There is a dilemma all publishers and authors are faced with at one time or another — unsold books. Sometimes there are a few, and sometimes there are a lot. In either case they will be returned and take up storage space. Since all books purchased by book stores are on consignment, publishers and authors are faced with the inevitable return of unsold books. Due to the high cost of warehousing, unless authors buy their surplus of unsold books (generally at a reduced cost), publishers often have those books shredded. Authors who have either bought their overstocked books, have been published through a partnership or co-operative publisher or have self-published must decide whether to warehouse those books until they are sold or donate them to a worthy cause. On a much smaller scale, we all have decisions to make on our overstocked personal bookshelves.
Once these books are more than you can manage, what do you do with them?
There several options authors can use to unclutter their lives, Darlene opted to do something different during these difficult financial times. She decided to donate them to our men and woman in service to our nation. So Darlene ask me contact Operation Gratitude. President and Founder Carolyn Blashek accepted the donation on behalf of the troops to be distributed in care packages to our brave men and women, as a reminder from home they are not forgotten. Darlene received a Certificate of Appreciation, and the exhilarating feeling you can only achieve when you know in your heart you did the right thing.
Darlene and I both highly recommend Operations Gratitude however, there are many other needy charities, schools, libraries, etc. you can choose to donate your books to. You can simply search ‘book donations’ on your browser and find
an array organizations that would love to receive books. Here are just a few: Friends of Libraries in your local area, Veterans’ Association, Homeless Shelters, local school media centers, church groups, BooksThroughBars.org (they have rules on reading material so you’ll need to contact them first), and don’t forget Goodwill or Salvation Army.
As you can see there are a multitude of places where your books can make a difference and touch the lives of those less fortunate, help raise a lost soul, or make a soldier whose a long ways from home smile. Your charitable donation will put your books into the hands of many readers. What better marketing can you receive, than word of mouth from one of the many happy readers who receives a book, and your books shelf placement will span oceans and continents depending on who you donated to.
So don’t take up valuable space storing books that can make a difference to the needy or lonely. Your generosity will save you warehouse fees, will make a difference in someone’s life, is tax-deductible in most cases, and best of all - you will feel great! Follow Darlene’s lead and give books, with love, to a charity of your choice.
~Kathy Porter