Thankful for authors who give
by Oline H. Cogdill
November 25th, 2009By Oline H. Cogdill
As we enter the holiday season – starting with Thanksgiving – we also enter a time when non-profit organizations need our help more than ever.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the mystery community does its part whenever it can. At every Bouchercon, there is an auction for which many authors donate books, character names and more with the proceeds going to a local literacy group.
The trick for many in the mystery community is to find unusual ways to help non-profit groups. A couple of years ago, Mystery Scene donated $5 to the New Orleans Library Fund for every back issue sold.
Chris Grabenstein and Fred
Here’s what two authors are doing. We’d love to hear more stories from authors.
Chris Grabenstein, author of the Ceepak novels, says he tries to come up with ways to donate books and character names that will help raise money for charity.
For example, when his fourth Ceepak novel Hell Hole came out, Grabenstein “bought a bunch of books at my author discount, St. Martin’s donated a box and we auctioned off a couple of character names and raised $5,000 for the FDNY Burn Unit – since the book was dedicated to Engine 23.”
The author also held the novel’s launch party at the firehouse.
“Recently, we raised $2,000 for a tutoring program I volunteer at by donating several cases of books, throwing a party with a magician for kids in the tutoring program, and auctioning off a name in next year’s YA book.” Grabenstein added.
“And, for my sixth Ceepak novel, I needed a dog and cat so we ran an Internet contest to raise money for an animal rescue group. We raised $1,000!”
Elaine Viets during signing for Humane Society of Missouri
Two of Elaine Viets’ novels have revolved around pets so it was a natural fit for her to donate money to animal causes. For her 2006 novel Murder Unleashed: A Dead-End Job Mystery, Viets personally donated $1 to Pets Are Worth Saving (PAWS) for every copy of the novel sold during its debut month. For her latest novel The Fashion Hound Murders: Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper about puppy mills, Viets had a signing at the Humane Society of Missouri. A portion of her sales went to that group.
But like Grabenstein, Viets has supported other causes. For Fashion Hound, Viets recently was one of the main speakers during a book fair for St. Vincent Home in St. Louis.
Viets also will do this again. Well Read, a Fort Lauderdale bookstore, will donate $1 from each sale of The Fashion Hound Murders to Grateful Paws Dog and Cat Rescue. Grateful Paws, a no-kill all volunteer shelter in Fort Lauderdale.
Viets will match every dollar Well-Read raises.
Viets also has helped raise money for the Ryan Hummert Memorial to honor a young firefighter killed in Maplewood, Mo., where her Josie Marcus books are set.
I know that there are many other authors who also donate to the non-profit of their choice. Tell us what you do?
Authors from Martha Grimes to Sara Paretsky to Nancy Cohen have given a portion of their book proceeds to worthy causes. The mystery community is generous.
I agree with Elaine. The mystery world is extremely generous — to each other and in reaching out to do good. I’ve heard rumors that just about every name in an Elmore Leonard book comes from a charity auction!
Elaine and Chris are totally right! I frequently donate pets’ names in my books to local animal groups (most recently, the wonderful Animal Rescue League of Boston) to auction off at fund-raisers, and I know many other authors offer similar naming rights. To people, too!
These are wonderful ideas, very creative! I’ve given gift baskets of autographed books to animal charities for silent auctions, but I can see that there would be a much bigger return if I try the techniques that Chris, Elaine and Clea have used so successfully. Very glad you posted this, Oline.
My daughter, Megan Abbott, writes grants and does development for a non-profit in East Harlem-Union Settlement, which services 15, 000 people. I encourage donations to this NPO whenever the opportunity arises. Union Settlement has been badly damaged by this downturn in the economy and many programs have been slashed. Thanks for reminding me. I can put this on my blog.
I’ve an Authors For Animals And Others page on my website, encouraging authors to donate signed copies of their books to favorite charities. The charities in turn auction, sell or pass along the books for a profit which they keep and put to good use in their organizations.
I also do author signings where a portion of my profits or sometimes total profit goes to animal foundations.
I also feed feral cats in my neighborhood and donate to various organizations.
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