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Home / Jim Cox Reports / Jim Cox Report: March 2016
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Jim Cox Report: March 2016

Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:

This month I want you to go directly to:

http://www.gwendolynkiste.com/Blog/how-writers-ruin-their-amazon-links-yes-you-probably-do-it-too

Here you will find Gwendolyn Kiste's critically important article on "How Writers Ruin Their Amazon Links". Simply stated, every author who has, or who seeks to have, reviews of their books available on the Amazon web site should read what Gwendolyn has identified as a major reason why reviews of books can unexpectedly get taken off of Amazon because of an all too common error on the part of the author.

Incidentally, if you have a book and don't know how to register it on the Amazon web site here is direct link on our Midwest Book Review web site explaining the process:

"How to Post Editorial Reviews on Amazon"

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/postingedit.htm

You might also find this a very helpful link:

http://authorcentral.amazon.com

If Amazon proves problematic, you might want to post reviews on the Barnes & Noble web site. You'll find instructions on how to do so at "Posting Customer Reviews On Barnes & Noble":

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/howtopostbn.htm

Now, on to reviews of some exceptional titles about writing and publishing:

The Writing/Publishing Shelf

How to Write Effective Business English
Fiona Talbot
Kogan Page USA
1518 Walnut Street, Suite 1100, Philadelphia, PA 19102
www.koganpageusa.com
9780749455200, $22.95, PB, 160pp, www.amazon.com

Fiona Talbot runs TQI Word Power Skills, a Business Writing Skills consulting company. She runs workshops and delivers individual coaching at all levels in all sizes of business. In addition to writing articles for Personnel Today, British Airways and CCF Magazine, she is the author of the Better English series, published by Kogan Page. She has an invaluable website www.wordpowerskills.com. In "How to Write Effective Business English: The Essential Toolkit for Composing Powerful Letters, E-mails and More, for Today's Business Needs" she draws upon her years of experience and expertise to instruct the non-native reader how to create clear, concise messages and avoid verbosity. Assuming an intermediate knowledge of English, "How to Write Effective Business English" provides guidelines for further development, deals with real life scenarios and gives readers answers that even their bosses might not know. Focusing on emails, letters, resumes or job applications, "How to Write Effective Business English gives readers an easy system for writing clearly, quickly and easily. "How to Write Effective Business English" will also hold immense practical value to native English speakers who feel that their written business English needs practice. "How to Write Effective Business English" is very highly recommended for community and academic library instructional reference collections. For studies lists it should be noted that "How to Write Effective Business English" is also available in a Kindle edition ($12.01).

A Writer's Guide to Active Setting
Mary Buckham
Writer's Digest Books
c/o F+W Media
10151 Carver Road, Suite 200, Blue Ash, OH 45242
www.WritersDigest.com
9781599639307, $17.99, PB, 256pp, www.amazon.com

Setting is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood elements of the writing craft. And when writers do focus on setting, they often pull readers out of the narrative and jolt their attention from the action on the page. "A Writer's Guide to Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings" by Mary Buckham (author of the USA Today bestselling Invisible Recruits series) will show you how to create vivid, detailed settings that bring your story to life. You'll learn how to deepen character development, anchor readers to a specific time and place, reveal backstory without slowing things down, elevate action sequences, and more. Drawing upon examples from authors writing across a variety of genres, as well as her own years of experience and expertise, Mary Buckham will illustrate exactly how the proper use of setting can dramatically improve your story. You'll learn what's effective about each passage and how you can use those techniques to make your story shine. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "A Writer's Guide to Active Setting" is very highly recommended for community library Writing/Publishing reference collections, and a "must read" instructional guide for all aspiring novelists and short story authors. It should be noted that "A Writer's Guide to Active Setting" is also available in a Kindle edition ($10.99).

Here is "The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating postage stamps this past month:

Thomas Combs
Leslie A. Susskind -- "Wish"
John Wiley -- "Love and Sobriety"
Ruth Cherry -- "Living in the Flow"
Joseph S. D'Antoni -- "Shadow Cell"
Helen Joan Vandepeer -- "Tom Ugly"
Anthony D'Augustine -- "Just Vengeance"
Bernard Leo Remakus -- "The Lame Duck"
Donn G. Ziebell -- "Conceal, Carry; Pause"
Douglas A. Singh -- "Way of the Real Faith"
Jay Alan Reeves -- "A Pop Culture Odyssey"
Susan C. Snowden -- "A Closet Full of Masks"
Carole P. Roman -- "Being a Captain is Hard Work"
Anne Dunkin -- "How They Became Famous Dancers"
Mark Vlahos -- "Winfield Scott's Vision for the Army"
Lawrence Pierce -- "A New Little Ice Age Has Started"
David I. Aboulafia -- "Visions Through a Glass, Darkly"
Harriet W. Hodgson -- "Affirmations for Family Caregivers"
Margaret Kay Dodd -- Blue Palm Press
Don St. John -- Paths of Connection, Inc.
Linda E. Austin -- Moonbridge Publications
Cody Longstreth -- Rogue Agent Publishing
Margaret S. Campilonga -- Chicken Soup Press
Mojo Triangle Books/Sartoris Literary Group
Barbara C. Wall -- The Barrett Company
Elizabeth Waldman Frazier -- Waldmania!
Scott Lorenz -- Westwind Book Communications

In lieu of (or in addition to!) postage stamp donations, we also accept PayPal gifts of support to our postage stamp fund for what we try to accomplish in behalf of the small press community. Simply log onto your PayPal account and direct your kindness (in any amount and at your discretion) to the Midwest Book Review at:

SupportMBR [at] aol.com

(The @ is replaced by "[at]" in the above email address, in an attempt to avoid email-harvesting spambots.)

If you have postage stamps to donate, or if you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send those postage stamps (always appreciated, never required), or a published copy of that book (no galleys, uncorrected proofs, or Advance Reading Copies), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.

All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on the Midwest Book Review website at www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/jimcox.htm. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up for it.

So until next time -- goodbye, good luck, and good reading!

Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


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