KidLitCon 2009: Recap and Pictures!

What always happens to me when I travel is that I return to find myself hopelessly behind. And much as I love my blog, I generally find it necessary to catch up first with my paying job, and then with my personal life (little things, like making sure there's food in the house). Thus I find myself, five days after KidLitCon 2009, finally sitting down to write about it. And I feel like I'm very late to the game.

Google Blog Search shows 65 posts referencing "kidlitcon" since Saturday. I am trying to read them all. Liz B has been recapping individual sessions at Tea Cozy. Pam Coughlan has a three part post at MotherReader chock full of links and details. Pam also has a placeholder post in which others have been leaving links to their writeups in the comments. Greg Pincus has posted the transcript of the Twitter hashtag #kidlitcon at The Happy Accident. And so on. What could I possibly have to say that hasn't already been said? Well, I'm not sure, but I did take some notes, and I do have a few pictures. (Click each photo for a larger version.)

Here is Pam with Michelle from GalleySmith. Pam kicked off the conference by talking about The Blog Within, in which she encouraged each of us to think about why we're blogging, what we have to share that's unique, and how we're going to revisit and strengthen our missions. Then Pam and Michelle talked together about Best Practices, Ideas, and Tips for Building a Better Blog. Here are a few tidbits that I gleaned from their session:

• Don't read and discuss books that you aren't interested in just to build audience.
• Ask questions in your posts, to get people to engage in conversation with you.
• Remember that everything you write is out there. Keep in mind that what you say will be available forever.
• Always link when you mention someone, and be sure to use Anchor Linking instead of regular links. Anchor Linking, as Michelle described in a recent GalleySmith post called Anchors Aweigh, is when you take care to place your link on the most descriptive part of the sentence. So, if I'm going to say "I learned more at this GalleySmith post", I'll make the linked text be "GalleySmith post" instead of "this". I'm generally pretty good about linking, but I learned from Michelle that a bit more care in which text I highlight with the link will help other people's search engine rankings. Good to know!
• Taking a bit of extra time to include a description of your post, as well as keywords, is a way to help your own search engine rankings (for those interested in such things).
• Everything in your online persona should be consistent, in terms of visuals, name, etc. This is part of branding yourself.
• Make sure that your most important content is "above the fold" on your blog, not buried deep down in your sidebar. This especially includes contact information.
• Be part of the community beyond your own blog (this was a key theme throughout the entire conference).

The next session was a split session. I attended the panel for reviewers, by Melissa from Book Nut, Jennie from Biblio File, Tricia from The Miss Rumphius Effect and Mary Lee from A Year of Reading. I did not, alas, take a picture of the panelists. And I didn't take a ton of notes, because I already know about Poetry Friday and Nonfiction Monday and the like. But here are a few tidbits:

• Melissa recommends participating in weekly memes like the Weekly Geeks, Library Loot, etc, to build bridges to the larger book blogging community.
• Jennie talked about what to do if you want to become a book reviewer for professional journals.
• Tricia mentioned the tip of including the words "book review" in the title of book review posts, so that if you auto-publish your link to Twitter, people looking for book reviews can find it.
• Someone suggested that it's easier for people to read blog posts onscreen if they use shorter paragraphs.
• I also talked, from the audience, about the Children's Book Review wiki that Kelly Herold set up. For those unfamiliar with the wiki, this is a place where blog reviewers of children's and young adult books can link to their reviews. You have to be approved as an editor to add your reviews. Just follow the link to "create an account" on PBWorks. There is also a KidLit Interview wiki that Andrea Ross set up.
• Someone in the audience asked reviewers to try to give an idea at the start of a review about whether or not the book is good. Kind of an early "thumbs up" or "thumbs down". This turned into a bit of a discussion about including ratings on book reviews. The latter seems to be something that many people are moving away from.
• There was also a recommendation to include full posts in your blog's feed (or at least a significant section of the post), instead of just including a blurb about the post. I second this recommendation heartily. There are very few blogs for which I'll read a sentence in the reader, and routinely click through to read the full post.

The last session before lunch was a discussion between our own Pam Coughlan and Mary Engle, Associate Director for Advertising Practices from the FTC. Kudos to Pam for asking the FTC to send someone to address our issues with the new blog endorsement guidelines. I took very detailed notes here, but Michelle from GalleySmith and Liz B from Tea Cozy both beat me to thorough writeups. So I'll just refer you to their posts, and tell you what I've decided to do, in light of Ms. Engle's talk.

• I'm going to continue accepting review copies from authors and publishers, and continue to disclose the source of each book reviewed. Technically, since I am an "independent reviewer" rather than an endorser of a product, this isn't necessary. However, I think that this is the right thing to do for my audience.
• One thing I am going to keep an eye on, in holding on to my "independent reviewer" status is reviewing books from a variety of sources (library, bookstore, etc.) and a variety of publishers.
• I'm going to start including a disclosure on every blog post in which I link to Amazon's affiliate program (as Liz has also done). Ms. Engle made the valid point that not all readers who click through from my blog and make a purchase at Amazon will realize, from the structure of the link itself, that I get a small commission from Amazon. I agree that it's the right thing for readers to understand that.
• The FTC will be publishing responses to Frequently Asked Questions soon (target is within the next couple of weeks). In the meantime, if you have questions, you can send them to endorsements@ftc.gov. Note that they will not respond directly to individual emails. However, if they see a question popping up repeatedly, the response is likely to make it into the FAQ.

After lunch, and the informal Meet the Authors session (Pam Bachorz is an even bigger Red Sox fan than I am, if you can believe that), I attended Greg Pincus' session on Social Media. Greg talked about using social media tools to build community, and about the great things that can happen as a result of having a strong, connected community. I especially liked his four-part action plan, PFFT!

• Prepare: Ask why you're blogging, and what you're seeking to accomplish. Know your goals, and track them.
• Find Your Home: Your blog is your home. Invite people there by commenting. If you aren't inviting people in, there's not much point to having a blog at all.
• Filter: Use tools like blog readers and Google alerts and Twitter platforms to save time, and filter the traffic of most interest to you. Find broader communities that will also be interested in what you're doing.
• Travel: Engage and connect and be visible. You are what you say and do.

Greg concluded with some general tips. I'm not using quotes, because I didn't copy them down word for word, but these are all his beliefs (beliefs that he supports through his own online activities every day). Social media is a system of trust and reputation. Linking is important - it builds shared trust. Groups have more power than the individual. Reputation is critical. Add value wherever you can. I think that this session inspired most of the audience.

Next was the panel Authors, Bloggers, Publishers (and ARCs), featuring Liz B. from Tea Cozy, Laura Lutz from Pinot and Prose (and HarperCollins), Sheila Ruth from Wands and Worlds (and Imaginator Press), Paula Chase-Hyman from The Brown Bookshelf. I must admit that I didn't take a lot of notes during this session, because I was gearing up for my own panel (immediately following). But here are a few tidbits:

• Sheila emphasized maintaining professionalism in your blogging.
• You have to actively be a member of a community to know things (like which bloggers review which types of books).
• There was a recommendation for bloggers to start more two-way conversations with publishers about the books that they like to receive (and don't like to receive).
• The biggest theme that came through from this panel was how many different hats many of us wear (blogger, publisher, author, writer, reviewer, librarian, etc.), and how connected we all are.

The final formal session of the day was the panel that I organized, on Coming Together, Giving Back, and Building Community and Literacy. I don't have a picture of our panel (though I've included a photo of me and Terry), and I was too focused to take notes, but I am grateful to Terry Doherty from The Reading Tub, Ernestine Walls Benedict from RIF (representing Rasco from RIF) and Gina Montefusco from PBS (representing Booklights) for talking about community and literacy with me.

My thinking with this session was that ultimately, most of us in the Kidlitosphere are here because we want to connect kids with books. The panel was about ways that people have been banding together to accomplish more tangible things in this area than any of us can accomplish alone (Cybils, Guys Lit Wire, Readergirlz, Share A Story-Shape a Future, etc). Ernestine and Gina were able to give us perspective from their online and offline experiences with RIF and PBS. One specific thing that we talked about was summed up well by Terry in her recap post: "ways we need to move beyond computers and blogs to reach the 25 million US kids who don’t have access to books beyond school. As you may have heard, Laurel Snyder proposed a “crazy spectacle” where in all 50 states, people fill 20 malls, and read with kids all at the same time. We all loved the idea, and as Ernestine says, "You need to imagine it, then claim it." We are claiming it! So stay tuned for more information."

After a much needed break (at least for me), we regrouped for a cocktail hour, dinner, and charity raffle. To the left is a picture of the whole group (you'll need to click to enlarge it to see anything). I won a prize in the raffle, one that MotherReader's younger daughter suggested that I try out for, so I was happy about that.

We also took a group photo of the Booklights team: (clockwise from upper left) me, Terry Doherty, Susan Kusel, Gina Montefusco, Ann Nealy, and Pam Coughlan. You'd be surprised at how difficult it was to pull all six of us away from our various conversations. The only team member missing from the photo is Susan Thomsen from Chicken Spaghetti. We missed her!

And although I wasn't great about getting photos with people, I did manage to get one with Maureen from Confessions of a Bibliovore (who I ran into everywhere all weekend, including on the first leg of the flight home). I think that Maureen has been at just about every KidLit-related conference that I've attended. I hope I never have to go to one without her.

I also got to chat a bit after dinner with Karen and Bill from Literate Lives. As with many people, I could have talked with them all day (had time permitted). Next year, I'm going to be better about taking a photo with everyone I talk to. OK, that's impossible. But I'm going to try. I wish I had photos with long-time blog friends, met for the first time, like Abby (the) Librarian, Charlotte from Charlotte's Library, Sheila Ruth from the Cybils, Anamaria from Books Together, Melissa from Book Nut, Jama Rattigan, Sarah Rettger from Archimedes Forgets, Jennie from BiblioFile, Wendy from Six Boxes of Books, Sue Corbett, and Laurel Snyder. Maybe next year, guys. It was great to see people again who I had met at previous conferences, and to meet new people for the first time. My universal regret is that I couldn't talk with each person for longer. Even though I was drained by the end, I wished that the whole thing had been longer, and allowed more time.   

This last photo captures how I think Pam and I both felt by the end of the conference: happy, but utterly exhausted. Still, it was well worth the trip. I look forward to next year! Many thanks to Pam for arranging such a wonderful event.

Comments

[Liz in Ink]

I am learning SO much from all of these postings! I've never even heard of anchor linking, I barely understand wikis and twitter is beyond me, but I'm running hard and trying to grab onto the bumper here...
Thanks for all the detail and wow, I'd really like to make it to one of these sometime...

[Maureen]

Hey Jen

I don't think a kidlit conference of any kind would be the same without you, either! One of the best things about the whole kidlitosphere adventure has been how it connected me to people I'd never have known otherwise.

Thanks for the notes, too. The cool thing about these roundups is how everyone adds different details to make the big picture.

Maureen

[Amanda]

Thank you so much for posting this in such detail! I loved seeing bullet points from each session, especially since I was so disappointed at not being able to attend. Though I did get to go to one of my closest friend's, beautiful wedding, I must admit I was wishing the whole time I was finally meeting all of you!

Maybe I have Minneapolis in my future...

[Lori Calabrese]

Jen,

Even though a lot has been said about kidlit con, it's extremely helpful to read everyone's take on it, including yours! :)

Thanks for a great post chock full of info and links for us unfortunate ones not able to attend.

All the best,
Lori

[jama rattigan]

Thanks so much for this comprehensive wrap up! Love seeing what I missed in the split session panels.

And it was so nice to meet you in person -- like you said, I wish there had been more time to sit and talk with everyone and pose for pictures :).

[Gina]

Great post, Jen. I had such a great time at the conference and can't wait for the next one!

[Jen Robinson]

Liz, I'm glad to hear that the information is useful, even in little snippets like this. It would be great if you could make it the the conference one day. We should be more in the central US next year...

Maureen, I agree completely about the whole Kidlitosphere adventure. It's amazing having these friends who share a common interest, who would have been nearly impossible to meet prior to the advent of blogging.

Amanda, I wish you could have come, too. But definitely one day. I look forward to meeting you. Glad that the bullet points were useful.

Lori, thanks for your kind words. Glad that although available late, the information in the post is still useful. Perhaps you'll make it next time.

Jama, I do wish we could have talked more. The downside of bringing together a group of 70+ people with a strong common interest, and pre-defined bonds from blogging, is that everyone wants more time with everyone else. But that's why we'll have future conferences!

Gina, I'm glad that you enjoyed the conference. The next one won't be quite so convenient for you to attend, I'm afraid (though attending out of town does remove local obligations, so there's an upside to the travel, too).

Anyway, thanks for reading this rather belated wrap-up, all! Hopefully today I'll have time to read more posts from others, too.

[kim baise]

Thanks for sharing the great photos and recap. I'm sorry Nancy and I had to miss it this year with my new baby and Nancy's new bookstore and a new book out....things have been moving sooo fast. We will be there next year!

[Jen Robinson]

You and Nancy had a lot on your plates this year, Kim. But yes, I hope you can make it next year. We should be closer to the center of the country, too, so it will be an easier trip. Glad you found the post useful, anyway.

[Terry Doherty]

Thanks for a great wrap-up and the pics, too! It was so great to finally meet you in person. As you point out, with so many conversations going, it was hard to really catch up ... like going home for the holidays: heartwarming, exhausting, and never enough time.

[Jen Robinson]

It was great to meet you, too, Terry. Even when we don't have enough time to actually talk to people at the conference, the other plus to having met is that ... now we know each other. When I'm emailing you, I picture you as you are, not some vague image constructed from a blog photo and some email discussion. Having met in person makes the connection more real. Know what I mean?

[Cathy Puett Miller, The Literacy Ambassador]

Jen,

Thanks for the tips on the blogs. I'm working on mine; I just need to be more frequent, I think! Keep up the good work!

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks for the feedback, Cathy. Posting frequently is certainly something that helps, if you're interested in traffic. But of course it's up to each blogger to think about, as Pam suggested, why you're blogging, and what you're hoping to accomplish. Anyway, glad that the tips helped!

[Michelle]

Jen this is a fabulous recap. I'm glad you walked away from the presentation I participated in with something you found of value. The glory of these events (as others before me have stated) is that not only do you have the opportunity to finally meet people you "know" but you get to walk away with some great new resources and loads of excellent information.

Thank you for sharing this with us, it was a pleasure to meet you.

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks so much for the feedback, Michelle. It was great meeting you, too. I thought that your session was very useful, even for someone like me who has been blogging for nearly 4 years. Thanks for all the tips!

[Rasco from RIF]

Jen, thank you for this "informative as always" posting. And thank you for including RIF on the panel, Ernestine had a great time! I look forward to meeting all of you in person another time.

[Jen Robinson]

Carol, thank you for asking Ernestine to participate. I thought that she did a great job! And yes, I look forward to meeting you in person one of these days. Thanks for reading my re-cap!

[adrienne]

I often wish the food would just replenish itself in my refrigerator while I'm traveling. Ah, well.

Thanks for the recap. Since I couldn't be there myself, I've been enjoying reading all the different reports and perspectives. I hope I can make it next year.

[Jen Robinson]

Oh yes, I want a refrigerator like that, too, Adrienne. Definitely. I hope that you can make it next year, too.

[Anamaria]

Jen, I'm still recovering from a couple of busy weeks that included the conference myself, but I wanted to say (rather belatedly) thank you for this recap, and that I was thrilled to meet you--I think you're a big part of the reason why i started book blogging--and wish we could have chatted a bit more. Maybe next time!

[Jen Robinson]

Oh, Anamaria, I know. I really would have liked more time to chat. The conference was like a whirlwind this year. Guess we'll both have to try again for next year. I'm glad that you were able to make it, though. Good luck catching back up. I do know how hard that is.

[Janelle]

Looking forward to the crazy spectacle! As far as building community, I wish more of the book bloggers would participate in some of the mommy blogger memes. The way I look at it, those blogging about books probably already know all about the new releases. Reaching out to parents makes sense to me.

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks for commenting, Janelle. As for participating in the mommy blogger memes ... I agree that reaching out to parents makes sense. But personally, I don't participate in memes at all. I can barely keep up with all the things that I do with my blog as it is, and I've set a no meme policy. I know lots of bloggers who would love to reach out to parents, but who can barely keep up with reading the blogs that they already read. It's a bit of a conundrum.

But Melissa did talk about the importance of participating in things like Library Loot, to get the names of books out there to a broader audience. Her words, and yours, have made me think about this issue. It's just hard, in this world of limited time.