Tuesday, October 20, 2009

PIONEERING: THE PP WEBCON

I'm excited about this weekend! Excited and scared. I'm participating in something very new. A web conference. I think e-conferences may have been done on a small scale, but this is the first of its kind that I know of. Poisoned Pen Press, an independent publisher of mysteries, is holding the event on Saturday the 24th. (see ppwebcon.com for lots of details)

They're doing at least some of it right, right out of the gate. The cost is $25 and you receive a voucher for $20 worth of books, so you're out a whopping net $5. Pretty nice!

What this con has that a regular one doesn't: ability to participate from anywhere you have computer access; affordability; recorded presentations that will be available for awhile after the con (not sure how long). I'm not sure if the panels will be recorded and available.

What this con doesn't have that a regular one does: a goodie bag with bookmarks and a mug or sippy cup; an afterhours bar for chatting with authors, agents, editors, and fans; opportunities for meeting random people in the hallways of the hotel.

What they both have: panels, presentations, interviews, pitch sessions, lots of authors, a green room (called coffee shop here) for chatting between events, goodies in the form of books.

Some of we participants are wading through the technology challenges, like Skype, Livestream, Blogtalk, Podbean. Okay, I still don't know what some of these are, but I don't need all of them for what I'm doing. I think I understand the ones I need. We'll see.

Anyone interested? I'm on a panel that meets at 4 PM Central Time (Hour 8 the way they're doing it), led by Kelli Stanley. Our topic is "Why We Love the Gumshoe" and the rest of the panel is dynamite: prolific short story writer, Stephen D. Rogers and novelist Ken Kuhlken.

Sign up and be part of history in the making!

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