E-books are making an impact...

There have been two news items on e-books this week that show they are starting to play an important role in publishing.

On Wednesday (2nd March) European Commission Inspectors made 'unannouced inspections' at a number of European publishers on the basis of "suspicion of anti-competition practices on the pricing of e-books."

Nothing is being said about it relating to agency pricing, but it isn't likely to be anything else, when the OFT in the UK has already launched an investigation into this issue and cited complaints and EU laws as the basis.

I do like the comments from appropriate spokespeople saying they have no proof and are not accusing anyone...

You can read the interesting responses from officials in this Bookseller.com article.

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Mintel (a market research company) have revealed that existing e-book owners are more realistic about pricing (doesn't mean they are always happy with that pricing though) while younger readers expected to pay less- Mintel took this to be a reflection of previous experience of obtaining digital products cheaply or for free (and some of those free sources could have come courtesy of piracy). 

But it did confirm that most readers expected to pay less for an e-book, 40-70% off the hardback price. (As agency pricing has been selling e-books at the same price as a hardback- sometimes even more, then there is still a long way to go before a satisfactory compromise is reached between publisher and reader).

(For anyone thinking about pricing of their e-books) those who expected to pay less-for an e-book-preferred a price of £3 to £6, while existing e-reader owners expected to pay £6 to £10.

(For an 80-90,000 word e-novel by an author with a few books to their name I'd personally have no issue with paying £6 to £8).

The research was undertaken in December 2010 and in the run-up to Christmas there is often a push on e-readers. So by December 2011 the results they found could have changed if they asked those same people again.

49% did say they they would rather have a book than an e-book- so there's no risk of the mass demise of the paperback.

But clearly these same respondents were concerned (like everyone) about their money as 1 in 10 said they expected to buy less books this year than they bought last year...

I know I'm not buying as many books as early last year- whether solid or digital. So are you buying less books than previously? 



February Mini Poll results- Character or Plot?

Thank you all those readers who took a moment to give an opinion. Although this is the result of a small number of answers it is still interesting.

The question was: Should novels be...?

Character led                57%
Plot led                          0%
No preference               42%

All stories have people in them- well there are a few from an animal or ghoul type perspective of course, but usually there is a human being in the story somewhere.

If a writer has done their job properly then the reader will believe that those characters are real- okay you know they're made up, but how many times have you read a story and realised you know someone just like them?

I was fortunate enough to hear crime writer Stephen Booth give a talk last year at Nottingham Writers' Club. During the Q&A at the end of the talk I asked if he was a plot or character led writer?

(Many crime writers do seem to be plot led in my opinion, but I'm open to that view being challenged.)

He explained how his characters led the story, not the plot. His characters did seem to work things out as he wrote...

Of course there has to be a plot to any story, but it doesn't have to be set out from A to Z, letter by letter. If that's the way you write and it works for you, then that's great.

I've always been the type to know where I'm starting- or think I am, then where I see the story as ending and certain points in between the start and finish. Those points may move about a bit, but generally I end up where I expect to, even if I reach that end in a different way than I thought.
It does allow for some surprises along the way...

When I try to plot each stage my writing suffers- I think that is why I've had a number of issues with my Dorset novel. I deviated from my usual style. But I have learnt from it.

Though I do sometimes wonder if it isn't being a writer that makes plots visible. EDITED to add that I was thinking about books made into television dramas when I made this comment. Hope it now makes sense...

So, do you have any opinions on this subject that you'd like to share?