As you know if you’ve read my blog for a while, I’m a big supporter of our military troops. I try to do anything I can to thank the brave men and women who risk their lives daily to protect our freedoms.
So I am excited about Operation EBook Drop (OED), a program through which authors can offer their books to deployed soldiers for free.
Updated: in early December 2009, Operation EBook Drop started its own Web site and forum at Operation EBook Drop.
It started simply enough when an author and a deployed soldier met online. The soldier mentioned that he had a Kindle
but couldn’t download books from Amazon because the Whispernet didn’t work in Iraq. The author, Ed Patterson, offered to send the soldier a copy of each of his books.
Then Ed invited other authors on the Kindleboards forum to join him. Other soldiers asked for books, and the program grew quickly. As soon as I heard about it, I contacted my clients and asked if they wanted to join me in this project. Most of them did, and I have been busy adding their books and mine. We make the books available for sale on Smashwords.com, an e-book publisher and distributor. We then create a coupon for military members that gives them a 100% discount. I contacted Ed to get my clients and me added as OED authors. Ed sends us the names of military members requesting free e-books, and we e-mail the soldiers with information about our books and the Smashwords discount.
E-books from Smashwords can be read on a computer, Kindle
Please pass on the information about Operation EBook Drop to any members of the military you know and encourage other authors to contribute their books.
Logo Credit: From the Imagination and Graphic Artistry of K.A. M’Lady & P.M. Dittman