Is competition good or bad?

In the Middle East, so I've heard, shoe shops gather like flocks of starlings. You get a whole street of shops only selling shoes. The storekeepers work on the principle that competition pays. Someone wanting shoes makes for that street; one shop, which might not have got that custom if its location was elsewhere, will benefit.

So what's the case in the virtual world? Does the same principle apply?

I'm thinking about this today because yesterday, while trawling about on a Google Alert, I came across the news that a site that sounds very like mine is about to be launched. I immediately wailed aloud, so to speak, on my ePublisher's notepad on site. The pre-launch page of the competitor's site gave an excellent impression. It is clearly backed by highly professional and well-funded people. A Goliath to my David.

But now, this morning, I have come to the conclusion that I must have a shoeshop-street attitude. The more epublishing ebookstores there are for original work not previously published, we will all benefit. There is a (virtual) question mark at the end of this paragraph.

In any case, I shall think of WritersReadersDirect as the small and select epublishing ebookstore site where I can keep up the standard of the work I publish and maintain a personal touch with writers and readers.

I may be whistling in the dark ......