Dear Jerusha; I am scared. I have written two books of a series, and the first is out with a couple of agents, but I know that I'm likely to get a standard rejection, which won't tell me anything except that today, that agent thinks they can't sell that novel. But I am working on other novels - I have loads of ideas from children's books, to YA, to adult. Time is lacking. Eventually, when my daughter goes to school I would love to devote my time to writing novels.

The thing is that I started writing to escape and found I loved it. I never set out to become published. Now, after devoting two years to the series and seeing how much I love to write I wonder if I have what it takes. If I don't it doesn't really matter, in a way: I do just love writing, and I'd go on. But now I'm thinking about getting an editorial report because in some ways I really want to know. On the other hand, if I find out I don't have what it takes, it might take my enjoyment out of my writing. I'll constantly think it's rubbish, whereas now I think - well, I like it! I also don't want to spend Ł500 unless it is worth it. I can afford it; we are fortunate. It's just - is it worth it?

I think it's very insightful of you to realise that you might rather leave your enjoyment undisturbed. There's no denying that it can be quite hard to cope with detailed analysis of what's not working yet in your writing; in some ways it's harder to take than a bland "Not for us, sorry." And it's horribly easy to read all the gory details of "What's not working yet" as piles of "What I did wrong because I'm rubbish". And it's very natural to be scared of getting an even semi-authoritative assessment and judgment of your work: Emma doesn't have the least desire to be a professional cook, but she'd still be nervous if Nigel or Nigella came to tea. I do think it's horribly easy, too, to get locked into the general assumption among aspiring writers, and also the rest of the world, that publication is what we're all aiming for, and anything else is second best. It's not nearly as simple as that.

I assume, though, that you would like to improve your writing, just for the pleasure of being able to fulfil better your drive to tell stories: to say what you want to say more effectively, to get the idea and dreams in your head onto the page more satisfyingly.

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It's been a while since my last blog, but by no means does it mean that I've been idle.

The last few weeks have produced both lows and highs. My lowest point came when I experienced my first rejection of the full Delve manuscript. That I'd got to the point of being asked for the full validated my believe in Delve and when the response came it wasn't the one that I'd pinned my hopes on. The agent in question gave mea some really good feedback saying that the manuscript was too long at 126,000 words, slowing the pace, and that for a first time YA author I should be aiming at 65,000 to 75,000 words. The good news was that the story, the characters weren't the issue, so I knew that I'd got the formula right, but needed to kill my darlings to make it pacier. I bounced back the next day and began to work on the re-edit of Delve to cut the length, and up the pace.

And in amongst it all, I heard from a fellow Writewords member that there was a conference about to take place arranged by the Verulam's Writers Circle where attendees would get a chance to pitch there novels to agents and editors in the business. Well I couldn't miss such an opportunity. I had two completed manuscripts - Delve, my urban fantasy, young adult paranormal novel, and x3 (previously titled The Curse), a chilling adult supernatural horror. I decided to pitch both, and spent the weeks running up to the conference making sure that I had samples for both (consisting of a synopsis plus first three chapters). With the re-edit on Delve, my first three chapters needed pace, and x3 needed to be dragged from first draft to a standard worthy of submission.

The Get Writing 2012 conference took place yesterday, 11th February 2012, at Hatfield University. There were the usual talks and seminars, all very well organised, but it was the afternoon that made it for me, having the chance to try and pitch my work. That and meeting fellow writeworders, Sharley, Astrea, Petal, Helen Black, as well as Judy, Nurgs and other writers. A short gaggle of witches was how Sharley's husband described us I believe, any my fellow coven members were all so lovely and down to earth.


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So once again, I ally myself with the hordes by talking about things I know bobbins about.

Am I a charlatan for not quite getting Hamlet? It seems more celebrated for its contribution to the English language than for whatever it is actually about. T.S. Eliot baldly declared the play an artistic failure, taking apart the play in an essay Hamlet and his Problems. In this essay he argued that the the play failed to show the emotions and ideas expressed by the the character Hamlet:


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Got a nice trawl of responses to my readers’ survey on e-books. My thanks to everyone who took part.

With 56% of the vote, the most popular e-reader by far was the Kindle. The Sony e-reader came second with 11%. (One respondent was vehemently opposed to the Kindle, on the grounds of software incompatibility. Kindle-fans spoke positively of the reading experience.)

64% said they buy more books now than before they owned an e-reader. 34% said they are buying about the same. No one says they are buying fewer books. So that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Everyone of the people who took part in my survey said they are still visiting bricks and mortar bookshops. No one has stopped buying print books altogether, though two people said it’s very rare for them to buy a print book these days. (My wife, who did not take part in the survey, says she has given up buying print books now she has a kindle. That said, she didn’t buy a lot of books before, she just read the ones I’d bought!)

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I’ve been canvassing the views of authors and publishers involved in e-publishing. But I thought it was about time I heard from the people who really matter, the readers. So I’ve put together a short(ish) questionnaire. It’s really designed for people who have an e-reader of some kind, but I would also be interested in hearing from people who don’t have a kindle (or equivalent). The question for you, I suppose, is are you intending to get one, or will you never succumb?

So here are the questions. Please leave your answers in a comment. Feel free to answer as many or few of the questions as you like. Or if you prefer, just leave a general comment about your views on ebooks. I just want to hear from readers (this includes writers who are also readers, of course!). Thank you!

What type of ereader do you own? Eg Kindle, Kobo, Sony, iPad, Android… (Are there any others?)
Do you buy more books overall now that you have an e-reader? Or fewer?
What was the last ebook you bought and when was that?
When was the last time you went in a bricks and mortar bookshop?
How many ebooks do you buy per month? 0-1; 2-4; 5-10; blimey -how many books can you read in a month!? Or “don’t know”.
Have you stopped buying print books entirely since owning an ereader?
If no, what is the ratio of ebooks to print books? Mostly ebooks. Mostly print books. About half and half. Don’t know.

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f you've been collecting standard rejections (wonkily photocopied, unsigned, spelling your name wrong) for your novel it's easy to believe that any squeak of interest would have you celebrating. And the maths and psychology of submissions (very well described here by Sarah Davies and Julia Churchill of the Greenhouse Agency) mean that you know you should celebrate - you DO celebrate - being asked for the whole manuscript. And you celebrate more if you get a long email about the novel, or are taken on by an agent, or hear a publisher is interested... Each step, if you've got any sense (and your fellow-aspirers will remind you of it even if you're weeping and kicking the cat), says more about just how good and saleable your novel is.

And yet anyone who's been through all that, only to hear that yet another acquisitions meeting has turned down their novel, will tell you that the closer you get, the more it hurts.

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In the beginning, all action was fast paced. If you could have been in the Garden of Eden, before that unfortunate incident with the apple, you would surely have seen Adam zipping about like a child overdosed on Sunny Delight, hurtling from one screwball caper to the next...

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I saw this Agatha Christie play in a beautiful theatre, tucked away near Richmond Green, and a complete contrast to the modern theatre-in-the-round called The Orange Tree, nearer the station.

It was good to spot Carolin Kopplin at the end of the performance. She's a fellow fringe theatre critic whom I met only last week to chat with on press night for 'Sense and Sensibility' at The Rosemary Branch.

She confirmed that despite the efforts of cast and creative team the play itself was a let-down. As she stated in her own review for the UK Theatre Network, she'd spotted one or two elderly patrons nodding off during the first half.

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Dr Ian Hocking is the author of two techno-thrillers, Déjà Vu and Flashback, as well as a rites of passage comedy, Proper Job, and a short story collection, A Moment in Berlin. All of them self-published though amazon. In fact, his self-publishing exploits – and more particularly his sales success – have brought him to the attention of Nicholas Clee writing in The New Statesman.

Just to get this out of the way, any relation to Amanda Hocking?

Yes, we’ve been happily married for years. No – wait! We’re completely unconnected.

So congratulations on those sales, Ian. The last time I looked, Déjà Vu was number 6 in the amazon.co.uk technothriller ranking – for all book formats, not just kindle. That’s quite an achievement. To what do you owe your success?

Like most authors, I only have clues but no definitive answer. Déjà Vu itself was first published in 2005 by the UKA Press. There, it was edited by the talented Aliya Whitely. The UKA Press angle didn’t work for a variety of reasons. Meantime, I kept working on the book. I genuinely thought it was good – or, at least, that it was the kind of book I wanted to read. The next step was a near-miss from a larger publisher. I picked up literary representation on the back of this. Along the way, I recorded Déjà Vu as a podcast, and kept reworking the material. Eventually, when my agent couldn’t place the book, I gave up writing. There’s a post on my blog about it. I redrafted Déjà Vu again in line with a short report from Scott Pack, hired Clare Christian to give it a proper edit, and put it out for the Kindle. What I’m saying, in a roundabout way, is that I never tired of returning to the story of Déjà Vu and polishing it. Those years in the wilderness paid off in terms of the quality of the book. I don’t know how it compares to other publications out there, but it has certainly received more attention than most, both from the writer and its editors.

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Lee Jackson is the author of a number of fine historical mysteries, including London Dust, A Metropolitan Murder and The Mesmerist’s Apprentice. His most recent novel is The Diary of a Murder, which is published by Snowbooks, though it first appeared as a self-published e-book. Alongside his fictional crime-writing activities, Lee is a well-known and respected authority on the Victorian age, in particular Victorian London. He is the founder and curator of the Victorian London website www.victorianlondon.org, an invaluable resource for anyone interested in researching the period. Recently, he has set up a publishing arm to Victorian London, Victorian London Ebooks, re-issuing electronic editions of rare Victorian (and Edwardian) texts. I recently read one of his publications, Journal of a Disappointed Man, and can honestly say it is one of the most extraordinary and moving books I’ve ever read.

What first made you decide to become an e-publishing magnate?

Magnate? The canny reader may surmise that Roger is flattering me here; but he will still not receive a discount on his next purchase. I should also point out that, at the moment, I’m just publishing via Amazon – not via Kobo, Sony, Apple or elsewhere.

I’ve always been fascinated by the possibilities of publishing historical material on the web. I’ve been using the internet since 1993 (when it still looked like this) and I’ve been digitising material for my own site for the last ten years. That, of course, was gratis – but the rise of Amazon, Kindle and Twitter seemed to offer a new model for self-publishing.

Also, I really needed the money.

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