One of the things I like about Twitter is how, by following people with professions or interests similar to my own, I'll see links to websites that are more likely to interest me. The down side to this what I call the Latest Uproar on Twitter, where someone says or does something and suddenly all the compulsive bloggers have to weigh in on it. (And more often than not it's blown all out of proportion.) It's too easy to get caught up in it, offend somebody by being too opinionated, and waste valuable writing time.

I'm hoping I'm not succumbing to anything like that here, but I suspect I am just a little.

You see, I've seen a couple of blog posts lately about how authors shouldn't talk about their own work on panels at conventions, festivals, etc.. I have to say, while I agree that some authors overdo talking about their books, I disagree with those posts.

These bloggers are assuming that what they want out of panel is what everyone else wants. Without having interrogated every audience member as they go into or out of a panel, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that the reasons people go are varied. Some may be there only to hear discussion of the topic, and don't care who discusses it. Some may want to know why they should care about the panelist's opinion, and knowing about an author's work may reveal their expertise in that area. They also may want to know where to get that author's books, which is particularly helpful if those books aren't widely available.

Of course, an overly pitchy pitch may put people off too. However…

How pitchy the pitch is may depend the cultural differences of the place where the panel is held. Australians are chronically embarrassed about self-promotion, and we tend to cringe when people in other countries are more forward about it. But who are we to say what is appropriate or acceptable to an audience in another country? It may seem pushy to us, but *not* doing the pitch may be considered rude to locals – as if you think everyone ought to know who you are and what you write already, and just google it, duh!

Surely a portion of the audience came to the panel to hear an author or authors speak – to hear their perspective on the subject and, if a writing-related panel, how they write what they write. To have them waffle on about other people's books, no matter how interesting they are, is going to be pretty disappointing to those audience members (as well as possibly coming across as an insufferable name-dropper). It's also a little unfair to new authors who, banned from speaking about their own work, don't get to both enthuse about it and add their new voice to the discussion on whatever subject the panel is about.

It makes me wonder… at, say, a accounting convention are accountants forbidden to talk about accounting?

I guess what worries me about these anti-writers-talking-about-their-work-in-public blog posts is that is seems to be one side of a polarised issue. Clearly all promo all the time is bad, too. I'm sticking to somewhere in the middle: trying to find out what the expectations are where I'm speaking, going with the flow, hopefully avoiding offence, and trying to be interesting about both my books and everything else.