I recently attended a dinner meeting presented by the Midwest Writers Association held at McCormick and Schmick at the Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, Illinois. The program which was open to non-members such as myself featured speakers Doug Seibold, of Agate Publishing and Linda Matthews, of Chicago Review Press, who spoke about the publishing world in general and what each of their respective publishing concerns expect when choosing authors and subjects.

This was the first MWA meeting I have attended and was pleased to see that it was a convivial group of authors and related publishing professionals. I attended as the author of Turn Your Business Card Into Business and also as the owner of the website www.authorsbroadcast.com where we produce and feature short videos that promote authors and their books.

I had the good fortune to sit at a table that included public relations professional Joanne Levine of Lekas and Levine www.lekasandlevine.com . In the course of conversation I took the opportunity to pass my business cards to each of my table mates but neglected to get a card from Joanne even though she happened to mention that she has a client who she felt may be interested in having a book video trailer produced. The next day I was sort of kicking myself because I thought I would like to have sent Joanne a follow up email and I did not have her card. Well the good news is, Joanne kept my card and called me about a week later to say her client Ray Silverstein the author of The Small Business Survival Guide was interested in having a video produced and I should give him a call. I finished it his weekend and you can view it at http://www.authorsbroadcast.com/titles/biz_guide.htm .

The take away message of course is that face to face networking is a good idea and remember to seal the deal with a business card. Not only give a card but be sure to get one in return. Be sure to take a look at Ray’s video.