This morning I finished my book on CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). A few clicks later it was in my editor’s office in London. Not so long ago I would have had to print it out, drive 20 km to the nearest post office in Figueres and spend 20 Euros sending it. The internet has transformed the lives of people like me.
Less sure is the impact of the internet on my income. It seems that readers are just as willing to pay for fiction but far less willing to pay for factual material like mine. There’s so much available on the internet for free. I take the view that, say, £10 is very little to pay for a book that could change your life. I hope enough people agree.
What now? I have a friend who spends about three years writing a novel. She uses the D.H. Lawrence method of writing a draft then setting it aside and writing a second version. And a third. And even a fourth. She takes holidays in between.
I don’t have that luxury at the moment. Every paragraph may be revised several times but once the book is finished it’s on to the next. No holiday. And so, this afternoon, I’ll get down to the book on dating and seduction. Thanks to all those who have already sent in suggestions. Keep them rolling in, please.
In my youth I copied from a film the idea of sandwiching blank sheets of paper between a few pound notes to make it look as if I had a thick wodge of the folding stuff. With today’s plastic money does anybody on a date still do that?