I'm in the American Airlines Admirals Club room waiting to board my late afternoon flight. The airport shuttle left the hotel filled with Catholic marketers and me, the only author in the van. With so much time before my flight, I decided to buy the day pass, which I was able to do at the check-in kiosk.I attended only one session of the Catholic Writers Conference because I had to check out at 11 a.m. from the Radisson. First I went to the Grand Ballroom at the Radisson for the Catholic Marketing Network's Rosary and Daily Mass (for the Feast of the Transfiguration!) and then walked over to the Scanticon hotel to attend the session on Trends in Catholic Publishing---which can really summarized with one idea: electronic media. The Kindle, Nook, IPad with Kindle app--all the publishers thought that was the future. They also said that some books are better for electronic media and some books will always need to be printed. Right now, you cannot browse or even search the ebooks that well.
I admit that I have been reacting negatively to the idea of ebooks; I thought it was great a couple of weeks ago when an acquaintance of mine announced that he wanted to start a new bookstore in Wichita, with the title TANGIBLE BOOKS! (He and his partners intend to open a 24 hour bookstore and coffee shop in downtown Wichita!) But the panelists today said this new electronic media could really be beneficial to authors, because it will reduce the publishers' risk in taking on the writer's project! So perhaps I just need to think about how different media suit different books.
It was a fascinating session and after it I went over to the Catholic Marketing Network show to buy a Cardinal Newman coffee mug (!) at a vendor who told me Wednesday he would sell it to me the last day of the show. I also picked up a couple of free books from Sophia Institute Press (uncorrected press proofs). Then I had to hussle back to the Radisson to finish packing and check-out and then wait for the shuttle. I completed my evaluation form for the Catholic Writers Conference and dropped it off too.
I just ate a tuna salad sandwich here in the Admirals Club (seemed shipshape to me) and am now reading Murder in the Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes by Ann Margaret Lewis, the organizer of the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE!
Wow, that was a quick conference...seems it's over so quickly!....the big bearded dude from the West Coast must have eaten all the do-nuts.
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Glad you had a nice time, Stephanie and it's good to hear what happened after I left. Interesting about the ebooks! I did not like the idea of ebooks at first but putting all my books onto Kindle Amazon is the best thing I have ever done!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is over quickly; at least it seems so until you spend 2.5 hours on the tarmac at the Oklahoma City airport after making "lazy circles in the sky" while in a holding pattern for DFW! Then you've been gone forever!
ReplyDeleteAlso, tubbs, the conference really didn't end until Friday afternoon--I just had to leave the hotel at noon so I could get home at midnight!
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