On Twitter...

By Stephanie Sun - Weed Literary
2011 Conference Faculty

I would like to preface this post by saying that in no way, shape, or form, do I (nor can I) declare myself an authority on Twitter, as I am still very much new to this and have less than 500 "tweets" under my belt. With that being said...


I love Twitter, and I think it can do wonders for prospective authors. At almost every book-event I attend, Twitter comes up as a conversation topic amongst editors, agents, and authors-alike, and the benefits of having this social-connection to the publishing world can be amazing for writers who want to be published. Questions about publishing, the querying process, etiquette, anything - answers are only a #-tag away and this is invaluable material for those willing to take the plunge into the world of tweeting.

I have to admit, I had no idea what I was doing when I first signed up for a Twitter account, and quite often mistook the "search", "find people", and "post" boxes for each other and would consequently post extremely odd, piecemeal material. But soon thereafter, I started "following" our agency's authors, other favorite writers, journalists, editors, and industry-people and quickly picked up the lingo and trending #-tags. It is always helpful to write a personalized note about an agency's author or even better, specific book one has read when querying an agent, and most published authors are extremely gracious and helpful when answering insightful questions on the process- many times because they have been in the same position themselves! A little research and quality time investment goes a long way in simply getting a query read, and makes the material highly more probable to be requested.


If you plan to attend SCWW, give me a shout @sooheesun and I will try my best to @-you back! (Still working on how to navigate and nail down that Twitter-language because I am pretty sure "@-you back" is highly incorrect...but I promise to learn more and be a better Tweeter.)