how does a shy person give away 12 copies of the book "Building a Better World in Your Backyard"

(remember, the mission is to infect 12 brains ...)

(quick link to the book here)

Within your zip code, there are probably more than a dozen little free libraries.  To find yours go to the little free library map and plug in your zip code.

Put a stack at the local organic grocery community room or community bulletin board with a little sign that says "free take one".  

Give 12 copies away to 12 people you work with.   Maybe come in early and put a copy on everybody's chair.

Set aside the 12 copies and give them to people as gifts for birthdays and christmas:

  - sisters, brothers, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, sons, daughters, grandchildren
  - aunts, uncles, cousins
  - close friends, neighbors

Donate 4 copies to:

  - the local public library
  - high school library
  - community college library
  - university library

Give 12 copies to the staff at your local re-store. They are all about building stuff - even a better world!

Go to three local used book stores and see if they will buy 4 copies from you for a buck each.  

Donate three copies to the goodwill

Sell the books for a quarter at a yard sale

Arrange for a copy for every student at a local PDC or related workshop

Donate the books for an NPR fundraiser (or other fundraisers)

Give 12 books to a gregarious, extroverted friend who has no problem giving books to people



The idea is to try to infect 12 brains with what is in the book.  Assuming that a person reading this is shy, how do you get the 12 books out to 12 different brains?  What else needs to be added to this list?

I like the Little Free Library idea. I feel it has potential to reach an audience, and through returns... repeat that over and over.
For a shy person, there's the possibility for NO icky interacting with people at all.

If that shy person was into PEP, the community sand badge has a BB for "Set up a Little Free Library"... So you wouldn't even have to risk it, you could set up your own Little Free Library and stock it when nobody is looking.
PEP community badge

How about going to your local organic grocery store (or co-op) and giving them the books to be gifts to the employees?

Or maybe the local re-store?

I have given mine to my gardening customers, my local farm, my family I was also planning to send some to the local government people (ideally one each but i dont think i have enough now).

I think you are saying that it could be a gift to your clients?

paul wheaton wrote:I think you are saying that it could be a gift to your clients?

Yes, infact I encouraged them to pass it on too. So they said they would send it to their relatives in South Africa after. I have given some more to other local businesses aswell for example a local cider maker and a local builder.

Auction the books for a charity cause.
Leave one in a bus / train /taxi.
Take books to annual seed exchange.
Use books as rewards in a contest (through your FB page, website, school).
Donate books to a raffle reward pool.
Make book a free gift when you sell / auction your stuff.
If you are really shy, leave a book on a door step, knock and run away ;)

I just spotted a hidden thread on this topic.  Let me see if I can fish out some of the summary:

A few members of my community are looking to start a "Zero Waste Society" that would have monthly meet ups to share ideas and inspiration. I've been asked to present at the first meeting to give information about my composting business and future market garden venture.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hand out some of Paul's books! I have 12 physical copies. I was thinking of handing out 5 at this event (maybe more if people are keen?).

Im taking mine and dropping them off at waiting rooms around town.

The key to me is getting it out there in a repetitive nature. Multiple eyes on one book.

So maybe rather than "give it away" to people in the group, ask them to read it and pass it forward.

Bill and Melinda Gates  (Yes, I think they can afford it, but it's a more powerful gesture than just me telling them about it in one of their gazillion emails in the web form...)
Mom and Dad
habitat for humanity
Greta Thunberg (this was someone else's idea, I forget who)
HUD
Pax at Twin Oaks
Acorn
Dancing Rabbit (probably already has?)
Perelandra Center for Nature Research
local City councillors
my immediate neighbors
my landlord (oh landlord, riddle me this, why do you hate money? electric baseboard heating?? really??)

from here.

I went to a BNI meeting (business networking - ack); it's a regular weekly thing since I moved here 5 months ago.  An attempt to build my client base and grow with like-minded entrepreneurs.  They constantly surprise me with their heart and values.  Anyhoo - long story short - I offered one of my books out to see if anyone else might be curious, and there was a feeding frenzy and suddenly I have no more copies!!!  It was heartening!!  So now I'm off to order a bunch more to give away as pressies since I can see people are thirsty for it.

Humbled, gratified, and majorly proud to be a part of the efforts.

I donated one of my copies to my local public library.  I don't think that they're used to people donating books...

I did recommend it to the library and they sent me an e-mail yesterday saying they have purchased a copy, so it will now be part of the Coos-Curry County library system.  Hopefully it gets a lot of reads.

There may be a community face book group like this Key Peninsula where you could post a book review on how it helped you and would benefit the community. Then offer to share a copy.

I do presentations at churches on how to spot and handle child abuse. I have a bunch of literature that I bulk ordered or people have given to me that I put out for people to take if they are interested. The same could be done at sustainability/permaculture/etc. talks in one's local area. Even if you're not the person giving the talk, the person who is giving the talk might agree to let you put out copies or raffle them off to attendees. That way you only have to talk to one person, but several people get copies.

Does every church have a library?  Are they active?  Would this book be a fit?

Groups and clubs have a library?  Active or dusty?

David Huang made a list of discussion points for book clubs:

https://permies.com/w/80/109851/Building-World-Backyard-Paul-Wheaton#1173669

My local organic grocery store has a public community room.  I suppose a person could put 12 books there with a note that says "free, take 1".   Or maybe a similar thing near the community bulletin board.

do coffee shops still have a little library?

Maybe leave a stack at your local funky bike shop that says "free--take one"

Set up a giveaway on Goodreads? https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show_create_options

Offer it to members of permaculture groups on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/529004747124365/
https://www.facebook.com/PermacultureGuild4/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/340508956666317/
et cetera

Send copies to book reviewers

Give a lecture on Zoom, and choose someone from among the attendees (random drawing from people that ask questions)

Ask a local CSA to offer the books as a low-cost add-on to subscription boxes (allow the CSA to collect a little bit, so compensate for their time)

Find local eco-newsletters (like https://theaustincommon.com/ ) and offer them (A) a review and/or (B) a couple of copies to give to new subscribers

Offer them to people giving permaculture classes

Bookcrossing? https://www.bookcrossing.com/

A bit more random - no knowing who will get the books. But it's a lot of fun discovering where the books you set free end up!

I've seen many authors use https://Rafflecopter.com to do their giveaways, it's like a sweepstakes. You ask online entrants to do social proof by following your page, signing up for email newsletter, follow on Twitter, etcetera. You can assign how many points you want to give each activity. Then it does the drawing!

How about starting a book club where this the first book everyone reads and talks about in a group setting? That might help overcome your shyness, you can always add wine, beer, mead etc.

Then those 12 start another book club,  repeat until  World Domination is complete.

I'm interested in the Zero Waste event.

My husband is a federal employee at our naval base. The have a dollar limit on gifts to other employees. Iirc, it is currently $10. One year we did coffee. Anyway, there is always the push to get the “most bang for the buck”. Finding a higher value item on sale is what I normally look for.

Hubby’s coworkers are a cross section of the local population. Many are former military. Some come from a farming background. We moved to a house in the midst of farms. Hubby apparently asks coworkers if I am doing stuff right.

So anyway, it doesn’t matter if I am shy or even if I know these folks, they are going to get a book. Because I ordered 64, I will try to get Hubby to “gift” 30 or 40 at work. I will save some for gifts to our family and friends.  I appreciate the other suggestions like the Little Free Library. We have several in our area.

Around the third week of December, expect our local people to start browsing around. Our area is sometimes called the Seven Cities, but encompasses South Eastern Virginia and North Eastern North Carolina.

I put them in my CSA boxes

Put them in random toilets, at best they will read them, at worst they will be recycled.

I intend to drop them off at my local politicians offices (municipal, provincial and federal); the local libraries, and to members of the local facebook permies group.

Should my books be here by now?  I have not received them yet.

Various 'free-cycle' websites,  local community emailing lists like next door or old school mailing lists.

...

Craigslist!   Charge $10 for one or two for $9. :)   ( mostly as a publicity stunt / getting the word out )

...

With the current pandemic most of my go to solutions havn't been.


I would tend to leave a set of permaculture playing cards when I went to someones home, or traveled somewhere.

I figure leaving a permies book next to a Gideon's bible might be just fine.

Coffee shops was mentioned.  I'd second that... if there were coffee shops to lounge in.

Diners and donut shops sometimes have a spot for the daily papers...

Church lending libraries.

I think waiting rooms of various kinds might work.  Any place that has a People magazine is fair game.

I thought I should update everyone about my case of 64 books. Hubby FINALLY got into the building of his workplace for some task that had to be accomplished in person. He delivered 23 books to his coworkers’ desks. At some future point, all of these people will eventually visit their desks and discover their book.

I have only five books left and they are slated for family members in another state.

So he put one copy on each desk (or office chair)?   That is super cool.  And very effective thing for shy people.

Exactly! Hubby has never liked giving holiday gifts face to face. Drop the surprise on the coworkers’s desks and run! Since anyone going to the actual office has to obtain permission first (in this time of COVID), he knew it would be an excellent opportunity for drop off. I was bummed that he waited until after New Years, but it is what it is.

i donated a copy to my local, tiny library. The good news is that the state I live in has a state-wide database. Everyone in the state can borrow from almost any library. So, by donating it to my local, tiny library, I have effectively made it available to all 1,3xxx,xxx people in my state.

The good news is that this will apparently be the first copy in the state. Or, at least I couldn't find it in the interlibrary loan catalog.

J

I just found there is at one library in the state a way to download the ebook, so it isn't as empty as I'd thought.

Give 12 books to a gregarious, extroverted friend who has no problem giving books to people....
That would be me!  I'm always buying and gifting books I feel worthy of enlightenment and these seem to fit that category IN THE MOST SERIOUS WAY!  I would be my honor to share your books!!!

I didn’t read through this entire thread so forgive me if this was already asked and answered.

What would be an age/grade suggestion for this book? I ask because I just ordered 12 and plan on donating them. School teachers came to mind, but I dont know whether to target elementary school teachers, middle school or high school.

Brody Ekberg wrote:I didn’t read through this entire thread so forgive me if this was already asked and answered.

What would be an age/grade suggestion for this book? I ask because I just ordered 12 and plan on donating them. School teachers came to mind, but I dont know whether to target elementary school teachers, middle school or high school.

At the very least, high schoolers could read the book and gain knowledge; quite possibly middle-schoolers can grasp the contents.

can you buy just one and if so where   I have never read it and don't even know what in the book   This thread just come through the daily permies email

Hi Jim,

If you scroll down on this page there is an option to by one book (eBook or physical copy)
permies.com/wiki/177789

It's an awesome book!