Authors, we’re all struggling this year. With the exception of Stephen King, Stephanie Meyers and J.K. Rowling, we’re all feeling the three ton weight of the economy pressing down on us from all sides. I’ve talked with countless authors who have found their book sales declining, flat or simply evaporated into thin air. It’s a scary world out there, especially when you live off of the words you write. Let’s face it, books are expensive. Some paperback books are now $20 and up and when people are faced with trying to feed their families it’s now seen as a luxury to be able to indulge in the purchase of a new novel. Literacy programs around the country are also feeling the pinch. Now more than ever are books in demand for high school libraries, after school programs, adult literacy programs, public libraries and prison literacy programs (a more literate community is a more peaceful community!).


I personally feel that it is our duty as authors to reach out to these programs and help them in their hour of need. We write so that people may read our stories, do we not? When we began our writing careers it wasn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It was because we believe in literature and its power to transform a civilization. With all of this said, I would like to encourage authors around the world to reach out to their local and national literacy programs and donate a few of those extra copies of your novels that are sitting in a box by your desk! Personally, I have donated already this year to 5 programs (a total of 14 books) and plan on at least a dozen more in the coming spring months! The programs I have donated to are as follows:


Prison Book Program
My One School Bookstore
Women’s Prison Book Project
Book Stop Prisoners Program
New Orleans Public Library


Every little bit helps! Every book we place in the hands of someone eager to read is one more life we have touched with our stories and made smile! And if you are a literacy program in the United States in need of books and would like a couple of copies of my vampire series, please leave a comment here or send me an email!


Best Wishes,
Gabrielle S. Faust

Tags: Books, literacy, literacy programs, New Orleans, prison literacy, United States, world literacy

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