Notes from the Internet Presence for Writers Panel

Surviving the Slush Pile
Thursday 4:00pm-5:00pm Cascade 2
If the editor doesn’t read past the first page, it doesn’t matter how good the rest is. How to quickly capture and hold a slush reader’s attention.
Cat Rambo, Gardner Dozois, Jenna M. Pitman, Keffy R.M. Kehrli

Steampunk: What Is It and Why Is It So Popular?
Thursday 5:00pm-6:00pm Cascade 3&4
Steampunk has been referred to as “the Future Trend of Science Fiction” but is the subgenre merely a return to the classics as spun by Verne and Wells? Join our panelists as they look at recent works of Steampunk, share their opinions of what makes Steampunk different from the work of the founding fathers of Science Fiction, and why the genre is so appealing.
Cat Rambo, Chelsea M. Campbell, Corry L. Lee, Karen Kincy

Writing What You Don’t Know
Friday 11:00am-Noon Cascade 7
Many writers have heard the advice to “write what you know”. But, have you really met any dragons, or robots, or zombies, or vampires? How do you write about something that you haven’t experienced personally? Tips for how to (and how not to) use research and common sense to improve your writing.
Stina Leicht, Cat Rambo, Corry L. Lee, Michaelbrent Collings

Cat Rambo reads A Cavern Ripe With Dreams
Friday 2:00pm-2:30pm Cascade 1
An excerpt from the novella. Rated G
Cat Rambo

Your Anti-Procrastination First Aid Kit
Friday 5:00pm-6:00pm Cascade 2
Do you love to write but don’t get as much writing done as you’d like to? Conquer your fears… and your rough draft.
Cat Rambo, Dennis R. Upkins, Ellen Forney, Marta Murvosh

The Comeback Genre: Sword & Sorcery
Sunday 2:00pm-3:00pm Cascade 7
Sword and Sorcery has a rich history, going back to at least Howard and Smith. And it’s making a comeback. Our panelists talk about its rich history and why it’s back and better than ever.
Bart Kemper, Cat Rambo

Reasons to Leave Your Cave
Sunday Noon-1:00pm Cascade 6
Should writing be a solitary profession? How can authors banding together improve their careers? Or is the writing community a distraction from work?
Cat Rambo, Chelsea M. Campbell, Jack Skillingstead, Kevin J. Anderson

I’d noticed that reserving a table at the Northwest Book Fest was around 100 bucks. So I asked some other people if they would be interested in sharing a table and enough of us clubbed in that it ended up being very reasonable. We had Brenda Cooper, Louise Marley, Vicki Saunders, Jeanine Southard, Django Wexler, and myself as well as books from Hydra House, including the new Clarion West anthology, Telling Tales, and KC Ball’s short story collection.

As far as selling goes, the first day was not particularly successful and on that day 50% of the book sold were to each other. The second day was more of the same, although we didn’t sell as many to each other. Overall, doing a group thing was definitely a good idea: it made for a table packed with attractive, professionally done books along with some table display stuff like a robot, a war-elephant, and some fantasy stuffed animals (including plushie Chtulhu). It also meant we had people to chat with and the livelier appearance of our table helped pull people in, I think. (Plus we had candy.) We might have done better on the first floor than the second, and there were some lighting issues.

I presented a workshop on podcasting, which was well attended, and I ran them through some whys and whats of recording your own podcast as well as ranting a bit about rights and not paying to publish. A number of them signed up to get advance notice of the Building an Online Presence for Writers book.

Overall, it was fun, and there was some decent networking, plus I passed out some postcards on my classes. On the other hand, did we sell many books? Not at all. However, the cost of the $100 table, split between all of us, was pretty darn reasonable, and it meant we could attend workshops. We didn’t have a formal name, so I’d put “Seattle Speculative Fiction Writers” down. So many people asked about our group the first day that Django ended up putting out a sign-up sheet for news of group activities and gathering two pages of e-mail addresses. I look forward to the first wine and chat party.

If I ran an effort like this again, I’d focus more on selling: perhaps do book bundles, make a sign letting people know the books were priced at special rates for the book festival, maybe have some lower-priced items or stocking-stuffer type trinkets, and would have a signup sheet for other mailing lists, like each author’s. However, the location was so difficult to get to that there was no foot traffic and some people had difficulty finding the place — if they do it in the same location next year, I’ll pass and spend that time writing instead, but as Brenda noted, if they move it back downtown, it might be worthwhile.