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Friday, February 6, 2009

Live from Love Is Murder

Whew, so many sessions so little time! And the hallways are packed with fascinating people, too.

I met up with Karen Syed for a chat about how she uses Twitter and MySpace. She's a genius about online social networking. Her advice on Twitter is to follow others who will often then follow you. How smart is that?

Then I heard Jeff Deaver talk about writing a suspense novel. Everything Deaver does is for the reader. Each time I'm around him, I am struck by how self-indulgent a lot of our writing is. And boy, is he a big believer in outlining.

Next, Steve Berry filled in for Alex Kava, who has a family medical emergency. (You're in our prayers, Alex.) Steve's message couldn't have been clearer: Write every day. Discipline yourself. When that big publisher wants a book every year, you'll be prepared to turn one out.

I had to leave his session early to participate in a panel on marketing. What did I learn from that? Um, can you say "Pingometer.com?" I can and I will.

Now back to the conference!

PS Big shout out to my buddy Rosemary Harris whose new book The Dirt Nap is making its debut here. Rosemary is smart and sweet and a joy to be around!

2 comments:

Amy said...

Hi:
I really got a lot out of the marketing panel today. Great job!

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Amy, how about writing a post about the anthology you did? What a brilliant idea. I'd love to know more--and I'd love to share the idea so folks can buy your book.