Media Exposure - #1

[Annasmom]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doogie

I have heard from a poster here that Amazon will only let you post a review if you have purchased a book through Amazon. Have you all had this same experience?

That seems to be the case, but there's an easy way around it. I ordered a book and wrote a review. Does anybody remember the story of the Little Red Hen?

[Gina_M]

I posted a review just now. It says it will be up within 48 hours. I must have purchased a book through Amazon in the past because it let me post the review. I'll post it over at Lulu as well.

I also signed up for Facebook, joined Nancy's "Searching for Anna" group there, and posted Anna's video on my page.

ETA - that was fast, the review's already up

[MagicRose99]

I just now posted a review and rated 5 stars... mine showed immediately... and I believe I see Gina's out there along with Annasmom's review...

[Dr. Doogie]

Thanks folks!

[InterestedNHelping]

I posted a review at Amazon...however, when I ran a search for the book, it lists the book but not a picture of the cover, until you click on the book title...I think it is an important identifier in the search, to have the cover picture listed.

[Dr. Doogie]

We're #435,834 on Amazom. Nowhere to go but up.

[InterestedNHelping]

Did anyone send this to Oprah? I am going to send a story idea to her...perhaps we can get the book to her as well?

[Annasmom]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doogie

We're #435,834 on Amazom. Nowhere to go but up.

When we dropped to 613,158th on Amazon yesterday, I thought we must be near the end of the list, but suddenly today we're at 169,991th, a huge leap. I have no idea how they calculate these sales ratings, but however it is, THANK YOU!!!

[Dr. Doogie]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doogie

We're #435,834 on Amazom. Nowhere to go but up.

Originally Posted by Annasmom

...we dropped to 613,158th on Amazon yesterday...

I stand corrected.

[Gina_M]

Here's some info about What Sales Rank Means on Amazon.

[Gina_M]

Originally Posted by InterestedNHelping

Did anyone send this to Oprah? I am going to send a story idea to her...perhaps we can get the book to her as well?

I submitted something to Oprah's website last fall, and I believe others did too. It was mentioned on the "books have been sent to" thread that Oprah has been sent a copy of the book too. I hope we can get her interested in Anna's story.

[Dr. Doogie]

"Searching For Anna" is now available on Barnes & Noble's website:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Sea...5710177/?itm=1

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

You have to be very patient when it comes to Oprah. I started a letter writing campaign to Oprah 13 years ago requesting she did a show on autism. Me along with 100's of moms who were in the forefront of the autism epidemic desperately needed more info. (This was when autism was said to effect 1 in 10,000...12 years later 1 in 150).

To make a long story short, she finally did 2 shows on autism (last season)...1st one being almost 12 years to the date of my first letter.

[smile22]

or you could be like that guy who had a billboard made near oprahs studio it was on dog and puppy mills she did a few months ago all because of the billboard

[Gina_M]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doogie

"Searching For Anna" is now available on Barnes & Noble's website:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Sea...5710177/?itm=1

I posted my review up on the Barnes & Noble site, and it's up there now along with one other review.

[Dr. Doogie]

Originally Posted by Gina_M

I posted my review up on the Barnes & Noble site, and it's up there now along with one other review.

Thanks, Gina_M.

[Dr. Doogie]

Just a quick Google note: the phrase "Anna Christian Waters" now gets 4,670 hits! Thank you guys for getting Anna's name out there in cyberspace!

[Annasmom]

Hi, everybody. We're back.
I had a letter waiting from the NCMEC which said that Anna's photo would start appearing on Valassis distribution during the week of Aug. 10, 2008. It said photo distribution by Valassis is mailed to about 75 million homes and hopefully can result in leads which then will be reviewed by the National Center's Case Analysis Support Division and referred to LE for follow-up. Valassis will also prepare press releases to the local media. This is something new (I had to sign and return releases and permissions) which covers a couple of areas we were wanting to cover, so I am "chuffed", as the English would say. (Having recently survived two endless ordeals at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal Five, which is about the size of Dallas, I figure now I can speak Brit.) It sounds as if you've all been really busy the past couple of weeks. Hugs.

[Dr. Doogie]

Originally Posted by Annasmom

...and hopefully can result in leads which then will be reviewed by the National Center's Case Analysis Support Division and referred to LE for follow-up....

Heck, they should let us have a crack at them too. We have the time and determination to actually solve this!

[Annasmom]

The status of the story submitted to the San Francisco Chronicle is on the thread Searching for Anna, Part 3. I also posted a story today, "Growing Up In Heaven" on my blog today: http://writeritewrightright.blogspot.com. I think the blog only has two or three readers, but you never know...

[Dr. Doogie]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doogie

Just a quick Google note: the phrase "Anna Christian Waters" now gets 4,670 hits! Thank you guys for getting Anna's name out there in cyberspace!

I have used the exact phrase "Anna Christian Waters" as the test for Google hits. We are currently at 9,190 - a near doubling in only 10 months!

[SideKick]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doogie

I have used the exact phrase "Anna Christian Waters" as the test for Google hits. We are currently at 9,190 - a near doubling in only 10 months!

Awesome news that Anna's name pops up on Google at such a fast rate.

I have a Twitter account which I recently opened for Anna. My url is: http://twitter.com/ChaucerDog (named after my Jack Russell, Chaucer :-).

Let me explain a little more how Twitter works. I must say, I was dumbfounded when I first started looking at this new online communitive tool. Yet another!!

Twitter at www.twitter.com is a little place where you sign up, get a page, and start a 'tweet', as Twitter calls it... a line or two about anything in the world you want to write about. Some are news related.. CNN is there etc., computer related topic, anything! So, I believe it is another valid tool to use to get Anna's name / story out there. I do quick lines about Anna.. ie: Anna loved her farm.. read on... adding the website to her book on Lulu. I've added her url to Weblseuths and her site as well, so far I have one follower...

I hate to say it, but I encourage everyone to open an account, the more folks we have :-) adding info about Anna's story the better! More people are online than ever before.

If you go to a link called 'everyone' you can read the instant updates they do.. just think, Anna's name will be there :-)

Anyway, just another update. SK

[cursed13]

Originally Posted by SideKick

Awesome news that Anna's name pops up on Google at such a fast rate.

I have a Twitter account which I recently opened for Anna. My url is: http://twitter.com/ChaucerDog (named after my Jack Russell, Chaucer :-).

Let me explain a little more how Twitter works. I must say, I was dumbfounded when I first started looking at this new online communitive tool. Yet another!!

Twitter at www.twitter.com is a little place where you sign up, get a page, and start a 'tweet', as Twitter calls it... a line or two about anything in the world you want to write about. Some are news related.. CNN is there etc., computer related topic, anything! So, I believe it is another valid tool to use to get Anna's name / story out there. I do quick lines about Anna.. ie: Anna loved her farm.. read on... adding the website to her book on Lulu. I've added her url to Weblseuths and her site as well, so far I have one follower...

I hate to say it, but I encourage everyone to open an account, the more folks we have :-) adding info about Anna's story the better! More people are online than ever before.

If you go to a link called 'everyone' you can read the instant updates they do.. just think, Anna's name will be there :-)

Anyway, just another update. SK

yeah its simple to register.im soon starting my account

[Annasmom]

The Chronicle has not responded at all, and it has been two weeks since I sent them the story, so here it is, for those of you who would like to add the local angle (namely, that you are part of the search) and submit it to your own local newspapers.



860 words

SEARCHING FOR ANNA

On Jan. 16, 1973, the only daughter of a San Francisco doctor disappeared from her back yard. Her case, though still open after 36 years, has never yielded a single clue, but today an Internet community of more than 17,000 individuals is aggressively pursuing every possibility.
Anna Christian Waters, who would be 41 this year, was born Sept. 25, 1967, at UC Hospital in San Francisco. Her father was an intern at San Francisco General; her mother had been a writer and editor. The couple had met in Greece and married in New York City, where Waters was attending Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons after graduating from Princeton and teaching English in Greece for a year.
The most recent age-advanced picture of Anna produced by Steve Loftin, forensic artist at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, shows a lovely brown-eyed woman with a bright smile. Anna’s case is considered a “probable non-family abduction” by the National Center.
Loftin, a retired police officer, has also produced a picture of Anna as a high school senior, to be compared with yearbook pictures. One age progression by Loftin from a photograph of a 47-day-old child resulted in a positive identification after 21 years. Loftin says more than 800 individuals have been positively identified through age- progressed pictures since his unit was founded 18 years ago.
Anna’s age-advanced pictures were among the first produced by the unit and have been updated periodically, using sophisticated software as well as family pictures for comparison.
Anna has a large presence on the Internet, with a Facebook page, at least two MySpace sites, and several videos including one posted by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Her official website is www.searchingforanna.com and is maintained by her uncle, who lives in New Jersey.
Websleuths, the community in which Anna’s case is featured, is a large group of amateur detectives from many states as well as from Italy, England, Finland, Canada and Greece. One observer compared the group to the “Baker Street Irregulars”, the informants in Arthur Conan Bryant’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Tricia Griffith of Park City, Utah, owns and maintains the site.
Websleuths members post under screen names, but the owner and moderators of the site have actual contact information on file if needed.
As of March, 2009, there were 40 different threads or subjects on Anna’s case alone, with 7895 posts or comments. These comments have been viewed more than 300,000 times—small potatoes when compared to “American Idol”, but still a remarkable show of interest in such an old case.
Since there was no Internet at the time Anna disappeared, none of the on-line resources was available, but now interested parties have joined forces to search genealogical data, newspaper stories, maps, photographs, and adoption records. Every discovery of an unidentified body is checked against Anna’s statistics.
Websleuths ferreted out information leading to a woman living in the mid-West who not only looked startlingly like the age-advanced picture of Anna (a photo overlay was identical), but who had no birth certificate, believed she had been adopted and who had recollections of childhood events parallel to those of Anna, who at the time of her disappearance was living with her mother and half-brothers in San Mateo County.
The evidence was so striking that the San Mateo County sheriff’s department collected DNA evidence from Anna’s family members and from the young woman. Television crews from the east coast were on hand when the results were announced, but there was no match.
Though they have tracked down dozens of Anna look-alikes all over the western world, Websleuths has not been able to find any significant information regarding a “person of interest” who befriended, influenced, and was apparently supported by Anna’s father and who claimed to be Anna’s “godfather without portfolio”. As far as public records and genealogical sites could tell, this person simply did not exist, though certainly he lived in a Tenderloin Hotel and his death certificate was signed by Waters.
An individual living in San Mateo County claims to have seen Anna in the company of a strange man several years after the disappearance, but Websleuths has not been able to substantiate this story.
At least six adopted girls have been reunited with their birth families through the efforts of Websleuth members. Classmates and teachers of the missing woman have made suggestions. A book, Searching for Anna, has been published and is available through distributors on line.
Gerald Nance, director of Anna’s case at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, says “Anna’s case is far from (our) oldest. I have two cases from the 1940s, a few from the 1950s, and a good bunch from the 60s. I know that after this much time, your question becomes ‘Is she alive?’”
“We have several factors in our corner to suggest that she is: Most children taken under the age of five (and the percentage gets higher as the age gets lower) are taken because the abductor wants or needs a child for family reasons.”

[Annasmom]

The news yesterday and today is carrying the story that Curtis Dean Anderson's confession to the murder of Amber Swartz-Garcia has been accepted as concluding this case. Kim Swartz, Amber's mother, is not entirely convinced that the confession is truthful, but at this turning point in Amber's case, I would certainly like to send Kim good thoughts and support.

The San Francisco Chronicle, however, did not list Anna's case among the Bay Area missing children, though Anderson's statement in 2001 that he had kidnapped eleven girls in "the past 30 years" (back to 1971) certainly puts our case in the time frame.

I sent the following letter to the Chronicle:

I wish you would add Anna Christian Waters, my daughter, to your list of children missing from the Bay Area. Anna disappeared from our home near Half Moon Bay on Jan. 16, 1973, and though this is one of the oldest missing child cases, it is still an open case in San Mateo County. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists Anna's case as a probable non-family abduction. Since Curtis Dean Anderson in 2001 claimed that he had abducted eleven girls in the "past 30 years", that certainly puts our case in the time frame; 30 years back from 2001 would have been 1971, of course. We have a web site at www.searchingforanna.com with more information including the latest age-advanced picture from the NCMEC forensic artist, Steve Loftin. Thank you for your attention to this matter.