E-books. Are they a good thing?

When e-readers first came out I was very against them. The thought of reading off a screen seemed insane to me.

My sister-in-law was the first person I knew who bought one. The idea of having loads of books with me wherever I went was too hard to resist, so I bought one January 2012.

I love it! I have discovered some amazing authors who I wouldn’t have found without my kindle. I can buy books for a great price, and I can buy them any time of the day. Without my kindle I would never have discovered Kealan Burke’s books, and “Turtle boy” and “Kin” were my favourite reads last year.

The downside of the kindle though seems to be just how easy it is to download a book. Everyone seems to be doing it. And there are some shocking books out there that are not even free or cheap.

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with some writer friends last week. We were discussing the fact that on a facebook page we had seen a post that recommended reading a “How to write book.” The name of the book escapes me, but what I can remember was the person recommending it admitted it was full of typos. I loaded the sample and this person wasn’t wrong, it was littered with mistakes. It is almost laughable that someone could write a “How to write book,” who can’t even be bothered to have their work proofread.

When did it become acceptable to charge money for something that is not good enough to be published? The book in question wasn’t cheap, it was over £3.00.

This is not the first time I have found this in a “How to write” book. I have found at least a half a dozen examples of such bad writing, and there are plenty of novels, novellas etc that are just as bad.

It is the job of the author to make sure that what they are putting out there is good enough. The author needs to make sure it is edited and proofread, and by someone else preferably.

I write novels. I haven’t been published yet, and I may look into self publishing when the time comes. The reason I have not published yet, when all my writing friends have done already, is that my work is not good enough yet. I am getting close, but almost isn’t enough. I can’t justify expecting people to part with their money to read something that isn’t worth it. They won’t want to read anything else by me in the future if they are left unsatisfied.

I am working hard this year at improving my writing. I have joined an English course to improve grammar, punctuation etc, and I am taking on writing challenges. I had a piece of work published last year in an anthology with my writing group, called “The other way is Essex.” It is available on Amazon in e-book and paperback form, and is raising money for Farleigh Hospice. We are also working on a children’s anthology this year also for charity. I am really enjoying working on the new one; my daughter is a great source of inspiration.

I think it is great that it is easier for authors now. Before e-readers it was so hard to get published that a lot of people didn’t bother to try, just writing for their own enjoyment.

 We just all need to act professionally. It is not okay to sell bad books just because we are in a hurry to see our name in print.