on Aug 2nd, 2009I twipped over myself on Twitter
Do you tweet? If so, I wish I’d met you before I began. The whole idea of a social network of unknown, unseen “friends” was alien to me, but I decided to give it a try. Now, several months later I’m beginning – just beginning – to figure out how social networking can be benefit aspiring authors. And I’ve actually met a couple of the people I follow in person, which makes it a little more real for me.
My first day on Twitter I was at a total loss until a flesh & blood friend (as opposed to avatar friend) explained how to find people with similar interests. By plugging words such as writing, mysteries, cooking, food, and dogs, I found literally hundreds of Twitters to follow – way more than I could read in a day. Or so I thought until I found out half them rarely if ever Tweet (like me).
Now, with several months of reading incredibly boring or self-aggrandizing Tweets, I’ve significantly narrowed my “following” list (removing such Tweets as Whole Foods) and I find that Twitter can actually be a useful resource. And even a source of inspiration, encouragement and solace, as needed.
I’m not going to try to rehash the good advice others have already posted. For really great advice on using Twitter (and many other subjects) check out http://editorunleashed.com/. Here you’ll find lists of writers, editors and agents to follow.
For myself, I follow
Marketing guru Chris Brogan: http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan
Literary Agents Janet Reid: http://twitter.com/Janet_Reid and Nathan Bransford: http://twitter.com/NathanBransford
Authors, aspiring authors and editors:
Maud Newton: http://twitter.com/MaudNewton
Ron Hogan: http://twitter.com/RonHogan
Maria Schneider: http://twitter.com/mariaschneider
Sandra Cummings: http://twitter.com/SandraCummings
Joel Heffner: http://twitter.com/TipsForWriters
Neil Gaiman: http://twitter.com/neilhimself
MJ Rose: http://twitter.com/MJRose
Thomas Roche: http://twitter.com/thomasroche
Toni Andrews: http://twitter.com/toniandrews
Lee Goldberg: http://twitter.com/LeeGoldberg
Mignon Fogarty: http://twitter.com/GrammarGirl
Book Publishers & Publicists
Chris Webb, John Wiley & Sons: http://twitter.com/chriswebb
Grand Central Pub: http://twitter.com/GrandCentralPub
Penguin Books: http://twitter.com/PenguinBooks
Bantam Dell: http://twitter.com/bantamdell
And just for fun http://twitter.com/authorstweet
Keep in mind that I’m primarily looking for mystery-related people to follow. There are plenty more out there for those who write romance, non-fiction, poetry, Christian, YA and other genres.
What about you? Leave your Twitter persona in the comments here and I’ll follow you. I can use all the help I can get and it’s always nice to make friends. Tweet me some time @CTTiger http://twitter.com/CTTiger .