Weebly was recommended to me by my great friend Richard Benson of Danum Photos and after a few initial doubts as to whether I'd be able to make a go of it, I decided just to dive in! I did manage to delete my initial cover page by mistake but I hope the new one that I did yesterday is even better. Like a lot of people I find that all the computer jargon can be off-putting, but Weebly is turning out to be very user-friendly.
I am in the process of starting up my own business selling my stories on Amazon Kindle and the learning curve is starting to look like a climb on the world's biggest big dipper. However, the Internet offers opportunities undreamt of by earlier generations of writers. I have already mentioned that it was because of the Net that Ben Weider got in touch with me and asked me to write for the International Napoleonic Society based in Montreal - and it was that simple fact that launched me on the path I am now taking.
It is almost impossible for an unknown writer to break into the traditional market. If you aren't a celebrity or a well-known public figure you might as well not bother with that route to hoped-for fame and fortune. Many publishing houses are cutting down on the titles they publish and I've found that a lot of Agents prefer to stick with the clients they already have and are endeavouring to promote their work rather than that of someone new who is a total unknown. It's a time for battening down the hatches where traditional publishing is concerned and I sense that a lot of the 'old crowd' are very wary, not to say fearful, of what the launch of Kindle has done to their bottom line and their profit forecasts. Today, Amazon announced the launch of KINDLE FIRE which has a full colour range like the NOOK of Barnes and Noble. A complex market just got even busier and more crowded and the competition is really hotting up.
I welcome the launch of Kindle Fire because for the past two years I have been posting a lot of my work on Scribd.com - which currently does not allow non-US citizens to sell via their site. I love adding my own artwork or pictures gleaned from the Net to my stories and articles and I hope that Kindle Fire will soon be another business opportunity for me.
One problem that is common to all who are trying to sell via the Net is the fact that most members of the public love free content and downloads and are increasingly coming to expect it. There are 30,000 free titles on Kindle for example. So it is even more imperative that we newcomers to the market bring something new to the table - colour illustrations, pictures and artwork to accompany our stories and articles is one way of doing this.
It is all very well creating a website, the trick is to encourage a lot of people to visit it! Again, websites are numerous and proliferating like Topsy. How do you get people to come to your site? That is the next major problem for me and to which I shall return like General MacArthur at a later date. But I shall finish with the comforting reflection that English is, ipso facto, the World language now - food for thought even with a little Latin garnish thrown-in. There are seven billions humans on our planet and most will try to learn English at some time in their lives. The world's population grows by 250,000 a day. For we writers that means millions of potential new readers every year.
I am in the process of starting up my own business selling my stories on Amazon Kindle and the learning curve is starting to look like a climb on the world's biggest big dipper. However, the Internet offers opportunities undreamt of by earlier generations of writers. I have already mentioned that it was because of the Net that Ben Weider got in touch with me and asked me to write for the International Napoleonic Society based in Montreal - and it was that simple fact that launched me on the path I am now taking.
It is almost impossible for an unknown writer to break into the traditional market. If you aren't a celebrity or a well-known public figure you might as well not bother with that route to hoped-for fame and fortune. Many publishing houses are cutting down on the titles they publish and I've found that a lot of Agents prefer to stick with the clients they already have and are endeavouring to promote their work rather than that of someone new who is a total unknown. It's a time for battening down the hatches where traditional publishing is concerned and I sense that a lot of the 'old crowd' are very wary, not to say fearful, of what the launch of Kindle has done to their bottom line and their profit forecasts. Today, Amazon announced the launch of KINDLE FIRE which has a full colour range like the NOOK of Barnes and Noble. A complex market just got even busier and more crowded and the competition is really hotting up.
I welcome the launch of Kindle Fire because for the past two years I have been posting a lot of my work on Scribd.com - which currently does not allow non-US citizens to sell via their site. I love adding my own artwork or pictures gleaned from the Net to my stories and articles and I hope that Kindle Fire will soon be another business opportunity for me.
One problem that is common to all who are trying to sell via the Net is the fact that most members of the public love free content and downloads and are increasingly coming to expect it. There are 30,000 free titles on Kindle for example. So it is even more imperative that we newcomers to the market bring something new to the table - colour illustrations, pictures and artwork to accompany our stories and articles is one way of doing this.
It is all very well creating a website, the trick is to encourage a lot of people to visit it! Again, websites are numerous and proliferating like Topsy. How do you get people to come to your site? That is the next major problem for me and to which I shall return like General MacArthur at a later date. But I shall finish with the comforting reflection that English is, ipso facto, the World language now - food for thought even with a little Latin garnish thrown-in. There are seven billions humans on our planet and most will try to learn English at some time in their lives. The world's population grows by 250,000 a day. For we writers that means millions of potential new readers every year.