Twitter takes a seismic shift at #LBF10
The volcanic ash may still be settling over the London Book Fair but, in my opinion, this year has seen Twitter finally (and forgive the endless analogy) erupt over London Book Fair.
As chief Twitter'er for @thebookseller (not my actual job title, sadly) I have long seen the value of Twitter. And over the last year have watched the steady evolution of Twitter across the UK book trade. A year ago at #LBF09 we were in the minority and dare I say slightly sheepish about our use of Twitter. Still trying to convince others we didn't just tweet about the sandwiches we ate or the bus we had missed.
Times have changed. UK publishing has embraced Twitter and there is a VERY active conversation happening. And not just publicists pushing their latest books - although this is done with style - but a conversation; between authors and their fans, librarians and publishers, bookshops and agents....and publishers directly with their customers (if you need convincing take a look at @penguinbooks for a superb example of using Twitter).
At this year's London Book Fair Twitter'ers came out. We're here and we're proud. What, you're not on Twitter yet? Pah!
The Bookseller's stand was used as the Twitter hub. Where tweeters from ALL corners of the industry connected in real life; editors, marketing bods, authors, indie bookshop owners, heads of digital, publicists and literary agents (looking at you @caroleagent). Of course many of us have met in real life at two previous book industry Tweetups, organised by The Bookseller's blogger @benjohncock.
London Book Fair held its own busy tweetup #lbtweet organised by @publishingtalk complete with a screen giving live rolling tweets: http://bit.ly/atDqUM. Even Twitter'ers from Holland and Sweden were at the tweetup and may mark Twitter's move across the rest of Europe. We'll find out at Frankfurt this year.
So looking to next year's London Book Fair, I'm sure volcanic ash won't be the main topic of conversation, but Twitter certainly could.
Related links:
Find book people on Twitter here: http://www.thebookseller.com/twitter
#LBF10 Twitter wall http://bit.ly/atDqUM
Publishing Talk's post on LBF Tweetup. click here
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The Bookseller: Digital Humanity & English Literature
Sam, thanks for a great post. Unfortunately, I could not make it to the London Book Fair, but engaging with you on Twitter definitely makes me feel integral to your events and to the literary community as a whole. Thank you so much.
Twitter Status UK Publishing
I agree Twitter is gaining volcanic momentum and being connected to so many forward thinking people is exciting. It is tremendous what you learn in such short time by being on Twitter and following the right thinkers and players. I follow more americans than brits but the latter group is growing fast.
I really believe that a digital strategy within company starts with action and with individuals embracing and getting to grips with the tools. If leaders whose responsibility it is to transform their businesses don't themselves get the hang of social media, then how can they expect their company and it's marketing to be relevant?
Twitter gives us a genuine picture of the movers and shakers in the industry and so many of the people I thought had something to say are absent because they can't keep up with change. Sadly there are still too many CEOs, MDs and leaders of organisations that ought to be making the digital leap who are still not on the Twitter radar.
It was disappointing for me to realise that only 7 of the 25 speakers and panelists @lbfdc have a Twitter account.
twitter me sad
Though I admire your efforts sam, from what can i see of the photos the tweet-up seems to consist almost entirely of unpublished writers, people who used to work in the book trade, or who would like to work in the book trade, and other general odd-balls. How does this help anyone to have a serious debate about publishing in the digital now?
anonymous trolling
good to see that anonymous commenting is part of 'serious debate about publishing in the digital'
a one-click troll delete option seems increasingly essential in web 2.0
A doubting Twomas?
See what I did there?
Couldn't agree less and think quite disparaging of the trade in general.
Here's the list of people who attended (& wanted to attend) the LBF tweetup http://twtvite.com/lbt10 take a minute to click through and see their profiles. Think you'll find there is a fantastic mix of people from across publishing - which makes Twitter and tweetups all the better.
But thanks for commenting.
T'was fun indeed
I really enjoyed the whole #LBF10 thing on Twitter and followed it on my mobile phone. I felt it was very easy to feel involved and added an air of expectation to the 'fair. I'm really looking forward to using it again if I'm lucky enough to go to a similar event abroad - hopefully #ashtag won't be appearing again ...
Twitter @thebookseller
Good post, Sam. I loved the opportunity to meet fellow Twitterers at the Bookseller stand - an excellent centre of the world! I mentioned the famous and prized Bookseller Twitter book bag on my blog...
Most importantly, as a real-time live channel, Twitter enables authors (published & unpublished), agents, editors, journos, publishers etc. to meet on equal terms and swap info, jokes and share brilliant photos.
Alison at http://www.alison-morton.com/blog/
Twittering eruptions
The Twitterhub at #lbf10 was brilliant, though it did seem to be on a random loop sometimes. I wouldn't have a: found out that I was shorlisted for #aba10 b: gone to the #lbftweetup c: met you/seen your amazing purple Marc Jacobs shoes d: found out that you'd posted this blog if it hadn't been for Twitter. It is definitely the best tool for finding out what is going on all over the book industry--and it's brilliant for author-to-author communication too (which was the one thing you didn't mention). Got to have Tweetdeck or similar to make it really work, though. Great post, Sam (and when are you going to update that @thebookseller Twitter List?!)
Lucy Coats @ http://scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
Keeping in touch
It was lovely to meet my fellow tweeters again at #lbtweet; one of the major uses of Twitter is to keep people who can't make the sessions up to date with what's going on. This happened at a number of #lbf10 events, notably the Digital Conference #lbfdc; and @pressfuturist did a brilliant job of tweeting the PA Google Book Settlement event. In a couple of cases points got picked up and some interesting discussions then ensued over Twitter. Of all the social media I find Twitter by far the most useful in a professional context.
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