Last year, we took a look at the affinity for Twitter in certain quarters of the literary world. A handful of well-known authors have acquired big followings on the platform, a result not just of their name recognition but of their mastery of the tweet, as well. Readers now also turn to twitter for book news and comment from a number of sources who are active on Twitter.
Our previous piece looked at the very first tweets of these now-popular practitioners. Nearly all were halting "Hello World" efforts, and none seemed likely to win over those unconverted to the various (and admittedly sometimes maddening) wonders of Twitter.
So, to present literary Twitter in its best possible light, we are returning again to those most widely followed on literary Twitter, but this time, looking at which Tweets got the most favorites, we are highlighting each literary Twitterer's
best tweet. Here you'll find much wry humor, gossip, lots of politics,
Margaret Atwood flirting with a Twitter-famous comedian, and even a surprising amount of insight crammed into 140 characters. They may be enough to win over some fresh converts.
(For the Twitter regulars out there, we found that tweets with more RTs tended to be more about disseminating news to fans, while tweets with more favs captured some essence of the Twitterer, so we went with the latter when compiling this list. Also, if you find tweets by these folks with more favorites than the ones we've listed, let us know and we'll swap them in.)
Why do people keep telling us to "get a room,"
@robdelaney? What's wrong with our usual dumpster out back of the
#etobicoke MacDs? Cheaper!— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood)
November 13, 2013
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes. We can put a stop to this. Please retweet.— Teju Cole (@tejucole)
May 9, 2012
Fox is now like, "What if we took states that Obama has already won and gave them to Romney - how would that change the map?"— colson whitehead (@colsonwhitehead)
November 7, 2012
As
#AWP13 starts today, it's a fine time for
@VQR to post my massive treatise on the biz of lit
http://t.co/CpDNN96iOp Thx 2
@JaneFriedman— Richard Nash (@R_Nash)
March 7, 2013
Ironic that I am a judge for the Truman Capote award when Capote in a druggy interview said he hated me & that I should be executed. LOL.— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates)
October 14, 2013
For those curious about the mystery event that happened in my parlor last night, here's a clue. http://yfrog.com/gy3ugpj— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw)
January 3, 2011
On a positive note, both can pronounce the word "nuclear".— Dani Shapiro (@danijshapiro)
October 23, 2012
Kid at our door in a suit and tie. "What are you?" we asked. Him: "The 1 percent."— Dwight Garner (@DwightGarner)
November 1, 2011
Next Schoolhouse Rock song is called "How a Bill Becomes a Law and Then Gets Held Hostage by Sore Losers Willing to Destroy Our Economy."— Ron Charles (@RonCharles)
October 1, 2013
Thomas Pynchon's new novel BLEEDING EDGE will be published on September 17, deals with Silicon Alley between dotcom boom collapse and 9/11.— Sarah Weinman (@sarahw)
February 25, 2013
Wouldn't it be fun to just totally ignore Ann Coulter? It would drive her crazy.— Susan Orlean (@susanorlean)
October 23, 2012
A hard essay for me to write, and to publish. On being heartbroken and putting on a good show, on
@the_millions.
http://t.co/suPkVkkx65— Emma Straub (@emmastraub)
July 11, 2013
Because I can lie beautiful true things into existence, & let people escape from inside their own heads & see through other eyes.
#whyIwrite— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself)
October 20, 2011
Goodbye, my beloved friend.
A great voice falls silent. A great heart stops.
Christopher Hitchens, April 13, 1949-December 15, 2011.— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie)
December 16, 2011
Sad day, man. I never really understood how sad the book is until now. Why did I make it so sad? Why have so many people read it?— John Green (@realjohngreen)
September 25, 2013
Found this genius quote on Reddit today: Getting offended is a great way to avoid answering questions that make you sound dumb.— Doug Coupland (@DougCoupland)
September 2, 2012
Affordable Care Act means health care for artists, writers, poets, dancers, filmmakers, and others in the arts without insurance now.— Amy Tan (@AmyTan)
October 1, 2013
The gorgeous and talented Charlie Hunnam will be Christian Grey in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.— E L James (@E_L_James)
September 2, 2013
This Twitter post, from
@JohnDonoghue64 last week, still makes me laugh. Sometimes Twitter really does amuse.
pic.twitter.com/yQ5yXrtp3W— Erik Larson (@exlarson)
January 4, 2014
Whitney Houston: Yes, somewhere tonight Patrick Bateman is weeping, shocked but not surprised, and ordering three hookers instead of two...— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis)
February 12, 2012
People who feel safer with a gun than with guaranteed medical insurance don't yet have a fully adult concept of scary.— William Gibson (@GreatDismal)
October 2, 2013
Not doing
#twittersilence b/c I don't think the response to those who want feminists to shut up and go away is to shut up and go away.— Jennifer Weiner (@jenniferweiner)
August 4, 2013
Want to become a better writer? Then read this free essay: 'Developing a Theme' by Chuck Palahniuk - http://bit.ly/aNRUqk— Chuck Palahniuk (@chuckpalahniuk)
October 12, 2010
Via
@SciencePorn This is what a child's skull looks like before losing baby teeth.
pic.twitter.com/pr7nF7w82G:
[Happy Holidays, Love, Joe]— Joe Hill (@joe_hill)
November 27, 2013
I'm going to wash Joe Biden's car tomorrow. With my tears of gratitude.— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart)
October 12, 2012
o no i mistook mascara for concealer again! My eye sockets are black and greasy also idk what's going on in Eritrea. Can a website help plz— Emily Gould (@EmilyGould)
August 14, 2013
100 Notable Books of 2011
http://t.co/1UtIx68O— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks)
November 22, 2011
How to write fiction: Andrew Miller on creating characters
http://t.co/JpcwgIoO— Guardian Books (@GuardianBooks)
October 16, 2011
Sun Ra used to perform for catatonic schizophrenics. One broke a years-long silence to ask, “Do you call that music?”
http://t.co/YZuaLW29kZ— NY Review of Books (@nybooks)
October 11, 2013
Little, Brown to publish JK Rowling adult novel— Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly)
February 23, 2012
The New Yorker brings back Haruki Murakami story for Japan issue http://lat.ms/h0rix6— L.A. Times Books (@latimesbooks)
March 21, 2011
Library acquires ENTIRE Twitter archive. ALL tweets. More info here http://go.usa.gov/ik4— Library of Congress (@librarycongress)
April 14, 2010
Print free 'Go Away, I'm Reading!' book covers for Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games & more:
http://t.co/dQjrR0Iz— GalleyCat (@GalleyCat)
March 17, 2012
SO FUN: A First Read of
@bjnovak's new story collection w/readings by Novak, Emma Thompson, and Mindy Kaling!
http://t.co/cP0ggj9mFp— NPR Books (@nprbooks)
January 21, 2014
Our average member has read 7 of the
#ALLTIME100 Best Non-Fiction Books. How about you?
http://t.co/WrdBSlI http://t.co/4OMY4CY #BestBooks— goodreads (@goodreads)
August 31, 2011
“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person."-Nora Ephron
#RIP— The Paris Review (@parisreview)
June 27, 2012
Incredible landscapes carved into books:
http://t.co/jJcvdAAe //
@twistedsifter— Electric Literature (@ElectricLit)
January 2, 2012
An unpublished shorty story by David Foster Wallace has been posted on tumblr: http://bit.ly/aa7B38— The Rumpus (@The_Rumpus)
October 29, 2010
(•_•)
<) )╯I've actually
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> Read
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> Infinite Jest
/ \— The Millions (@The_Millions)
January 9, 2014
This picture is so important.
pic.twitter.com/aQmlq9XE— Nick Moran (@nemoran3)
October 17, 2012
Max,
How do those numbers compare to average weekend sales figures for the actual, physical book? Any idea?
It's tough to know for sure, obviously the numbers vary widely and publishers are notoriously tight-lipped about sales numbers, but Jynne Martin did also tell me this: "quite amazing considering most debut novels don't even sell 10,000 copies in their whole lifespan"
Richard Ford's Lay of the Land, not considered a "big seller" compared to his earlier books, sold 51,000 in hardcover and 36,000 in paper. Those are Nielsen BookScan numbers which track about 70% of sales and were reported in a recent NYT piece on Ford.
So, that's just a random recent comparison but it offers a little perspective.
My sources tell me Random House would consider 50,000ish copies sold over the life of the hardcover to be a success. This could be utter bushwa, given that I've only heard the darkest murmurs about the amount of advance money tied up in the book.
How do those numbers compare to average weekend sales figures for the actual, physical book? Any idea?
A lot more. 15,000 copies in one week would be in the top ten on the Times list. Watch the list this week and see if it moves up or down from 38 and that should give you a sense of whether it worked or not.
Honestly, I very much doubt that one week will show the effect of this. The download event got this novel a ton of exposure and spread it's name. Along with all the other publicity — the features, the mostly positive and very positive reviews, the general discussion and buzz around this book and its merits or lack thereof — it seems more than possible that this will be a title people remember and check out, either in hardback or paper form.
I don't think comparing a first novel's sales to the sales of Richard Ford's sequel to his pulitzer prize-winning novel is necessarily fair. I also don't think that judging this promotion in a week is particularly shrewd. Most successful books need to be passed from one person to another, or have a special air to them. This novel seems to have a chance at being one of those books.
Thanks for the input from all three anonymous commenters. I particularly agree with this sentiment: "I also don't think that judging this promotion in a week is particularly shrewd. Most successful books need to be passed from one person to another, or have a special air to them."
For those still interested in the numbers involved here, USA Today offers a little more color: "Nielsen Book-Scan, which tracks about 70% of book sales, reports 12,000 sales as of Feb. 27. The publisher says the novel is in its seventh printing, with 50,000 copies in print."
So it's possible that the number of books downloaded from the Random House site alone equaled or surpassed the total number of book sales thus far.
yes, I saw that USA today article yesterday. So 12,000 by Feb 27th, a little over a month after publication which they said is perfectly solid sales for a new author no one has heard of.
But with bock, he received a spread in the NY Times magazine followed the next week by NY times book review cover. So that means about 2500-3000 per week (with maybe a spike just after the cover to say 4,000? I guess this is what got it on the bestseller?).
Interesting to see that all it takes is 4,000 sales in a week to get on the bestseller list. Then even though his book dropped off the list, he can forever more say it was a "bestseller." Always interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff. I'm surprised RH allowed that to be printed because it shows that the book isn't really selling like it should be.
Most publishers have issues with the tracker numbers. Last month Riverhead made a point of saying how off the BookScan numbers were on Oscar Wao. I wouldn't make too big a deal about it.
"Most publishers have issues with the tracker numbers."
Not really. Many editors do, but then editors are often shocked at how their books are doing. Many, if not all marketing and sales people in the trade rely on bookscan.
well, bookscan reportedly reflects about 70% of sales, and it includes borders, b&n, amazon and sales from major independent bookstores. so I think bookscan numbers are a pretty big deal – and at the very least, they are the only hard numbers available for publishers to rely on.
Parse it however you want, but If a literary first novel sells 16K books during a five week period and also has 15K free downloads of it, that book is doing very very well, my friends.