My young adult novel, FAR FROM YOU, poses the question, do you believe in angels?
I do. And in that spirit, I’m hoping to find ten people willing to be book angels.
What is the Book Angel Project? An opportunity for ten people to give my book, FAR FROM YOU, to a person or organization who will benefit in some way from the gift.
How does it work? Comment below if you would like to be in the drawing to be a book angel. If you are one of ten people selected, I send you the book. Your job is to turn around within 7 days of receiving the book and give it to someone with no strings attached. When you do, take a picture of the event (or video tape it if you're feeling especially ambitious) and blog about it within 48 hours.
You cannot give the book away on-line. I want this to be a personal experience, where you hand the book to someone. And please get it on film, so we can all share in it! Don't worry, you don't have to give the person's name receiving the book if the person wants to remain anonymous.
I’ll point my blog readers to your blog entry once you’ve blogged about the experience.
AND, if you don't have a blog, no worries! You can write up the blog post, send me the picture, and I'll blog about it here!
Can I give it to anyone? Yes! However, my hope is that the books will go to people or organizations who will really appreciate them. Maybe someone who is having a hard time right now due to the economy. Maybe someone who has lost a loved one. Maybe a library with very few new books because they have such a small budget. Or maybe you decide to do something really interesting and give it to a complete stranger. You know, you could go to the local unemployment office and give it to someone there. There are lots of possibilities!
I hope a few people will be creative! As an added bonus, I will have three judges choose one book angel to receive an extra gift - THREE ARCs of some highly anticipated books. They are WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson, IF I STAY by Gayle Forman, and YOU ARE HERE by Jennifer E. Smith. How do you get this extra gift, you ask? By being extra creative in how the book is given away and/or making the blog post about the experience something REALLY special. It's kind of like getting asked to the prom. Some guys just take you on a date and slip in the question between the appetizer and dinner. Another guy rents a knight costume and shows up on a horse and hands you a scroll with the words, My princess, will you go to the prom with me? Either one is fine. But one went to a lot more effort. And so, I want to reward that extra effort.
That’s it? Well, no. To make it more interesting, for every unique individual who comments and volunteers to be in the book angel project drawing, I will donate 50 cents to the Oregon Food bank and 50 cents to the Oregon SMART program (Start Making a Reader Today). To make sure the book angels follow through, I’ll make the donations after 8 out of 10 of the book angels have blogged about the experience. This is to ensure that people do as they are supposed to and don’t just simply keep the book for themselves.
Can I read the book before I give it away? I suppose this is really for you to decide. But please know this - my intention is that the person or organization will get a shiny, new book. It won't be nearly as special if you give someone a book with a pizza stain on page 42.
What if you get like 500 comments? Then I’ll write two checks for $250 each. But come on. 500 comments? No way! But hey, prove me wrong. And just in case you do prove me wrong, $500 is the max.
Why are you doing this? So many people are having a hard time right now. I want to do something. I realize a book isn't going to bring someone a job who may need it or put food on the table. But maybe it'll bring a smile to someone's face. And maybe seeing that person's smile will make other people smile. And of course, helping out worthwhile organizations is something we should all be doing, if we can.
Anything else I need to know? US Residents only please. Keep in mind this is a young adult book and is appropriate for teens ages 14+. Would an adult like this book? I think so. :) Also, if you are an author and you want to throw in one of your own books to give away, that's fine! Or even if you aren't an author and would like to give away more than just my book, it's all good. The more, the merrier!
Comments will be accepted through midnight, Thursday, February 26 (EST). On Friday, February 27th, names of the ten book angels will be posted. When you comment to this post, please make sure I have a way to contact you. I'm also posting this on my Livejournal blog. Enter either here or there, but not both. And, I think that's it! Thanks for reading and for participating, if you choose to do so!!!