I hate selling books to friends. I wish I could give all of my friends a free copy of my book. But, sadly, it doesn’t work that way. It just doesn’t. Writing for me is therapeutic. When I was a child, creating imaginary worlds in my mind separated me from all the nonsense around me. Living in a poor neighborhood, criminal neighbors, asshole neighbors, school drama, gangs constantly trying to recruit, and a terrible home life, the only way to survive was to escape. And so, I started picking up books once my imagination couldn’t go any further. And there it was, all imagination written on paper. (And don’t even get me started on the Harry Potter series, my goodness, what imagination!) So, I started writing. Eventually, it became something so precious to me, that I wanted to share it with anyone interested in my stories. Thus, publishing It Runs at Night wasn’t for the money. Never was. It was so people could get lost in an imaginary world. And whether or not you’re someone who needs an escape, reading can do so much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to make a living off writing, but for now, I’m just getting my feet wet.
How does this stop me from feeling bad about taking money from my friends? (Because let’s face it, my amazing friends are most of the purchases of my books.) Well, it doesn’t, but it got me thinking, “My next book is about to launch, and I’m going to act awkward when my friends tell me they’ve bought my book (I don’t know why I’m like this, don’t judge me). What to do? Oh, what to do?” And the solution was so easy, I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of it before: Donate!
All proceeds for It Runs at Night Volume 2 The Jackal will be donated to two charities: First Book and BuildOn. I did some extensive research in trying to figure out which charity I wanted to donate to. But there were so many that have such a positive impact on literacy that I couldn’t choose just one.
First Book provides new books, educational resources and other essentials to kids in need. In fact, 97% of their revenue goes to these efforts! And they target those in need by providing a list of where the need is and a link to help understand the need. See more at: https://www.firstbook.org/about-first-book/our-approach#sthash.R9Qo8RQF.dpuf
BuildOn has a section titled “The Education Crisis.” Yes, a crisis indeed. As an educator, I’m constantly devastated as I witness a child struggling to get the education they deserve; it’s a basic human right. And going through BuildOn’s website, told me that this was the charity to help. The Education Crisis section reads, “Education is a basic human right. Yet those who need education the most – children living in poverty - are the least likely to attend school.” I couldn’t have said it better. See more at: http://www.buildon.org/about/the-education-crisis/
So, everyone wins, right? I hope so. If you see any holes in my plan, please let me know. I want to have a guilt-free time at my next book signing, which may be different than my first. Still trying to work everything out. As for Vol. 2, working with a 28K word manuscript has been a lot more difficult than I imagined. But I promise it’s almost done.
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