Self-Published Katrina Book Gets Boost From HP, Helps Local Kids

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 8/31/2007 9:37:00 AM

As many reports on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina highlight how little has been done in the way of recovery to the Gulf Coast, one new book is a bright spot. Letters From Katrina: Stories of Hope & Inspiration is not only a self-publishing success story, but also a philanthropic one. Hewlett Packard has underwritten a 30,000-copy first printing of the book, and author Mark Hoog will donate all of the book’s proceeds to the Katrina Endowment to provide scholarships for Mississippi children.

Hoog is a United Airlines pilot who watched a fellow pilot and friend die on United Flight 93 on 9/11. To help overcome his depression after 9/11, he self-published a series of books on leadership for children, titled Growing Field. Then, when Katrina wracked the Gulf Coast in August 2005, Hoog, who lives in Colorado, and photographer Kim Lemaire, of California, visited classrooms in those states, telling students about the hurricane damage and asking them to write notes inside of Growing Field books that Hoog then donated to children affected by the storm.

Letters From Katrina is a compilation of the correspondence between children who lived through Katrina and the children who wrote to them in the storm’s aftermath. The letters are often illustrated with full-color drawings, and photos of the children taken by Lemaire appear throughout the $24.95 hardcover. Blu Sky Media Group is distributing, and Hoog said all the major retailers have taken the book, including Amazon, B&N, Books-a-Million and Borders.

POD publisher Lightning Source produced the books on HP Indigo presses in its LaVergne, Tenn., facility. Hoog said he decided to self-publish because the submission process through traditional publishers can be “excruciatingly long,” and would have delayed Letters' impact. HP is presenting the book as an example of the technology it offers authors and highlighted it at the HP Imaging and Printing Group “Print 2.0 Extending the Power of Print” conference held this week.