I’ll be speaking at the Writers League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference in Austin on Saturday, June 21. My fellow guests on the afternoon panel, “Landing Ink, Airtime and Blog Buzz in Today’s Changing Media Environment,” include Publishers Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson, Dallas Morning News book editor Michael Merschel, and local journalists Ian Crawford and Eileen Flynn. According to the program, we’ll be talking about “how authors and publishing houses can effectively work with the media to position themselves for coverage.” I’ll be the one explaining that everybody else’s strategies work great for “the media,” but can often prove counterproductive when you’re dealing with independent bookbloggers.
The three-day conference will run you roughtly $300-$350, depending on whether you’re a member of the League or not, but we’re not the only attraction on the schedule. And it’s Austin! I’m already looking forward to finding time that weekend to browse at BookPeople, and figuring out what restaurants I’m going to visit, and maybe even catch some live music.