Thursday, November 22, 2012

Monday, November 19, 2012

Walk Forward is #1

Walk Forward is #1 today and has been #1 in its category for a few days. Free downloads last Thursday and Friday moved the book to #1 and it has remained at #1 over the weekend.

Creating a paperback version has not significantly added readers when considering the book has been downloaded by more than 700 persons during its short life of almost two months as of this November 25, 2012, having been first published in ebook format on September 25, 2012.

The paperback version is available on two platforms, Amazon.com and CreateSpace a separate, but wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.

Although CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, the web interfaces for an author or reader differ from that of Amazon.com.

It may be of interest to information professionals and readers, that book titles are not searchable in CreateSpace as they are on Amazon.com. If I find a way to search a title on CreateSpace, as one would have to if one did not have the CreateSpace identification number for a book, I will post herein.

CreateSpace has some nice features including the option of setting up discount codes for a book. Up to 3 discount codes may be set up for a book, but not being searchable and not being able to search for a discount code, makes the feature useless to anyone, but authors of the book who discount copies to family and friends. An author has to give a potential reader the discount code and the URL (address) of the book on the CreateSpace website.

It was actually easier to create a paperback copy of the book on CreateSpace than it was to create the ebook on Amazon Kindle Select, because CreateSpace requires a PDF of the book (which Open Office is great in creating)!

Friday, November 16, 2012

WALK FORWARD IS FREE TODAY

Walk Forward is FREE today, Friday, November 16, 2012 at

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Forward-ebook/dp/B009H6Y7AC

Please share the link with everyone!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Walk Forward, Press Release

Herein in my Press Release about Walk Forward. 

When the Press Release was posted, the URL for the YouTube video on the book, embedded into the Release. 

I had read that placing the URL for the YouTube information at the end of a paragraph or by itself, in a paragraph, would enable the embedding process, the linking of the Press Release to the URL of the YouTube information within the actual text of the Press Release.

Here in is the Press Release of today on my book, Walk Forward. A link to the Release where one can see the embedded, live link to YouTube is included at the end of this post.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rosa Raskin
Phone: 440.461.4125

New Book, WALK FORWARD, Uncovers Holocaust-Related Hidden Secrets

On the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, German born Rosa Raskin describes her 50 year search for her lost sister. 


Cleveland, Ohio – November 9, 2012 – Fulfilling the promise made to her father, Rosa Raskin tells the story of her immigrant family and her father’s hope to find his lost child. The purpose of the book, WALK FORWARD, is to continue to uncover information about her older sister, Eugenia Chimowicz, a blond-haired, nine-year-old girl last documented alive in concentration camp Stutthof on September 3, 1944.

Using letters from a newly-found cousin verifying the stories young Rosie heard as a child, she details the history of the family, including events before, during, and after the Holocaust. Jewish family members are caught in a hellish spider's web as the "last 500." As pawns in the chess game between Hitler's assistants, they survive the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Stutthof, the last place where two young mothers and their four children were seen alive. Born in Germany after the Holocaust, Rosie describes the courage of her mother, Louise, who enabled the family to continue forward in the complicated journey to the United States as displaced persons.

WALK FORWARD is available as an ebook ($0.99) and paperback ($8.99) on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Forward-ebook/dp/B009H6Y7AC and at Createspace.com ($8.99) at http://www.CreateSpace.com/4015278

Upcoming free days for the ebook include November 15-16 and December 13-14, 2012, on Amazon.com. 

The book’s video trailer is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp7uQap6p2M.

About the Author 

Rosa Shine Raskin (nee Chimowicz) was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1951. She has a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Microbiology, from The Ohio State University. She also holds an M.L.S. from Kent State University. She is currently a freelance writer, researcher, and consultant, after having worked in hospitals, government, and the Fortune 100 for over 30 years. She founded Rosa S. Raskin & Associates, LLC, in 2007, and has three blogs on the web including "Precious Cooking," "Information Specialist Secrets," and "Most Precious Memories." She has published more than a dozen articles on paint and coatings in trade journals, having been taught by her father, at the age of eight, to paint the bricks on houses.

For more information on WALK FORWARD please check the book’s website at http://www.raskinfo.com/walkforward.html, which includes photographs.

###

Shortened link to the entire Press Release on the PRlog.org web site is: http://www.prlog.org/12019630.html

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Secrets to Creating a Press Release

It is time for me to write and publish a press release about my new book, WALK FORWARD. I have timed the release with a significant event, the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht, also called the Night of Broken Glass, as the Temples and glass store fronts of Jewish shops were shattered on November 9-10, 1938. The writing was on the wall for the Jews in Europe.

I just came across an important item in regard to publishing a release. Since I have a book trailer in YouTube, the trailer can be embedded in the release, if and only if, the URL (address) for the trailer is in the last sentence of a paragraph or stands along in a paragraph. The URL must also be in the first 500 characters if there is no picture of the book included or the first 1000 characters if a picture of the book is included.

I guess I must move my URL for the book trailer from the last line in my release to higher up in the text

The text in my release is exactly one page in Microsoft Word, with the three hash marks ### centered on the very last line of the Press Release.

Whether the release should be faxed to newpapers as in years gone by, or only emailed, is my remaining question. There are many online free press release sites to which I can email the release, but wonder what their preferred format might be?

I will make an HTML version of my release for my own website and report back when I figure out the preferred formats on other sites.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Book Marketing Secrets

The first rule for book marketing is to get reviews. It sounds easy, but it is hard to have someone read a book and "volunteer" to write a review. It would seem to me that anyone who might receive a gifted book from a new author, might think of submitting a review, but this is not necessarily the case. Some family think that since family and friends are often the first to review a book, that they should wait. Unfortunately, at least five reviews are required to post on some popular ebook sites. If one does not have at least five reviews, the new title may not be included in certain important book lists.

I finally have six reviews and forwarded my book, Walk Forward, to addicted to ebooks at http://addictedtoebooks.com/. I received my 5th and 6th reviews yesterday, and am most grateful to anyone that wrote a review so that I might post the book to such lists. Walk Forward is #2 on today's list at http://addictedtoebooks.com/.

Since my book is about my search for a lost sister, one would think that family might jump at the chance to participate in finding our half-sister, lost to our father when she was only nine years old. I am most sorry to report that this is not necessarily the case. One of the six reviews for Walk Forward is from a family member!

I wrote a press release for the book this morning and hope to post it on Friday.

Per book marketing to date, I have learned that their are some great book lists on the internet for free, low cost and books on any subject one might have an interest in. Books in the Kindle Select program have five free days in each 90 day enrollment period. In the case of my book which has about 100 purchases, the book was downloaded almost three times that amount on it's first free promotion day. Since the first free promotion day on 10/11/12, the book is now also in paperback format on Amazon and on CreateSpace.

Links to the ebook and paperback formats on Amazon are at http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Forward-ebook/dp/B009H6Y7AC. The CreateSpace link is at https://www.CreateSpace.com/4025278M, and the book's trailer is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp7uQap6p2M.