My writing week 3 (8)

Hi all,

During the past week or so I've been enjoying writing during the short periods I found time to write, being disappointed when I had to stop. This is very much a positive sign for the future. It could be because the section of the novel I am currently editing/redrafting is where the story twists and heads in a very different direction to where most readers would have thought it was going, that change may have also revitalised my attitude to editing it.

One of the books I am reading, and expect to be reading for most of the year, is the massive Macquarie Pen Anthology of Australian Literature. After getting through 50 pages of assorted introductions I finally got to the writing. The anthology starts with some letters and diary entries that really highlight the ignorant and racist treatment of Aborigines by the first white settlers. I expect the book to not only familiarise me with a lot of aspects of Australian literature, but also Australian history. Science fiction was briefly mentioned in the introductions, but I will be surprised if any of it appears in the anthology.

Now to my continuing study of ebooks. Stephen Page, the chief executive of Faber & Faber in London was in Melbourne a week ago for a symposium to talk about digital publishing. In article in The AGE it mentions that Faber & Faber's ebooks are priced at between 12 and 14 pounds or $20 to $24 Australian. This is much more than the price Amazon wants to charge for its Kindle books ($9.99 US) and much more than the $11.99 US that seems to be the current price for just released ebooks from established authors. Will Faber & Faber eventually be forced to lower their prices? After shelling out $250 for a Kindle and/or $500? for an ipad, a reader would have to buy a lot of ebooks to recover the cost at Faber and Faber's price. Don't get me wrong, good on Faber and Faber, they should set the best price possible for themselves and ultimately their authors.

Price wise, nothing much has changed on the Kindle bestselling top 100 list, with 28 selling for $2, four for $2.25 to $3.50 and three for free. The $11.99 price for first editions of well known authors seemed to be more established when I checked a few minutes ago.

I will be interested to see what obstacles life throws in the way of my plan to do a lot more writing and editing this week.

Graham.

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