BITING THE BULLET

So, as Easter approaches I find myself braver than usual. I have sent out my MS for consideration for the second time. I have only sent it to one place before now, as I wanted to re-edit for the ten hundredth time. With so many great writers out there I am trying not to be too pessimistic. But with a growing E-book market, the hope for all us writers to be published in paper format is getting slimmer and slimmer.

I personally prefer to hold a book in my hands, to scan the shelves at bookstores searching for the one book whose cover will grab my attention and force me to buy it. E-books are here, and they are here to stay, however I do not want to buy a book by downloading it, the hum of my computer as the purchase goes through feels nothing like the hold of that book in my hands, the crispness of the paper as you open the cover and turn the page for the first time.

I am adamant that I will not succumb to the E-book. That said however, if a publisher would like to accept my MS and would like to publish it in E-book format, I would not complain.
To have a MS finished is an accomplishment in itself. Getting published is the goal, however the process of writing and finishing a novel gives me a feeling of great satisfaction.

I wonder how many of you fellow writers feel the same way. Do some of you want to self-publish in the E-book market? Do you love that your entire collection of books can now fit in the palm of your hand rather than on the wall to wall bookshelves of your room?

I love seeing my books on display, I walk past them, scan a cover and am reminded of the journey I took when I read each novel. I live quite a disorganised life when it come to my free time, but my books are alphabetised and in perfect order on my shelves. A new purchase is slotted into place surrounded by the fellow storytellers who had previously whisked me away to their land of make-believe. And that is what all of this is about, isn’t it? Being taken away to another world, another place or another time. Being so lost in those pages that the real world fades around you.

If you can achieve that with an E-reader then great, but if you are like me, and prefer the feel of a book in your hands, then keep buying books, so that writers such as yourselves can one day see your book nestled on the shelves of a bookstore, surrounded by the writers that inspired you to put pen to paper in the first place.

Happy writing

J