Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Do Writers use Twitter? You bet your tweet, they do.


MediaBistro.com analyzed what many of us call "meaningless chatter" on Twitter and found, among all the celebrity nonsense, there are plenty of us out there too:

Using highly unscientific methods (a simple TweepSearch to find all the people who included the word "poet," "novelist," or "writer" in their Twitter profile), GalleyCat has compiled a year-end census of the literary Twittersphere.

According to simple TweepSearch queries, there are 1,790 novelists, 9,139 poets, 19,490 journalists, 28,529 authors, and a staggering 99,082 writers on Twitter. The publishing world latched on to the microblogging site in 2009, as Twitter writers scored book deals, serialized stories, and saw their work adapted to film. Finally, GalleyCat opened its Twitter page for business.


Source: MediaBistro.com

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Holiday gift ideas: Not too late to ask for these...


Friends and family don't know what to buy you for a holiday present. Why? Because they observe you hunched over your computer, or writing in notebooks. They can't buy you time, they can't buy you inspiration or courage, so they might buy you a new journal, pen, or another mug.

Besides suggesting all the wonderful books written by writers for writers, here are a few other great ideas that don't require wrapping! Ask for a subscription to an online writers organization. They'd never think of it, but you would so enjoy getting grounded in such a group.

Drop these ideas around the house so you can connect with writers of books, blogs, business and lucrative freelance venues.

links:
American Society of Journalists & Authors
asja.org

Freelance Success
freelancesuccess.com

MediaBistro (with the AvantGuild add-on if you've been very good)
mediabistro.com

SPAWN - Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network
www.spawn.org

Please comment below to add your ideas for the writer's dream holiday gift!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Storytelling


The latest Writer's Digest has a terrific piece by Mitch Albom, in which he attributes his writing success to one thing: storytelling.

Read it here.