Okay. Let's Make This INTERESTING.... Let's Make Mercury Falls Author Rob Kroese Pay!

By Steve Windwalker - 11.9.2010

If you've already seen last night's Free Kindle Nation Short featuring Robert Kroese's Mercury Falls, you may have noticed that I resorted to sophomoric name calling of the worst kind.

I said Rob is a madman. I believe I said something like "the best kind of madman," but still. I had a couple of beers with dinner, and that's the way I am.

Should I apologize? No. I mean, Hell no. I'm not Lebron James here.

Besides, things are going awfully well for Rob just now. He self-published Mercury Falls, and along came one of the coolest publishing companies in the Western world, AmazonEncore, to track him down and offer him a contract. He's at a point in his life where he'll probably take being called a madman as a compliment. I hope so.  He looks tougher than most authors, possibly even tougher than me.

But maybe he's not a madman after all.

Turns out he's a pretty good guy. I mean, as far as I know. And things are going his way. And he wants to give a little something back.

So it's our job to make him pay up.

Rob is going to make a donation to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation based on the highest sales rank Mercury Falls  hits in the Kindle Store during the 24 hours after this Free Kindle Nation Shorts email goes out. Here's what he wrote to me:

• If Mercury Falls hits the top 300, I will donate $100.
• If it hits the top 200, I will donate $250.
• If it hits the top 100, I will donate $500.

When the Free Kindle Nation Short went out a little before 11 pm Monday, Mercury Falls was at #485. Earlier this afternoon it jumped up to #236 and as I type these words at 4 pm Eastern time on Tuesday it's at 186.

So we're in the money already, but it's up to you. 

Want to go easy on him? Buy the book tomorrow. 

Want to really make him pay? Click here to buy it now.

We can do this, people. We can make him pay. $500 for a bestselling author like Rob? He might not be able to take the limo to get his latte in the morning.

Sure, it's true that there is a really great charity involved. Children, too. Whatever.

But what we've got here, people, is a chance to make the madman pay.

Then we'll see whether he wants to go around making people laugh out loud in the future.

The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (GSF) seeks to raise awareness about and fund research for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic killer of young children, and support those impacted by SMA and other life-altering diseases.