Taking a Rain Check...

Like many bloggers, I obsessively check my statistics. I can tell you how many people have looked at my blog each day, every week, every month, or indeed ever! I know which of my posts are the most popular ones. Interviews are usually high on the list. My interviews with illustrator turned author Curtis Jobling and Bodicia from 'A Woman's Wisdom' have been fighting it out for top spot for months and were way ahead of anything else. Until now.

The piece I posted just three weeks ago about Publishing Lessons has attracted a huge number of hits, and will very soon be outstripping anything else. I don't put that down to my sparkling prose or witty presentation of the subject, so much as a thirst in all authors for the formula to success. How do we chart our way through the literary world, especially at a time when that world is itself in flux? I don't think I have the answers any more than anyone else, but hopefully my thoughts help to fuel the debate and push us a little further along the search.

I was hoping to post a follow-up to the article today. But I'm still tied up in my rather protracted book launch, which at six weeks long is threatening to eclipse the celebrations for my last 'big' birthday - and that went on for a couple of months! Today, I'm hosting a launch party in my home town. I have real copies of the actual book sitting on the table looking at me - and if there's anything that clinches the argument of ebooks versus physical stock, for me it was the moment when I got the first copy in my hand from those wonderful people at Hedgerow Print last week. A Kindle just doesn't feel the same!

And there's a little matter of NaNoWriMo. I'm a couple of days behind, but am over the 20K mark and am determined to win this year. Apart from anything else, it's one of the things I promised my writing buddies I would do, when we met in Swanwick last August. So I'll take a rain check on Publishing Lessons Part 2 if that's okay.

One final reminder: it's National Short Story Week from today. all my anthologies will be free to download over the next five days, so keep an eye out for those offers. But more importantly, do try to read some short stories this week. There are some wonderful examples out there in magazines, charity anthologies and collections by individual writers. Some of the best authors around have written, or are writing short stories: Katherine Mansfield, William Trevor, Hilary Mantel, Margaret Drabble. It's time we got this Cinderella of the literary world in her coach and on the way to the ball.