The Syrian refugee crisis might seem like something straight out of one of YA's bleakest imaginary dystopias, but unfortunately this is real-life. And the men, women, and children who are now desperately trying to flee the hellscape that is their civil war-torn home country are completely non-fiction.

After the heartbreaking New York Times image of a three-year-old boy who, alongside his five-year-old brother and mother, drowned off of the coast of Turkey while trying to migrate by sea surfaced this week and broke the hearts of millions across the globe, Young Adult author Patrick Ness began to lead the authorial troops into a digital fundraising campaign that has already raised over £300,000 (and counting) for Save the Children.

Ness, a two-time Carnegie Medal winner for his science fiction novels, told The BBC that the devastating story of little Aylan Kurdi shocked him into doing more than just tweeting into the void.

"I thought, ‘All I’m doing now is tweeting my anger into what? Into a void. And to what end? How does this help anyone?’ And I thought, ‘I’ve got to at least do something. I don’t know what I can accomplish, but I’ve been really blessed for the last couple of years, so what I did, spur of the moment, was the simplest fundraising donation site I could find," he explained.

The author initially hoped to raise £10,000, which he would then match with his own £10,000, and send the funds to Save the Children, a charity which streamlines its donations into actual use rather than overhead expenses.

Since his posting, however, a ton of fellow YA authors -- including John Green, Leigh Bardugo, Margaret Stohl, Lauren Oliver, David Levithan, Libba Bray, Gayle Forman, Allyson Noel, Holly Black, Taherah Mafi, Ransom Riggs, and many more -- and publishing houses have pitched in to get the word out on their own social media avenues and, in several cases, offered up their own matching pledges.

"Writing a book takes a year. Publishing after that takes another year, and 830 died this week. And this is when people are feeling like they want to do something," Ness said, explaining why he chose to champion the cause, rather than write about it.

The £309,932.12 that will go to help Save the Children's rescue and aid efforts in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey says it was the right call.

Find out more about Save the Children's effort to aid Syrian refugees here.