Chekhov’s Mistess

May 31, 2009

Me and You and Everyone We Don’t Know: Twitter Notes from BEA

Craig Morgan Teicher (@cteicher), whom I briefly met at the Coffee House Press (@Coffee_House_) booth at #BEA09, wrote a piece on Twitter (I’m at @budparr) for Publishers Weekly. Besides knowing some of the people in the article, I was surprised/not surprised to learn that there’s going to be a book published by an undisclosed HarperCollins imprint of clever tweets, Twitter Wit. Why Why Why does that need to be a book? By the way, if you’re interested in all the less-than clever tweets out there, then check out Tweeting Too Hard a site that compiles “self-important” tweets.

I got a rash of follows while I was away at BEA and I have no idea why. Maybe it was my mention (along with @geoffwisner) and photo (in which I’m only identifiable to myself because I know where I was standing) in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle”, which probably has a circulation of less than what some people have in Twitter followers.

I did go to a Twitter party, the #BEATweetup, which was fun until I ordered two drinks – seconds after the open bar was over – and got charged $25, ouch. Actually the whole of BEA kind of felt like a party (with panels no less). I couldn’t possibly begin to namecheck all the great people I got to hang out with over the two days I was there, but I would venture to guess that nearly every single person I met has a Twitter account: @chapmanchapman @ami_with_an_i @muckster @pablod @mcnallyjackson @FredRamey @drmabuse @AkashicBooks @asheresque @melvillehouse @sarahw @paperhaus @luxlotus @52projects @R_Nash @dediaf @jasonboog @nyrbclassics @oupblog @colsonwhitehead @geoffwisner @NewDirections @Coffee_House, and many more.

Carolyn said of the tweetup at the L.A. Times Jacket Copy blog “Although one industrious planner had printed badges with Twitter handles, it seems every one of us, myself included, is a bit fatter than our Twitter pictures would have you believe.” Maybe it’s those concave lenses they’ve started using in cameras.

Twitter was probably the word I heard and spoke most at BookExpo. I think the most memorable line was from Richard Nash speaking in the fabulous 7×20×21 panel (7xBEA) put on by @ami_with_an_i and @chapmanchapman. If you’ve been watching lately how everyone is discussing Twitter in the publishing business ad nauseum, putting on Twitter how-to’s and so forth, his words will seem particularly salient: “Twitter will not save us.” That may be true, but the things that will are never so fun. I should have a non-tweetified report soon over at Words Without Borders.

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• Letter from BookExpo

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