nerds” to become booksellers at a local bookstore on Small Business Saturday.