Will Glover, 36, of Vancouver Road, Sovereign Harbour, wrote Let's Promenade – A Quirky Guide to the Empress of Seaside Resorts to raise money for 100 children to attend a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo this September.
Copies of the book, published through a company set up by the Eastbourne branch of the English-Speaking Union (ESU), have sold in their hundreds but 150 more need to be sold.
Will, an economics teacher, asked the council if he could sell the book at the Tourist Information Centre (TIC).
He said, "Unfortunately the TIC and the seafront manager (who would not permit a stall to be set up selling the book] have been obstructive to us at every turn.
"The TIC will sell the books but only if we give them 10 per cent of every book sold which means we have to sell every book at a loss."
The guide, priced at £9.99, was expensive to produce and the ESU needed the full price to make the money needed.
If the extra 150 books are not sold by September, 20 of the 100 children will not be able to be sent to school.
Will said the former town mayor Mary Pooley had been very supportive of the book, the first of a series of four, as had Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner Stephen Lloyd.
The Asda supermarket in Pevensey Bay Road has offered the ESU a spot in its supermarket all day on Saturday, August 23, to sell the books and churches around Eastbourne have sold it to their congregations.
A spokeswoman for Eastbourne Borough Council said it was the tourist centre's policy to take a 10 per cent commission from all products sold, including charity goods.
"Ten per cent commission is a small amount in return for promoting their product to the hundreds of thousands of visitors that use the tourist information services every year."
Let's Promenade is available at www.willglover.co.uk