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Showing posts from June, 2015

Book Review: Showing and Telling in Fiction

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I finished reading  Showing and Telling in Fiction by by Marcy Kennedy a few months ago, and have been meaning to review this excellent how-to guide since I put it down. Eliminating 'telling' is an issue I needed a lot of help with to fully understand and overcome in my own writing, and this book has helped set me in the right direction. In a nutshell, the classic argument states that writing that shows the reader what is happening is more compelling, engaging, and descriptive than writing that tells the reader what is happening (or has already happened). "Chapter One defines showing and telling and explains why showing is normally better." Showing and Telling in Fiction  begins by clearly explaining what defines showing and telling, the differences between them, and why showing is (usually) the preferred choice for exciting, engaging prose. If you like to know the reason behind the rule, you'll find this part satisfying. "Chapter Two gives you eig

A KDP Select Giveaway Promotion Suprise

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Due to the fact that my 90-day KDP Select period was expiring soon, and my day job exploded with excess demands on my time, I ran a KDP Select giveaway for my epic fantasy adventure Mirrors & Mist on June 2, 2015. Because I was so swamped at work, I didn't do any promotion for this event. Zero. Zip. Nada. If you recall, I posted results from my first Amazon giveaway for  Mirrors & Mist  on May 14 and 15, where I promoted the event on my blog, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and two dozen websites . My first-day results for my promoted event were 129 units on Amazon. So how did the un -promoted giveaway do? On June 2, the no-fanfare giveaway totaled 130 books, or one more than the giveaway I spent several hours (possibly more) promoting. So does this mean I wasted my time filling out all those online forms and posting and tweeting like crazy? I'm afraid it might. Other than the day of the week the event was held (Thursday versus Tuesday), all other factors are the same