Today I have a quick update as well as a request. First, the update: as you may recall, a couple of months ago I produced an eBook, The Heron and the Tortoise, using the free publishing service LeanPub. Thanks again for everybody’s feedback on the free version that I made available to readers of the blog while I was working out the final typo corrections, etc.

LeanPub provides free tools to create an eBook, and then they also provide a marketplace in which to sell your book (you are also free to see them anywhere else, too). They have a very generous royalty plan for authors: they take just a 50 cent fee plus 10% of the purchase price, with the rest going to the author. That’s a far cry from many other services, which are often nearly the opposite of that plan for the authors. So I like that about LeanPub.

But the other thing I like is that they also offer a way for the author to share the royalties directly with a “Cause”.  As an author, you can choose to support a Cause with your book, deciding what percentage of the royalties (10%-100%) will be paid to that Cause. Since LeanPub is a relatively new service, however, when I went to look into this, there weren’t many Causes already registered with them. However, they suggested that if you wanted to support a Cause that wasn’t already listed, you should ask the organization to register with LeanPub.

Now, one of the groups Chris and I have supported in the past is OxFam. So, I fired off an email to that organization, asking them if they would be willing to complete the free registration to be listed as a Cause on LeanPub.

And what do you know – they did it! Oxfam America is now a registered Cause on LeanPub. Yay.

So, I have now set up The Heron and The Tortoise book to support OxFam, with 100% of the royalties from sales of the eBook going directly to Oxfam. The suggested purchase price is now $6.12, which allows $5 to go directly to Oxfam.  On the LeanPub website, you can also name your own price if you want when you buy a copy of the book. The book is available in all eBook formats, including for Kindle, iPad, and pdf.

Again, 100% of the royalties go directly to Oxfam.

Now, the request: Even though most of you already have gotten a free copy of the book, I hope you’ll check it out and maybe buy a copy, and/or also pass along a link to the book to friends and family. As always, I would ask that you NOT link directly to this blog post from Facebook or Twitter. Instead please pass along this link that goes directly to the book page on LeanPub: https://leanpub.com/heronfable.

Thanks in advance for your support!