Photo: © vectorlib com / fotolia.com

Many Internet users treat social media as news feeds. The challenge is to reach them at the right time – the time they are active online.

Even if some users don’t subscribe to your blog, you can still reach them via social media. There is only one disadvantage. Social networks are all about instant information. Your message will stay in a stream, well, we have to face it, until a web page is refreshed.

If the user opens a social media site and you’re not right at the top of the stream, or on a first page, or within a couple of scrolls down – that means you’re not there at all.

I’m not a SEO or SM expert, but I guess the same rule which applies to Google search results can be also applied to social media streams: top 3 items count.

And this is where message scheduling comes with help. All four tools described below are very effective and it’s up to your personal preferences which one you’ll choose. Also, all of them offer statistics, so that you can track the effect of your activity.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is my main social media tool. The service evolved from a web-based Twitter client into a powerful social media dashboard, where you can update at once to your accounts in several networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and even WordPress.com blog. If you add Ping.fm account, the number of connected accounts becomes even higher.

Scheduling was always one of the strongest Hootsuite’s features. The service is one step ahead of competition in that matter. Its application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (AppStore link) is the only one I know, which gives you a chance to schedule updates.

When you sign up to Hootsuite, you can use a legendary bookmarklet – Hootlet. Once you add it to a bookmark bar in your browser you can seamlessly share a content of the web page you’re reading. Hootlet also supports scheduling, so if you usually read your favorite sources in the morning, you can schedule them when your readers are most active (and you may be already sleeping).

There are two very useful features of the schedule section. One is that you can schedule updates in bulk. Don’t get excited too much, you won’t be able to send the same, repeated message a thousand times. You can schedule up to 50 messages at once and they can’t be the same. The file format is csv. You can prepare a list of updates in a simple text editor and afterwards in the name of the file change .txt to .csv.

The updates should have the format DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM,”MESSAGE”,”URL”. The example is shown below:

16/11/2010 17:35,"Your message here","http://website.com"

You can download a sample .csv file from here and use it as a base to create a bulk upload document.

Another great Hootsuite feature is the ability to save drafts of most often updated messages. Instead of looking for the same page to get the new short link over and over, you can simply choose a proper update from a list of saved drafts.

If you want to dig further about Hootsuite, you can also use a simple tip to install Hootlet bookmarklet in Safari on iPad.

One more thing about scheduling with Hootsuite. Thanks to this service I’m running a book promotion which will last… 98 years more. Sounds unbelievable, but it’s actually doable with such a powerful tool like Hootsuite.

Hootsuite's update box with a scheduling panel

Plans & prices

A free account is ad-supported, and you can add 5 social media accounts. A pro account, $5.99/month, gives unlimited number of social profiles. Check a comparison of features here.

SocialOomph

If you’re looking for a service packed with features for advanced, heavy social media users, you should try SocialOomph. It gives you all the tools you need to boost your online productivity. Twitter follow management, updating to social media by e-mail, writing blog posts and pages, auto-follow and auto-DM – it’s only a part of a long list of features.

Most of them are, unfortunately, not available in a free version. As far as it comes to scheduling, you can still use a free account if you focus on Twitter.

When writing a new update, SocialOomph offers a similar option to Hootsuite – you can save text as draft to be reused later. You can also schedule updates in two variants:
- absolute time – by selecting exact date and time
- relative time – just type how many minutes/hours/days/weeks from now you want to publish an update

In SocialOomph Professional you can also schedule recurring updates with rotating text

Plans & prices

With a free account you can use basic features and add only Twitter profiles. If you upgrade to Professional version, for $29.97 per month, you’ll get Facebook integration with schedule features and many other benefits, listed here.

Timely

Timely is the smartest schedule management tool I know. It just does the scheduling for you.

The idea behind the service is genuinely simple. The tool is analyzing your recent activity and schedules the updates at the time of day, which gives the biggest response from your friends/followers.

Benefit: you save a lot of time and guessing.

Timely is scheduling to Twitter, but recently a support for Facebook was added. Thanks to that the tool becomes a very easy and time-saving way to reach your audience in two biggest social networks.

In a Settings panel you can set up how many updates you want to send per day and whether you want to include weekends in your queue. Timely can send weekly reports by e-mail. You can also receive e-mail notifications when the queue of scheduled updates is emptied.

The service has a bookmarklet and it’s lovely. You don’t have to bother with figuring out what will be the best time to send an update. What you can focus on is what you want to say – not when you want to say it.

One thing to remember: if you planned 30 updates in a row, 3 per day, and now want add a new one (let’s say the news you’re just reading), if you press Add to Queue, this news article will be sent on day 11. For quick updates use the Post now button.

Write an update and click Add to Queue - Timely will schedule it for you

Plans & prices

Free plan goes with unlimited number of Twitter accounts. At the time of writing this post an information about the number of Facebook accounts was not available at the page with comparison between free and pro accounts. With pro, which costs $9.99/month, you get priority non-stop e-mail support.

Dlvr.it

Opposite to Timely, Dlvr.it is not focused on update scheduling. It is just an additional and helpful feature to an advanced tool through which you can syndicate content from your blog(s) to social media channels.

The schedule box offers basic options. What’s exceptional is that you can not only schedule an update to one of your social profiles, but also to one of content distribution channels.

For instance, I’m blogging in two languages, English and Polish. I’ve set up a channel which syndicates English content to my English Twitter account and a Facebook page which is in English. When scheduling a message, instead of selecting two different social media profiles, I can just pick up one content channel.

Dlvr.it - simple scheduling tool is a great addition to a powerful content stream management system

Plans & prices

So far, Dlvr.it is free, but I think it’s just a matter of time, when a pro plan will be introduced. The service is just too good to be free.

* * *

When it’s good to schedule updates? When the time of your highest activity during a day doesn’t match the time of your readers. For example, I’m most productive in the morning. My morning, Warsaw time zone, is a middle of the night for most readers in US.

You can use it the other way round. If you are a writer, you can change the time you send information about your book, let’s say to GMT. You no longer reach, in real time, readers in US, but you actually expand by being available to readers in Europe – just because of the fact you’re sending your message at the time they are active.

A well-scheduled tweet is a good thing, but don’t forget that social media is not a one-way communication. It’s about conversation. Find time to thank for the response and keep the conversation going.

Related posts

• 22.05.2011 -- Which Links Shared on Twitter Are Mobile Friendly?
• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS
• 22.08.2010 -- Let iOS Users Download Your ePub Book Directly From a Tweet

"4 Powerful Tools to Schedule Social Media Updates" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

A mobile friendly version of the Mashable article

Recently Mashable published interesting numbers showing that Twitter users are likely to share a story without actually reading it.

In my opinion, one of the major reasons is that users are afraid of opening links on their mobile phones. And as much as 37% of users access Twitter via mobile devices as this infographic shows.

Compared to Facebook, where every link was clicked on average more than three times, Twitter received only 0.38 clicks per tweet.

Are you in a group of tweeple who share content without reading? I have to admit that I do it from time to time -  when I know a post has been published on a blog with no mobile theme. I usually read it later, via Instapaper or Readability.

So, if this is such an issue, is there a way to find out which links are mobile friendly before clicking them?

Most popular url shorteners, bit.ly or t.co, don’t give a hint what kind of site will be opened. There are many shorteners, however, which are a guarantee that you’ll easily open a page in a browser of your mobile phone – and enjoy reading it.

http://tumblr.com

Native url shortener of a popular blogging platform. Every newly published post is shared with tumblr.com short link.

http://post.ly

Similar to Tumblr, all posts from Posterous are shared automatically with post.ly right after they are published.

http://wp.me

Links to WordPress.com blogs, which are mobile friendly by default. However not all the links may open mobile interfaces as wp.me shortener can be also used, via plugins, by users of self-hosted WordPress blogs.

http://amzn.to

Links to Amazon sites. Opposite to microblogging services, where in most cases photos or short notes are shared, this short link can lead to a Kindle book you can start reading in a few clicks. Read a full article about it.

http://rdd.me

Link shortener from Readability, a service which turns web pages into a reading mode. When you click on rdd.me you’ll be redirected to a distraction-free and mobile-friendly version of the article, even if it’s published at a blog with no mobile theme.

* * *

Popular news or tech sites use their own shorteners and have mobile versions as well, so you can also be sure to open the right kind of link:
Mashable – http://on.mash.to
Engadget – http://engt.com
ReadWriteWeb – http://rww.to

Most of photo, video and localization platforms also use mobile friendly links, naming only three of them:
Foursquare – http://4sq.com
Gowalla – http://gowal.la
YouTube – http://youtu.be

Things change fast. More and more sites are launching mobile versions. So, next time, when you’ll be scrolling through Twitter stream on your mobile phone, just remember – now you have much more chances to open a link and read the article.

Related posts

• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 06.04.2011 -- What Is Your Primary E-reading Device? [Poll]
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS

"Which Links Shared on Twitter Are Mobile Friendly?" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Pict. 1: a tweet with a link to Kindle Store

Do you know that you can use Twitter as a quick and convenient way to download Kindle ebooks? You can start reading a book in a couple of clicks from discovering it. There is no need to change a device. You don’t have to save your choice for later in order to access Amazon site from a computer or your Kindle ereader. Isn’t that worth trying?

All what you need to have is a free Kindle application for your mobile device (or devices). Currently Kindle apps are available for those mobile platforms: iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7.

How does it work?

If you discover a tweet with a link to a Kindle Store (like the one in Picture 1), you can click on it and an Amazon site opens – optimized for a screen of your device.

As you see in Picture 2, if you’re logged in to your Amazon account, just after one click you can choose: to buy a book or to download a free sample.

When you select from a list of devices the one you’re currently using, after you click on “Buy Now with 1-Click” or “Try a Sample”, you’ll be directed to a next screen when you can make a next choice: “Continue Shopping” or “Go to Kindle App”.

That’s it, in a couple of seconds you can start reading a book!

Now imagine how much time you’ll need to remember your choice, switch to a browser, go to Amazon site and find a book again.

Pict. 2: 1 click and you are in Kindle Store

The great thing about buying ebooks at Amazon is that a book page is optimized even for small screens of mobile devices and that you have an option to download a free sample. As soon as a sample lands in your Kindle account it’s available for reading from any authorized device.

Tip: You can use Kindle app to download/buy books to your account – and read them afterwards on your Kindle ereader.

How to find books?

Twitter is a fantastic discovery tool. There are a couple of ways you can find an ebook to read. You probably know them, it’s just a question of using relevant factors.

The most convenient tool is Twitter search. Browse for words like “Kindle” and “e-book”. A very precise term which returns only links from Amazon.com is a shortened url – “amzn.to” – which is also a guarantee of a safe purchase. You can also use popular hashtags: #Kindle, #ebook, #ebooks.

Example: If you are looking for a bestselling book, use a word “bestseller” combined with a hashtag #Kindle and a phrase “amzn.to”. Check search results here.

You can also follow Twitter users who share Kindle-related news (for example @ebookfriendly) or Twitter lists with authors who publish their books at Kindle Store (like this one).

Originally published at Ebook Friendly

Related posts

• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS
• 22.08.2010 -- Let iOS Users Download Your ePub Book Directly From a Tweet
• 30.07.2010 -- Kindle for iOS: Use It As a Free Dictionary App

"Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

If you are a self-publisher actively using social media to find readers and draw their attention to your books (probably published in an electronic form), this post is for you.

I’d like to share a simple way to make your e-book available for instant purchase by mobile phone users. As you’ll see – it’s very easy.

What to do?

Use Twitter to share links to your books self-published at Kindle Store – with an extra information addressing owners of mobile Kindle applications.

An example of a tweet is shown in screenshot 1. When you tap on a link you’ll be redirected to a mobile browser, like Safari on an iOS device, or a browser working within a Twitter app.

Screenshot 1 - click to enlarge

As you see, just after one click (screenshot 2) the reader can make a purchase decision. What’s more important, the time of actually reading this book on a Kindle app is delayed only by a couple of seconds more. It’s the essence of an instant purchase.

Experts can say: “yeah, but it’s so obvious, that you can buy goods via Amazon’s mobile site.”

The thing is not what expert know, but what readers don’t know. And most of them still don’t know that:

1. Amazon has a mobilized version of its site (even those users who already have Kindle app on their mobile phones – as they never tried actually buying anything yet)

2. 1-Click purchase works on mobile phones

3. It’s extremely fast and convenient – it takes a couple of clicks and a less than 30 seconds from discovering an e-book on Twitter to reading it.

In fact, buying an e-book via Twitter link is faster than doing it via Kindle application, where you’re just redirected to an Amazon site and have to browse for a book.

Why mobile phones?

Screenshot 2 - click to enlarge

1. Mobile web is growing extremely fast, anyone knows it

2. Half of Twitter users is connecting with a service via mobile phones

3. They don’t have to switch devices to complete a purchase – even if they won’t read the e-book on a mobile phone, but on a Kindle device

4. Mobile phone can be a purchase device for owners of Kindles not equipped with 3G

5. Mobile phone users make purchases in application stores of their mobile operating systems. Buying Kindle e-books via Twitter is the similar kind of experience.

Why Amazon?

1. Availability of Kindle apps (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7)

2. Well designed Amazon mobile site – with 1-Click functionality

3. A growing number of Kindle owners and mobile device users with an Amazon account

4. Very important – book syncing. We can assume that this functionality from Amazon will always be a step ahead of competition

5. Right at the beginning, after landing on an book’s page at Amazon, the reader has a choice: to buy a book or to download a free sample

6. Automatic detection of mobile browsers – if you open a link from a mobile phone, a mobile site appears.

Why Twitter?

1. Great discovery&recommendation tool

2. Instant delivery of messages, tweet streams, many users – all that is a great surrounding for instant micro-purchase decisions

3. Amazon link (amzn.to) is a guarantee of a safe purchase. If you use bit.ly shortener it automatically changes to amzn.to when you share a page from Amazon.com.

* * *

Obviously the most important factor is the information contained in a single tweet. The user has to know that the book can be downloaded in a couple of clicks. You have to pick up the owners of customer accounts at Amazon.com – those ones who are right now reading your tweets on their mobile phones.

I’ve tested this method on an iPhone. @narnua came back with the info that it’s also working on Android devices, so probably both BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 users would be also able to buy e-books this way. Please share your experience on this in the comment section.

As you see in an example shown above, this is doable. I sent this tweet yesterday and sold 10 copies of my short stories. Not a bad result for a self-published e-book of a niche genre (I call it “geek fiction”).

There are many ways to address – in a single tweet – mobile users who have access to Kindle e-books:

1. Use “Kindle”, either as a word or a hashtag

2. Use hashtags, not only #kindle, but also #ebook, #ebooks, #mobile

3. Name devices or mobile operating systems: iPhone, iPad, Android, HTC, etc. (also as hashtags).

If you start selling your books this way, I’d love to hear news from you. Please come back and share your thoughts below.

Related posts

• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 03.06.2011 -- How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users
• 22.08.2010 -- Let iOS Users Download Your ePub Book Directly From a Tweet

"How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Wouldn’t you like tweeple to read your book seconds after they discover it on Twitter? You can use this method to link to a free edition of your how-to guide or a free chapter of your new novel or one of your recent short stories. Make sure you have active links to where you want your reader to continue.

Here is a trick.

Instead of tweeting a link to a book page, tweet a link to a book file.

So if your book is being displayed at the directory like this: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127

1. choose a link to a prc/mobi file: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127.mobi

2. and tweet it – you can use an url shortener, it also works: http://bit.ly/h35E1O

The link has to be opened in Safari, a screen appears like the one below and a second after you’re on Kindle for iOS.

A tweeted link to a book file can be opened in Kindle for iOS via Safari

When you tweet a link, it’s good to address iOS users as well as a book application. It could look like this:

Yesterday I’ve tweeted my Feedbooks book file and there were almost twice as many downloads as usual.

Trick works also for .ePub files (Stanza, Kobo, Bluefire Reader) and .pdf (iBooks, Stanza, Kobo, Bluefire Reader).

You can call me a mobile freak, before I wrote similar posts a couple of times – for ePubs (like this one). With half of Twitter users tweeting from their mobile phones it’s just very reasonable to find and use the quickest possible way to make your book land in an e-reading application of their choice.

Being read in the book application is not the same as being read on the web. Web is come-and-go. Since you land in Kindle or Kobo you’re there every time the reader wants to read a book. You become a serious choice.

Related posts

• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 22.08.2010 -- Let iOS Users Download Your ePub Book Directly From a Tweet
• 03.06.2011 -- How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users

"Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Wouldn’t you like tweeple to read your book seconds after they discover it on Twitter? Here is a simple trick.

Instead of tweeting a link to a book page, tweet a link to a book file.

So if your book is being show at the directory like this: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127

find a link to an ePub file: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127.epub

and tweet it – you can use a shortener as well: http://bit.ly/bL3fJC

When the link is opened in Safari, a dialog box appears where the user can choose an e-reading application he wants to read a book with:

When you tweet a link, it’s good to address iOS users and name the applications. It could look like this:

Related posts

• 17.10.2010 -- 3 Ways to Add Books to Your iPad or iPhone
• 17.10.2010 -- How to Read Adobe DRM Books on Your iPad or iPhone
• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS

"Let iOS Users Download Your ePub Book Directly From a Tweet" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Piątkowa rekomendacja, w której wymieniony zostałem razem z Margaret Atwood czy Chrisem Broganem świetnie pokazuje, jak Twitter zmienia reguły gry. Kiedyś liczyło się wyłącznie błogosławieństwo odległych autorytetów, teraz już niekoniecznie. Twitter skraca dystans – i to skraca na wielu poziomach. Pomiędzy autorami i czytelnikami, ale też pomiędzy sami autorami.

Related posts

• 06.08.2009 -- Stuletnia promocja książkowa – do 2109 roku
• 22.03.2011 -- 19 artykułów dla self-publisherów
• 10.03.2011 -- Uwaga! Konkurs literacki, nagroda – profesjonalne wydanie książki w serwisie Wydaje.pl
• 16.02.2011 -- Self-Publishing przebojem wchodzi na rynek (oraz co zrobić, żeby był to rynek polski)
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users

"W jednym twitku razem z Margaret Atwood" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Kilka dni temu ukazała się antologia mikroprozy publikowanej w serwisie mikroblogowym Twitter – #VSS Anthology Volume 1. Składa się na nią ponad 150 utworów napisanych przez 37 autorów z całego świata. Inicjatorem i wydawcą książki jest Brent Millis, tworzący pod pseudonimem Made in DNA.

Literatura tworzona na Twitterze jest jednym z najciekawszych przejawów literatury cyfrowej. Paradoksalnie, ograniczenie jakim jest 140 znaków, nie doprowadziło do zaniku ale wybuchu energii twórczej. Wpisy literackie na Twitterze można odnajdywać posługując się znacznikami (tagami) takimi jak #sixwords, #6wordstory, #haiku czy #twitfic.

Olbrzymią popularnością cieszy się tag #vss (very short story). Został on po raz pierwszy użyty przez jednego z najbardziej cenionych autorów twitteratury, Seana Hilla (@VeryShortStory). W porównaniu z innymi formatami, wpisy z tagiem #vss nie są złotymi myślami, do czego łatwo sprowadzić może 140-znakowe ograniczenie, ale historiami, często zaskakująco bogatymi.

W przeciwieństwie do śledzenia wpisów na samym Twitterze, co z reguły prowadzi do przypadkowych wyborów, antologia przedstawiająca utwory w sposób uporządkowany i bez elementów rozpraszających uwagę, pozwala w pełni docenić ich wartość. Każdy z autorów znalazł własny styl i wykreował własny świat, który – mimo, że zamykany w 140-znakowych odsłonach – jest niezwykle wyrazisty i jakże odmienny od pozostałych.

Jednym z autorów, którego utwory znalazły się w antologii jest Piotr Kowalczyk, piszący po angielsku jako Nick Name. Wśród jego utworów znajdują się również hashtagstories, czyli historie opowiadane za pomocą popularnych tagów z Twittera. Kowalczyk zaprojektował również okładkę książki.

Antologię można pobrać bezpłatnie z serwisu Smashwords. Dostępna jest w wielu formatach, m.in. epub, mobi, rtf oraz pdf. Można ją więc czytać na każdym urządzeniu: komputerze, tablecie, e-czytniku lub telefonie komórkowym.

Poniżej lista wszystkich autorów wraz z odnośnikami do ich profili na Twitterze oraz blogów.

#VSS Anthology – autorzy

Allan Revich  | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Steven Saus | Follow on Twitter

Bryce Anderson | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Deepti Lamba | Follow on Twitter |

Anthony Abelaye | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jacob Klucker | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jonathan Pinnock | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Charlie Close | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Mo Ali | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

BL Pawelek | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jimmie Fisher | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Ed Fonseca | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jennifer Hudock | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Small Stories | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Rimone | Visit a blog |

Jason Everett Morris

Andrew Freudenberg | Follow on Twitter |

Benjamin S. Wolf | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Helene Kwong | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Ralph Van Den Berg| Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Ryan Harron | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Judy B. | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Tiara Walker | Follow on Twitter |

Seekersince1980 | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Nick Name | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Thoughtsnot | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Moxie Mezcal | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

R. Alexander Spoerer | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Tonya R. Moore | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Hyperreal Japan | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Trent Martin Kirchner | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Tyrone Slopthrop | Follow on Twitter |

Kate Sherrod | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Doug Robertson | Follow on Twitter |

Jason Gusmann | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Dean Clayton Edwards | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Luke Jordan | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Related posts

• 14.05.2010 -- Fan of Twitter fiction? Check #VSS Anthology
• 05.08.2009 -- Literatura na Twitterze
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 27.07.2010 -- Creating One Picture Story – a Step-by-step Example
• 16.06.2010 -- Create Your Own One Picture Stories

"Ukazała się antologia literatury na Twitterze [notka]" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Twitter fiction is a fantastic literary phenomenon. It shows how well writers can cope with such a limit as 140 characters. And it brings great results. Many people write fiction on Twitter and the most popular way to follow it is #vss tag. It was originated by the Twitter fiction guru, Very Short Story and quickly adopted by his fans and fellow writers.

This anthology has one outstanding benefit I was not aware until I read it – opposite to Twitter stream, where you read great stories accidentally, you have all the best of it presented the way it should be: organized. Every author in this book has his exceptional voice and brings his unique world to the reader. Just read a couple of his stories in a row and you’re there completely.

Having in mind that Twitter just makes you blink and you’re away in the archives, anthologies like this one have an incredible value.

The book is available for free from Smashwords. You can read it on-line or download to your device. There are many formats available, including ePub, mobi, rtf, pdf and plain text, so I’m sure there is one to fit you e-reading device.

#VSS Anthology is out, but the authors are on. Check what they’re writing about right now on Twitter.

PS. I’m really glad I’m part of this anthology and was helpful in designing the book’s cover.

#VSS Anthology Authors

(in the order of appearance):

Allan Revich  | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Steven Saus | Follow on Twitter

Bryce Anderson | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Deepti Lamba | Follow on Twitter |

Anthony Abelaye | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jacob Klucker | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jonathan Pinnock | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Charlie Close | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Mo Ali | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

BL Pawelek | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

Jimmie Fisher | Follow on Twitter | Visit a blog |

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Related posts

• 16.05.2010 -- Ukazała się antologia literatury na Twitterze [notka]
• 03.05.2010 -- Hashtagstories – Stories Written as a Sequence of Twitter Hashtags
• 12.10.2009 -- 15 Free Covers for Twitter Fiction Books
• 09.10.2009 -- #VSS Anthology – vote for your favourite cover!
• 14.08.2009 -- Why #vss and #wpss are good for a writer?

"Fan of Twitter fiction? Check #VSS Anthology" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

It’s almost a year since I started hashtagstories – microstories written with current Twitter hashtags.

Sorry? Stories written with what? A year ago this was weird even to me. But it was just so inspiring to combine the world of hashtags into a piece of a literary fiction that I gave it a try. I also wanted to use it as a way to enter English writing. It was looking like a pretty easy job to do – just collect meaningful, emotional hashtags and scrabble them into a story.

After a year I can tell you – hashtagstories are not easy. They are a hard work. I had to go through many Twitter-based services to find the best source of hashtag info. Previously I was using Hashtags.org, now it’s What the Trend.

There are spam hashtags. There are misleading hashtags. There are secret abbreviations. I always have to be very careful to avoid using a wrong word. And the wrong word with a tag is a way worse than the wrong word alone.

Like many unusual projects, hashtagstories had big chances to fail. As the primary way to build meaning is the order of words, there is a danger a story can be misinterpreted. It’s hard to decode a story when it’s told with nouns only. I managed to write only few stories, which read as a sentence. One of the best ones is:

#iwish #iseeyou #inmyhood #beforethestorm

I have a warm feeling that I’ll stay with #hashtagstory for a long time. It’ll not be a day-to-day love. It’ll happen in bursts. But it’s good to write them. When I was publishing a book at Feedbooks, Hashtagstories Vol. 1, I’ve worked out a good, decent description of what the stories are: a literary memoir of social media trends.

Yes, this is what they are. It’ll take some time to find in them the emotions of the past. It’s not gonna take too much time, though. Social media life is changing so fast.

Last thing, I’m happy to share with you, that Hashtagstories Vol. 1, has crossed 1,000 downloads. Thank you all for showing interest and sharing #hashtagstory with your Twitter friends.

Second volume is coming soon.

Related posts

• 11.05.2009 -- A literary Project on Twitter – #hashtagstory
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 14.05.2010 -- Fan of Twitter fiction? Check #VSS Anthology
• 23.03.2010 -- New cover of Hashtagstories Vol.1 – what do you think?
• 18.01.2010 -- One Picture Stories – Stories Pictured and Written on an iPhone

"Hashtagstories – Stories Written as a Sequence of Twitter Hashtags" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.