8 reasons why a Writer should join TWITTER and a helping of Stephen Fry to tempt you...

 1) You exercise your writing and editing skills. The aim is to be pithy and witty in 140 characters

2) You can find out what’s happening in the publishing industry – many (most?) publishing houses, editors, publicists and some agents tweet. Leading London agent Carole Blake (author of From Pitch to Publication) tweets. Authors tweet. You can find a comprehensive list at http://www.highspotinc.com/blog/2009/02/a-directory-of-authors-on-twitter/

3) Feel part of it – I got tweets from a dinner table at this year’s Booker. It was fun to know what everyone was eating or being too nervous to eat (lamb) and who won before it was on the television news.

4) Make contacts and friends

5) Increase your blog readership

6) Promote your writing – but not all the time.  You wouldn’t want to mix with someone who only ever talks about one thing.

7) Get topical ideas from the ‘hot trending’ subjects (what people are tweeting about): journalists do it all the time.

8) Get useful information, advice from other writers like this:

from @mewroh

good links, inspiring people, a chance to home one-liners, and the freedom to completely fabricate a twitter character.

see @MrsStephenFry, @CherylKerl, @sexyexecutive, @dimblebot for the latter

from @EffieMerryl

networking, raising profile, marketing, promotion, ideas , social benefits, community

Not convinced? Read Stephen Fry’s three page letter to his two millionth follower (Jonathan from Dundee) at http://www.stephenfry.com/2010/11/30/two-million-reasons-to-be-cheerful/

Here’s a taster:

…I first heard about Twitter a month or so after it had been launched on the world and with my usual perspicacity mentally consigned it to the dustbin of history. ‘What a simultaneously hysterical, banal, footling and useless idea,’ I remember thinking. Be honest Jonathan, you almost certainly thought the same when you first heard of it. Everyone does….

... the majority, the great majority of people are friendly, forgiving and kind…You will be astonished too by the wit. The speediness, elegance and brilliance of some twitterers regularly takes my breath away…mostly Twitter and my two million followers are as good a reason as I know to trust people. To respect people. To believe in people…

and if you want to chat you can follow me @agoodconfession