The National Buy A Book Day Foundation Needs You!

THE NATIONAL BUY A BOOK DAY FOUNDATION NEEDS YOU! Around this time final year I got it in my head to encourage folks to purchase extra books. Granted, it was a minimum of a little self-serving as I make some portion of my earnings from the sale of books, but it wasn’t all about me. I want everyone to buy a e-bookâ€"any guide, from any bookseller, on any topic, in any style, in any format (and sure, any format includes any e-guide format, too). Why? Well, I simply occur to think that the world is a greater place if there are booksâ€"and all of the individuals I love and respect who make books happen: authors, editors, printers, booksellers, librarians, educators, and readersâ€"in it. Last 12 months I unfold the word on National Buy a Book Day, which is September 7th, by the best wayâ€"fast approaching for this 12 monthsâ€"in essentially the most grassy of the grassroots means at my disposal: Twitter, this blog, and Grasping for the Wind. Some heroic people out there in the Twitterverse and Blogosphere picked up the torch and re-twe eted, re-posted, posted links, wrote weblog posts of their own, and did their level finest to inform people to go out and buy a guide on September 7, 2010. Then a bunch of people actually went out on September seventh and acquired a book. I was inspired, and to be sincere, I can be a bit of a cynic. It’s not easy to encourage me to much however anger and frustrationâ€"most of the timeâ€"however this groundswell of help, small as it may have beenâ€"obtained me within the ol’ ticker. After September seventh of final year I determined to make National Buy a Book Day not only an annual event, but one that might garner nationwide attention. Step one, I thought, was to set up a non-revenue group to function a focal point for efforts nationwide. How hard could that be? A couple on-line varieties filled out, perhaps a pair hundred bucks spent, and I arrange a website (already paid for, by the way in whichâ€"I get two web pages from the same internet hosting service that hosts athansasso ciates.com, and that second site is sitting there vacant) and I begin getting PayPal donations, throw myself on the mercy of the surviving nationwide bookstore chains, distributors, publishers, and anyone else I can consider who may help with donations and networking. Easy. Well, maybe not. First, my CPA, a very good woman who does my taxes every year and patiently colleges me on simply how unhealthy I may be with my personal finances, punted. She informed me to find a lawyer and an accountant who focus on non-revenue organizations. Good recommendation, I suppose, but not if you don’t have any cash. LegalZoom wanted to charge me $600 to fill out the paperwork, but I don’t have $600 to put money into that while still starting up a small business, feeding and housing two youngsters, and so forth. How hard can it's, anyway? I thought. I’m a pretty good man, and the form is correct there on the IRS website. What the heck, I’ll just obtain it and dive proper in. So, I did simply that, and made it this far: The Certificate of Incorporation Oh, and I also efficiently applied for an Employee Identification number. Then I sat down to fill out all 26 pages of IRS Form 1023 to use for tax exemption under part 501(c)3. I know. I really am a reasonably sensible man, and was not, and am not, intimidated by this empirically intimidating type. I’m a good guy, too, a law-abiding citizen. But these IRS varieties convey out the Orwellian paranoid in me. It has the feeling of a minefield, the place the slightest misunderstanding, a verify in just the mistaken box, sends me to a federal penitentiary head first. I’m not done with this kind yet, and will continue to work at it till I am. At this level there’s undoubtedly no way that the National Buy a Book Day Foundation will be capable of accept tax-deductable donations by September seventh of this 12 months, but next year, for sure. Now we get to the enchantment for help. I really feel somewhat bit like Lee Harvey Os wald, calling out to anyone from the authorized occupation to come back forward and render assistance, however that’s exactly what I’m doing. And I actually have exactly $zero.00 to pay you, so when you’re a lawyer on the market who’s prepared, as soon as I’ve slogged my method via the rest of it, to learn by way of my 501(c)three utility and examine my work, advise how greatest to repair it, and help in whatever method you’re prepared and ready, you’re going to need to get your pro bono on. Once that’s out of the way in which, I’ll begin appealing to others for assist: Web designers, heed the call. Anyone with any expertise at national/company fundraising, I’m all ears. I can’t shell out a single greenback, because as of but I can’t collect any dollars both, however once I get via the successful completion of this bureaucratic equal of the epic poem, I’m going to begin asking you for cash, too. And if it will get people to BUY BOOKS, it’ll be worth every penny, and each hour. But wait, Phil, how can we contact you? You can e-mail me via Athans & Associates Creative Consulting at: inquiries [at] athansassociates [dot] com, or find me on Twitter @PhilAthans, and include @PhilAthans in a tweet. It’ll show up in my Mentions column on TweetDeck and I’ll find you! And within the meantime, start thinking about what e-book you’re going to buy on September 7, 2011, and who you’re going to purchase it from. Any book will do! â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans