Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 3/12/10)

I watch Twitter, so you don’t have to. Visit each Sunday
for the week’s best Tweets. If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Always
welcome your suggestions on improving this weekly feature.

Also, quick plug: March is a phenomenal month for Writer’s Digest webinars, with three sessions by fabulous guest presenters:

How to Create an iPhone App by author Al Katkowsky on March 25

Break Into Corporate Writing by freelancer I.J. Schecter on March 31

Best of Best

Write A Selling Synopsis Without Losing Your Mind
@ScribeChat

Overwriting–spotting it
@elizabethscraig

Great post here: why self pub books get picked up for publication by Alan Rinzler
@thecreativepenn

Stand Alone

The ONLY necessary qualification to have your novel plucked out of the slush is great writing.
@rachellegardner

Conflict should escalate, & when the big moment arrives, pace should slow to give reader full scope of scene they’ve waited for.
@DocumentDriven

Semiautobiographical, or barely autobiographical, fiction should not be queried as if it were memoir. It’s not about you anymore.
@EpsteinLiterary

Using the word “I” is the key to self promotion failure.
@kate_mckean

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

Professionalism Begins With Your First Contact
@asuen1

An agent on submitting a partial
@elizabethscraig

Defining steampunk as a genre
@elizabethscraig

What does it take to succeed as a novelist?
@elizabethscraig

Craft & Technique

What makes a good ending?
@elizabethscraig

Opening lines–12 ways to start your novel
@elizabethscraig

A film technique that could be useful for writers
@elizabethscraig

Publishing News & Trends

Books overtake games as most numerous iPhone apps (Guardian, UK)
@elizabethscraig

Correlation between print sales and free ebooks
@teleread

Twitter, Blogs & Social Media

If an agent/editor dropped by your blog, would it be ready?
@JodyHedlund

Marketing & Platform Building

Marketing–focus more on community than platform
@benwhiting

Thoughts on writing communities
[developing connections that impact your success]
@elizabethscraig

Trent Reznor’s music advice applies to writing: What to do as a New | Unknown Artist. Establish goals, forge your own path
@dbschlosser

Self-Publishing and E-Publishing

The Real Source of Self-Publishing Stigma by @zoewinters
@selfpubreview

How does an unknown author become a Kindle bestseller?
@benwhiting

Trad Author Goes Indie and Back
@selfpubreview

Think that most of what’s pubbed today is crap? Robert McCrum points out that this is nothing new
@victoriastrauss

The Writing Life & Fun Stuff