Introducing MIddle School By Virginia B Steves, M.ED.

For those children who have special needs, it may be hard to face middle school. Thankfully, we have this transition guide that will help parents and guardians as they assist their children with special needs when they take their first step into middle school.

Friendly to use and highly informative, Introducing Middle School: A Transition Guide for Parents of Children with Special Needs, is a definitive guide for parents with special needs students, to aid in the transition from elementary to middle school life.

With great tips on fitting in socially and gaining better organizational skills to adjust to a demanding new workload, parents and kids alike will be comforted by the accessible text and positive tone of this extraordinary guide.

Virginia B. Stevens, M.Ed., works with autistic children at Loudoun County Public School, a middle school in Virginia. Mrs. Stevens has a master’s degree in special education (K-12) from West Virginia University. She has taught children in West Virginia and Virginia with special needs in the fields of specific learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, and Autism for nearly twenty-five years. Her current special interest is in the field of Autism spectrum disorders. The author recently completed an Autism certificate from George Mason University. She is also an active member of the Council for Exceptional Children. This is her first book.

If You Only Knew By Shirley A. Morgan

Meet a woman – a single parent – who is working and trying to raise two boys. Being a preacher’s daughter, she resides in a middle class community.

Listen as Carolyn talks about being a single parent and shares about the struggles she has to face when it comes to men. Follow her as one of her bosses takes her to dinner and, during the meal, gets intoxicated that she has to catch a cab home from the restaurant. Carolyn believes that we are often shaped by our parents and she feels she gets her morals from her father Henry.

Find out if you have the same beliefs and thoughts as Carolyn’s… and if you also think and feel that we are living in a society where people don’t know who and what to believe.



I am a poetess, author and songwriter. I recently retired from a government job after 28 years of service.

I have always liked to write and empower people. In June 2013, I published a book called If You Only Knew? Bought the Shoes Bought the Hat. It can be purchased at Xlibris, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Wal Mart.

Where is Home? By Anneros Valensi

Many of us travel far and wide, but in the end, we still look for warmth and welcoming comfort of home.

For Anneros Valensi, she answers the question of WHERE is HOME in the pages of this compelling memoir.

She shares her story of how her family survived the miseries of WWII in East Germany during 1944. The family, mother with 5 young children aged 1 1/2 – 11, was evicted from their homeland by the Russians and settled in West Germany in 1946.Her father was drafted into the army; and her mother and four siblings had no food and shelter; life dealt them some difficult cards.

Immerse yourself in the raw and honest emotions of this experience as seen through the eyes of a six-year-old child, who was forced to accept the reality that she had to do what needed to be done to stay alive during those challenging times.

Difficult and hard, life seemed then; it looked like fate had in store quite an adventure just for her… an interesting journey that would lead her to experience life in London and in America.

Her book takes you on a journey of her life to find ‘Home’ to forget the hardship and find peace of mind.

About the Author



How would you face war – and deal with its after effects? For a very young girl who doesn’t have a choice but to face it, she didn’t falter. She met it head-on and dealt with it with pride and grace.
That’s Anneros Valensi – and that is her story.

Follow her as she recalls the stories of war, beginning with the cruel Russian occupation of her homeland, the trauma of an unsettled life, and her family’s move to West Germany in 1946.
So, who is Anneros Valensi, the author?

She was born in East Germany in 1938. She was 6 years old when the war and its fallout struck her and her family. She loved to study and learn about the world. In 1956 after graduation from high school, she studied to be a nurse.

Her curiosity about life and to forget the war compelled her to take chances. She moved to London, England in 1961 searching to find peace of mind. She was offered the opportunity to accompany CEOs on a company’s private plane.

Five years later, she became restless again and was hired by Trans World Airlines for training as flight attendant. She arrived in America in 1966.

Her stories provide stark first-hand insight into the realities of war. And WHERE is HOME tells her family’s story, the challenges they encountered, and the long-term effects in their psyches.

Essential Book Marketing Tips

Are you an aspiring author, hoping to see your book jumping off the shelves? Or are you aiming to be the chart topping author of all-time?
You certainly can with a lot of hard work and determination that what you actually thought. In case you don’t know, publishing is not always in triumph and it is not a piece of cake. You’ve got to move with the help self-publishing services for you to see results. You might cross a rough road at first, but once you get things in order, it will later work on your advantage.
Here are some of the book marketing tips that author can utilize to become successful in publishing industry.

Identify your audience

Not all books appeal to all readers. Most likely, not all people are your potential readers. Characterize your audience. Think like your one of them, because if you know your audience’s interests then you know the right pitches to do.

Start Early

When writing your book, plan in your marketing strategies in advance. Keep on researching about the latest trends in the book market and equip yourself with bunch of ideas.

Be Techie

Create a website or blog -Your website serves as the house of all the stuff about your book.
Be updated with social networking sites – Generate a buzz using Facebook. Sign up for Twitter. Share photos, sites or links about your book in Pinterest. Build relationship with professionals in Linkedn.

Market book locally then expand

Usually, readers from national or international media will have no interest about your book. So, start shaping up your future by getting the attention of local readers. Make use of local media outlets like radio, television or newspapers. Then, start to expand the coverage of the advertisement to reach worldwide readers.

Catch attention with the use of captivating promotional content

Create advertisements like flyers about the information of your book. Make use of “book blurb” and keep it fresh to tease your potential readers. Make the description short so condense all the important information to get the reader’s attention. But leave them the eagerness to read the whole book.

Encourage reader’s reviews

One of the best ways of marketing is word-of-mouth. Build relationship with your potential readers. Encourage them to leave reviews in a friendly manner since you don’t want to be an annoying author making hard sell.

Learn from the people in the street

Be keyed up with every potential reader who is walking by. Don’t let them pass you but rather engage them with your conversation. Give them something about your book since people love freebies!
Always wear a smile! And never forget that every person you come in contact with is a potential reader.
These book marketing tips may or may not work for others. But this is how it works; marketing is not an easy task. Oftentimes, the fruits of your labor take time before it will be out in the open.
Don’t give up when rejection comes in your way. Never allow failures to ruin you. As what Og Mandino said, “Never quit and your turn will come.”

Benefits that Self-Published Authors Acquire from Book Marketing

Writing a book can be a very challenging to do. Yet there are already hundreds and thousands of people doing it. Some even consider quitting their professions just to focus on writing. And, though a lot of people have started writing, there are only a few of them who have done reasonable efforts to finish their books and make them on the top-selling list of books in the world especially in the evolution of self-publishing. It makes me think that to become an author is definitely a tough stage for most people given the fact that there are a lot of things to consider before accomplishing it: budget, investment on book marketing, the people to work with, the companies to be dealing with and more.
Nevertheless, getting into the peak of writing and publishing industry is an awe-inspiring accomplishment for anyone. This is the greatest deal as to why there is what we call best-selling authors or top-selling books. These are the products of the genuine minds and creative pens which try to excel in the writing and publishing journey despite failures and rejections encountered. To that, I highly commend these successful authors who have been able to surpass all the humps on their roads which make them reach the finish line of the journey. Above all, I consider these individuals to have great minds in their decision-making when it comes to choosing the best book marketing services for their books, platforms, and strategies.
Along with the evolution of self-publishing, book marketing services from different independent publishing companies multiply their numbers. This happens because the needs of self-published authors have also increase.

Online marketing

Most self-publishing companies offer book marketing services which involve online advertising such as the E-mail advertisement. Most authors opt for this service for its easy access advantage. Other than being simple and easy to use, e-mail marketing is cheaper compared to other book marketing services. It is quicker and involves wider reach of audience. Using this service also means direct advertising and very effective to authors who believe in the “word of mouth” advertising.
Other than e-mail advertisement campaign, here’s Online Directory Listing which involves posting a short blurb about a book to be sent to different websites that have a high rate of visitors. It is also considered as the most cost-efficient marketing program while it taps specific online audience for a book.
Creating a personal website for a book can also make a difference. A customized website can be your own online store for your books. It serves as a perfect place for your readers and avid fans to visit and follow your blogs or any updates regarding you and your upcoming books. It’s more convenient way of informing your readers what’s the latest book you’ve got and even if it is still in progress, your readers will already have an idea about it.

Strategies via media

It can be with the use of social media, print media, or broadcast. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google Plus are considered top 5 among the most popular social networking sites. Due to millions of followers and subscribers to these sites, they are considered one of the most effective spots to advertise your book. Book marketing via social media gets your book the chance to be viewed by these sites users, subscribers, and followers, who can be converted into book buyers.
While social media is more on online book marketing, most of the self-publishing companies have launched services which involve the power of print and broadcast media. Examples of these are Newswire service and Media Release campaigns. Media Release campaigns aim to generate a press release of your book and target to reach your preferred media outlets and organizations. Newswire service, on the other hand, aims to widen your book’s publicity coverage through direct consumer exposure. This happens when a press release of your book is subscribed by journalists who are receiving articles through news subscription.

Book reviews

Getting your book some reviews definitely make a huge difference. People read and listen to some pieces of advice from the others who were done reading your book. Their ability to buy your books is mostly influenced by the kind of reviews your book acquire from its readers and from some credible companies who provide professional reviews for your book.
Self-publishing companies are now busy satisfying their every customer’s need in book marketing. Every day, a new book marketing campaign is launched by each company trying to compete with the other. BookWhirl.com services started with just a few but as company’s clients drastically increase their numbers; more book advertisement campaigns have also been launched to respond to their needs.
At the end of the day, it is still your decision that matters. You might decide creating campaigns by your own and advertise your books on your social media site. You might be in need of some help from professional book marketing companies in order to make sure you are taking the right actions, step-by-step towards gaining some profits out of your hard work. You’ve always got the choice. Nevertheless, writing and getting your book published doesn’t justify your goal to be a known author, to profit, and to get your book a voice out in the market. You need to promote it by any means in order for other people to recognize your book’s worth and the significance of what you want to share.

5 Characteristics of a Shareable Writing Content

Every single day, huge number of content from across the globe are being filtered and sorted by major search engines such as Google and yahoo ensuring its quality and safety for people to read. With as much content and information people create, there are those which receives significant amount of social media sharing from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr to Google +. What makes a content worth sharing online? Below are some of the common characteristics of a shareable content mostly in the form of blogs, photos or videos.

*Appeals to the emotion

SEO Moz reported that a content garners huge amount of attention and shares when it appeals to the emotion may it be joy, sadness, anger, fear or anxiety. Notice in the graphics provided by SEO Moz where it shows content creating high-energy emotions such as anger, anxiety and awe are more likely to be shared than those which inspire low-energy emotions such as sadness.

*Useful Content

There’s no question that great appreciation are given to useful content which either let the readers take action or teach them something new. The types of content readers often regard as useful are those providing tips, how-to’s, tutorials and such which are automatically and largely shared across social media.

*Fresh and Original Topics

With more and more people writing and discussing almost the same thing online, readers are hungry for fresh topics that capture their attention and knock the socks off them. Offering readers fresh, original, engaging and well-researched content sure can garner a lot of social shares and could be the talk of the town.

*Contains captivating, interesting, funny Images

2013 is the Year of the Meme! Who hasn’t come acrossed with one? Even major online newspaper sites with the likes of Huffington post, Dailymail UK incorporated memes’ in some of their published posts often involving celebrities and even politicians.

*With Enticing Titles

Failure in creating enticing title results to failure of the content to be clicked and shared. An enticing title is absolutely needed for a shareable content. Since it is the first thing a reader sees, the content title must be concise, relevant, clear, actionable, intriguing and authoritative. Titles which trigger emotional responses can sure be highly effective and widely shared as well.
There are a lot more characteristics of a shareable content to consider aside from the things written above. But keen observation and strict adherence of these characteristics in the content being written will surely get readers to love to spend time reading, bookmarking and sharing it to social media and the world.

How to carry out book marketing effectively to get a good result?

If you want a wide range of people to buy and read your books, the details of your books should be available to those people. The readers, at the outset, have to know that a particular book is available. This is what book marketing means. It is important for every author to know how to market his books effectively.

Printed materials like postcards, bookmarks, posters and business cards are good enough to start marketing activities with. Just leaving a number of these materials at the cash register counter will increase the sale of your books significantly. These printed materials may also be used as hand outs; they can even be distributed to your friends, family and colleagues. This will increase your readership.

Printing out press releases and circulating them among the educated classes of society is, perhaps, the most constructive way to increase the target readership. Press releases are the write ups which are usually dense with information. They are sent to the media persons in order to give the latest news on an event, product or service. If it reaches a news editor or a TV newscast producer it will reach thousands of people in no time.

Once you let out a press release and the local media takes note of that, things will, obviously, turn better. As and when more people read your book, there will be higher chances of getting your work reviewed by some readers. Being a reviewed author has a visible level of prestige in the society. You will get more book reviews in the subsequent days and positive review is sure to make you a renowned figure. In other words, review is the best form of publicity.

You can also send a broadcast email to people. Since almost everyone has access to the internet these days, several people will see what you have sent within a couple of hours. Then they will quickly browse and reach your website or other book marketing sites. This increases the awareness of your book and also the traffic for your website to a remarkable extent. Another method to carry out book marketing online is to advertise your book on a personal website. By  this anyone anywhere in the world will be able to see the details about your book. This draws a huge traffic in less span of time. This is, in fact, the cheapest and most efficient way of attracting a huge audience. Do include your web address on all promotional materials and have the ordering information handy as well.

Book marketing online requires your increased web presence. In order to achieve this, a writer should have a testimonial page on his website. It is extremely useful to have a face book page too wherein your fans can post their reviews. They can post reviews on Amazon and Good reads as well. Signing up for Twitter and Google Authorship also helps an author immensely in the marketing perspective. Create an author FB page which can be used in place of your personal profile. Do give out advanced reading copies for bloggers and encourage more reading. An online book tour can be made to update the readers and yourself. An author should be quite abreast with the contemporary modes of writing and the books which are in demand. Then only he can go a long way while marketing his books.

It is highly essential for writers to develop a wide fan club. This can also be done using a FB campaign. Just as a Google campaign increases the traffic of your site, FB campaign increases your fans. You can link up with other authors and start a controversial web series. Such a move will bring energetic people together and consequently, there will be more reviews, comments and healthy discussions on the recently launched books. An online discussion forum will take shape within no time. The all pervasive impact of information and communication technology has made book marketing easier and more efficient in the present day context.

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