Some 1.1 million people write poems, stories, essays, columns or comics in their spare time, according to a 2010 report by the Social and Cultural Planning Office. Many of them hope to be discovered by a publisher and to be able to publish a real book. Twitter appears to be a good source for paper books: not only do cookbooks and self-help books appear through Twitter, but fiction writers are also discovered, such as Maartje Luif. Her novel will be published this fall. How does such a discovery work?
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“I often make discoveries via Twitter. Half of the books I have published are via india phone number list Twitter,” says Jelte Nieuwenhuis, editor at publisher LJVeen. “If someone catches my eye, I look to see if I can find a link to a blog or other writing. That’s how it comes about.”
And when does someone catch your eye? “Well, as an editor you can see a lot from tweets. Word choice reveals a lot about a person. It often happens via a retweet from someone I trust.” Are there many editors who scour Twitter? “As far as I know there are very few, but editors don’t always know how each other works, where they find new talent. It’s the secret of the trade.”