NEW YORK (AP) — Staffers at Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama, San Francisco's City Lights Books and The Nook in Cedar Falls, Iowa, are among 600 booksellers receiving $500 holiday bonuses from James Patterson, t he bestselling novelist who has been awarding independent store employees since 2015. “Booksellers save lives. Period," Patterson said in a statement released Tuesday through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company.