Yesterday was one of those days. One of those GREAT kind of days where everything seems to come together and I realize what a fabulous life I have and how it is populated with amazing and talented people.

What brought this about?

I’m so glad you asked.

I was asked to teach a class for SCBWI called Beyond Websites — Facebook, Blogs & Twitter — Oh MY! How to Juggle Your Promotion Efforts, Social Websites & Online Personalities and STILL HAVE TIME TO WRITE. Quite a mouthful, eh? 🙂

Thanks to Jill Ann Cooke for making the lovely collage of our event. You can check out more of Jill’s artwork at her beautiful website.

I was lucky enough to co-teach it with Lynn E. Hazen. Lynn and I are related in a couple of publishing families – we are both published with Tricycle Press and we are both represented by the wonderful Jodi Reamer.

Thanks to Keely Parrack for taking the picture and thanks to Lynn for remembering “product placement” for us.

As my great, great auntie Louella used to say, anyway. . .

We had a record turn out of attendess. How cool is that? I kept watching people come in and wondering if we were going to have to set up another table. Although this was the first time Lynn and I had presented together, it felt easy and comfortable, as though we had been doing it for years. I hope to get the chance to present with her again.

It was a hard topic to condense into just a 2 hour session and we warned folks that they would be stuffed with info until their eyes glazed over. But Lynn and I split things into easy chunks so no one hit information overload. I did the tech talk for a bit and then Lynn would talk everyone down and give them a breather with some time management tips.The group had fabulous energy which I was able to feed off of as I spoke. They asked great questions. There is so much to learn about online social networking and using it for book promotion that I think we could have just answered questions for 2 hours. Thanks to Keely for arranging for us to be able to stay a little later and talk a little longer.

The responses to the session both via evals and emails I’ve been receiving have been overwhelmingly positive. What a thrill to know that we were able to help dispel the intimidation factor that often accompanies the idea of getting involved with social networking. It was nice to know that all the weeks of time Lynn and I put into preparing for this were worth it. Thank you, Lynn. It was great fun!

Because I only touched the tip of the iceberg in the presentation, I’m going to be offering a more in-depth class on using social media for book promotion. Since this is the first time I am offering this class I would really appreciate people helping me to spread the word. There’s also a downloadable flyer for the class.

Here are a few snippets of praise from the evaluations:

Blogspicational!Chad Cameron

Great information on the various tech sites told in a user friendly fashion.Marya Ashworth

 Lynn and Susan took the mystery out of Twitter for me.Carma Dutra
A great introductiion to Web 2.0 for Kidlit mavens. Lynn and Susan make the world of social networking seem accessible no matter how busy you are.Dashka Slater
Susan Taylor Brown and Lynn E. Hazen paint realistic website and blogging panoramas. Practically focused, their energetic presenting made a believer out of me.Lyndsey Davis
I’ve been a web developer for 14 years and I learned so much!Marik BergitsColor me proud and happy.

Thanks to Laure Latham-Guyot, for the great write up about the event on her blog. Also thanks to the shout-out from Lyndsey Davis on her blog
For those of you who attended the class and are looking for some of those details we promised you, read on. If I promised you more info on something but forgot to list, please leave me a comment.Kidlitosphere.org is the website for kidlit bloggers.

OpenID is what allows your one sign-in (like your blog) to login to all your favorite website and not have to have a bunch of other accounts.

A few  Twitter tools – Tweetdeck and Twirl

Blogging platforms. Here are some free ones for you to take a look at: Livejournal.com (which is where you are now. My blog is hosted by LiveJournal.) Blogger.com (that’s where Lynn Hazen has her blog. There’s also WordPress.com .[info]beckylevine does something neat with her WordPress blog – she has made it her website and blog all in one. (Incidently, if you’re new to my blog and you see the little person icon next to Becky’s name, that means she’s on Livejournal too and you can “friend” her by clicking through to her Livejournal blog. Yes, she has two blogs.)
Blogging tip for newbies – this post is an example (albeit a LONG one) of what I was talking about when I mentioned linking to other blogs/websites in your post.Here are a few illustrators who blog for those who asked: (if you’re an illustrator with a blog reading this, please leave your blog in the comments so I can add you to my master list.)
Don Tate Kevin Slattery Elizabeth Dulemba
Elizabeth Jones Julie Fortenberry Jen Corace
Clair Milne Jennifer Thermes Mark G, Mitchell
Don’t forget to go see Lynn’s wrap-up too.And last, but not least, here is Lynn Hazen and Susan Taylor Brown’s Social Media Adventure Map.

Happy networking!