If reading 140-word tweets all day is not enough for you, how about a book filled with the cream of the Twitter crop? Well, you’d be in luck, as HarperCollins recently published the book Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less. Editor/compiler Nick Douglas reportedly received a $50,000 advance for the collection. And those who originally penned the tweets that appear in the book? They receive a free copy.

Contributors have also been encouraged to promote the book and were sent an “online buzz kit” from the publisher, complete with graphical ads they can post on their blogs, Facebook pages, or basically anywhere online. HarperCollins has also called on contributors to tweet about the book and to “get your mom, grandma, cousins, favorite barista and high school band teacher to buy one.” In addition, the publisher is sponsoring a video contest to promote the book. The winner will win an iPod Touch.

So what do you think of this marketing campaign? Is it brilliant or presumptuous? The contributors don’t receive royalties, so they have nothing to gain by the book’s success except bragging rights. Are you planning to buy the book?

For more on the Twitter Wit promotion, see this article from Gawker.

Be careful what you tweet! Author Alice Hoffman found this out the hard way.  When a not-quite-glowing review of The Story Sisters, Hoffman’s latest novel, appeared in the Boston Globe on June 28, Hoffman reacted by posting her own opinions on her Twitter feed.

Hoffman’s first tweet was a personal attack on the critic: “Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron.” Hoffman then continued to criticize Silman, stating that “any idiot can be a critic” and wondering, “So who is Roberta Silman?” Perhaps Hoffman was not aware that Silman is an award-winning novelist and critic, with stories published in such periodicals as the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly.

Hoffman also slammed the Boston Globe and the city of Boston (her hometown, by the way), and she tweeted Silman’s contact information (including her phone number) and encouraged her Twitter followers to write to Silman to “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.”

Hoffman’s Twitter account was promptly deleted (by whom exactly is unclear). Hoffman issued a statement via her publicist in which she apologized if she had offended anyone. “I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion,” Hoffman stated.

The moral to this story? Someone may actually be reading your tweets, so don’t tweet it unless you mean it! For additional information on Hoffman’s tweets, see this gawker article.

Many businesses are turning toward social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to increase visibility. I think it’s a great way to provide a public “face” and to open the doors to interactive communication. Our business, Thomas Riggs & Company, operates in a virtual office, and we are scattered across the globe. Since we all live in different cities, it’s good for us to find ways to feel more connected with others. Services such as Twitter will not only help us form a community but also introduce our company to the online world.

So we’re planning to use Twitter to make announcements about upcoming books and events and to get to know our Twitter friends better. It should be a lot of fun, so please join in and follow us at http://twitter.com/ThomasRiggsCo.

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