Why Authors are Tweeting

Via USA Today

Hundreds of authors, possibly thousands, are using the social networking service to talk about their books with fans, a unique challenge especially for a wordy novelist who has only 140 characters to get his message out.

Whether tweeting will help sell books is still unknown, but it’s certainly the newest form of literary self-promotion.

“It’s definitely made me more social,” says John Searles, author of Strange But True and book editor at Cosmopolitan. “I’ve gone to readings to see authors after meeting them on Twitter. And while there, I’ve found myself sitting next to still more writers who I met on Twitter, too.”

Blogger Bethanne Patrick, who runs the “Twitter Book Club” as part of thebookstudio.com (her Twitter address is TheBookMaven), says she sees Twitter’s role not as “the future” but as part of the future of connecting readers with authors.

“I don’t think Twitter is a sales mechanism,” she says. “Twitter allows all users, including authors, to curate their own feeds of information, and that can help authors to find new readers and audiences.”

“I don’t like touring or appearing in public, so Twitter is a way for me to field questions from my readers. Other than that, it’s a way for me to keep in touch with updates from journalists/writers I’d like to know more about.” – Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger.

Read the entire article here. Some of the authors we follow are AravindAdiga – @aravindadiga, Neil Gaiman- @neilhimself, Paulo Coelho – @paulocoelho.
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