Have An Author Join Your Book Group / 2

There really shouldn’t be a problem here.

I mean, for a long time now I’ve been doing work over the internet, including live one-to-one conversations on camera.

I’ve done presentations by Skype to big lecture halls.

And for the book group at the other end, my visit would in many ways be like watching me on TV – only, interactive.

But I recognise that many people aren’t used to doing this. And might feel a bit odd.

So I wanted to do more, in advance, to get over any kind of “digital disconnection”.

To create a sense that we know each other already.

Here’s how I did it.

I created a special page on my website for that group, with a short, personalised video saying hello:

With a few days to go before the meeting, I sent the group’s organiser a link to that page, and Marie then shared it with members.

In the video, I asked them to send me any questions.

And over the following days I received about a dozen.

So I took those questions and created an entirely new page, answering most of them.

I gave my answers as short videos (average length about 2 mins).

I kept the camera pointing away from me, to give a glimpse into my world, and because they’d see plenty of my face in the actual book group meeting.

So, how did it go?