Jon S. Lewis has stopped by to share with us about his amazing campaigns, which includes the previous Project Book Babe where he along with several other authors helped raise $150,000 to fight breast cancer. Jon is now back with another venture, an anthology of short stories set in a magical world that will help raise money for both breast cancer research and Nathan Fillion's Kids Need to Read. And he'll tell you how you can help as well.
GUEST POST
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What is this all about?
Why I’m Publishing My
Own Book
For years I talked about publishing my own books, even after
publishing nine novels with three of the biggest publishers in the world. I
have an entrepreneurial streak and I’ve admired the way authors like Amanda
Hocking, JA Konrath, Barry Eisler and Hugh Howey have taken charge of their
careers. I want to do the same, but I’ve been afraid to make the jump.
I made excuses about my publishers getting upset or I’d get
worried that fans would think I wasn’t successful if I had to self-publish. But
I’m finally going to do it and I haven’t been this excited about writing since
I signed my first publishing deal with Scholastic.
Amanda Hocking Paved
the Way
You’ve probably heard about Amanda Hocking and how she became
a literary rock star by selling over a million self-published books in less
than a year. I love Amanda. She’s from my home state of Minnesota, but I don’t
expect to follow her footsteps and this new venture publishing my own books isn’t
a get rich quick scheme.
The publishing industry is going through seismic changes,
and thanks to digital publishing authors can go straight to market with a
professionally edited and designed novel much faster than a publisher can. So
I’m going to do it. I’m going to publish my own book, but I wanted to find a
way to include some things that are important to me in the marketing campaign.
Stephenie Meyer,
Project Book Babe and Why I Want to Give Back
A couple years ago a friend found out she had breast cancer
but she couldn’t afford the treatment. She happened to be the children’s book
buyer at Changing Hands Bookstore and she not only helped launch my career, but
she’s been an amazing champion for authors like Aprilynne
Pike, Lisa McMann and many others.
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| Credit: twifans.com |
I had the privilege of teaming up with Stephenie to create an
event called Project Book Babe that helped raise enough money for Faith to pay
for her medical care and living expenses while she went through her treatment.
I’m happy to report that she’s alive and well, but there are thousands of other
women who aren’t getting the care they need.
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| Credit: greygriffins fb |
So as I finish writing Grey
Griffins: Night of Dragons, some author friends are writing an anthology of
short stories set in the same Grey Griffins world. That means I’ll be releasing
two books instead of one, and we’re going to donate 100% of the profits from the
anthology to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/)
and Kids Need to Read (http://www.kidsneedtoread.org/).
And these aren’t just any authors … they’re some of the
biggest names in the industry today:
The One Drawback with
Self-Publishing
Each short story in the Grey Griffins anthology will be
professionally edited. It will also have its own professional cover painted by
Scott Altmann (http://www.scottaltmann.com/),
which means that the final product will look every bit as good as what the
major publishing houses produce. But the one drawback with publishing your own
book is managing the upfront costs.
Crowdsourcing with
Kickstarter
It’s why I’m running a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for the artwork and the editorial for the
anthology as well as Grey Griffins: Night
of Dragons.
Crowd-sourcing a book is basically a way for readers to
pre-order it so we can invest the money into making the product. And pledge
levels for the campaign start at only $1. There are some fun rewards like
custom Grey Griffins short stories, collectible character trading cards and
sketches from the cover artist.
For the writers out there, we’re offering the chance for a
query letter review, a partial manuscript review, and even a Skype brainstorm
session where I’ll help you come up with ideas for your story.
You Can Even Get Your
Story Published in the Grey Griffins Anthology
I have a passion for helping new writers break into the
industry, and I thought the best way to do that with this project was to give
someone a chance to get a short story published in the anthology. Your story
will end up in the same book with all those New
York Times bestselling authors. If it sounds like something you’re
interested in, you can find the submission guidelines here: bit.ly/gg-anthology.
Thank you
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your
consideration to back the Kickstarter campaign. I’m going to need your help to
make this project a reality, and I know that together we can do something
incredible!
Find out more by visiting the following links:
Twitter: @jonslewisFacebook: facebook.com/greygriffins
Blog: http://www.greygriffins.com
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