Twittering....

No I have not joined the tweeting throngs...I’m too busy for that...that’s why I like Jane Friedmans Friday posts called ‘I watch twitter so you don’t have to”

There are some interesting links...here’s one that will be of interest to a few people who are planning on attending the Spinning Gold conference. (programme up on Friday hopefully)
Mark Coker of Smashwords has a great interview up with Sramana Mitra, an indie author on 'How authors can build their personal franchise.'

This interview shows what can happen when the author embraces the new digital age....here is a little taster of the interview...but go and read the rest...

[Sramana Mitra] - Entrepreneurs often bootstrap their way to proving their concepts, and then follow up with additional financing from investors. Authors can think of it the same way. Develop your concept. Bootstrap. Build a blog. Write books. eBooks. Columns. Build a platform. Build a franchise. Build a following for your work. Then, if you like, you can also get to work with regular publishers and get additional leverage. This is how I operate.

And for all the geeks out there...

Astro Mike is twittering from space. He is on the mission updating the Hubble Telescope...the last of the shuttle missions to do this. The shuttle fleet is retiring in 2010...what will they do then, I wonder.... (and so do many thousands more)

Right back to work on the conference.....

maureen

Pic is from www.drawingcoach.com

Ah conferences....

Conference planning has taken over my life.

I have no topics of conversation.

My family are watching the gibbering wreck become more gibbery....as we get into the sharp end of getting this National Conference of Children’s Writers and Illustrators off the ground. I am awake at 3am worrying about little details....and big ones....I have written nothing but conference related material since February.

But I feel proud of what we have achieved and very soon you will get a chance to see what has been keeping me awake...greying my hair and giving me a nervous twitch...hopefully after the announcement of the programme and registration I will look less manic and go back to writing fiction.

In the meantime the HUGE Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference begins taking registrations tomorrow for their MASSIVE 4 day conference in L.A. If you have a spare three thousand NZ dollars....not to mention airfares and food...
Imagine organising this...

maureen

co convenor of Spinning Gold - New Zealand Conference of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators....gibbering quietly in a corner....(how come my other co convenor who is in the middle of work deadlines, tv appearences and a major wow creation looks so good....what are you on Fifi and how come you didn't slip me any......)

pic is the logo of this years American Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Conference(August 7-10)