Soon after The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril was published, Paul received a fan email from Col. George Reynolds of the First Army. He was shipping out to Iraq shortly, and was hoping for a signed bookplate before he left. They began a correspondence, and Paul figured he could help out in a really, really small way by shipping a few boxes of TCDCP to the Colonel, to be distributed to troops under his command. While Paul was happy to buy the books using his author discount, Simon & Schuster was even happier to donate the books to the cause.
Which gave Paul an idea.
Why not get other authors he knew to donate books? You know, not used books, or some box of remainders a bookstore was trying to get rid of. Were talking recently published, amazing, top-notch, bestselling books. Ones you won't just come across in a bookstore in Baghdad. Books that could provide our soldiers with a little escapism for a few hours.
Not surprisingly, they were happy to help. The Colonel and his staff quickly set up a system that gets the books from Fort Gillem in Georgia to various Morale and Welfare nodes throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. He sends every author a note of thanks and even sent back photos of his troops enjoying the books - see a copy of TCDCP in action below. Paul also sends a shout-out to every author on his Amazon blog. Meanwhile, the Army has officially given the effort the really cool and pulp name of Operation Warrior Library (lest anyone just think Paul was slapping himself on the back a little too hard).
But Paul has only been in this publishing thing for a short time, and he's run out of author friends to hit up.
So here's where you come in.
If you're an author and you would like to help out by donating a box of your books, please email us at warriorlibrary@gmail.com. And if you're not an author, why not email your favorite author and ask him or her to consider donating? It's a really rewarding way to get a whole slew of super new fans. (Publishers: We are also thrilled to accept boxes of mixed author books - Random House has already done so with a boxes of their recent greatest hits.)
And once again, many thanks to our first battalion of OWL authors:
And even bigger thanks to Colonel Reynolds, for letting us feel like we are doing something to help out. But most of all, thanks to the brave men and women stationed overseas.
NEW! Pulp Paperback
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Classic Hardcover!
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Bloody UK Edition!
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Locations from the novel
and photos from the
book tour:
| www.flickr.com |
{ site by J. Zissman }