Chion raises money for orphanage

I’ve recently been enjoying promoting Chion among the children at Clounagh Junior High. There are around thirty classes in the school. What I do is individually hijack each class’s library period and spend half an hour talking about the book. Five years ago, when I did this with my first novel, Ulterior, I quickly learned that the best approach was to be interactive. So, I tell the first few pages of the novel in my own words, then I ask questions about the apocalyptic scenario - questions designed to lead them to the conclusion that there is no hope of rescue and that everyone in the story is going to die. Then I throw them a life-line. I say, “One person figures out a way to survive indefinitely.” By this stage, they’re dying to know what the solution is. Do I tell them? Heck, no! The whole point of the discussion is to get them interested enough to buy the book. And many of them do.

So far, I’ve sold around 100 copies to the pupils. And I’m happy to report that this now takes me beyond my initial print-run of 250 books, into a second lot. Any books that I sell through the school are priced at the usual £4, except £2 from that is being donated to Katya Vanchev Orphanage in Bulgaria. So, there’s £200 raised already, and there’ll be more, with the new intake of kids due in September. What’s my profit? Mere pennies, if anything, as each book costs £1.75 (plus shipping) to produce.

Katya Vanchev is an orphanage that the school has an ongoing affiliation with. Each year, the children who take part in the annual ski tip visit the place, bringing money raised from various school activities.

I’m a lot happier about raising money for a small orphanage than for a faceless charity. With Ulterior, I raised money for BBC Children in Need and ended up being spoken to in harsh tones by one of the reps over the fact that I had put a Pudsey logo on my website. Never again. And besides, with a big charity, you never know how much of your money is going to administration costs. At least with an actual orphanage, I know that 100% of the money I’ve raised will benefit the children there - children I can actually see for myself, via the school’s online ski trip gallery.