New Writers for Ebooks

For the longest while I have been reading Ebooks on my computer and quite frankly hating ever minute. I suppose seated at my 'main frame' computer whilst writing simply compounded the problem. To be honest the only book I actually enjoyed during this exercise was by Seumas Gallagher - a thriller - Killer City. I worked out later on why I enjoyed it so much because the writing was tight, it was the perfect length and the terse style suited the electronic format.

So with the idea of conducting research into the problem I decided to buy myself a Kindle. I confess the difference was notable and reading became instantly easier, as my Kindle has a case which gives the impression of being a book, and I could read it anywhere in the house.

However, I discovered the problem remained. Cutting my teeth on children's books where the action is story driven, I presume my natural inclination is for books which are story driven and where the story is very tight.

So much of what I am reading at the moment is fantastic prose (totally drool worthy), far in advance of anything I could produce. But the story mainly consists of scenes. I sometimes get the impression that the scene is only there because the author liked the writing. And then the action moves to another scene later on with little or no connection between the two.

My other gripes are that for me ... and I stress the words, for me, because many avid Kindle-ists will disagree ... the action is too big and too loose, and the books are too wordy. And reading it on a Kindle without the delightful experience of flicking back and forth through pages, searching for the end of a chapter, the book seems endless. I am a great believer is 'less is more.' My first children's book (A Dangerous Game of Football) I was asked to cut 10,000 words.


I don't write like I used to, my aged mind no longer skips over fences and I now plod. But if I had to pass on words of wisdom to new writers:

Think our your story before putting pen to paper - don't write scenes and then look for somewhere to put them.
Cut out every word and scene that does not add value to the story.
If you are writing for Kindle, don't go on and on and on for 50 chapters, unless the story is so story/action driven, it simply cannot end earlier. Do not think you have to write a long book. Better 70,000 good words than 100,000+ that flounder
If you are writing for the Ebook market, look where the greatest number of sales originate. Apart from well-established writers whose books are avidly read in whatever format they appearl, there is a huge appetite for novellas, because they are the perfect length for a reader on Kindle. Short romances also have a vast audience.For me writing ebooks is more designing the book for the vehicle it sits on ... which is why I still love paperbacks.

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