Crimespace now has chat! So do you want to get together and use it to promote?

[Christine Duncan]

Romance authors seem to do chats all the time, talking up the upcoming chats on their online groups. I don't think I've been to very many mystery chats, but we could give it a try. We'd need to post on Dorothy L and the yahoo mystery groups to tell people what authors will be chatting and the time and place should get us some people. You can post an excerpt of your book (not too long) and tell the story behind writing it.
What do you think? Anyone interested?

[I. J. Parker]

I'm very tentative about this. You get this feeling of talking into a great void. Or to each other. The latter is not a bad thing. I like chatting with authors.

[Pepper Smith]

I've done chats. I always got the impression the folks who came were there for the free book given away at the end of it. It certainly never gave my sales a boost.

[Christine Duncan]

I think of it more as getting your name (and work) out there. It's free, and it could be fun even if it's just us so what the heck? Not much in the way of promo is this free or easy.

[Pepper Smith]

I think if you want to do chats, that's fine, but you'd probably not want to do them on Crimespace. Daniel's going to be against it. You might check around for places that offer free chat space and see what you can set up apart from here.

And honestly, the chats were fun, and people said things about rushing out and getting the books, but it never happened. There's nothing stopping you if you want to try it, though. Maybe it'll work out better for you than it did for me. I just got tired of giving away books.

[I. J. Parker]

So what's the new Chat section on Crime Space for?

[I. J. Parker]

I should add that I just took a look and have no idea how this works. You clearly cannot post there. My ignorance of chat places shows.

[John Dishon]

It's a shoutbox. You just post whatever you want. Like if you have something to say that doesn't merit its own forum topic, or you want to vent something, or are excited about something and want to share it. It's just for whatever, and anyone who is online can converse with each other.

[Daniel Hatadi]

It's mostly for people who happen to be online at the same time to have a chat in real time. All you have to do is type in the box at the bottom and hit enter.

[I. J. Parker]

There was no "Enter." Do you mean the "Enter" key on the computer keyboard?
And thanks for the answers. That was very kind and prompt.

[Daniel Hatadi]

I don't mind people doing chat sessions on CrimeSpace, as long as they don't post in this forum (use the Events forum or your member blog). Also, don't spam the heck out of everyone on CrimeSpace by blanket friending and mailing/sharing. I'll write something up and put it in the help.

Promotion's fine as long as it is confined to the areas detailed in the help section.

[Pepper Smith]

Okey doke, then. Only thing to do is give it a shot and see how it works.

[Cliff]

I use a chat room all the time on another forum called forward motion. That's a place for mostly sci fi and fantasy writers but there room seems to be always filled with 10 to 15 people and it's a nice place for people to just talk about writing. Not really promotion, just talk shop about whatever they are working on at the moment.

Might be a good idea to post specific times for people to meet up at first so they get used to it. Maybe even have a topic. Ex. Sat night at 8 a.m will meet up to talk about outlining the mystery novel and how others do it. Something like that.