Books to Give, Books to Get.

Hi Meltingpot readers,

I'm going to ask for a couple of favors today. All for a worthy cause of course.

First, I want you all to go visit, Color Online today and see what great work they're doing supporting multicultural authors and young girls at risk in their Detroit community. And then when you're feeling like, "Wow, what can I do to support such an amazing organization?" You can send a book to their Summer Book Drive. You can buy one from their Wish List at Powell's online book store, or send a gently used book directly to their library. All the details are on the site. Try adding them to your list of links.

I know I'm going to send ColorOnline a few books that I have that folks who have won here at the Meltingpot never claimed. If that's you, you only have a few days to send me your address at myamericanmeltingpot@gmail.com. Check back to see if you were one of the lucky winners recently.

And speaking of winners. I need some help, so I can be a literary winner. Meaning, I have to get the word out about Kinky Gazpacho being available in paperback or I will never sell another book. It's all about numbers people. And since my publisher has set aside zero dollars for the publicity of the paperback, it all falls on me. This is typical for authors who are not superstars, like Stephanie Meyer or Stephen King. So, I am not surprised, but it still is daunting.

So, faithful readers, I'm trying to go about this Obama style. I'm going to the people and asking for help. Not money, just help. If you have a blog, Facebook or Twitter account, would you please post about Kinky Gazpacho? It doesn't have to be a review. In fact, I don't even care if you've read it. You can just mention that it exists.

For example, you could write: "Hey, there's this new book out in paperback called Kinky Gazpacho. I wonder if it's about hairy soup?"

Or "Anybody hear about this new book out in paperback called Kinky Gazpacho? I wonder if it's about weird sex acts in Spain?"

Or my all time favorite: "Have your heard about this book Kinky Gazpacho? I heard it's just like Eat, Pray Love, only the woman is Black not blond and she goes to Spain instead of Italy. And she gets married not divorced. But other than that, very similar story."

Honestly I don't care. The rule of thumb is that if people hear a name seven times, then it finally sticks. So I want to see if I can at the very least make a lot of people aware that Kinky Gazpacho exists. That way when they wander into a bookstore or library and see the book, they'll go, "Oh there's the book I keep hearing about. I simply must read it." See how this works. Eventually, if it really goes viral, it might make it all the way to Chicago and into the ears of one Ms. Oprah Winfrey and then, my dear readers, we will know that we made something happen! That we changed the course of history. We gave a relatively unknown author who had a story to share a chance to speak to millions of people. I think we can do this. Yes We Can!

Thank you so much for your help and let's get this Kinky revolution started!

Peace!