Fiction can change lives.
I truly believe that because of the impact stories have had on me personally. Our brains are wired for story. Our souls long to be part ofa grand tale and thankfully, in Christ we are.
For that reason, and because my books are laced with eternal themes, it’s important to me to get the books into the hands of people who will actually read them. If I could afford to simply give them away, I would (and I CAN afford to do that with electronic versions, so if you know someone who could truly use one but can’t afford it, let me know.)
Book one in my fantasy fiction series
But I think I’ve found a way to expand the ministry reach of the series, even with paperback copies, in a self-perpetuating manner.
Fiction fundraisers
My idea is pretty simple: I would partner with non-profit groups I believe in (En Gedi Retreat is an example of one I’ve already approached) to see if they would be interested in promoting my first novel to their donor list, email list, or via their website and/or social media for a predetermined period of time. Over the timeframe of our partnership the non-profit gets all the profits from that book’s sales (after costs).
The benefits as I see them?
- I’m able to help a cause I believe in.
- The cause is able to provide a God-honoring, life-changing resource to their constituents.
- The book’s Amazon sales rank gets a boost, therefore becoming easier for all “searchers” to find on Amazon, thus extending the reach of the books organically.
- The other books in the series are placed on the radar of the entire list of constituents as a possible additional purchase in the future (it IS a series, after all).
- The increased income for me that comes from #4 enables me to do the same thing again for another non-profit, a even offer the books as a free gift in certain cases.
- The increased notoriety of the books that comes via increased Amazon sales and a growing fan base makes this sort of non-profit partnership more desirable for future non-profits to consider.
I really think this could work
Fiction fundraiser partnerships I’d be interested in…
There are lots of non-profits I’d love to support in this way. Some ideas I’ve had so far…
- Youth groups
- Crisis pregnancy centers
- Community missions or homeless shelters
- Churches
- Pastoral support agencies or retreat centers (like En Gedi)
- Christian camps
- Niche ministries like Dave Roever
I’ve never heard of anything like this being done but I see no reason it couldn’t work. And the better it works the more in-demand and more effective it could become.
Do you have any contacts with non-profit leaders or organizers who might be interested in this idea?
I’d love to chat with them about the possibilities. Now that book #3 is underway there’s even more reason for me to get excited about out of the box ways to use these fictional fantasy tales to change lives.
In order to make it easy for the non-profit organizers to feel good about the partnership, I’d want to gift them e-book copies of all the books in the series so they could know first-hand what they’d be promoting. I’m also eager to provide a clearly written agreement that outlines the partnership as well as verification from my Amazon sales amount of the non-profit’s “earnings” during the partnership period.
If you think you might be able to make some introductions that could help me get this idea rolling, here’s how you could do that:
- Share this post with your non-profit organizer/leader contacts.
- Introduce me to them via a cc: email – carey (AT) DragonSlayerBook (DOT) com.
- Share this post repeatedly on social media, along with your personal encouragement for others to read it. You may know somebody who knows the one person who could skyrocket the idea.
- Comment below to let me know who I could contact to get the ball rolling.
I would love to hear your thoughts about this idea. I’m sure somebody out there could improve upon my basic ideas. Comment in the section at the bottom of this post to offer your tweaks.
