In the earlier panel, Beverly was very energetic and enthused. It turned out that this was before she'd had any coffee. By the time the Kaffeeklatsch came around she was fully caffeinated. Think of the squirrel in the Over the Hedge movie, and you have an idea.

I'm really glad I hit this session. Beverly has lots of information and knowledge and is generous in sharing it. Given that this is her bread and butter, her willingness to give so much away for free is both refreshing and appreciated.

Her big point is that when you publicize yourself you have to be yourself. Don't try to publicize a fake persona that's not you. Folks will see the fakeness and they won't like it.

She thinks that Twitter is the social media engine to work with now, though it may be past its peak. Within Twitter, she strongly advised to avoid Direct Messaging. It's the fastest route onto her "Block" list.

Apparently there are ways to buy twitter followers. This is a great way to get rid of money and convince people that you are a clueless fool. Nobody has 10,000 followers unless they are buying phantom followers.

A Facebook presence and blog are also tools past their prime, but still have their uses in today's market.

I'm putting FB, website and blog in the same category as having a telephone. If you're a business with no telephone, you aren't a business.

As an author, you need to be aware that you are promoting yourself to readers not other authors. A blog that discusses only your writing and things you've learned about publishing, editors, etc will appeal to other authors learning about this craft, but won't drag in a new reader. That said, at one of the panels someone mentioned that readers are sometimes fascinated with the behind-the- scenes look at the process. Just keep in mind who the ultimate audience is.

The percentage of your blog that's about the craft of writing, the business of writing, and just about you will vary depending on who you want to attract to the blog.

Anything you say has to be interesting. A discussion of your cats and summer vacation might not grab anyone either, but if it's a good story and well told, it just might.

A problem with promotion is that it takes time. As an author, your time should be spent writing your next book, not sending out tweets, changing your FB status, etc. Beverly suggested Hootsuite as a media management. The other site mentioned was Buffer.

She also suggested working with other bloggers. Many bloggers are happy to review your book, link to a blog, do a blog interview, let you guest blog, etc.

Each blogsite will have their own rules about what they like to do, and Beverly was adamant that you follow those rules. Remember that the bloggers aren't like a public-access grocery store. If you don't make their life easy by following the rules, they can just shut the door on you.

The other advice for twitter, blog, FB status or anthing else is that you need to have something interesting or useful to say. Even billboards say more than "Buy This Product". If you are going to tweet or change your FB status daily, it's got to be something worth reading. If someone is paying attention to you, they'll figure out that you've written a book.

The summary of takeaways I got from this session were:

• Be yourself.
• Be respectful of others.
• If you don't have anything interesting to say. Don't say it.