Well-Read: Favorite Authors Who Tweet
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
“Attention writers—I'm doing a piece about writers who tweet. If interested tweet me back and I’ll send questions.”
This was the query I put forth last week and I received so many fabulous responses that I’ve decided to do this piece in two parts. Authors are the best people to ask questions. Along with Facebook and other social media, a Twitter account is a vital part of the everyday life of the writer. A tweet is a missive in 140 characters or less. Keeping to the allotted number may prove challenging for some, but for the authors I interviewed they seem to be managing just fine. Here’s how to follow some of my favorite writers and you can also join their fan pages on Facebook (but that’s another article!).
Rachel Simon @rachelsimon
The Story of Beautiful Girl, a NY Times Bestseller, has been one of the summer's most talked-about books. I always like to know what my favorite authors are enjoying and Rachel’s pick was another hot summer book, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. “I usually tweet one to four times a day,” says Simon, “but sometimes I’ll skip several days if I don’t have anything to say or am taking a break from being online.” I find this a refreshing response as I notice many writers who just can’t seem to tweet often enough. Most of Rachel’s tweets begin for professional reasons such as tweeting reviews but they can turn into something personal if the reviewer or someone else tweets her back. She also says she “frequently reaches out to writers with whom I have a connection and then happily establish a friendship.” Asked is she ever unfollows someone’s tweeting, Simon responds: “Not yet…the only tweets that rub me the wrong way are when people mention me, then provide a link without further identification. These inevitably seem to be Spam…” Rachel enjoys tweeting more than using Facebook as she finds it more personal and that those who do it are apt to be social. Currently at work on a new project, Simon says that she “tries to keep my most intense use of social media to the few months before and after a book’s release.”
Jessica Keener @JessicaKeener2
Night Swim, Jessica Keener’s debut novel will be released in January and I’m looking forward to reading the advanced copy as soon as it arrives. I am a big fan of the debut novel! Jessica’s favorite summer read, which she read on her Kindle, is Jane Roper’s Eden Lake. Not as much of a frequent tweeters as others I interviewed, Jessica says she tweets a few times a week but she’ll check in on others’ tweets if something catches her eye like #litchat conversations. Keener keeps her tweets related mostly to writing, books and comments about books or music adding “I like seeing what links people recommend that flag articles; also love book recommendations.” She says she’s “getting better with all the short cuts but all the @@@@@ can clutter.” (this is where the tweeter is directing a comment at someone and it might be several people) Jessica enjoys tweeting because she says she doesn’t feel pressured to do it: “Oh, wait—should I feel pressured?” Next up for Keener is a novel that she’s been working on for several years that’s set in Budapest, mid-1990s. Then: a memoir-ish book about My Search For Home (see her blog—Confessions of a Hermit Crab—for essays and posts devoted to home stuff).
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTEleanor Brown @eleanorwrites
One of my favorite spring 2011 novels, The Weird Sisters, will be out in paperback this February. Author Eleanor Brown says she is “definitely not all the way through my summer reading, but so far I loved This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park.” Brown describes herself as a daily tweeter with a 50/50 personal/professional mix. “But it depends,” she qualifies. “When there’s a lot going on with the book, the professional tends to take over, but it can be annoying when folks are using social media entirely to shill, so I try not to do that. Plus, I love connecting with people as people, not as a marketer!” Eleanor has unfollowed people for “hate speech, over-marketing, and political aggression.” She tries to communicate in natural language on Twitter as much as possible. “That’s part of the 140-character challenge.” Brown says that while she likes social media, “every minute I spend there is a minute I’m not spending writing books, so if I’m not enjoying it or finding it valuable… I back away.” Lucky for us she is deep into writing her next novel.
Robin Slick @RobinSlick
The author of Daddy Left Me Alone With God says that Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman (reviewed in last week’s column) is her favorite book. Slick says she’s down to a few tweets a week and “mostly just to stalk my kids.” She prefers when that tweeter says funny or interesting things as opposed to solely promoting, but promoting is a necessary evil and “sometimes that’s funny and interesting, too.” Robin is not a fan of internet shorthand adding that she “can get a hate on a person for using LOL.” She has unfollowed someone who she thought was fairly normal until the guy “took a picture of himself in the bathroom and posted it with a link. For real.” Slick has just finished the first draft of a new novel called Squirrel Jam which she describes as “a grieving young widow who suffers from debilitating panic attacks must rescue her children from the clutches of a deranged musician.”
Nichole Bernier @NicholeBernier
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D, Bernier’s debut novel, is due out Spring 2012. She says her favorite books of the summer are State of Wonder (second mention in this piece), Courtney Sullivan's Maine and The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Some days Nichole barley tweets at all. “Others,” she says, “I have quite a few back and forth tweets with friends and publishing colleagues.” She continues, “Twitter for me is a news source, educational resource, professional networking tool and social media outlet rolled into one.” Bernier compares Twitter to a water cooler and convention for people who don’t have an office or have the ability to travel for networking very often. “For stay-at-home/work-at-home moms (like me), it levels the networking playing field.” Personal and professional tweeting is one and the same to Nichole. Supporting and congratulating the writers she’s come to know if both of these things. Nichole shares that “most of my twitter conversations are about the literary life, which I suppose is professional, though for me there’s also some politics and parenting in the mix, conversations with people whose opinions and humor I appreciate.” In addition to her writing, Bernier also maintains the Twitter feed for the literary blog Beyond the Margins (@BTMargins) and that is entirely professional with tweets all about the publishing industry. Those tweets run hourly. “It’s like Facebook on espresso,” she says,” faster and more interactive. I learn more from twitter than I do from any other social media, but it depends on whom you follow.”
Reading enthusiast and all around "book-pusher" Robin Kall can be heard live Saturday mornings from 7-8am on Reading With Robin WHJJ 920AM. Robin’s guest this Saturday will be Helen Schulman (This Beautiful Life) Also streaming live at www.920whjj.com. Follow on Twitter @robinkall, and Facebook - Reading With Robin.
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