Sci-fi writer John Scalzi* has been running a charity drive in connection with his satirical novel Agent to the Stars: for every reader who buys the book directly from Subterranean Press, the publisher would donate 10% of the cover price to Child's Play, an organization that provides toys and games for hospitalized children. So far, that's resulted in a $1,100 donation—but Scalzi's not done yet.

"I promised that if the entire print run of Agent was sold by the end of the year," he reminds his readers, "that I would kick in an additional $350 to Child's Play out of my own royalties." Well, there's only a few hundred copies of the original print run left, and ten days in which to get them all sold. You want an incentive? Booklist calls it "a plot that starts out as the rough life of a young agent in Hollywood and rapidly metamorphoses into B-movie territory as a remarkably intelligent first-contact yarn." Still tentative about buying a book sight unseen? Read the novel online, and then when your eyeballs and wrists start to ache, then you can buy the book and read it in the comfort of a nice chair. Plus it'll be signed!

*Disclosure: I know Scalzi so well I'm doing a bookstore event with him in Philadelphia next January. Also, he got me a job interview with AOL ten years ago for a prototypical blogging gig, but it never went anywhere.