The Writer's Toolbox: Your Questions Answered

Here's a timely post (with the AWP Conference is happening right now just down the road). Workshop leader Angela Render answers this week's question: How do I gain a following if I'm limited in my travel?

If you need to build a following and can't travel, the Internet offers any number of opportunities. With the exception of a handshake, you can use media to cover nearly every other aspect. To reach people with words, you can blog, participate in forums, newsgroups, social
networking, and e-mail. The Internet allows you to present yourself in
pictures through those same avenues as well as through Flickr photo
galleries. Podcasting gets your voice out to your potential following.
Through digital video cameras, you can present yourself talking and
moving. Youtube is only one (and perhaps the most popular) way to
distribute pre-recorded video.

If you want to reach people real-time and establish a dialogue, free conference call services allow you to set up teleconferences with your readership: Q&A, readings, book talks. Video conferencing software allows you to appear before your readership. If they have a camera set
up on their end, you can have a real-time face-to-face interaction with
either a remote group gathering, or with people scattered across the
globe--all in the comfort of their own homes.

For those people with limited mobility, shake off your technophobia and
build your following.