Saturday, October 16, 2010

Dreaming Up Panels

As most of you know, Bouchercon is in full swing out in San Francisco and I was wondering about the panels that are presented at both conventions and writing conferences (Yep, there is a difference). Which got me thinking about short story panels. Most cons list at least one short story panel where how to write a short story is generally the topic.

But wait...there's more to short stories than learning how to write them. There's marketing, anthologies, print vs. ezine, e-publishing, series characters in shorts, crime vs mystery, the reviewing of shorts, the list is almost endless. So here's my question. What kind of short story panel would you most likely attend at a con? Who would you like to see on that panel? Give us your vision of a dream short story panel. And it doesn't have to be limited to the mystery genre. Hey, if we come up with some great ideas, maybe we'll actually see one of our dream panels pulled together for a future con. You never know!

5 comments:

sandra seamans said...

Oh, and just as an afterthought, maybe someone would like to create a dream panel with writers from the past?!?

Naomi Johnson said...

I'd like to see a panel on how one puts an anthology together and then edits it.

sandra seamans said...

That would be a great panel, Naomi! Then add Bill Crider, Ed Gorman, and Michael Bracken as the panelists.

BV Lawson said...

Good idea, Sandra! I think a panel on all the new market opportunities would be helpful: e-book (or "e-story") possibilities, with all its various venues and permutations), serialized on a web site, e-zines, etc., because it seems that the short story is having a bit of a resurgence, thanks to all the digital media.

sandra seamans said...

You're right, BV, there's so much short story writers need to learn to deal with the e-publishing end of the business. I read a lot of articles but most of those are centered on the book end of epubs not the short story side.