It's February...

Well I know that's obvious if you look at today's date, but no sooner is the New Year over than the month is gone.

So what have I achieved in the last 31 days?

More than I expected actually.

I had intended to enter a 250 word competition with a closing date of yesterday, but have to admit I failed. The idea just didn't go anywhere and no matter how many avenues I considered it just wasn't right.

Despite that failure I did enter the Words with Jam competition for the last couple of lines of a story. I was not alone in this, there were 800 entries (it was free to enter). I didn't expect to get anywhere but considered it was good practice. I rewrote the ending of a piece of flash fiction and it did actually assist me in deciding how I could improve the rest of the story- it needs to be longer...

Last month I had a lot of commitments so very little quiet time which I think contributed to my spell of writers block. Glad to say the remedial action is working.

Nor have I read as much as I wanted. I'm working my way through the most recent Woman's Weekly Fiction Special and have the Fireside Reading special from People's Friend to follow.

I've started 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel', but have been in a short story mood, so swapped to 'Loves Me, Loves Me Not' a great mix of stories that can be dipped into when you only have ten minutes to spare.
I bought this last year and have got about half way through and have thoroughly enjoyed the variety.

Last night I bought and downloaded another short story anthology 'Diamonds and Pearls', which has among it's contributors well known writers such as Della Galton and Sue Moorcroft. The great thing about this book is not only does the reader get a wonderful bunch of stories to enjoy, but also a donation from the sale of each book goes to a cancer charity.

I'm certainly learning from these stories how to improve my characterisation.

So now I have a few weeks without interruptions- hopefully-I'm going to get on with some writing. Have a look at competitions I could enter over the next few months and get my brain moving again. And carry on reading.

In the meantime I want your opinions on whether you prefer your novels to be character or plot driven? Perhaps you don't have a preference.
You will find the voting box on the right hand side of your screen under the list of my Followers (thank you all).

If you'd like to share how you fared with your writing and/or reading in January then please add your thoughts to the comments box. I enjoy reading them.

E-books in the news this week

This week is was revealed that the judging panel for this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction have been provided with e-readers.

So rather than the judges receiving a heavy delivery of books to wade through to create a longlist (for announcing in July this year) they will have the choice of reading the entries digitally- if a e-book version is available of course.

Have to say reading about 100 books in a set time span sounds easier to do if you have an e-reader you can slip in your bag or pocket.

Meanwhile Amazon has announced that in the US their Kindle books have outsold paperbacks- 115 digital to 100 books.
Obviously the US has had a head start in e-book sales as the first Kindle was sold there some time before becoming available to the UK.
The UK market is starting to see increased sales but some readers prefer to use a Tablet or their mobile phone devices to read on, rather than exclusively an e-reader.

Then there is the issue of Territorial Rights. It's easier to explain in books (the solid type) before venturing onto e-books.

For example a UK publishers has the right to publish his/her authors books in the UK and a number of other countries within a territorial agreement. A reader in another territory won't necessarily be able to obtain that book in their own country at the same time, because the rights for the territory (their location are covered by) may not yet have been agreed and sold to a publisher located there.

So with digital you have a different problem.
A digital file could be downloaded to a reader in any country who technically should not be able to obtain that book- because no territorial agreement for printing and publishing that 'book' exists in their area.
It relies upon the e-book supplier saying to the buyer, sorry you cannot buy this book because of your territorial location. (Now why should a business be expected to turn down a sale?)

It's a complicated issue which you'll see if you read this item on The Bookseller.com website, here.

Digital keeps raising challenges in the traditional publishing world as long agreed formulae don't fit the new systems. But I'm fairly certain agreements will be made eventually.

Publishers (and writers) want to sell books, so hopefully they will get such issues over digital sorted as soon as they can.

If they get it wrong and piracy gets a boot in the door then it will be too late for everyone.