I spend a lot of time in discussion groups about eBooks and the future of books. Let me start by saying that I'm not an infalible futurist. I predicted that Commodore Computers would win the PC business (in 1981) and that the web would never really amount to much (in 1994). Still, predictions that publishers will go away and that authors will sell directly, possibly aided by a star rating system, strike me as wrong-headed, or at least incomplete. Every good author knows that we go blind when confronted with the Nth reading of our own work. Authors need outside editors, fresh sets of eyes, to help them with minor problems like repeated words and awkward turns of phrase, as well as continuity errors (were his eyes brown a hundred pages ago), and plot holes (I knew that, I wrote in in three drafts, what do you mean it isn't in the current draft). One of the primary roles a publisher offers is editing.

Which is what I've spent the week doing. Today I got 130 pages of AFTER THE DRAGON edited. I'm past the halfway point. My goal is to finish this weekend so I can move on to my own stuff next week. It's an ambitious goal but I'll try.

Nice walk on the beach, 10 or so miles on the bike (new inner tube seems to be holding air) and a pleasant dinner at Virginia's on the Pier.

I'm reading THE PHOENIX UNCHAINED by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. So far I'm enjoying it a lot.

I'm going to make TAMMY AND THE PRIVATE EYE by Amy Eastlake the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. Tammy Jones wants to be a detective--but she's too shy to ask so she works in the typing pool, until sexy Pete Hunter realizes she's a perfect double for a famous celebrity he's been charged to bodyguard. Transforming Tammy into a star isn't easy. As it happens, though, Tammy wonders if she can achieve all of her dreams. This entire eNovel is only $1. Learn more, read the excerpt, or buy the eBook here: www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/rom_2003/tammy_eye.html. (Available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Palm Reader/eReader, and Microsoft Reader formats. Here's the cover (cover design by Jane Graves):

rob