Update from Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund on GlobalGivi​ng.co.uk

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund, a project on GlobalGiving.co.uk that you gave £42.00 to on April 16, 2012, has posted an update on how they are using your donation. Here's the unedited update from the field:        

Exciting Update!
By Katherine Sammons - Project Team Intern

Fukushima Kids-https://www.globalgiving.org/10634

We would like to thank you for your continued support; grants are still going strong! Because of donors like you we are excited to announce the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund’s recent allocation of $425,000 to 3 projects working to reconstruct and strengthen communities affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Here are some project highlights:

Fukushima Kids Executive Committee

Due to the dangers caused by the damaging of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant children in the area are unable to play outside. The Fukushima Kids Executive Committee is working towards restoring playtime by hosting summer camps in Hokkaido for children in the Fukushima area. Getting kids outside during their vacation time and restoring play lightens the children’s spirits in a time of uncertainty. Having opened in 2011, Fukushima Kids’ Summer Camp is excited to open again for the summer of 2012 and is hoping to reach 1,000 kids. Thanks to your generous support Fukushima Kids Executive Committee is receiving $200,000 in funding!

IsraAid

After the events of March 2011 persons living in danger areas were forced to move to temporary housing communities (kasetsu-jutaku). IsraAid continues to work with people of all ages living in temporary housing areas and is launching an exciting new youth leadership project, Rebuilding Lives-Investing in the Future, in Tohoku, Japan. The project aims to empower participants and build leadership, social innovation and social responsibility through a series of trainings, seminars and workshops, which focus on areas such as, leadership training, social program structuring and mentoring. We are excited to announce that IsraAid is receiving $100,000 in funding!

Telecom for Basic Human Needs

During times of disaster radio often becomes an integral communication tool. Radio stations provide vital information to communities and lessen feelings of isolation. Though reconstruction of Japan’s devastated areas is under way the support and information radio provides is still valued in many communities. Having seen the effectiveness of radio stations and the important role they play in the recovery and rebuilding process of communities, Telecom for Basic Human Needs is working to turn disaster stations into permanent community-based radio stations. Thanks to your support Telecom for Basic Human Needs is receiving $125,000 in funding!

If you would like to read additional updates, please visit our Japan Relief and Recovery updates page. Thank you so much for your support and your continued interest!

Fukushima Kids-https://www.globalgiving.org/10634

Telecom for BHN-http://www.globalgiving.org/10457

Telecom for BHN-http://www.globalgiving.org/10457

Stay tuned for more updates.  And thanks for your support!

Katherine Sammons and the GlobalGiving team in Japan              

Thank You!

Sorry for the lack of recent updates, but we've been working hard behind the scenes.

As some of you may know, we have taken the difficult decision to take Stories for Sendai off the market. We wanted a firm deadline for donating a nice lump sum to the charity, and also wanted to give sales one final boost by encouraging readers to snap up a copy while they can. All rights, of course, remain with the authors.

Since then, it has taken a couple more months before Amazon and Createspace finally sent us the royalty cheques. Here is a rough breakdown:

     Royalties                                                                     USD136.00
     -30% US Tax deduction                                             USD95.90     
     Conversion to GBP(£)                                                £60.00
     -3 x £6 bank fees for processing foreign cheques     £42.00


The final total may not seem like much (around USD67.50), but it is way more than I could afford to donate as an individual, and it is the culmination of the hard work of 20 writers and the generosity of dozens of readers and supporters. And for that, I am sure GlobalGiving and the people of Sendai are grateful.

Plus, as a UK taxpayer, we could opt in for Gift Aid, which adds a further 25% value to the donation!

So the final value is ...

£52.50!

Thank you, UK government! :)

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for since this project came into being:

This is the receipt for our donation to GlobalGiving, in aid of the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund. The culmination of months of work ... and we couldn't have done this without you!

So a BIG thank you for all of you who have journeyed with us so far. We deeply appreciate all your help, support, encouragement and generosity, and we are sure that the people of Sendai are grateful as well.

Prize Draw Winners Announced!

A big THANK YOU to everyone! We've just broken the $100 mark! It's still a long way to our target of $1,500, but it's a start! If you have purchased Stories for Sendai and enjoyed it, why not let others know? We would also really appreciate some reviews, either on your site, or on sites like Goodreads and Amazon.

And now, on to the exciting announcement! We have winners for the prize draw! Now, we received more prize donations than entries, so what we did was to randomly draw a winner using Random.org, and then draw them a random prize from the list of prizes.

And so, without further ado, the list of winners...

Cherie Reich 

wins

the First Chapter / Short Story Critique (up to 2 hours and 3,000 words) from J.R. McRae!

Jennifer Poulter

wins

an e-book copy of Celestial Seduction by Jessica E. Subject!

Damyanti Ghosh

wins

an e-book copy of Celestial Seduction by Jessica E. Subject!

Michael di Gesu

wins

a First Chapter / Query / Synopsis Critique from J.C. Martin!

Robyn Campbell

wins

a First Chapter / Query / Synopsis Critique from Michelle Davidson Argyle!

Jessica E. Subject

wins

an e-book copy of Middlewitch Mayhem by Heather Parker!

Congratulations, all! We will be in touch shortly with your prizes! :)

Competition Deadline Extended!

Right, so for some frustrating reason the print version of Stories for Sendai is still not available on Amazon UK. :( It is, however, available on Amazon DE, the German site, and our British friends can purchase it on there in GBP.

In lieu of the delay of the book being made available to those in the UK, we are extending the deadline for the prize draw. You now have till Friday July 22nd to forward us your receipt to be in the running for cool prizes! Check out COMPETITION for more details.

Wunderbar! Find Us on Amazon DE!!

Stories for Sendai can now be purchased from Amazon Germany! Can't believe it's still not available from Amazon UK. The only copy they have available through some third party store costs a crazy £28.45! Daylight robbery! :(

J.C. couldn't wait for it to get to Amazon UK, and has purchased 10 copies from the German store. She'll be flogging them to friends and family!

Still time to send us your receipt to be entered into our prize draw! See COMPETITIONS for more details.

Stories for Sendai: An Update

The blog tours are nearing their end, and we've had a busy but enjoyable time hopping from blog to blog promoting Stories for Sendai! As of posting, we've raised US$86 for charity. but as you can see, we're hoping to raise much more! 

If you've already purchased a copy, good on you, and thank you very much! If you've read and enjoyed it, why not pass the news on and tell your friends to buy a copy too? If you haven't bought one, why not give it a go? It's only $7.99 for the paperback on Amazon.com and the Createspace eStore, £3.46 for the Kindle version (US), and £2.15 for the Kindle version (UK). For our Canadian friends, it's CDN$7.66 on Amazon.ca.

We are still waiting for the print version of the anthology to be available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.

Anyone who's purchased a copy can still be in the running for our prize draw, which will end July 15th. Here's a reminder of the prizes available:

1 x $10 (or £10 if you live in the UK) Amazon gift voucher

1 x First Chapter/Query/Synopsis Critique from Michelle Davidson Argyle

2 x First Chapter/Query/Synopsis Critiques from J.C. Martin

1 x First Chapter/Short Story Critique (up to 2 hours and 3,000 words) from J.R. McRae

2 x Print book of your choice from the Book Depository top 1000 bestsellers list

2 x e-book copies of Celestial Seduction by Jessica E. Subject, donated by author

1 x e-book copy of Middlewitch Mayhem by Heather Parker, donated by author

Competition details

1. Purchase a copy (or more!) of Stories for Sendai when it releases.
2. Email your receipt to storiesforsendai (at) ymail (dot) com.
3. One contest entry per purchase--so buy extra copies for your friends/family! :)
4. Contest closes on July 15th at 10.00pm GMT. Winners will be drawn randomly.
5. Check back here on July 16th for the list of winners! 

RELEASE DAY!!

*EDIT: Kindle version (US) now available! :)

It's the official release day today! It's been a whirlwind of a time, with edits and promos and blog tours, and the day is finally here! :) And here is our latest status:

The print version of Stories for Sendai has been available on Amazon for a few days now. We've encountered some glitches with the Kindle version, which somehow keeps failing at the review stage without giving us a reason why! :( So please be patient while we keep plugging on that...

See the new-fangled thermometer on the right? Help us raise the mercury all the way to the top! For every sale of the print version, $2.24 will go towards funds in aid of Japan's quake victims. This is 100% of the proceeds, minus the cuts taken by Amazon and Createspace.

As of today, Stories for Sendai is #20 in the Hot New Releases bestsellers list for Genre Fiction Anthologies!! Overall in books, we're a less impressive #58,164. Let's try to get Stories for Sendai to climb higher! If you're planning on getting a copy, why not buy it TODAY to help us rush the charts and move us up the lists?

And don't forget to email us a copy of your receipt to be in the running for awesome prizes! Check out the COMPETITIONS page--one entry per receipt!

There's been quite a bit of Twittering about the anthology in the past few days, and we're really grateful to everyone who's been re-Tweeting and promoting Stories for Sendai to their followers. Now comes the big question: could we get #StoriesforSendai to actually trend? *gasp* With your help, we'll find out!

I'd like to thank everyone for their support so far. We're halfway through our blog tour, so I hope you'll continue to join us the rest of the way! With your help, we can make this project a success!