You Can Judge a Book by It's Back Cover!

My Grandmother, Minnie Crane Bloomfield

Thought for the day: Everyone knows you can't judge a book by it's cover. So why did I just say you can judge a book by it's back cover? In order to support 21 charities, I have 22 versions of the same book with just 3 differences. The only one you can see is on the back cover. Read on to see why.  Do you have any solutions to this dilemma?

My grandmother was an avid reader. Although it was not her mother tongue, she spoke English with no accent. She had a vocabulary many native Americans would envy & read every reading assignment I had as well as any book I purchased. She taught me at a very young age not to judge a book by it's cover. She also used the well known saying, along with "Beauty is only skin deep," to teach me to get to know people & not to judge them by external appearances. Real beauty lies inside human beings. To me, my grandmother was one of the most beautiful people I have ever known. When I would tell her she was beautiful, she would smile & tell me that I must love her. She was self conscious about what she saw as a crooked smile due to botched dental surgery performed in the old country.

One Cover 22 Books

So, I know that what is written inside a book is what is most important. However, with my book, The Wake Up And Dream Challenge, I have a strange dilemma. It may look like one book with the same cover, but it is actually 22 different books which will help different causes reach different dreams. One version will help fight prejudice, one will help families dealing with travel expenses while treating their children for cancer, another will help reduce recidivism among ex-convicts. The list goes on & on. Each book helps another worthy cause saving lives, fighting poverty, overcoming addictions & disabilities. Even though the content of every book is the same, each of the different versions donates to a different cause. The only way to know what you are donating 1/2 of the profits from the purchase of the book to is to make sure you have clicked the link associated to the charity of your choice & check for the logo on the back cover of the book.

The author page for my book on Lulu.com looks very confusing to say the least. All the books look exactly the same. If you know the name of the charity you can search for the appropriate book. If you do not, you need to click on the book cover to get to the preview & then read the preview till you reach the information about the charity & of course the back cover.

In this day & age of instant internet gratification, where people spend seconds on web pages to decide whether to purchase something or make a donation, my dream to help multiple causes is a bit of a marketing nightmare. I am hoping that people will take the time to get to know the book, understand the concept, read the entire preview & see the back cover. Although there is one copy, #22, that divides 1/2 of the profits equally into 21 parts, this is not the way I envisioned helping these amazing programs.

I welcome your ideas & suggestions. With this blog, I am trying to educate my potential readers, so that they can help the charity that is closest to their heart. I will be adding the books to Amazon.com soon. Perhaps their system will help with this issue. In the mean time I hope you will take the time to get to know the book by it's covers.