Writing and Publishing in Our eWorld

Writing Conference Over, Elaine Cougler Takes a Cruise

This past weekend I used my air miles to fly to Vancouver for the Women & Words conference put on by eWomen Network.  What a great idea it was.  Using my air miles AND going to this conference.

The event featured four keynote speakers over the two days:  Charmaine Hammond, Carla Rieger, Melody Biringer and Dr. Stephen Post.   Workshop choices were hard because there was so much I wanted to do but I participated in Olga Sheean’s How to Attract the Right Publisher and Violette Clark’s Flying Your Freak Flag on Friday morning.  In the afternoon The Book Broads talked about Flogging Your Blog and Lorraine Murphy detailed Literary Techniques for Social Media.  A panel on traditional vs self-publishing and epublishing finished out the day.

On Saturday I did Gail Martin’s two sessions on 30-day guide to book launching and 30 days to results with bestseller book marketing.  These were excellent.  In the afternoon, I sat in on Debbie Douez’ How to Use Video to Market Your Book, which taught me a lot.  Then I went to a poorly attended session by Irene Kavanagh and Peggy Richardson on Why You Need an Editor.  It was very informative and I rejoiced at my post session conversation with editor Irene Kavanagh.  A lot of people missed out on one of the best sessions of the conference.

So what was so great about the event?  I took my iPad2 and used it to make notes; it worked perfectly for me.  I made many contacts both with other writers and with people working in the industry from whom I can draw for help.  And seeing how many people enjoy and actually pursue their writing careers was enriching.  No more of that sit-in-my-office-alone-and-churn-out-words-in-a-vacuum.  There are others who feel as I feel, walk and talk as I do.

The next few posts will cover my favorite sessions and why each was so energizing to me.