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I’m right now at IZEAFest 2008, which is a conference that’s actually local to me.  Since I don’t have to many of those, I jump at the chance to network when I can.

IZEAFest is a blogging, social and new media conference.  Now I bet you’re wondering what in the world would a conference like this be for a traditional media genre science-fiction and fantasy writer like me?

Well, there is a lot a traditional writer can learn from new media.  At first I dabbled by blogging a little, maybe posting a message on Twitter.  Very little involvement to be honest.  That all changed a couple of months ago.

I decided to dive in head first into new media by publishing a novel using social networks Plurk and Twitter.  Doing this opened my eyes to the possibilities of living in a world where a writer can have multiple paths to releasing their work to the world.  It helped me to realize I’m not limited in how I want to reach my readers.

Once I had the “new media epiphany” I then realized I needed to get out and meet more people involved in new media: bloggers, content creators, and social marketers.  I’ve learned quite a bit from these people and I believe all traditional media writers can learn quite a bit from new/social media.

To traditional media writers I would say find a blogging conference and go to it.  Don’t know too much about blogging?  Buy yourself Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner to learn about it and then go to a conference.  The operative thing is to get out there and meet other bloggers and learn.

Doing some of the things above will put you on to a great start to putting a new spin on your traditional media.