When I fire up the 3G connection to visit the Kindle Store or drop by Amazon.com on my computer, I am greeted with a list of recommendations, and many of them are right on. A few days ago Amazon suggested Writing Fiction for All You’re Worth by James Scott Bell, one of my favorite writers on writing. I’m not sure how Amazon knew that; I’m pretty sure I bought his Plot & Structure and Revision & Self-Editing at my local Half-Price Books. But I’ve bought and/or looked at a fair number of craft of writing books on the Amazon site.
Writing Fiction for All You’re Worth is a collection of essays and blog posts in e-book form only, which in itself illustrates one of the points Bell makes. I grabbed it because I know and love his earlier books. Bell has an established audience for this type of publishing. Most of us don’t. And much of what is currently being self-published, Bell warns, is not quite ready for prime time (“Just Because You Wrote It Doesn’t Mean You Should Publish It”).
Beyond his interesting and realistic view of the e-pubbing phenomenon, Bell’s essays contain a wealth of information, advice, and encouragement, divided into sections on The Writing World, The Writing Life, and The Writing Craft, and concluding with interviews with well-known writers.
I’ve been reading Writing Fiction for All You’re Worth at odd moments over the last couple of days and enjoying it thoroughly; I recommend it highly. (Bell has a few comments about semi-colons. He doesn’t favor them in fiction, but they have their uses.)
It’s a shortish book, but I can’t tell you exactly how short. It’s on my Kindle, and it has no page numbers. I have to admit that, although I am thoroughly enjoying my Kindle, I miss page numbers. I’ve heard rumors that they’re working on that, but given the ability to change font size, pagination can’t be easy. I also miss being able to flip back and forth between pages, especially in non-fiction. I’ve gone back to the beginning to look at the table of contents while writing this, and I’ll use that to get back to where I left off reading (“How Many Subplots is Too Many?”). The other day when I went back and forth in another book I had to open the User’s Guide to figure out how to get back to the location number I had left.
The Kindle isn’t a book, after all. The formatting tends to shift a little here and there, and the proof-reading isn’t always perfect. I’ve been reading another book in which, for reasons I can’t even guess at, the word often is consistently written as oft en. I still don’t think that electronic readers will replace traditional books, but the possibilities for supplementing print are fascinating.
I can’t tell what page I’m on, but I’ve read 73% of Writing for All You’re Worth. Maybe in time that will seem more natural than a page number.
Kay Hudson 