Dear Author » Twitter

REVIEW: Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros

Jane — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:40:22 +0000

Dear Ms. Medeiros:

I think you were one of the first authors I followed on twitter and it was at the recommendation of another reader. I thought your tweets were fun and entertaining. When I first heard of this project, I had some apprehension but I thought if there was an author who could pull it off, it would be you. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mention an author’s off the page activities when reviewing a book but given that your work is based around the construct of a twitter love affair, I thought it relevant.

The entire book is based around a relationship that developed on Twitter. Twitter, for those millions who don’t use it, is a microblogging platform that allows people to share their thoughts and information in 140 characters are less. The great majority of the book is 140 character or less exchanges between the titular Tweethearts, Abby and Mark.

Abby is an author struggling to finish her second book, caught up in the grief of her father’s death, her mother’s health decline, and Abby’s own agoraphobia. Her first book was a huge success and she is left creatively insecure, unsure whether she can recapture her first book magic. Her publicist signs her up for Twitter where she meets, online, Mark Baynard.

In reading this book, I kept wondering who the audience was. For Twitter users, I felt the book was a series of unrealistic of Twitter exchanges. For instance, Abby is signed up for Twitter and Mark’s opening salvo is “U R a virgin.” Upon receiving a request like that, either on facebook or on Twitter, most people are likely to respond with a “block and report”. Further, the first pages of tweets read like a how to manual for Twitter. What is the best application to use; how do you exchange private Twitter messages; and the like. I found these exchanges to be the equivalent of the sexual scenes that are described as insert rod A into slot B.

For non Twitter users, would they really be interested in reading the exchanges of people in 140 characters are less and even more importantly, would any one buy into the idea that a life long romance could be developed from a meeting on Twitter?

What struck me as the most implausible was the artificiality of the construct. The ONLY exchanges Mark and Abby ever have are on Twitter. There is never an email exchange, an instant message conference, or a chat room appearance. They never talk on the phone. Everything is within the 140 character platform of Twitter.

I think artificial is the best way to describe this story. While the individual tweets, for the most part, were cute, the conflict was weak. Their exchanges are mostly lighthearted quips interposed by a few confessions. They were flirtatious but their conversations did not lend itself to any deep understanding or development of deep feelings. Abby, for instance, discovers a deception on Mark’s part and is struck hard by this. I couldn’t rouse any sympathy for her. After all, his opening salvo was “U R a virgin.”

The conversations begin to form a certain rhythm. Every morning, they would great each other with a “what are you wearing” question and every exchange would end with a series of goodbyes concluding with “Goodnight Tweetheart” tweet from Mark. Mark’s latching on of Abby as his “Tweetheart” was strange and never fully explored. Abby’s is the only point of view we are provided. Why Mark fell in love with Abby after a few tweets is a mystery.

Another item that led to the artificiality of the story was its length. The story is 135 pages. The story veered from the cute exchanges to focusing on Abby’s depression (although she never described it as such) creating an uneven feel for the story. The two didn’t blend well together.

I think if this wasn’t a romance and focused more on Abby’s agoraphobia and her fear of real connections, this story would have been more successful because each tweet would have been evidence of her illness. Instead, the romance overtones created a saccharine and overly cutesy feeling which was at odds with the near constant depression and mental psychosis (her career was in the shitter, her dad was dead, her mom was very ill, Abby could barely leave her apartment) Abby exhibited.

I could not get past the idea that this book was a gimmick because so little time is spent exploring the falsity of faces on the internet or the use of social media as a replacement for in person contact, furthering the feelings of isolation and loss.

As a gimmick, it’s not carried out with gusto. The links and pictures don’t appear to work (or didn’t when I typed them in). Not all the tweets are 140 characters or less unless you eliminate all punctuation. In other words, as they appear in the book, some tweets are too long. The book itself isn’t 140 pages (although it is under 140 pages)**. Not all the story is told in tweets. There are sections that are told in narrative form from Abby’s point of view. In other words, if the artificial construct was going to be embraced, go all in.

It’s hard to grade this book. On the one hand, the tweets exchanged were cute although bordering on banal at times. If cute was the goal, then I guess it succeeded. If the book was to help people navigate twitter, then I think it succeeded. As a romance or as an introspective look at how the internet can create distance and false intimacy at the same time, I think it didn’t work as well. From an emotional standpoint, I didn’t care about either character and particularly not Abby. There simply wasn’t enough there for me. It’s not a book I could recommend because at $15.00, that is a lot of money to read exchanges between two people at 140 characters or less. C-

Best regards,

Jane

** I was told that the finished copy clocks in at 222 pages. The ARC I had was 135 pages.

Wednesday Midday Links: What kind of author promotion works for you?

Jane — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:00:18 +0000

Susan Mallery is an author whose promotional work intrigues me. My responses to her novels have been all over the place from loathe to love but, for the most part, I find her promotional voice works, in part because I never get the sense that she is selling me anything even though that is probably untrue. I follow Mallery on Twitter because she is an avid Project Runway fan. She tweets about who she likes and doesn’t like on PR. She allows herself to express an opinion and it makes her more relatable (at least to me).

I also follow Teresa Medeiros on Twitter and she ended up writing a book about two people who fall in love on Twitter and I found the whole book unbearably twee. I will be posting a review on it at the end of the month when the book releases, but suffice to say that this is one book that was probably far better in concept.

Instead of doing the book trailer, Mallery has created these online magazines that feature articles about her characters. The first one was a wedding magazine that had a pictoral layout of the wedding of former champion cyclist and Fool’s Gold city planner. The most recent one is about Fool’s Gold, the city. It’s a Holiday magazine and part of the advertisements feature bloggers and other websites (we did not pay to advertise, it’s kind of an Easter egg of sorts).

The view stats for the magazine indicate that other people are enjoying the magazine as well. The Holiday magazine has been viewed 82,069 times.

Compare those stats with the book trailer done by Circle of Seven for Christina Dodd, a bestselling author like Mallery. The book trailer has 6,339 views and was uploaded over a year ago.

One thing I don’t like about the Mallery promotion is that there is no good way to embed the magazine. It’s really best viewed at the hosting site.

Another example of an author promotion that I really liked was the audiobook widget for the upcoming Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I generally disfavor widgets because they don’t really offer anything useful and seem more advertisement and less a benefit for me as a reader or blogger, but I liked this audio widget because you can play the audio sample right from the widget itself. no click throughs or anything. (As an aside, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and we have a couple of reviews, both positive, but with very different thoughts from Jennie and Robin to be published next month).

Twitter sells books according to some publishers. The publicity director for Algonquin shares his ideas as to why Twitter is becoming an effective medium for them:

The trick to their success may lie in the community building which is so crucial to Twitter. Taeckens explains his three point plan for engagement: “First, be pro-active about interacting with other people; you have to engage in conversations, not merely post as if you’re reporting to a captive public. Second, display your sense of personality; use wit, humor, creativity, and have fun. Third, post and comment on topics you know and care about–not just literature and publishing, but all topics in the cultural dialogue.”

I’m a big tweeter and one thing that I really dislike and that I am seeing more of is what I like to call “the circle jerk of promotion”. This happens when a group of author friends retweet or repost one of the group’s new release so all you have in your entire feed is a bunch of authors retweeting the same thing about Author A’s book being out. It becomes total white noise. If you want to tweet about the release, can’t you come up with something new and innovate to say about your friend’s book?

I could write all day about the horrible websites out there and it seems like Karen Marie Moning’s relaunched website breaks all the rules. First, it is run on flash. Flash, as you may have read, cannot be viewed on any iThing. So that is like 80 million devices that can’t view whatever it is the author spent so much money to have on her site. Plus, it takes time to load and people with slower internet connections are likely clicking away. Further, many people visit during work hours and can’t even see or enjoy the fancy shmancy thing. Beyond the flash is the audio that starts up when the site loads, with a voice over by some guy (who I have since found out is her husband?) I think he is supposed to sound seductive, but the extra breathing at the end of his words and the indecision as to whether he should be singing or simply narrating the text made it sound funny. The background track was annoying. I eventually turned it off so I don’t know the whole soliloquy given by the narrator (and isn’t this whole series about a chick and not a guy anyway?). Then I thought, maybe this site is just for her fans because after all she is celebrating the release of the fifth and final book in her series. Maybe it’s not to bring in new fans at all.

Another thing that I am ambivalent about is a members only section of an Author website. I’ve heard that some readers (generally the fans) enjoy it but new readers don’t. Susan Mallery, who I referenced above, has a members only section and while I like her magazine and her twitter feed, I am not signing up for a members only section.

Thoughts? Likes/dislikes?

*****

Borders has a really ugly, high priced something on its site that is designed just to display recipes.

*****

Nate over at the digital reader points to the results of a new survey regarding publishers and ebooks. Over 62% of publishers don’t know what the ROI on ebooks are yet. I think the downfall of pricing right now is that as the ebook industry grows rapidly so does ebook revenue because new entrants are buying books. The question is how much greater could growth be. Ebooks are currently viewed as additive sales versus replacement sales even though sales of books like mass markets are declining by double digits.

******

All About Romance has published its top 100 list which is voted on by the readers of AAR. Number one is Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. Big names and historicals seem to dominate the list.

******

The Roses of Prose are looking for another blogger to join our group of four authors. If you’re a published author – traditional, e-published, or self-published, and would like to blog with them, check out the guidelines on their site http://www.rosesofprose.blogspot.com/.

*****

REVIEW: Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick

John — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:00:02 +0000

Dear Ms. Rudnick,

Social media is probably one of the funnest tropes that’s present in young-adult fiction. How often do you see a regular adult novel belting out blog posts, emails, and IM’s in a way that tells a full fledged story? Not very often. Books that use social media have always been fun reads for me. Some, like the TTYL series by Lauren Myracle, have become long-time favorites, while others like Heart on My Sleeve by Ellen Wittlinger fell flat. Tweet Heart is a comfortable, in-the-middle type of novel that may not live up to the success of authors like Lauren Myracle, but provides a quick, entertaining read all the same.

Claire has just joined Twitter, the newest social media fad to hit high school, and is making the most of it. Her BFF Lottie is coaching her through her major crush, hot lacrosse player JD, while trying to find the guy of her dreams as well. Claire’s best guy friend, Will, is trying to find the courage to ask her out, but her crush on JD is making things a lot harder than they should be. And Bennett, her other male comrade, is just trying to get attention from the opposite sex. Being a Sci-Fi geek who knows Klingon and Elvish can put a damper on one’s social life.

Things are shaky but constant, until Will decides to hatch a plan. JD doesn’t have a Twitter account, and Claire is desperate to talk to him – why not make a fake name, pose as JD, and make her happy? Bennett convinces him it would be a good idea, but only once. After that, no more speaking, comfort Claire, and maybe move past that dreaded title of friend into something more. Nothing could go wrong – could it?

Talking to her once as JD was fine, but Claire was so happy and eager, Will just couldn’t stop at once. Before he knows it, Claire’s feelings for JD have only grown stronger. Now that school is back in, Claire, Will, and Bennett are working together on the school paper, and all they end up talking about is that jock JD. Will can barely get a break, and Claire is too excited to think straight.

Tweets, blog posts, emails, and advice column segments make up this novel of misplaced affections and high school drama. These four friends go through everything to discover that the person you like isn’t always so great after all.

Reviewing a book that uses social media is really difficult because I can’t talk about description or action or many other things that regular narratives have. Social media requires strong characters and dialogue to make up for a lot of those aspects, and you have both hits and misses with them.

Claire and Will are a nice young-adult couple. Claire’s Get Clueless column segments were really amusing, and were some of my favorite parts of the book. I liked that she rode horseback and read, all of which made for a pretty well-rounded heroine that remained grounded when it came to things other than her crush JD. Will was a nice fit for her, and his occasional bouts of geekiness made him really appealing, though his overall personality wasn’t anything that I got excited about – not to mention I would have liked him to quite the act of playing JD sooner.

Lottie and Bennett were my favorite of the two couples. While it’s rather cliche to have the secondary characters get together as well, they added interesting spice to the story. Lottie’s constant boy troubles were always amusing and good for a few laughs, as was Bennett’s constant references to the geek world. They brought some needed color to the book and it’s plot, and by comparison made Claire and Will’s troubles a lot easier to swallow. Bennett’s blog posts in particular were funny, and I liked that he wasn’t the typical guy friend and egging Will on to continue the charade. Having him be sensible and thinking of Claire, whose friendship means just as much to him, was nice, and broke from the bro-code mold some authors put on their heroes and their close friends.

Dialogue between all four of the characters was usually really witty and real. You really know how to make your characters feel like high-schoolers instead of the usual mature, twenty something character type in a teenage skin that YA has a tendency to show. This example of a Tweet conversation between Lottie and Bennett is one of my favorites:

LotsOLove:   It’s Friday and I’m in love.

KingOfSlack @LotsOLove:   Hey genius – it’s not Friday.   Coming to Claire’s show tmrw?

LotsOLove @KingOfSlack:   Hey dork – I know.   Was quoting a song which you would know if you listened to anything but Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

KingOfSlack @LotsOLove:   mori er

LotsOLove @KingOfSlack:   Say what?   Are you throwing crazy made-up languages at me again?

KingOfSlack @LotsOLove:   Glad u don’t speak Elvish.   U don’t want to know what I just called u.

LotsOLove @KingOfSlack:   I cannot understand why Claire hangs out with you.

KingOfSlack @LotsOLove:   Simple.   I’m a stud muffin.

LotsOLove @KingOfSlack:   Muffin, maybe.   Stud, not so much.

The plot was nothing to really get excited about. I’ve seen it done before to various degrees, and it was a pretty average take on high school relationships. The social media format was really well done, however, and between the Tweets and the emails, I felt like the story seemed really fresh. Other than a few minor things to figure out slang-wise, everything was really easy to read, and made for a good book to finish in a few hours.

While the plot doesn’t market itself as anything original or groundbreaking, Tweet Heart‘s use of various social media conventions like Twitter and Email makes for a fun story and read. Coupled with witty dialogue and a fun cast of secondary characters, I am really anxious to see where you go next, especially if your next novel is in this same format. B-

All the best,

John

Book Link | Amazon | BN | Borders

Teachable Moment: Someone’s New Twitter Addiction Is Running Amok

Jane — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:00:18 +0000

For those in their 30s and 40s, Scott Baio is best remembered for playing Chachie, a wannabe punk, nephew of The Fonz. He was also Charles in Charge, a manny. Today’s generation might best remember him for a three year stint on VH-1 as a reality star and now for his Twitter addiction run amok.

He started tweeting about how his wife calls President Obama a “shitfuck” and other pretty rude things. Gwen Hayes, an aspiring romance author, decided to unfollow him. Charles got upset and compared Obama to Michael Vick (not seeing the connection here) and then when Gwen tried to respond, Chachie engaged in what we shall now call the “chach block” which is the Twitter equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “I can’t hear you”.

Things have escalated to the point where Charles in Charge has taken his show about “being the grain” (yeah, I have no idea what that means) to the Glenn Beck radio show.

BAIO: I don’t know which is worse. But and somebody said on the Twitter, why am I going against the grain in terms of my beliefs. And I said, I thought I was the grain. I thought the things that I believed in were the things that this country stood for. And there’s very few things that I truly believe in and

GLENN: Hang on just a wait a minute. I’ve got to go back to that. Why would you go against the grain on what you believe in?

BAIO: No, no. They felt that what I believed was against the grain.

GLENN: Yeah, but what difference does the grain make if you believe in something?

BAIO: Well, I don’t know. And my argument was I thought I was the grain.

GLENN: You are.

I don’t suggest reading the transcript unless you are drunk or high because sober, it makes no sense.

Let me sum up this wtf-ery for you. Charles in Charge is upset that some random person on Twitter unfollowed him and then a few other random people on Twitter told him his actions were stupid. Chachie/Charles claims that his life is great and that he is very very rich and that others are pathetic for wanting to engage with him and then threatens that he will sue people like Hayes for … unfollowing him?

I think Charles needs to wind down. Play some golf. Read a romance. Here’s your teachable moment: If you are ever compared to acting like Charles in Charge, it’s time to take a break from the keyboard. Don’t be a chachbag.

Do You Use Twitter?

Jane — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:53:40 +0000

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Maili (@McVane) had a great comment yesterday regarding the promotional benefits for authors on Twitter. I love Twitter for all the reasons I don’t love blogs. You get a real sense a person’s individuality and personality because of the spontaneous (as @PortaDaCosta said) and organic nature of Twitter (as Maili termed it). I’ll be doing a full post on this later in June, but I’m curious how many people here are on Twitter.

Liveblog Review of Elizabeth Amber’s Nicholas

Jane — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:00:33 +0000

I’m going to be doing a liveblog review of Elizabeth Amber’s Nicholas. It might even contain Lego stills. We’ll see. I plan to do it while I watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics tonight.

To give you a hint about what the book is about, think 2 dicks. You can follow along on Twitter.

18:16 Prologue. Satyr Estate, Tuscany, Italy, 1823. I assume that this is not on the tourist schedule. “It was a Moonful and a Calling night.” (WTF is a Moonful?)