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.


Best of Best

4 mistakes commonly made by beginning writers (by Caro Clarke)
@inkyelbows

24 Agents Looking for New Writers
@WritersDigest

50 Things a Writer Shouldn't Do
@mystorywriter

AWESOME article: The Most Powerful Two Hours You’ll Ever Spend as a Storyteller
@merylkevans

Stand Alone

Thanks for important reminder! (from @KimsCraftBlog):
Story ideas can't be copyrighted. You have to write it first.
@merylkevans

Writers are artists. authors are businesspeople. or they should be.
@booksquare

If you don't tell me where your last book was published, I am going to assume it was self published AND you are trying to trick me.
@bostonbookgirl

Self-publishing is a business decision, not an artistic or political statement. Can we move on now?
@glecharles

SECRET #pubtip: If you talk to me on twitter and I know (recognize) you,  I'll pay more attention to your query
@WolfsonLiterary

Queries with "So + so suggested I contact you" but I have no idea who so + so is. Don't do that.
@WolfsonLiterary

If your query is 3/4 about you and only 1/4 about your novel, you're doing it wrong.
@agentgame

Decide what emotion you want reader to feel in scene/chapter & focus emotional arc to achieve that.
@DocumentDriven

Saying it again- you have little control over how your finished book will appear (size, paper, etc.). It does not belong in a query.
@KatelynnLacopo

Authors: Twitter is a great tool. But don't neglect "old-school" internet—not all readers are on Twitter. 1st stop is a website.
@papertyger

If nobody is requesting partials from your query, rework your query. Perhaps your book isn't coming across as strong as you'd like.
@WolfsonLiterary

If you can't write a good query, you either don't know how to sell your book, or you need to write better one.
@RachelleGardner

With nonfiction queries, after I get the idea I scan for your credentials. If they aren't there, I decline.
@bostonbookgirl

Regarding self-pub, would prefer to see that you are querying with a new manuscript, but still would like to see sales numbers on last one.
@WolfsonLiterary

Leave out "this is my first novel" in a query (at least to me). I prefer to think you have written one or two practice novels first.
@bostonbookgirl