1,235 Authors Gift over 3 Million Coupons to our Troops - Operation eBook Drop

[Ricky Sides]

Hi there Belle,

You're right it is exciting. I find it especially exciting when I hear from the troops

Welcome aboard and welcome to the community.

sincerely,
Ricky

[plumboz]

Ed,

I don't know if this is a duplication of something you are already trying, but I sent a note to the USO a few days ago just through their "contact us" thingie on their website.

I am one of the many authors participating in a program designed to get free ebooks to troops stationed overseas. It is called Operation eBook Drop and it was started after a chance encounter on a Kindle message board between an author and a serviceman who uses a Kindle ebook reader. Now there are over 170 writers and several publisher involved as well as Smashwords.com, the leading website for mulit-format ebook publishing.

You may have already heard from other writers who are part of this attempt to offer our thanks to our troops. I simply wanted to add my voice in hopes that the USO will assist us in getting the word out so more troops can sign up for their own free ebooks. There are a lot of authors representing a wide variety of subject matter and interests. One thing we share is a desire to be part of supporting our men and women stationed far from home.

Thanks,
Alan Hutcheson
author of the comic novel Boomerang


And just got this reply. I hope somebody there can assist with spread the word.

Dear Mr. Hutcheson,

We have forwarded your message to the appropriate individual inside the USO to be addressed.  You should receive a response directly from that individual directly.

 

Sincerely,

Ann Sagle

Senior Manager Donor Services



The logo is terrific. Soon as I have a chance (these things take me a while) I will try to get it incorporated into my blog.

Best to all,
Alan

[Edward C. Patterson]

Thanks Alan. My email went over to the Appropriate person to handle this seven weeks ago.

Ed Patterson

[Ricky Sides]

Outstanding effort Alan. 

[Edward C. Patterson]

Lunch time - - - - added 4 5 more NEW authors (there a few more in the wings) = 195 196.

Ed Patterson

[ldenglish]

Finally got this onto my website.

http://members.tripod.com/linda_english/lindawelchsworlds/id17.html

[Edward C. Patterson]

Love it.

ECP

[BTackitt]

How many total troops signed up now Ed?

[Edward C. Patterson]

Forty-two (but some of these are multi distributions, like our submarine and the Marine Special Forces).

Ed Patterson

[KA MLady]

Hi Ed - I just wanted to stop in (now that I figured out how to use this thing...) and thank you for all that you are doing and for giving me and my sister the opportunity to be a part of something so inspiring, beautiful and amazing. 

I have a 17 y/o who is highly considering enlisting after highschool (which worries the hell out of this mom) but there is nothing that instills a greater sense of pride either.

Blessings to you and our troops.  May the angels watch over all of you. ~ K.

K.A. M'Lady

[Edward C. Patterson]

K A M'Lady

Thank you for your beautiful artwork and donating your time to designing our logo.

 

Ed atterson

[KA MLady]

A small offering considering.  You need anything - just holler. 

Always my best ~ K.


Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia

[Belle]

I talked about it on FaceBook and it's getting some positive response.  Is it alright if I post your email addy, Ed, for military and/or authors to get in touch with you?  (Though I'm not sure how you'd verify military).

Please let me know.

Belle

PS  I scaled down the logo to fit on my web page using Adobe CS3 (so the letters don't get fuzzy).  If anyone needs a smaller logo, please let me know.

[Edward C. Patterson]

Yes, Belle - my email address is fine to give out or else we can't get the troops in. The downsize is I get a dozen ADs for Viagra every day, but at my age, that can't be all bad.   

The logo I gave out was already reduced. The original is a high resolution print file (CMYK). I translated it to RGB and reduced it to /16th of its orginal (which made it big still). It' great to start with a highRes print file. You can do som much with it. (I'm a certified Photshopper from when I was Dun & Bradstreet RMS's webmaster).

Thanks
Ed Patterson

[Belle]

Thank you, Ed.  I FB'd and tweeted.   Hope it brings in some folks.

[Belle]

I just had a soldier's wife tell me she requested the 'code' for her husband from you, Ed. (He's being deployed in a day or two).  Would that be possible?  Instead of having a code for each title of each author and having the reader become inundated with emails, what if the participating Smashwords titles had ONE code?  There could be an icon beside them so the soldier would know it's free to him/her and they could peruse their choices according to genre, etc.  The author could have control of how long the coupon lived.

I'm just throwing this out there (like it hasn't already been discussed).

[sierra09]

I'm sure Ed would have more details to explain it but unless Smashwords was willing to set-up a page just for those in the program and rewrite their codes or something I don't think that can be done since each code is generated per story. Anything else would confuse Smashwords system and other technical things.

[Edward C. Patterson]

Sorry to say (or glad to say), there's no single coupon to access, and that's because every author is responsible or their own books. They can ignore a request if they want, or they can ofer all their books, some of their books, one of their books and add books in the future. That's not my business. My business is to assure that each author has the opportunity to provide the troops with their eBooks and the troops can respond back with feedback. If some company comes along and streamlines a system whereby one oupon or one access get the troops access to all the boks, I'm sure that there might be one or two books only. In my humble opinion, this is the est way to handle it. Happy troops, happy authors. I'm am posiive that his could be over engineered into oblivion, only because I have seen many a good effort get organized into dust.

Edward C. Patterson

[Edward C. Patterson]

Just set up 2 new Troops. And I mispoke earlier on the count. Including the Marine Special Forces Program and the USS Oklahoma City, we have 50 troops signed up. Math is not my srong suit. I write novels. hat do you want from me? 

Also received an urgent call from Operation desert Swap (for DTB) for 10 more authors (or non-authors also). For anyone interested in helping them out (I shipped The Jade Owl to my adopted troop last Friday), here's the website. You can contact the leader there.

http://operationdesertswap.webs.com/

Edward C. Patterson

[Edward C. Patterson]

From Richard Turner

http://richardturner52.com/2009/10/27/supporting-our-troops-with-free-books-operation-ebook-drop/

Edward C. Patterson

[Belle]

Ed and Sierra - thanks for 'splaining things to me.    

Richard's blog is good, too.

[Edward C. Patterson]

I just received this from MasterSergeant Jeff Stack, Weather Loadmaster with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" a group that's deployed outside the US every month.

"Hi,
Wow, this is incredible, I am amazed at the response. Thank you sooo much. I will slowly respond to all of the emails that I have gotten from all of the authors. Some of them were personalized, which is awesome. Thank you sooo much. This will definitely pass the time.
Jeff"

I expect this entire squadron will be hooked onto Operation EBook Drop soon

Ed Patterson

[Anne Frasier]

please add my name to list.  i uploaded my book to Smashwords.  Sorry, for being obtuse.  The threads are all so long -- do I sent the coupon code to someone, or are you just making a list of authors and email addresses for soldiers to contact?

[Elmore Hammes]

please add my name to list.  i uploaded my book to Smashwords.  Sorry, for being obtuse.  The threads are all so long -- do I sent the coupon code to someone, or are you just making a list of authors and email addresses for soldiers to contact?

Anne, just send Ed Patterson an e-mail ( edwpat     at     att.net ) and he will send you the list of troops that you can then send your coupon code to. Then Ed will send you any new troops as they sign up.

[Anne Frasier]

Anne, just send Ed Patterson an e-mail ( edwpat     at     att.net ) and he will send you the list of troops that you can then send your coupon code to. Then Ed will send you any new troops as they sign up.

done!  thank you!