This year, the Internet PR Chat Series is being conducted on Skype. This free workshop has been going on for years, migrating from text chat to audio chat to Skype. Here’s a primer on using Skype for authors and book marketers so that you may join us and help us learn how to promote books.

The Internet PR Chat Series meets on Skype every Friday from 12-1 p.m. E.T. This week, we’ll be covering Campaign Planning and Themes. The first half-hour is lesson, the second half is discussion. Several of the top book publicists in the country have been on the first two sessions this year, so you’re really missing something if you don’t take advantage of this free training program. To join, send your skypename to sokeefe – at – filedby – dot – com.

Skype offers the promise of closed-access conferencing that is secure for reaching into reading groups, schools, and libraries — but you have to be savvy about how you set it up. Please feel free to add your comments about using Skype to promote your work.

RESOURCES FOR USING SKYPE

To use Skype well, you have to know at the minimum how to set your preferences — particularly your privacy preferences. Skype comes with security issues that are important for authors and publishers to understand before they install Skype.

Video Tutorials:

* TutorPipe.com
Skype for PC Tutorials: http://www.tutorpipe.com/home.php?sub=28#
Skype tutorials are free. 10 total, 5-10 min. each

* Digital Landing
Skype on a PC Tutorial
http://www.digitallanding.com/video/video_display.cfm?video_id=39

Text-Based Tutorials:

* North Canton City School
Technology Tutorials (free text tutorials in Word and Adobe Acrobat)
http://www.viking.stark.k12.oh.us/~technology/Tutorials/skype.html

* Vitamin: A Web Developer Magazine
How to Podcast with Skype (article)
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/blogs/podcasting-with-skype
Description: Good (if dated — June 2006) article by Josh Owens on how to make podcasts with Skype. Involves installing third-party software for recording. Not an introductory piece.

From Skype:

* Guides to Using Skype
http://www.skype.com/help/guides/

* FAQs
http://support.skype.com/?_a=knowledgebase

Video Exclusive: Deacon Melvin Jones

Happy MLK Day, FiledBy Authors!

I have a rare treat for you: The premiere of a short bit of video about Reverend Deacon Jones. He didn’t just walk with King. Deacon Jones hosted Martin Luther King, Jr., at his family home and broke break with the Pastor of Peace when he brought his message of nonviolence and racial harmony to the streets of New Orleans.

We will be talking all this week about the use of video on the Internet. It is appropriate to start the week with this clip, available in QuickTime .mov format only. This video is not yet on YouTube. It’s being released here for the first time. The video was made by my company, AuthorViews, where it will be released later today. The clip is Copyright Free — use as you please.

Deacon Melvin Jones
http://tinyurl.com/7wyxn9

Deacon Melvin Jones is also the proprietor of A Tisket, A Tasket Booksellers in the French Market in New Orleans. He has guided me and many other Yankees and Southerners — visitors and locals alike — through the mysterious history of race relations in America’s original gumbo pot, New Orleans. His family’s storefront on Decatur Street has the largest selection of Creole and African-American Experience books I have found anywhere. Being New Orleans, you will also find the best cookbooks in ample supply.

I’ve held off posting this video because even though I am blessed with the best editor you could want — Professor George Ingmire, who was also the camera and sound operator and cinematographer for this extraordinary clip — isn’t it gorgeous — I want a bigger cut. I want to see more of this marvelous man, this magnificent face. Don’t you?

Happy MLK Day! Join us all this week as we look at making and syndicating video on the Internet.

STEVE O’KEEFE

Here is the schedule of topics for the Internet PR Chat Series which begins tomorrow, Friday, January 16. The class is held live on Skype from 12-1 p.m. Eastern Time. If you send me your Skype name, you’ll be invited to join the chat on Skype tomorrow at noon E.T.

DATE — TOPIC
JAN 16 — Introduction: Principles of Internet PR
JAN 23 — Video Production & Syndication
JAN 30 — Campaign Planning/Themes
FEB 6 — E-Mail News Releases
FEB 13 — Online Newsrooms & Crisis PR
FEB 20 — Content Syndication (Giveaway)
FEB 27 — Newsletters & Direct Email
MAR 6 — Search Engine Optimization
MAR 13 — Social Networking
MAR 20 — SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS
MAR 27 — News Blogging
APR 3 — Blog PR
APR 10 — Producing an Online Tour
APR 17 — Producing Workshops & Seminars

STEVE O’KEEFE