The Bonobo Challenge

Save the Bonobos. Save the World.

If I Buy I’m Lucy from Amazon, Do You Still Donate the Profits?

$I\'m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo$

This is a great question that a visitor to the blog just asked us. The answer is important for everyone to know.

The answer is NO. And not because we don’t want to, but because when you buy I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo anywhere other than this blog or our home site, Bonobo Kids, there are no profits to donate, there is no money left for the bonobos after we’ve paid for our printing and our staff.

Here’s how it works: bookstores (actual stores that you walk into) and online bookstores (like Amazon) buy books at ‘wholesale’ prices which means they get a 50% discount on each book. Then, the booksellers sell the book at ‘retail’ prices (100% or what you pay), and they use the profits to run their stores, pay the staff, make the atmosphere fun and cozy, promote books and their store, etc. Of course this makes sense and is how businesses operate.

Most books are produced or printed for well under that 50% wholesale price, so the authors and publishers still make a profit when they sell their books to bookstores at this discount. In this way, the system works.

I’m Lucy is different. #1. I’m Lucy includes high quality photography that is too expensive to publish through normal channels. #2. The goal of I’m Lucy is to donate profits to organizations working to save the bonobos and our world.

If the book were sold through Amazon, the retail price would have to be raised to $40 so that at the 50% wholesale price to Amazon there would be enough money left for a small profit for Bonobo Kids and the bonobos. But at a $40 retail price, few people would buy such an expensive book.

In response, Bonobo Kids has ‘cut out the middle store’ in order to give the bonobos the maximum amount of help while still meeting our expenses. When you buy I’m Lucy from our site, we are able to donate a substantial profit to Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots and the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI) and keep our lovely, little organization alive!

Make sense? Feel free to contact us if you have more questions!

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