Check this out– Children’s author Tamara Girardi has put together a challenge for folks to preorder children’s books (meaning, ordering them before their release date). The “challenge” is to preorder one book a month from the list or request a public library to use the list to order books.

Why participate? A couple of good reasons–

First, you would be supporting your favorite authors in a big way. You might not know this (I was surprised when I first learned it), but a book’s pre-order sales has a big impact on the future of their book. If a book does poorly, it might not last long on the shelves (AKA, go out of print), and you might not see another book from that author at that publishing house. So, preorder sales are a terrific way to support your favorite authors.

Second, how fun is it to preorder a book and then go about your life, maybe even forgetting about it. Then one day, a book is delivered to you! Oh my! What a delightful surprise!

Third, you could do some advanced shopping for birthdays, holidays, graduations, etc. for the kids in your life. No last minute scrambling to buy a gift!

That’s not enough? Okay, one more. At the end of the year, your name will be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift card!

Just read and follow the guidelines HERE. Oh, and if you’re wondering what I get out of this, my next book, EAT UP, BEAR! (Yosemite Conservancy) is listed in the April releases.