By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
There’s never been a series of children’s books like Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events, in which people are either stupid or horrible—or possibly both stupid and horrible—the worst always happens, and happy endings are for saps.
But despite all of those warnings, JLKBrand has agreed to represent the Lemony Snicket brand in its first ever licensing program. You can’t say they weren’t warned.
If you’ve never read the series by the mysterious and possibly fictitious author Lemony Snicket, they are an unlucky 13 books written for a middle-school aged audience, featuring three likable but particularly unfortunate orphans: Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. The appeal of the books may be that no matter how bad things get the Baudelaire children soldier on, braving the ill intentions of the evil master of disguise Count Olaf and his crew of ludicrous henchpersons as they try to steal the Baudelaire fortune.
First published in 1999, this series continues to resonate with ill-advised readers everywhere and has for some baffling reason sold over 65 million copies worldwide and is published in 41 languages. “Readers find the storylines mesmerizing and the storyteller…brilliant, funny, terrifying, captivating, profound and irreverent all at the same time,” says JLK Brand.
While in a normal non-pandemic year, Lemony Snicket seems to hit all the right notes, this past year in particular has offered an opportunity to appreciate the light in darkness that Lemony Snicket’s dark, humorous wisdom can offer, such as:
“When things don’t go right, go left.”
“If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.”
“Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another.”
There is a great deal of running for one’s life in the Lemony Snicket books, which were also portrayed in feature films and a quirky but wildly entertaining Netflix series by the same name, starring Patrick Warburton as Snicket, and Neil Patrick Harris as the insipidly evil Count Olaf.
JLKBrand says it’s program “will focus on the editorial and quotable content of this wildly popular collection of books which has created a cottage industry of online quote collections. There are literally thousands of quotes from these books that cover any emotion or situation you can imagine and will elevate all categories of licensed products.”
Categories available for licensing will include promotions, apparel, games/toy, stationery/back to school, gift, home goods, etc.
Contact Kathie Fording at kathie@jlkbrand.com for licensing opportunities. For more information on Lemony Snicket and A Series of Unfortunate Events, you can go to LemonySnicket.com, where you will be advised, “Warning: Do Not Enter. This Site Is Very Unpleasant.”
You would do well to heed that advice.