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Good deeds, great reads: The Bookworm Box, unwrapped

Vilma Gonzalez
Special for USA TODAY
Just a sample of the treats you'll find in a Bookworm Box.

In addition to dreaming up bestselling novels and interacting with thousands of readers on social media, author Colleen Hoover has been busy launching an exciting new venture that gives back to so many. The Bookworm Box was born in February as a way to bring the book community together in a way that would be fun for readers, but also propitious for the charities it benefits. The concept is simple. Readers purchase a box each month, with two books signed by some of the industry's best authors. What you get is a superexciting surprise, because readers don't exactly know what treats await when they open that white box delivered to their door. What they do know, however, is that all the proceeds benefit different charities each month. In short, it's good deeds for great reads.

This project is especially important to me and one I believe will do a lot of good for so many organizations. The program continues to grow, and I wanted to talk to Colleen to share with you what this is all about and what's coming up.

"I felt an overwhelming sense of purpose knowing that the box I purchased full of my passion for books helped people who are struggling with something." — Reader

What inspired you to create The Bookworm Box?

Colleen: I have a background as a social worker, so I spent many years of my career wishing I had the means to financially support various charities. Once my writing career took off, I finally had a way of giving back. However, there's only so much an individual can do with personal donations. I felt with the connections I've been able to make and the many supportive readers there are in this community, there had to be something that could be done on a much larger scale than what I could do as an individual.

The idea for The Bookworm Box came when I received a subscription box that I had ordered in the mail. I loved the surprise element and knew that if I could get enough authors involved, this could be a great thing for the reading community.

I announced the project in February, and the response has been nothing short of amazing.

So tell us how the project is doing thus far.

Colleen: I was hoping to raise about $2,000 a month through this project. I figured we would get some support from authors and readers, but the response has been more than I can keep up with! We sold out in four minutes during the first two months! As a result, we've increased our supply in May. To date, we have raised over $70,000 for charities in just three months.

I know you are so busy with traveling, writing, marketing, social media and so much more. Why did you want to tackle this? It's a pretty giant undertaking.

Colleen: Honestly, I didn't think it would take off like it has. Right now I'm donating about 40 hours a week to the project. I want to be able to write books and keep the charity program going, so as soon as we get the program organized enough, we'll hire one or two employees to take some of the pressure off. But it's still so new, I want to make sure it's running as smoothly as possible and everything is in place.

You've had some really exciting authors join up. So many of them have donated hundreds of books, too. Tell us a little bit about who has been a part of this endeavor.

Colleen: When I contact authors to see if they'll join, I offer to purchase the books at cost out of the funds. However, so many of the authors or their publishers have refused to invoice us so that the money can be funneled back into the charity. I think seeing so many people wanting to give out of their own pockets with no recognition needed has been the most inspiring part of all of this.

We also receive dozens of packages of books and swag a day from authors who have seen the website and want to help. It's truly inspiring.

Your Bookworm Box has arrived with lots of fun stuff from your favorite authors.

So many wonderful authors are contributing, including Paullina Simmons, Jamie McGuire, E.L. James, Amy Harmon, Christina Lauren and tons of others. I wish I could name them all, but a lot of them are a surprise!

"I admire Colleen and what she's set out to do and I wanted to support her any way that I could." — E.L. James

So, we're talking thousands of boxes. Thousands of books. Organizing. Packing. Shipping. Tracking. E-mails. Website updates and website crashes from all the people logging on at once. How does the magic happen?

Colleen: I wish I could say it goes smoothly, but I'd be lying. Right now, my sister and I have been running the entire thing with help from other volunteers. Dozens of friends and family showed up to our packing party last month, and once the boxes were all packed up, my sister and I spent 30 hours straight printing shipping labels. We were at the packing location from Friday to Monday morning. To say we needed a shower by Monday is an understatement.

We have worked out a lot of the kinks since then and have discovered easier ways to ship, but the first few months have definitely been a learning process. With all the support from other volunteers, however, I doubt we would be able to function as well as we do with the amount of books we ship out each month.

It is stressful at times, but seeing the excitement from the readers and from the charities who have benefited is well worth it. We just keep telling ourselves that things will only get easier. Learning curves are part of the process.

The Bookworm Box is not only valuable for the charities, but it has some other benefits related to the book community. Can you talk about some of those?

Colleen: As an emerging author, the marketing opportunities that come along with being included in The Bookworm Box are huge. We insert swag inside each box, and the majority of recipients post pictures of the swag on social media. A lot of readers have discovered new authors this way. We also sometimes include indie books in the boxes along with a best-selling novel, so it's a great marketing tool. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of pictures go up each month and, as an author, if your swag or books are included in the box, that's great free advertising. Even bloggers have sent in promotional items for inclusion, funded from their own pocketbooks, and readers have been able to connect with these reviewers online.

We have also reached out to individuals who make book-related swag to work out ways for them to advertise through the boxes. We plan to implement that more in the future.

There's something even more exciting coming … a brick-and-mortar counterpart. What can you share with us?

Colleen: At first we were running this project out of my living room. When we ran out of places to stand, we decided we needed a warehouse to hold the thousands of books and all the merchandise.

That's a lot of Bookworm Boxes ready to be shipped.

We found a great spot in a nearby town that happened to have a retail space in the front of the building. So on June 6, we will be opening up The Bookworm Box physical store!

It's a small retail space, and we will have a limited amount of books, but every book we sell in the store will be signed, and all the proceeds will go to charity. If you are an author of any genre, feel free to send a book or two and we'll display it on our shelves. We have a great number of people who have volunteered to run the store on the days we are open, so we are superexcited about it. If you live near Sulphur Springs, Texas, come out on June 6 for our grand opening!

What excites you the most about this project and what's coming up for The Bookworm Box?

Colleen: The most exciting thing by far is seeing the charities benefit from this program. We try to choose a few different charities each month so that the good can be spread, and for some of these charities we have been able to fund their annual goals with just one donation!

We accept nominations for charities through our e-mail at info@thebookwormbox.com. Authors who wish to participate can e-mail me at colleen@thebookwormbox.com for more information.

Find out more at www.thebookwormbox.com. You can also connect on Facebook and Instagram.

Vilma Gonzalez is a blogger, reader, marketer, wife and mom. She has an insatiable appetite for happily ever afters and a deep love of the written word. You can find more about her and read full book reviews at Vilma's Book Blog. Please e-mail Vilma at loveinsuspense@gmail.com about content related to this column. Due to the volume of mail, e-mails may not be answered personally, but all will be read.

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