Pay-It-Forward Week: The Prequel

I had a lot of fun with Release Week for SUMMONED CHAOS, but now it’s time to do right by my fellow authors and those in need. As such, I’m hosting Pay-It-Forward Week on this site starting Monday.

The Gist: 

The mission of Pay-It-Forward Week is twofold: First, I want to promote my fellow writers. They work hard and are deserving of as much attention and accolades as I can possibly give them. So Monday through Thursday will be all about authors.

The second piece of Pay-It-Forward Week is to help support one of my favorite charities. On Friday, I’m putting all the focus onto Troops First Foundation and will make a donation based on the feedback from readers (more on that in a moment).

 The Rules (aka: How It Will Work):

1) For each author’s day, they get to play on my blog. Maybe they’ll write a post of their own, maybe they’ll want me to interview them, maybe they’ll even host a give-away contest. It’s dealer’s choice depending on the author.

 2) Whether or not they host a give-away, I’m giving a copy of UNDEAD CHAOS (Book 1 of The Shifter Chronicles) to one commenter per day.  If no one plays, then I’ll give out two the next day. If no one plays all week long, then I’ll sob hysterically into a glass of wine Friday evening.

 “But what if we’ve already bought UNDEAD CHAOS?”

 Then I’ll give you SUMMONED CHAOS.

“But what if we’ve already bought that one, too?”

Then I love you. I’ll also try to get you a free copy of something else. Or you could always buy a copy for a friend because who doesn’t love getting a book?

3) HERE’S THE THING: Starting at 12;01 AM on Monday and running through to 11:59 PM on Friday, for every commenter who comes to the site and says they bought a copy of my book and/or one from a hosted author, I’ll set aside $3 (the “retail” price for SUMMONED CHAOS) for each purchase to go to Troops First. So if you buy my book AND a book from one of that week’s authors, that’s $6 I’ll donate. Buy a book from every author and that’s $15 (me plus 4 authors). On Saturday I’ll sum up the amount of books purchased all week and make a donation for the total amount to Troops First Foundation, not to exceed $6,000.

That gives us a 5-day window where we could sell 2000 books.

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a lot of books. 

Trust me, the authors would very much appreciate your help boosting their numbers like that. It’s also a very nice check we can give to some vets in need.

4) NOTE: Rules 2 and 3 are based on the Honor System. I won’t be checking sales numbers against the comments, but rather insisting that commenters help me do a solid for both my author friends and the charity.

Could someone lie and claim they bought 10 books? Yes.

Will I still make a $30 donation? Yes.

But that doesn’t help the authors I’m hosting, so come on. Pay It Forward folks.

 The Cause:

 Troops First Foundation (http://www.troopsfirstfoundation.org/) is an organization I met up with last year during a charity golf tournament. They conduct a wide range of events for wounded vets and their families, not the least of which is flying them all over the country to play golf with Pros and Amateurs.

What separates them from other charities I’ve participated with is that there is no media. The organization keeps their events private, minimizing cameras or news personnel on hand for these events. Having personally dealt with vets suffering from both physical and emotional injuries, I cannot begin to tell you how much they appreciate that. Not that I’m opposed to fanfare, but sometimes a quiet, private event to honor veterans is more meaningful than anything flashy or highly publicized.

And there you go. We’re poised to do a lot of good, both for authors that you all like as well as a charity that I am passionate about.  So let’s see what we can do.

Josh