Monday, May 4, 2009

Tweeting Book Clubs?

The micro blogging phenomenon seems to not only be catching on like wildfire, but finding new ways to engage the community of writers, publishers and readers that micro-blog. In the quickly evolving social media world I have recently come across a post for a speculative fiction book club that is (wait for it) “meeting” exclusively on Twitter. To my knowledge, this is the first of this type of book club. They will be reading Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and begin posting their discussions tweet style beginning May 15 and plan to discuss the book for a week…140 characters at a time.

If you are interested in joining in, the book is available on Amazon, brick and mortar stores and in audio format through Audible To make the discussions easier to follow they will be appending the hashtag #sfbookclub. You can enter through the site TweetChat , Twitter Search, or the search functionality of most Twitter clients.

Interesting concept!

21 comments:

Dr.Mani said...

Fantastic idea.

And right away, my brain asks: "What's to keep you, dear author, from CREATING your own Twitter book club - to discuss YOUR book?!"

Off to do it soon. btw, I tweet as @drmani

All success
Dr.Mani
Author: "Think, Write & RETIRE!"
http://ThinkWriteRetire.com

N A Sharpe said...

I agree! It is a wonderful idea! The electronic age has so much tremendous potential!

I'll follow you on twitter too, my friend. I'm there as @nasharpe

Nancy
Author: Th Destineers' Journal of Fantasy Nations
http://nasharpe.com

N A Sharpe said...

Oh Karen I hear you. I talk too much to keep it to 140 characters!

Nancy
Author: The Destineers' Journal of Fantasy Nations
http://NASharpe.com

KK Brees said...

That will sure take care of the folks who love to monopolize a discussion. Everything's getting smaller.

N A Sharpe said...

You would have to be concise in your commenting, that's for sure!

I would find it challenging but am intrigued with the concept.

Nancy
Author of: The Destineers' Journal of Fantasy Nations
http://Destineers.com

Patricia Stoltey said...

Twitter is the most challenging, and most addictive, social networking tool I use. I think you can get to me from my blog's Twitter updates.

Pat
http://www.patriciastoltey.blogspot.com

N A Sharpe said...

Thanks for stopping by, Pat. I find it the most challenging of the social networks. Sticking to 140 characters or less is a challenge for me, lol.

~Nancy
Author: The Destineers' Journal of Fantasy Nations
http://Destineers.com

Gayle Carline said...

Hmm... a tweet book club. Pretty soon we won't have to see people face-to-face at all.

Just sayin'.
Gayle
http://gaylecarline.blogspot.com

N A Sharpe said...

True, one of the wonderful aspects of a book club is the human connection...but I have met an awful lot of friends on line on the social networks and and Yahoo groups that I consider to be very good friends and I most likely would not have had that opportunity if not for the internet. Its certainly not a perfect system, but I like the concept.

~Nancy
Author of: The Destineers' Journal of Fantasy Nations
http://Destineers.com

AlanChinWriter said...

Well I certainly love the idea of promoting book clubs. Having people reading more and discussing books is exciting. But who the hell can have a meaningful discussion while limited to 140 characters a shot??
Twitter is great for many things, and I'm on it almost every day for promoting myself, but I'm having trouble imagining that it's the right tool for a book club discussion. Not something for me.
But thanks for sharing that concept.

BTW: I tweet @alanhchin

All the best,
Alan Chin
http://alanchin.net

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

I'm looking forward to the Twitter part of the book blog tour course. That way I can become more involved and know what everyone is going on about!

Great post about an emerging technology.
Elizabeth
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/

N A Sharpe said...

Thanks for stopping by Alan and Elizabeth!

I am interested enough to check it out, but not sure I would be able to participate at the rate of only 140 characters at a time...need to train myself I suppose.

~Nancy
Author of: The Destineers' Journal of Fantasy Nations
http://Destineers.com

Alexis Grant said...

Oh, this IS cool! I love Twitter -- Always discovering new cool ideas/programs/news through it. Thanks for sharing!

N A Sharpe said...

It really is a cool concept - I'll be watching to see how it works out!

Nancy
http://NASharpe.com

Cranky Mom said...

I love Twitter. I'm addicted to Twitter. I know friend just had a Twitter party to launch her book, prizes and all. I love #gno (girls nite out) and the Friday night site warming parties.

But a book club is a great idea.

Jennifer Taggart
www.thesmartmama.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thesmartmama

Anonymous said...

Good idea, and informative post. a suggestion, though - there were lost of words & phrases that begged to be hyperlinked - makes it easy for folks to get where you want them to go. :)

Marvin D Wilson
http://inspiritandtruths.blogspot.com/
http://tiedyedtirades.blogspot.com/

Lynnette Labelle said...

Wow! What will they think of next? LOL

Since you're a writer, I thought I'd mention there's a writers' support group you might be interested in. It's called Writers_on_Writing. If you want to know more, check out my blog. I posted some info about it yesterday. Maybe you know other writers who might want to join? The group's a SUPPORT group, not a critique group for writers 18 years or older.

Lynnette Labelle
http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com

N A Sharpe said...

Jennifer,

I also know someone that incorporated Twitter into her book blog tour with great success. I think there is a lot of untapped potential from Twitter.

Thanks for stopping by

Nancy
http://NASharpe.com

N A Sharpe said...

Marv,

Thank you - great suggestions. Still floundering a bit here in the blogosphere and I greatly appreciate any and all suggestions.

Nancy
http://NASharpe.com

N A Sharpe said...

Marv,

Thank you - great suggestions. Still floundering a bit here in the blogosphere and I greatly appreciate any and all suggestions.

Nancy
http://NASharpe.com

N A Sharpe said...

Lynette,

Thanks so much for the suggestion, I'll definitely check out the writing support group. That is one thing I really like about the writing community - there are so many that are so supportive and believe in helping one another and paying it forward.

Nancy
http://NASharpe.com

 
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