How Literary Agents Find Talent on Twitter. Daniel Vahab is a freelance journalist. His work has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, The Huffington Post, the Sun-Sentinel, the New York Press, and the Jewish Daily Forward. Visit Danielvahab.net, and follow him @DanielVahab. “An otter was following me on Twitter,” recalls agent Brooks Sherman with FinePrint Literary Management. The otter was a character whose Twitter account was managed by a British illustrator. Sherman’s interest spiked when the character, appropriately named Otter, unfollowed him. Sherman found the author’s e-mail address and contacted him. SEE ALSO: Oprah Book Club Returns in New Digital Form And Sherman is not alone in using Twitter to connect with possible clients.
The engagement around writing and publishing has become a norm on Twitter. For instance, the recent growth in popularity of “Downton Abbey” fans on Twitter marked an opportunity for romance novelist Evangeline Holland. Stacia Decker’s story is a little different. Write, Read, Share on Widbook, the 'YouTube of Books' The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Widbook Quick Pitch: The YouTube of books. Genius Idea: Write, share and collaborate with authors and book enthusiasts.. Who says people using social media don’t have the patience to read anything too lengthy? Book lovers and authors can share stories with others in their social networks, as well as create digital bookshelves to peruse. Invite writers to add the next chapter and continue sharing — like a Mad Libs for books. To sign-up for the site, which is currently in beta, create a username and password.
Once your profile is updates you can submit a status update to your friends on Widbook. Right now, if you write a book you can’t export it from the site, but that’s a function that will eventually be available when the site launches out of beta. Would you use Widbook? Why Writers Should Tweet. The long overly romanticized idea of the writer holed up in a cabin off of Walden Pond, furiously writing by candlelight and drinking warm whiskey until the wee hours is so. freaking. over. The writer of today is busy tweeting away on the Internet, connecting with like-minded folks while writing their next. big. novel. "If I am having a crappy day writing, I will on occasion send out a goofy tweet on Twitter to see how others are doing," Oak Park-based writer Gint Aras tells me via phone.
"Then it will help me get through a period of blockage - but I don't think that's any different from getting on the phone and talking to a writer buddy. " Writers are solitary types. Many work from home, only seeing the light of day if they run errands or go to the gym during the day. Some may keep wonky schedules, depending on if they have a day job or do other types of work. Writer Sherrill Bodine tells me that she only started tweeting because of her publicist, Dana Kaye. 10 Pro Tips for Writers Using Social Media. We recently covered 10 inspiring social networks for writers that can help you extend your influence and develop your content. But what about the mainstream networks? How do you successfully raise your profile and gain a following? Six well-known authors and writers, who are experts in this type of personal branding, share their methods and suggestions on how to use social media to push yourself forward in the writing industry.
Whether you've been using social media for a while or you're just starting out, you might learn something new. 1. It can be difficult to sift through all of the available social platforms and decide which ones to focus on; it helps if you think about what it is you want to achieve. Susan Orlean, New Yorker journalist and author of The Orchid Thief, looks at each platform as a different kind of party. Twitter certainly seems to be the top go-to network for writers, and it's incredibly useful. 2. John T. With Facebook, it's all about pacing yourself. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Social Networking Sites for Writers, Message Boards for Writers. We know Facebook and Myspace are used by many writers, but we listed new and old sites that are geared to writers.
There are other social networking sites out there for film-makers and musicians and on and on, but these are the ones pointed directly at writers. Story Link Social Networking community for writers that allows you to create profiles and join groups. They also have experts that write informative articles. A good site. The Writing Room Social Networking community for writers that allows you to create profiles and join groups. My Good ebook Social Networking community for writers that allows you to create profiles and join groups. Urbis Post your writing, create a profile, join groups.
AbcTales Write your story, post a story. Writertopia Social Networking community for writers that allows you to create profiles and join groups. My Creative Content Social Networking community for writers that allows you to create profiles and join groups. Message Boards for Writers. Meet the Winner of Mashable's Facebook Short Story Contest. What would you write on Facebook if you had endless space for creativity? Well, not endless, but it seems pretty close. Facebook greatly increased its character limit to 63,206, which is the equivalent of roughly 451 and a half tweets. The increase means you could do more than just blog there — you can write chapters of your upcoming novel.
Just for fun, we decided to see what you could fit in that character limit. The results included the U.S. However, we wanted to see what you could come up with: Given 63, 206 characters in a Facebook update, what would you write? We reached out to Dan to learn more about his story, his life and his writing. Q&A With Dan Holden, Winner of Mashable's Facebook Short Story Contest What do you do and what's your background? I was a business and tech journalist at the San Jose Business Journal and Electronic News back in the '80s and '90s, covering the semiconductor industry. I have three little girls that I adopted as a single dad when they were infants.
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