Michael Chabon and 16 other prominent authors, including John Grisham, Rick Moody, Nora Roberts, Stephen King and Amy Tan, have banded together to raise money for the First Amendment Project (FAP) through eBay Giving Works, the dedicated program for charity listings.

The authors will auction off the chance to name a character in their upcoming books, and donate the proceeds to the FAP, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of information, expression, and petition.

The idea of holding a group auction came from Neil Gaiman, who recently auctioned off the name of a cruise liner in his upcoming novel, Anansi Boys, for 3.5k on eBay. The proceeds from it were donated to another First Amendment defender, The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. "It just made sense to apply this on a grander scale," says Chabon. "If one of us could raise that much for a non profit on his own, what could a dozen or more authors pull in for the First Amendment Project?"

The auction starts on September 1st and running through September 25th, 2005. Conducting the auction is Auction Cause, an online-auction management agency specializing in high-impact and high-value eBay auctions for nonprofits and their corporate partners.

http://www.ebay.com/fap