Up until the most recent year, I used Twitter as a purely fun platform, Tweeting about the most inane things (read: weird things that happen to me, observations about my day, lots of whining, etc.,). Once I began submitting to journals, however, Twitter suddenly became much more interesting. Most journals have a Twitter and will tweet updates about contests, prizes, new issues, calls for submission, or link to other cool journals, literary happenings, or promote their authors. It’s a great way to discover new journals and if you’re published in a journal, to get some free promotion! Also, handily,once you follow a couple, Twitter’s convenient “Who should you follow” sidebar suggests other journals for you to follow. (This can be deadly: you get sucked into the vortex of journal-finding and forget about all other useful things happening in your day.) It’s also a great place to meet other authors/become part of a writing community. There’s a group of four or five writers on Twitter that kind of adopted me (long story, having to do with The Rumpus’s Letters in the Mail program, etc) and watching their banter/support via Twitter is awesome. A couple poets who also contributed to Dialogist‘s new issue followed me on Twitter and we struck up a lovely little, complimentary conversation.
If you’re interested in finding or submitting to some journals, here are some cool Twitters (& journals!) to check out:
@adroitjournal
@Dialogist
@H_NGM_NBooks
@LunaLunaMag
@SunDogLit
@Gargouille_Lit
@PaperDarts
Happy hunting!
Wow, Amy this is incredibly useful. I’m such a bad Twitter user. I maybe tweet something once a month. Usually I try to use it for contests. But I think I might definitely start following some lit mags and journals because I want to try and send my work out. This is a great opportunity and it’s actually making me want to use Twitter (even if it’s Twitter #shudder).
Amy thank you so much!! I actually have a “fun” twitter I use for my friends and I, as well as a “professional” one haha. I am definitely going to be following everyone you listed above! I think that’s so cool how with journals you can get free publicity 😉