Author Uses Book Tours to Raise Money for Historical Nonprofits

Steve Berry estimates that in the last five years he has raised as much as $750,000 for historic-preservation nonprofits, including the Mark Twain House, the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, and Smithsonian Libraries. That’s a rather impressive figure for someone with no training or previous experience as a fundraiser.

But Mr. Berry has also written more than a dozen novels that have made The New York Times bestseller list—some 17 million books in print, translated into 40 languages. Impressive figures, too, when you consider that he is a trial lawyer by training whose 30-year career in the courtroom ended just a few years ago, when he left the law to write full time.

“I’d get up at six in the morning and write before work,” Mr. Berry says of the many years he juggled novels, legal clients, and even a stint in elected office as county commissioner for Camden County, Ga.

And now, he’s also a sought-after rainmaker for cultural charities, helping organizations recruit supporters who might never have thought of giving before.

Most authors routinely make publicity tours to promote their latest titles. Mr. Berry adds charity stops to his tours. He holds writing workshops and other events to raise money for historical organizations while getting his books in front of potential buyers.

“If a museum can get him to come, it’s a great fundraising tool,” says William Schroh Jr., director of museum operations at Liberty Hall Museum, in Union, N.J., the 18th-century home of William Livingston, the state’s first governor and a signer of the U.S. Constitution. “It’s a great idea to combine an historical-fiction novelist with fundraising for a museum.”

Mr. Berry held a workshop at Liberty Hall in October that raised $6,000.

“The money will go towards room renovation in our historic mansion,” Mr. Schroh says. “We’ve been slowly restoring one room a year.”

Passion for History

The author has a lifelong fascination with history, which explains his interest in using his growing literary fame to help preservation charities.

His books, including The Columbus Affair, The King’s Deception, and The Jefferson Key, are historical thrillers rooted in his love of the past. They all feature historical figures—in the titles mentioned, Christopher Columbus, Queen Elizabeth I, and Thomas Jefferson—who are involved in conspiratorial secrets that are linked to issues of modern interest.

Mr. Berry’s latest novel, The Lincoln Myth, to be published in May, features a little-known connection between the 16th president and the early Mormon Church.

“I like to keep about 90 percent of each book as accurate as I can because the readers like that,” Mr. Berry says. “I have to trip up the rest a hair, as they are novels whose job it is to entertain people.”

To research his thrillers, he relies on old texts, manuscripts, and books. While touring an archive in Oregon in 2008, he learned just how fragile those sources can be.

Although he can’t remember the name of the facility, or the person who showed him around, something he learned during the visit left an unforgettable impression.

“The curator told me that there are hundreds of thousands—maybe even millions—of pages of documents in repositories all across this country, and every second of every day the ink fades away on the pages,” Mr. Berry recalls. “And as it fades away, we lose forever what was there.”

Writing Workshops

Some of the loss could be stemmed with proper storage, but facilities for ideal archiving conditions can be costly. So in 2009, Mr. Berry and his wife, Elizabeth, started the History Matters project to raise money for museums, archives, libraries, and historic sites.

The pair visits such charities for dinners, talks, and other “meet-and-greet” events. They also conduct six to eight writing workshops a year at historic sites.

“We come into a community and teach the craft of writing and you buy your way into the workshop with a contribution, usually in the $150 range,” Mr. Berry says. “Every dime of that goes to the organization or project we are there to promote. We don’t charge to come and we don’t charge expenses.”

He estimates that at least 2,500 budding writers have taken his four-hour crash course in novel writing and publishing. (His own path to the bestseller list took 12 years and 85 rejection letters before his first novel, The Amber Room, was published in 2003.)

New Support

Initially he reached out to the charities to offer his services. Now that the word has gotten out, charities contact him through the History Matters website.

While History Matters has tax-exempt status, he asks supporters to give directly to the causes he champions.

He estimates that he has spent “a couple hundred thousand dollars” of his own money on History Matters, largely for travel expenses.

Mr. Berry helped Preservation Houston raise $28,000 two years ago when he spoke at a fundraising luncheon and then held a writing workshop that drew 45 participants, who each paid $95 to attend.

“People responded really well,” says David Bush, the charity’s deputy director. “And it was people who were into writing and not our usual base of supporters, so we got some new interest.”

A portion of the proceeds went to conserving a nearly 100-year-old prototype of Houston’s city flag, which had been stored in a plastic bag for years after it was donated to the group.

“It needed cleaning and some seams resewn,” Mr. Bush says. The repaired flag is now in a city library.

Mr. Berry has several History Matters events planned for coming months, including his first workshop in Canada.

While his motivation for fundraising is altruistic, he says, he also gets something in return: plots for future books.

“Yeah, it’s happened a few times where I’ve picked up ideas,” he says. “I do pay attention to that when I visit these historic places.”

How Steve Berry, a Bestselling Author, Raised $750,00 for Charities in the Past Five Years

• The historical-fiction writer hosts writing workshops and lectures in cities with historic sites in need of support.
• He asks workshop participants for donations of up to $150 to attend, recruiting supporters a charity might not otherwise reach.
• He charges local groups no fee for his appearances and pays his own travel costs.
• All donations go directly to the local charity.