Twitter-Sourced E-Book on Japan Disaster Now on Sale For Charity
In just over half a day, a Twitter-sourced charity book on personal accounts of the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami in March made it to No. 3 on the Movers and Shakers list in Amazon's Kindle Store.
2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake was released for sale on Amazon late on April 11 (US time). All proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Japanese Red Cross Society for relief efforts.
The making of the book #Quakebook, as it is better known by its Twitter hashtag, is a story in itself, one that speaks of good will and the power of social media.
The book was put together in just one week after an initial tweet on March 18 for contributions by a British resident in Japan known by his online moniker, Our Man In Abiko. Within hours, he had received dozens of photos, illustrations and short essays. Within a week, with contributions from some 200 people and the help of about 100 editors, translators and other volunteers, most of them strangers brought together for a common cause via Twitter, the 30,000-word #Quakebook was ready to be published. The delay was for a good cause: Amazon came on board and waived its fees. That means 100% of the purchase price goes towards helping victims of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 27,500 people dead or missing.
The book is on sale for $9.99 at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. If you don't have a Kindle, you can still buy and read the e-book - just download a Kindle reader for your computer or smartphone for free at Amazon.
#Quakebook includes photos, illustrations and stories from people in Japan and elsewhere in the world who were affected by the disaster, as well as contributions from artist-musician Yoko Ono and science fiction writer William Gibson.
Among the excerpts you can read at the #Quakebook website is one from a grandfather from Sendai, Hibiki. He says: "It's been a nightmare of a week. I pray that everyone afflicted in this terrible disaster will soon wake up from this bad dream, but I don't have any words of comfort."
Neither do I, but I can help, as can you.
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