As I promised almost 4 years ago when I first published my little novel about the 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Tet Offensive in part to thank the soldiers — mostly Vietnam Veterans — who contributed so much to my development as a young Army officer, I am continuing to donate half of my earnings from Youth In Asia.

With a generous matching contribution from my employer, this brings the total to about $2,300. And I am again donating to the VFW National Home for Children and Families. There are a lot of good charities staffed by hardworking, caring individuals. This is the one I picked to donate to. I value the focus on helping familes get back on their feet, and taking care of children.

From one perspective, $2,300 is not much money. From another — that of an aspiring novelist — that my first work of published fiction has done so well is gratifying.

Sales have certainly slowed, and last month (November of 2018) was the first month out of 45 months that I sold less than 1 copy a day. December has been a better month of sales, and I’m going to be back above 1 sale a day. The trend though is clear: sales are continuing to slow.

Of course, it is never too late to buy a copy to help me generate more money to donate, and leave a 5-star review to help drive more sales.

I can’t complain about how it has done so far. Almost 4,000 copies sold, 4.4-star rating from 67 reviews on Amazon US, more reviews WW (4.3-star rating from 16 reviews in the UK, 5.0-star rating from three reviews in Canada, etc.), and 105 reviews on GoodReads with a 4.1-star rating. All and all, it has been well received and I have gotten some good feedback on how to write a better story next time.

My goal when I published it was to sell 365 copies and get no less than a 4-star review average. My more important goal was to learn as much as I could about self-publishing, and I certainly have.

So in all ways this has a been a huge success for me and modest help to a few charities. With that, I’ll call it a good year.

And a big thank you to everyone who has bought a copy and left a review which helps me reach more people.

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I am happy to share that since I last made a donation in March, my sales of Youth In Asia about the 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Vietnam War have generated more than $600 of income for me. Not bad for a book priced at just $1.49, and of which I only get 30%. Since I’ve promised to donate half of my earnings, that is $300 more to donate.

Additionally, Crawford Roberts, the accomplished producer of the audiobook version of my novel had offered his services at a discounted rate, and then, after working on the projected, offered to complete it for free. I did not feel right keeping the $200 I had promised him, so I have added it to the $300 I will contribute. That makes $500.

Better yet, my employer again agreed to match my total contribution, so (in part due to Crawford’s and my employer’s generosity) I have just made a $1,000 contribution to the VFW’s National Home for Children.

With your help, I have now donated $1,650 to the VFW, Wounded Warrior, and similar organizations from my book sales to help our veterans

I will also donate a portion of my revenue from Lonely Hunter. Two of my children are chronically ill, so I’m happy to give to organizations doing medical research from which my children and all children will someday benefit.

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Sales of my novella of been good. The story is about young men in combat during the Vietnam War, and how they live with themselves and each other years later. As I promised, I am donating half of what I collect from sales to organizations that help our veterans.

With a match from my employer, today I’ve been able to donate another $500. Last time I donated $150 to the Wounded Warrior Project. This time I have donated to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation.

I have now donated a total of $650.

Without the match, that is $400 from my book sales. And if I say so myself, that is pretty damn good for a first book priced at $1.49, of which I only get ~$.52 a copy.

For a detailed explanation as to why I’m doing this, read what you can see at the “Look Inside” feature of the book on Amazon.

The reviews have been strong (4.6 “stars” after 37 reviews), and it has made it into the top 10 of four of Amazon’s bestseller lists worldwide (two of which are pretty obscure, I have to admit), and the top 100 of about ten bestseller lists.

Separately, my book has also been #1 out of more than 5,000 titles when you search on “Kindle Store: Vietnam War” for many weeks. It is still in the top 20 on that list a year after I published it.

When you search on “Books: Vietnam War” at Amazon, over 81,000 titles come up. My little book is hanging on in the top 10 of this list as well.

More importantly: $650. That helps. But let’s not stop here.

You can help me raise more money for veterans organizations by buying and reviewing a copy of Youth In Asia. The review part is especially important. If you buy a copy I’ll continue to pass on about $.26 to an org that helps veterans. But a review of the book can help drive more sales because it will inspire other people to buy a copy and raise even more money.

You can also give a copy as a gift to someone who would enjoy it. When you go to the Amazon sales page, on the right-hand side you’ll see the option to do so as highlighted below. It is easy to do.

This has been a heck of a year in many ways for me and my family, many of which have nothing to do with writing. However, writing and publishing my first novel has been a life-long dream, and extremely scary.

I was terrified that it was not going to be well received. I feared that the story would be ridiculed or the writing would be criticized. Neither happened. In fact, the opposite has been true. I owe my wife and editor and my anonymous reviewers at WWW.CritiqueCircle.COM a huge thank you for all the help getting the story to where it is.

And thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy and reviewed it. The fact that this little story is generating money for veterans in need is also exciting and rewarding because it is important that we give back, and we did that together.

Separately, next week I’ll post a blog about what I learned from a publishing perspective. It has been an amazing education, and I’ve done more than a few things wrong…

The post Keeping my promise: Donating another $500 to help our Veterans appeared first on Writing Lives...lots of them...all the time...day and night...awake and asleep...I can't control it....

Hey everyone. Wanted to let you know that I have just released a video trailer for my novel of the Vietnam War. Titled Youth In Asia, you can read more about it here. Obviously the intent is to help market my book. So give it a  look and let me know what you think and if you think it will help promote my novel. Thanks! Allen

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