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Hilarious AND Informative Authors Panel

Who would’ve guessed that five accomplished, award-winning and best-selling authors could be as entertaining as a raunchy improv troupe (peppering “F”-bombs and other colorful quips into their commentary) and as informative and enlightening as, well, an authors’ panel? The Atlanta Press Club and the American Society of Journalists and Authors SE chapter presented the program last Thursday night in part to welcome the national ASJA board of directors to Atlanta for its annual meeting.

Hollis Gillespie, Joshilyn Jackson, Janine Latus and Hank Klibanoff, along with Paste magazine book editor and panel moderator Charles McNair, discussed how the Internet — in particular blogs and social media — has shaped the publishing industry and impacted their relationships with their audiences.

To Gillespie, blogging is all about marketing yourself as an “expert” on anything from posting crazy photos of people at Wal-Mart to poodle grooming, she said. “If you’re passionate about something, you can stake your claim on it [online].” Jackson, who started her blog in 2004, said she gets up to 60,000 unique visitors per month, keeps her connected to her loyalist fans, and focuses her novel writing. Having an online presence doesn’t hurt book sales, either, she added. “The only thing that sells books is word of mouth,” Jackson said, adding that activity on social networking sites helps her spread that word. Latus, an ASJA board member in town from Norfolk, Va., said her online strategy is to answer every email with a personal response. She uses her best-selling memoir, which promotes awareness of domestic violence, as a platform.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Klibanoff represented the “other” side of the social networking coin — he is virtually unvirtual. With no website, Facebook page or blog, Klibanoff said he is “shameless” about emailing contacts when he will be speaking in their cities, but otherwise stays out of the blogosphere. His current projects include a four-part documentary for public television about cold cases during the Civil Rights movement.