Amazon To Acquire the Book Depository...

Amazon is one of those companies that you can choose to avoid, but not anymore...

Yes, they've been a great boon to writers wanting to get their work out to readers via Kindle- but let's not ignore the fact that Amazon benefits from this too- they make money on every sale.

But I was dismayed to read on the Bookseller.com website that Amazon " has reached an agreement to acquire The Book Depository". Having seen some of the tweets showing on the BD home page many of their customers weren't too happy either...

Many book buyers choose to use The Book Depository rather than purchase from Amazon- I'm sure many of them refuse because they don't like Amazon's practices.

Amazon has it's place but even I can see this is a liberty too far. There is now no longer (or seems not to be)any real alternative to being able to buy a wide range of books online. They have stopped the serious competition.

Even major booksellers can't compete on price or range when they're up against Amazon.

Perhaps now is the time for publishers to consider their responses to Amazon's cut of the profits. After all if the publisher doesn't have much choice anymore in who they can supply, nor the terms they can agree to sell on, then the readers and especially the writers both suffer...

Hopefully the OFT will look at this. But I doubt it will qualify for investigation by the Mergers Commission as their criteria requires three things and this won't qualify on the "two or more enterprises must cease to be distinct." Amazon will still be Amazon at the end of it...

Unless:
"In exceptional cases where public interest issues are raised, the Secretary of State may also refer mergers to the CC."

So perhaps the Secretary of State covering arts and the media needs a deluge of letters...

So what do you think?

UPDATE: After I posted the above and went offline the Bookseller website got more information. The Book Depository are saying they will continue to trade independently of Amazon. Read more here.

Keeping Track of My Progress...

My writing time has always been limited so I've set targets for many years, but circumstances take over and targets are missed- or just abandoned...

So I decided that I'd start a new system with my novella. I'd keep a writing log.

At the start of a writing session the first thing I do is open my log - a Word document- and put in the session number, the date and the intended writing, then the time I start writing. Then I just reduce it to the bottom tray so it can't be forgotten about at the end.

Obviously when I finish I make sure I have a printed copy of the work done as well as the copy on my computer and a memory stick (just in case anything happens to the computer).
The final bit is to fill in the finish time of that session, save it and close the files.

So far this has been the most successful method I've tried and I'll be doing it with my short stories and novels too.
(Previously I've tried this system with a notebook but I just kept forgetting to put the details in.)

Now not only will I be able to see how I'm progressing, but by the time I've finished I'll have an idea of how long particular types of writing take me. So in future I can plan out my time better and ensure that I've given myself long enough to meet competition deadlines...

Too often I've intended to do a particular project and found I don't have enough time for it. (I have to say I can't just manage 10-20 minutes here and there- it just doesn't work for me...)

For now the log is a useful tool...