Tweet, Tweet: Do You Twitter?...

A few weeks after the SCBWI LA conference last summer, I was emailing with agent Michael Bourret and he mentioned something about being on Twitter. What is this Twitter, I asked? He sent me a link and I joined. (If you don't know what Twitter is, click here. There's even a video.) In a nutshell it's a micro-blogging platform. It's sort of the Facebook status update minus everything else on Facebook.)

For several months, I only followed a handful of people and had a handful of followers. Every so often when I was bored I'd search for new people and companies and newspapers to follow. Then I got an iPhone and now I'm becoming a bit of a Twitter fanatic. I stop myself from checking it all day long. I tweet (that's what you call the posts) at stop lights. I read tweets right before I go to sleep. It's a little like crack.

A few minutes ago I got a notice that F+W Media was now following me (that's my company) which only proves that, officially, everyone is tweeting. And, really, there is a great publishing presence on Twitter. Check out this ever-growing list of publishers, agents, publicists, and bookstores which I'm sure is not comprehensive. Off the top of my head I thought of four agents I follow who are not on this list. (If you want to find lots of publishing folks, also check out who I follow. You need to have an account to do so.)

For writers it's a quick and easy way to stay up on what your favorite publishers, agents, authors, and bookstores are doing. You can also follow The Onion, John Hodgman, Wil Wheaton and The Daily Show Producer Miles Khan, which are my personal favorites. Shaq, Britney and the like tweet as well. And, of course, me: http://twitter.com/alicepope.

Twitter is the new Facebook; Facebook is the new MySpace; MySpace is the new Friendster; and Friendster is so five-minutes ago.