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

[EJRuek]

I'll participate. 

[Edward C. Patterson]

Here's some more detail on how this all works (by popular demand):

1- I'll maintain a list of service personnel email addresses as they come in to me.
2- Authors should have available a DRM Free Kindle compatible version of your book or books.
3- If you don't have that availble, the easiest (and beneficial way to you as well) is to put your books up at Smashwords.com. And then download a free copy to yourself.
(Elmore has suggested using Smashword's coupon system, which is an option. I will be emailing my books directly, however, anyway that you can get the book to the troop, is fine)
4- Once you have the book in place, let me know. I'd like to have your email address. Right now, I'm using PMs, but as this takes off (and I have no doubt that it will), it will be easier for me to email new troop email addresses out to all the participating authors in one email.
5- Once the author has the email address, just send the book(s) - if many ZIP - and put in your subject line: Operation Kindle Book Drop. Whatever you want to put in the body of the email is up to you, and I guarantee that among the obvious good deed done stuff, you will get a response from the troop. I plan to save mine, to read on those days when I get a 1-star review and feel that I have failed somewhere. 

Thanks all for the response. Now I need to get the troops lined up. Right now it's only on an Amazon thread, but readers here can participate by getting the word out or helping with nifty links (thanks Ann of Arlington).

Edward C. Patterson

[Leslie]

Count me in, Ed. You have my email address.

L

[LauraB]

It is a shame we can't get a way to buy books for them. Can you purchase gift certificates and then can they buy them with them from the store. I think your authors idea is great, but I don't have a creative cell in my body, but I'd help if I knew a way. I used to do Soldiers Angels, and had  a soldier I'd send boxes and letters to every 2 weeks. (He came home safely.) To bad we can't adopt a soldier for kindle   

[Edward C. Patterson]

Well Red. That's good idea, but I'm not sure how to get coupons or administer it. If someone wants to run with that, we an certainly see if any participating troop would like it. The original premise was that deployed personnel with Kindles generally do not have whispernet available, and touch-n-go access to computers. So ordering books with a coupon miht make it touher. I don;t know.

Ed Patterson

[Ann in Arlington]

If you have a person's e-mail address, you can send them an Amazon gift certificate.

Hurdles:  If I receive an unsolicited e-mail, I'm not likely to open it.  And, it's spamming to send that sort of thing to someone who hasn't asked for it.  Though, perhaps Ed can find out if this is something the guys and gals would want.  Also, I'm not sure how much access troops in the field have.  I have a young AF officer friend who gets e-mail time, but, as far as I know, it is on a Command computer.  He doesn't have his own laptop with him and, if he did, he couldn't hook up to the military network with it.  Using a USAF computer, he is likely limited in what he is allowed to download.  I assume Ed's contact has that problem sorted for d/l books for Kindle.  If there is a USO presence where they are stationed, they will usually have 'open' computers available for use by the troops.

Other ways to help:  I believe the USO will still act as a go between if you want to send care packages but don't know anyone in particular.  Used to be "any serviceman" would work but that's frowned upon now.  Better to adopt a soldier from a list of those who have said they'd like to receive such packages.  If USO does not maintain it, I bet they know who does.  Dear Abby used to, at least around Christmastime.

Incidentally, paper books are also a good thing to send since they can then be passed around and shared.  Again, if there's a USO presence they maintain an honor system trading library and would doubtlessly welcome any influx of new material!  Paperbacks are better because they're lighter to ship/store/carry.  

[JimC1946]

Ed, I'm in!

I'll PM you my email address.

[kellyabell]

Ed,
I'd be glad to participate.  I have the copies of my books in PDF or they are on Amazon in Kindle format.  I'm not sure how to get it to them for free.  If you can let me know I'll be glad to send them.  I also wouldn't mind donating a paperback as well.  Let me know what I can do.
Kelly Abell

[Kristen Tsetsi]

Here's some more detail on how this all works (by popular demand):

1- I'll maintain a list of service personnel email addresses as they come in to me.
2- Authors should have available a DRM Free Kindle compatible version of your book or books.
3- If you don't have that availble, the easiest (and beneficial way to you as well) is to put your books up at Smashwords.com. And then download a free copy to yourself.
(Elmore has suggested using Smashword's coupon system, which is an option. I will be emailing my books directly, however, anyway that you can get the book to the troop, is fine)
4- Once you have the book in place, let me know. I'd like to have your email address. Right now, I'm using PMs, but as this takes off (and I have no doubt that it will), it will be easier for me to email new troop email addresses out to all the participating authors in one email.
5- Once the author has the email address, just send the book(s) - if many ZIP - and put in your subject line: Operation Kindle Book Drop. Whatever you want to put in the body of the email is up to you, and I guarantee that among the obvious good deed done stuff, you will get a response from the troop. I plan to save mine, to read on those days when I get a 1-star review and feel that I have failed somewhere. 

Thanks all for the response. Now I need to get the troops lined up. Right now it's only on an Amazon thread, but readers here can participate by getting the word out or helping with nifty links (thanks Ann of Arlington).

Edward C. Patterson

Edward - I may be looking at this too simplistically (or not understanding something), but could I send you PDF versions of my books? (Is that what mobi is? I can be embarrassingly computer illiterate).

[Elmore Hammes]

I've sent The Twenty Dollar Bill to a couple soldiers now, and that has made me think about this some more.

I believe the use of a promotional code through Smashwords would be the ideal method of letting the troops have our books for free. This has several advantages:

1) No worries about their personal e-mails getting passed around - the list of books and their codes can be given to appropriate personnel in the armed forces, to pass around or post within their own sites.
2) They can choose from multiple file formats, so it could be used by soldiers who do not have Kindles
3) The codes can be set up with an expiration date, so authors don't have to worry about their books being given for free in perpetuity
4) It would also allow the authors to track downloads within their account - nice to know that the troops are taking advantage of the offer

This of course has problems as any solution would, but I think it is less cumbersome than having each author e-mail each soldier on an individual basis. I know that method allows for more personal contact, but it also raises some privacy issues, as well as logistical issues if this really takes off (which I hope it does).

Elmore Hammes

[William Woodall]

I would be glad to send my three books to any soldier free of charge.  My email address is bluearkansascowboy@yahoo.com

Just let me know what I need to do.  Great idea!

[Edward C. Patterson]

Elmore:

It's the author's choice, if that works out better. For me, with 13 books, its a problem for the recipient and maintenance of 13 codes. Easier for me to just zip them up and ship them out.

As of now, wwe have 12 authors participating, 8 of which sent books already, and 4 in the process of getting ready.

Ed Patterson

[Edward C. Patterson]

I have sent the following message to the USO:

"A grass roots project has started where Independent authors who publish their books on the Kindle are donating gift copies to deployed Armed Service personnel who own a Kindle and can receive eBooks via a computer to transfer to their device. So far, we have an interested group of supportive authors. The information on the project can be accessed at

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,13352.0.html

We have a few Service Personnel already receiving books. However, it has been suggested the the USO could assist here to get the word out. Can you assist us in this project?

Thanks You
Edward C. Patterson"

Also, we have had responses from the Independant Author's Guild (IAG), in particulr the award winning author, Lloyd Lofthouse, who word I greatly admire. I've forwarded him the poop (I've reverted to private Gibbs), and Kindle Book Illustrator Chuck Austen joined the fray also.

Ed P

[William Woodall]

Okay, I've sent mine. 

[LCEvans]

This is a wonderful idea. I'm not on smashwords, but I'm working on that this week. Please PM me and let me know what I need to do to get my books out there to the troops.

[Ann in Arlington]

It might sound silly, Ed, but you might want to explain a little bit what a Kindle is.  Also, I assume your stories are readable on competing devices. . . .I don't know if you want to mention that or not. . . .

[Edward C. Patterson]

They are, but I kept it Kindle for the time being, because the other devices are not very prevelant yet. I someone says, I use a Sony Reade, why I can get one of those to them.

Ed Patterson

[William Woodall]

Ann has a good point.  If I could make a suggestion, I think it might be a good idea if people sent their books in Plain Text format, since those files are readable by almost anything.  Soldiers with Kindles can read TXT files without needing to convert them, but so can those with Sony or Palm or any of the other e-readers.  So can people who don't have a reader at all and just use a computer screen.  The formatting isn't as nice, but it has the ability to reach a lot more people.

If you'll convert your original word file to Plain Text, then remove all the hard returns except at the ends of paragraphs (VERY important!!), and then insert an extra line (by using another hard return) between paragraphs, then the Kindle formatting will look fairly good without your having to go to a lot of trouble.

[Edward C. Patterson]

That's the beauty of Smashwords. I does all those conversion for you and you can either send or make the format aailable to the troop. However, if the troops need to do anything other than transfer the work to their device, things will get to complicated. Smashwords handles text, html, pdf, kindle, lit (Sony), ePub ( B&N-Fictionwise and others). I want to keep this a simple as possible.

Ed P

[Edward C. Patterson]

Wow, I'm breathless.

Ed Patterson

[William Woodall]

Breathless about what?

[Edward C. Patterson]

I should have said, zonked!

Ed P

[Kristen Tsetsi]

Carol's Aquarium has been sent to a soldier - yay! Wow, Smashwords does give you all kinds of download options. What a great service.

("Homefront" would have been sent, too, but I wanted the soldier to tell me, first, whether he wanted it. Consdering the subject matter, he might already have had enough "deployment" to read about it - even if it's from the opposite point of view.)

[Edward C. Patterson]

Thanks Kristen. Looking forward to meeting you on"phone" for Stacy Cochrane's Friday author hook up.

Ed Patterson

[RJ Keller]

What an awesome idea!
(For the record, I discovered this thread via Elmore Hamme's Facebook page. Thanks!)