The Word Cloud

From time to time Cloudies wonder about setting up a website. We use the Mr Site package (the whole family) and Matthew, our son, has just put his site up live. It's not a writing website - it's for violins - but it could still be useful in demonstrating the potential of Mr Site. Would this sort of thing suit you? (If you want a writing example, you could try mine - gerryfenge.com - easily googled.)

http://www.caedmonviolins.com/index.htm

It's been a very hard slog, including working well past sunrise the last couple of weeks, but my new book has been released.

Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should is available from Amazon UK for the special launch price of £1.71. But best of all, it's also available as a free PDF download on my blog, which you can share with anyone you choose.

Today is a very exciting day, the book is racing up the charts in the US and the UK, and I have already picked up some excellent reviews.

The cover and blurb are below. 

You won’t make any money from self-publishing.

MYTH!

The internet has revolutionized every business it has come into contact with, and publishing is no different.

For the first time, these changes are handing power back to the writer. It’s up to YOU if you want to profit from them.

Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should.

This guide contains over 60,000 words of essays, articles, and how-to guides, as well as contributions from 33 bestselling indie authors including J Carson Black, Bob Mayer, Victorine Lieske, Mark Edwards, and many more.

It covers everything from how the disruptive power of the internet has changed the publishing business forever to the opportunities this has created for writers. It gives you practical advice on editing, cover design, formatting, and pricing. And it reveals marketing tips from blogging and social networking right through to competitions, discounts, reviews, and giveaways.

If you are considering self-publishing, if you need to breathe life into your flagging sales, or if you want to understand why it’s a great time to be a writer, Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should will explain it all.

If you are interested in reading more, you can download the PDF for free on my blog.

So anyway, there I am trying to set up a website, because - allegedly - that's what writers must do, and I'm using good old Mr Site (recommended) who in his kindness offers me all sorts of widgets to use on my pages - a clock, a latest blog posts section, a user poll, a visitor counter, a latest tweets section...

And a social networks section.

This, gentle reader, is the subject of my enquiry. Mr Site's list of social networks goes like this:
Share on Facebook
Share on Bebo
Share on Twitter
Share on Digg
Share on Stumbleupon
Share on del.icio.us
Share on Reddit

Now, it must be admitted I have not conveyed the full majesty of this cornucopia because each of these items is preceded by a little square icon, but I think you get the idea. They are many, and only some of them have we heard of.

By 'we' I mean the average simpleton like myself. However, I do suspect there are Masters And Mistresses Of The Mysterious who have just been waiting for this moment so they can impress us with their erudition. Step forward please and enlighten the ignorant.

What is Bebo? Digg? Stumbleupon? del.icio.us? Reddit?

I imagine we might have heard of Twitter and Facebook - but these other items, maybe not. Are they any use? Are they indispensible? Are they all that stand between each of us and tax exile? Will mastery of them lead to mastery of the universe? The looniverse?

Humbly I approach you, my fellow Cloudies, supplicating information, grateful for any scraps you may throw my way.

Hello fellow writers,

Please find my website on following link :
http://www.filedby.com/author/s_p_h_patel/939868/

Also the direct link is www.blacksandcastle.com (Doors to open soon).

S.P.H. Patel.