Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Skype! (or Hiding Safely Behind My Keyboard)

Tip of the Day: Search through Kate Messner's blog for tips on Skype author visits!

On Thursday at my local RACWI meeting, author Kate Messner will be Skyping with us about how she successfully teaches, takes care of her family, and writes picture books, chapter books, and middle grade novels. Although my own PC doesn't seem to agree with Skype, I actually love the idea of using it for author visits on both the giving and receiving ends.

First of all, Skype is free!

Second, you can traverse great distances in a matter of seconds through the miracle of the internet. No long car trips to get an author into your library, classroom, meeting, etc.

Third, when I some day have my own pubbed books to discuss, the anxiety that accompanies doing a "visit" is so much less when you are doing your talk from the comfort of your own home.

And fourth, as a librarian who has hosted author visits at my library, it is kind of embarassing when you don't get the turn-out you hoped for to come see a fab author and it feels less of a burden when the author is on the big screen instead of in the room. :-o

There are tons more reasons why Skype is fab. What have your experiences been with this software?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

3 comments:

Kristina Springer said...

Love it! I talked about a visit I did a couple of weeks ago on here and it was great! In-person visits are great when you're nearby but to reach more people skype is awesome.

DeenaML said...

I remember your post and you talking about Skyping, Tina. And how you just had to wrangle the kids into another room until the baby was on your lap? Love it!

Lisa Schroeder said...

I have a skype visit coming up in a few weeks with a librarian and her book club. I'd LOVE to do more. It's just so nice to be able to connect with readers from the comfort of your own home. :)