Thousands of people will be wondering why they’ve been gifted a self-published parody guide to Yorkshire this Christmas after a Big Issue story highlighting an ingenious fundraising scheme went viral.
Last week we reported on a Robin Hood-inspired plot by a writing group named the Tripe Marketing Board (TMB), who had used a money-spinning loophole on Amazon to sell their book and raise money to save a major food bank in south London.
As the story blew up, it flew off Amazon’s virtual shelves and raised thousands more to support two Yorkshire community food banks.
It all started when Amazon reduced the price of the book, Forgotten Yorkshire, from £10 to 99p. The TMB realised they still received the full royalties from the retail giant when a copy was purchased and decided to take advantage. They started urging people to buy the books and pledged to donate £2 per copy to charity. Effectively, a customer spending 99p on the book generates £2 for cash-strapped food banks, courtesy of Amazon’s deep pockets.
The TMB had raised £1,000 in two weeks before The Big Issue story. In the five days since, it has raised another £3,000 and the book has reached second place in Amazon’s “parody books” chart. By Christmas, the team expects to raise at least £10,000.
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