The Daily Lit

Bezos: Kindle and iPad are separate devices:

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a recent interview that it’s not really a choice — “the Kindle is for readers,” and he considers the iPad “a different product category.” That’s interesting. Most people might view the iPad and the Kindle as competing devices, especially since the Kindle has apparently dropped price to try and stay relevant. 

That’s because most people have no idea what they’re talking about. Bezos may be a crazy billionaire, but he isn’t stupid. The Kindle has come a long way in the last six months, from dropping its prices to raising its royalty rates and expanding its compatibility on different devices. Kindle’s big problem is that you can’t get your books off of it, but if every single piece of tech out there eventually has a Kindle app, that won’t really matter, will it? Now if only they’d do something about making the Kindle itself less ugly. But whatever. The Kindle didn’t drop in price to stay relevant; it dropped to become ubiquitous. 

Talking heads, hearing voices, and the disappearing narrator:

Good dialogue is all about the author being invisible and letting the characters take center stage. It’s the difference between watching people on a screen, versus spying on them through the window, versus being in the room with them. Ideally, you want your reader in the room with your characters; experiencing your story as opposed to witnessing it (or simply hearing about it). Crafting realistic dialogue is a matter of time and practice, of listening to people and having an ear (and a love) for accents. While I have a few pointers on those things, they’re really up to the individual writer to work at. However, I have learned some very practical ways for the author to disappear when it comes to writing dialogue, methods that remove the one-way mirror between the reader and the story.