Saturday 30 March 2013

Authors on Twitter


My current recommendation pile

There are a lot of things that give me pleasure in life, but helping someone find a great book has to be one of the best. I love working out what someone might like, whether they'll appreciate certain aspects of a particular book or find it irritating. It's quite hard to tell. The first on the pile, Finnikin of the Rock, is a book I love and my mum (who usually has very similar tastes) doesn't like at all. I put together this pile for a friend who requested lots of recommendations, and, since she is on Twitter, I started thinking about recommending following some of these authors. 

For me following an author is one of the best things about Twitter. Most of the people I follow are writers (fiction, journalists etc). It's a fantastic resource for finding things to read and writers are generally good at Twitter. 

A good percentage of writers that I follow are authors who write 'Young Adult' fiction, which is I genre I like. These authors are always recommending fabulous books to read. Some simply update you about their work (movie deals, new books etc). Some also tweet about TV shows they're watching, others tweet about politics. Some have other jobs, and many tweet about the trials and hilarity of parenting. It's a great way to get links to interesting articles and blog posts and generally very funny. 

Here are some of the writers I like to follow: 

@maureenjohnson - Maureen is actually the queen of Twitter. She has tweeted over 55, 000 and offers her followers a world of hilarity and crazy. There are a lot of tweets to read though.

Prodigious Tweeters:
@realjohngreen and @sportswithjohn
@naturallysteph
@kierstenwhite
@sarahdessen


Moderate tweeters:
@lainitaylor
@allycondie
@jenlynnbarnes
@scottwesterfeld
@justinelavaworm
@haleshannon
@mstiefvater


Rare Tweeters:
@jk_rowling
@mmarchetta1


I would also recommend following your local bookstore, and @huffpostbooks - who post some pretty funny and interesting things about the world of books.