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Here a tweet, there a tweet …

News broke last week that Margaret Atwood is on Twitter. This is not entirely surprising; Atwood has a new novel coming out that needs promoting, and she’s shown through her LongPen robo-hand device for remote book signings that she’s not afraid to embrace new technology (or to invent it if it doesn’t already exist). What is surprising, given the glacial pace with which the publishing industry has moved to incorporate new media into its endeavours, is how many authors now feel it’s essential to have a Twitter presence.

An article in USA Today says that authors as diverse as Jayne Ann Krentz and Aravind Adiga are merrily tweeting away. Krentz is tweeting in the voice of her detective protagonist as a lead-up to the December publication of her new novel. Adiga, who is adverse to appearing in public, uses Twitter as a way to keep in touch with his fans. It would be tempting to say that Twitter has become a worldwide phenomenon for authors, but even that may be too limiting: in the run-up to the October publication of Eoin Colfer’s new book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, the author will be offering fans the opportunity to have their tweets beamed into outer space.

And according to the USA Today article, Twitter works the other way as well, introducing readers to authors on a personal level:

“It’s definitely made me more social,” says John Searles, author of Strange But True and book editor at Cosmopolitan. “I’ve gone to readings to see authors after meeting them on Twitter. And while there, I’ve found myself sitting next to still more writers who I met on Twitter, too.”

Searles seems to have cottoned onto something. In our celebrity-obsessed culture, Twitter is a relatively painless way for authors to develop and maintain connections with their readers, while promoting at least the illusion of personal interaction.

Still, there are dangers to this new accessibility. Just ask Alice Hoffman. Oh, wait: you can’t. She’s not on Twitter any longer.