In which we all support young people who are pursuing tech careers!
Hey friends, guess what – I got paid! Now I know it takes *months* for authors to get paid! Raven was released on May 20, and the first author payment came July 28. Even that was only part of the initial month of book earnings. August 30 brought the remainder of what, in reality, will probably be a very large part of the earnings – the first month of sales.
Now, I priced my book as close to break-even as I could, because I want as many people as possible to read it. So I was not expecting many dollar-signs. In order to allow bookstores and other non-Amazon vendors to make some money off sales, I had to build in some markup that goes straight to them. On Amazon there’s no vendor markup (they still take a cut of their own, it’s just lower) so I make a little more money.
With that context, in the first two payments I made – drum roll – $326.28!
But hey, I can’t just let all that money sit around. It needs to go to work bringing more young folks into the tech community! It has always been my intention to donate all proceeds to support diversity in tech. So I’ve chosen to split the proceeds between two organizations:
Black Girls Code
Our Vision: To increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology. To provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.
NPower
Our Vision: NPower envisions a future where our domestic technology workforce is diverse, and clear pathways exist for all people regardless of ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic background to succeed in our digital economy.
I donated half of my total book earnings – $163.14 – to each of these organizations. Because of Microsoft’s generous matching policy, I also put in for Microsoft matching. That means both organizations will receive $326.28 in honor of Raven! That’s thanks to you, your support of my book and your help getting the word out. Thank you – your work is directly benefiting these organizations!
It doesn’t have to stop there. If you like these organizations, consider supporting them directly yourself!
