Mentioned in dispatches

It was the highlight of a particularly difficult week (husband/heart bypass/complications/long story) when I found out that The Indelible Stain was one of the books chosen for the Editor's Choice in The Bookseller's first ever Independent Author Review.

It was thanks to fellow author Alison Morton that I heard the news and learnt that her book Successio had also been listed, as well as those of three other SilverWood authors - Lily Forbes's memoir Growing Up Under the Mango Tree , Elisabeth Marrion's historical novel Liverpool Connection and Thomas Saunders's autobiography Getting a Life

In the introduction to her review, Caroline Sanderson said the 18 books she'd chosen represented some of the best available, praised the quality of editing and presentation, and declared them to be "written with a flair equal to anything on the list of a traditional publishing house".

In the subsequent #FutureChat on Twitter, the subject of professionalism amongst indie authors was discussed and the importance of producing a quality book.

In the comments afterwards, author Jane Steen made the point that it would be nice to get to the stage where books in general could be judged as "good books" without the need to make the distinction between "trad" and "indie".

I'm sure that day will come eventually. After all, as Alison Morton said during the chat, it's readers who ultimately are the judges. Invariably they care little about which publishing camp the book comes from, so long as they've enjoyed reading it!



(P.S. And in case you're wondering - sorted/on the mend/home soon)

E-books and frugal times

According to The Bookseller yesterday, Nielsen predicts that e-book sales will out-strip print sales by 2014. But as e-books sell on average for less than print books revenue is also likely to be down.

Debbie Young (www.youngbyname.me) in her excellent book Sell Your Books!, confesses that since she acquired her e-book reader, many of the e-books she has bought have been impulse buys.

A friend who works in the cosmetic industry always maintains that an economic downturn has less impact on sales than one might suppose. Feedback suggests that a customer sees spending a few pounds on a lipstick as a 'treat' to cheer themselves up.

Perhaps this rationale is working for e-books too!