I hope this question won't offend anyone

It sounds like a greedy and exploitive promotion plan

If you want to help the children help the children
If you want to promote the book promote the book

keep the two separate

IMO, something like this works much better if ALL proceeds from the sale of the book are also going to the charity. Paying yourself, and then asking buyers to donate to a cause muddies the moral waters a bit.

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't buy a book if I knew the author was self-publishing, and trying to promote his/herself by exploiting a charity. It's wrong and selfish and I think would not give you the kind of fame you want.

I don't have a problem with the negative opinions being expressed on this thread. It's a pretty reasonable response.

I do have a dissenting opinion, though.

If all proceeds go to the charitable mission (donation to homeless shelter or food bank, for instance) and all of your time (and maybe even some of your own money) also goes into that charitable fundraiser, I don't see a problem with it, as long as... and here's the big caveat... the charity comes first.

The fact that, organically, the idea is borne from the motivation of how to help yourself (via book promotion) doesn't bode well for the selflessness of the idea, and it's why people are recoiling from your idea.

If, however, you are able to restart your vision for this charitable effort, and you dedicate yourself to be sure that the focus of the charitable effort is on the needy, then I believe your conscience should rest just fine. I see nothing fatally wrong about your book being a secondary consideration of your activities. But if you're making out better than the people you purport to help, then that's pretty sketchy.

I guess the source of my opinion springs from much harder days in my life when having a roof over my head and food to eat was an iffy scenario from day to day. Quite frankly, if I received food as a donation, it didn't matter to me if the volunteer and/or organizer was a saint, a sinner working off some court-ordered community service, or an entrepreneur/corporation looking to enhance its public image by attaching its name/product to a charitable effort. My stomach couldn't tell the difference.

You don't have to be 100% altruistic to have a positive impact on the community, but I would suggest not displaying a stack of your books for sale at a food drive. Tact is key.

Here's what you do. First, get involved in those charities right now (if you're not already). In your bio talk about your commitment to those sorts of organizations. Blog about it a bit from time to time. Then, organize a fundraiser, in that fundraiser talk to other authors with similar themes, have them donate books, if we're talking about ebooks, set up a website where they can be purchased and the funds are 100% for the fundraiser. Tell local news, etc. Try to be the face of the event.

You'll
a) accomplish a good deed
b) promote your titles
c) get some name recognition

It might sound selfish to some, but hey, so what? There aren't many truly selfless deeds out there. Corporations donate for tax brakes and to improve public perception. Movie stars get involved in popular causes to bolster careers. Some companies implement Green Initiatives just to increase sales, and not because they love the environment.

Just make sure the money gets where it's supposed to get, and it helps if you are genuinely interested in the causes so it doesn't just look entirely self-serving. Continue to be involved in similar such events. As Fruitbat said, be careful how you do it. Consider perceptions.

I think it's wrong if you are hoping to make a profit while promoting your self-published book at the event.

I think it's okay to run an event for the charity, gently promote your book, and tell everyone that all proceeds from it's sale will go to the charity. However, I think you have to tie something else into the event that has the potential to realize proceeds that would be donated to the charity.

The proceeds of my book are dedicated to paying my yacht bills...yeah right!
Yours was a good question. It points to the difficulty of marketing and generating attention. I was considering getting on you tube as the naked poet..seeing if I could go viral.

Many companies work with charities. They do it because they want to help and do great things but there's always a reason behind it. If they are seen to be helping a charity then people will look at them in a favourable light.

The way to do it is to donate all the proceeds from book sales. (Another way to do it is to donate all profits, but this is looked on as being quite selfish.) If you are happy to make zero money on your book then I'd say go for it but maybe also do things for the charities that aren't in conjunction with your book (sponsored walk, donations etc.).

This could benefit you in the sense that it may make your name better known, people would be reading your work and it could spur them to buy your other books. I'd say this would work best with more than one book under your belt because people would read your book to help charity, enjoy it and buy other stuff by you.

Rosalyn_Kae said:

Okay, I'm hoping this question won't offend anybody but I've been trying to come up with an effective way to promote my new ebook and I was wondering if it'd be in bad taste to maybe start a little charity fundraiser in connection with my book.

Let me explain. See the charity I'm hoping to start coincides with some themes of my book. For example, my book has themes of homelessness and children being homeless so would it be offensive or bad to start a charity to raise funds for homeless children of the world while at the same time promoting my book? I'm typing it now and it's starting to sound like a greedy and exploitive promotion plan, but I wanted someone else's opinion.

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The bolded bits: starting a charity probably takes a lot of work/time/dedication. Which, if done properly, will suck all of your time, leaving little for writing.
What most people are suggesting is working with an established charity, which would get your name out there, while doing some good. And when you dump the charity for some other marketing device, there will be people who will still be running the charity, and not leaving people in the lurch.

A couple years ago, I was contacted by a group putting together an anthology of Phantom of the Opera short stories for self-publication. They wanted a few of my stories for the book. Their deal was, all proceeds of the anthology would go to a charity that supports porphyria, the disease that the Phantom quite possibly suffered from. It neatly tied the charity in with the stories and gave them an interesting hook when selling the book. The authors involved donated a lot of time and energy (and their stories) to make the book the best possible, knowing fully that they would never see a dime. Every penny went to the charity. Now, they're working on a second anthology, with the same plan in mind.

So, it can be done. It just has to be done very carefully.

FWIW, one of my favorite people wrote/photo-illustrated a little gift book. She donates part of the proceeds to cat-related charities and her launch party was in conjunction with animal shelters that received a share of the net from the event. I thought it was all terrific, and still do, and have bought at least eight copies so far (one inscribed to my wife and myself to keep, the rest, autographed, for gifts when occasions come up on short notice).

Promotional gimmick? Readers can judge that. Meanwhile, good book benefitting good causes. Win-win in my view.

--Ken

Two things I don't understand.

1. Why would you start up a charity instead of working with an established charity? I would think that starting a charity from the ground up, especially one with an international element, would be an extremely complicated and expensive endeavor.

2. Why do people think that it must be all or nothing? If you approach a charity and get permission to use its name to promote your book, then I would think whatever percentage is acceptable to them should be acceptable to the general public.

Fistly - starting a charity is difficult and time consuming and there are a lot of legal issues that need to be met and you'll need to register the charity, produce accounts etc. It's easier to work with an already established charity.

Secondly - I think that donating some or all of the proceeds can be a really good thing. A local school here had all the kids write a poem or a short story and then they self published them in a book format and sold them to raise money for a childrens charity. It was a great success and they made alot of money doing it.

Alpha Echo said:

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't buy a book if I knew the author was self-publishing, and trying to promote his/herself by exploiting a charity. It's wrong and selfish and I think would not give you the kind of fame you want.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure it's selfish or mean. We see movies and actors promoting products or programs all the time. And you can't tell me they don't benefit from doing so.

I'm not sure it's so black and white. Question is in my mind, is it ethical?

I understand the idea here that it's not really charitable, but functionally it seems better than no donations whatsoever.

ResearchGuy said:

FWIW, one of my favorite people wrote/photo-illustrated a little gift book. She donates part of the proceeds to cat-related charities and her launch party was in conjunction with animal shelters that received a share of the net from the event. I thought it was all terrific, and still do, and have bought at least eight copies so far (one inscribed to my wife and myself to keep, the rest, autographed, for gifts when occasions come up on short notice).

Promotional gimmick? Readers can judge that. Meanwhile, good book benefitting good causes. Win-win in my view.

--Ken

Click to expand...

Dean Koontz wrote a memoir about life with his dog, "A Big Little Life" that came out a couple years ago. He got the dog from a charity over ten years before, and had been a contributor to it for many years already. He donated the book's proceeds to the charity.

Of course he's a well-established writer, doesn't need the money for the book, and since it's got his name on it it's bound to sell. That's a very different situation than the OP.

OP, I'm thinking it might be better, rather that starting a charity yourself or tying your book to a specific charity, if you had an appendix in the back of the book that listed charities that help the homeless, and encourage readers to donate. You might also investigate them yourself and write some words about what you find out, as far as exactly what they do to help.

Personal opinion alert: That dog book. OMG. Snore.

I would agree with several of the posters that starting a charity/non-profit organization to promote your ebook = not a good idea. I live in a town where non-profits are our cottage industry (highest per capita in the US!), and am involved in one too many right now. Establishing a new non-profit is very expensive and time-consuming. You'd be better off hiring a publicist and paying them the thousands of dollars in legal fees required to get the IRS to give you official 501c3 charity status.

One thing to keep in mind is that non-profits have two major issues right now because of the economy. Funding is down, requests for service are up. Way up. I know executive directors (the most popular title for people who run non-profits) who would slit their grandmother's throat for a fistful of grant dollars. Seriously. Some of these people scare me.

Non-profits don't have the least problem in exploiting anyone in order to get funding or "in-kind services". Contributions and grant dollars are as important to them as the "bottom line" is in the corporate world, and not having to pay for professional service is how they stretch those dollars.

You would be far better off finding an established non-profit abd talking to whomever does their fund development and suggest doing a book launch as a fundraiser, with X of the proceeds going to the charity. The word "fundraiser" will be enough to get them interested.

Their staff and board members will work with you to organize it and they'll send out invitations to their own mailing list of patrons and contributors. It won't be cheap, you'll need to chip in for the launch party, but then it is your book. Fortunately, because it's being done in partnership with a non-profit, you should be able to get discounts, or "in-kind" donations.

One thing to keep in mind when you are calculating the cost, is that charity fundraisers tend to get good media coverage, especially if the organization has a good relationship with the local news outlets.

Last thing, although you say you are promoting an ebook, people like to have something tangible to take home from a fundraiser. Have printed copies to sell and sign.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking about for my book launch party. I was just doing to do it strictly commercial, but I think I'll donate a portion of the proceeds to a non-profit I'm involved with that could use the money. There will be finger food and wine and a DJ, and it will be fun and help support one of my causes-an organization that helps improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Focus

I have a story in one of two anthology books to be released on Tuesday. All proceeds go to Save the Tata's. All the authors involved have been promoting, including writing about the reasons we want to be involved with this project and charity. They will be available both POD and ebook. It's the second time I've donated a story for a charity. The last was a collection of stories sent out via pdf in return for an unspecified donation to an autism charity.

While I'm happy to donate work for charity whenever I have the time, I wouldn't dream of attempting to start one myself. Not only are they hard to get going, fund raising is relentless.

If you honestly wanted to help a charity then you could include a message or something inside your book and dedicate it to the charity.

Of course using a charity to get sales is selfish and not a right thing to do!

Using a charity to get sales isn't a selfish thing to do if both the charity and you benefit. You get sales, they get donations. How is that bad?

It is all in how you do it. If you make out like you are exploiting the charity, then no. But if you make it seem that you are working together with the charity to help raise awareness, then it is a boon.