Twitter

R.L. Stine, the author of the popular Goosebumps horror series for kids, gave his nearly 45,000 followers a free story this afternoon on Twitter.

The novelist tweeted a mini-horror story about a haunted kitchen. We’ve collected the posts below for your reading pleasure.

In January, Stine published Goosebumps Hall of Horrors #5: Don’t Scream.

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As readers around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day, we wanted to share some of our favorite literary pick-up lines–helping literary folks find love.

Last week Random House sparked a Twitter movement with the literary pickup lines hashtag. We’ve collected some great examples below–add your line to the Twitter hashtag.

This GalleyCat editor added a pick-up line inspired by the last lines of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Great Gatsby: “You are the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.”

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The Atlantic Wire has posted an interview with Michael Crossan, the aspiring writer from Scotland who briefly fooled the Twittersphere by pretending to be novelist Cormac McCarthy.

As we reported last week, the fake account convinced hundreds of Twitter users, even managing to fool a Twitter executive before the account was suspended. In both those links, we archived the fake tweets for posterity.

Here’s more: “I did a search for Cormac McCarthy. I realized the chance of Cormac having a Twitter feed were remote. Cormac is religiously private. Of course there was no Cormac on Twitter. The idea flashed to create a parody Cormac feed. I created the account and did a search of the Twitter literati. I came across Margaret Atwood’s tweets. I had read and admired her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. As Cormac I tweeted her as I imagined he would do. I think Cormac is noble and sincere and blunt. I tweeted Margaret — ‘Please excuse my intrusion’ — and it escalated from there.” (Via HuffPost Books)

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Join me in welcoming @CormacCMcCarthy to Twitter! We have the best authors in the world right here.

— Jack Dorsey (@jack) January 24, 2012

The strange saga of the fake Cormac McCarthy Twitter feed has ended. The Twitter feed that once excited writers around the Internet now reads: “Account suspended. The profile you are trying to view has been suspended.”

Oddly enough, the fake feed managed to fool more readers this week–including Twitter executive chairman Jack Dorsey (his tweet, later retracted, is embedded above).

Explore more tweets below–you can also read the fake Cormac McCarthy tweets archived here. We contacted Twitter for comment earlier this week, but we haven’t received a response. Read more

Not to worry, @sarahw, he doesn’t own a computer; we’ve verified the @CormacCMcCarthy handle is not the real deal.

— Vintage & Anchor (@VintageAnchor) January 23, 2012

This morning a Twitter impersonator made waves online, pretending to be novelist Cormac McCarthy.

While the laconic writer would be a perfect fit for Twitter, the Vintage Anchor Twitter feed told publishing reporter Sarah Weinman that it was not the real McCarthy. Above, we’ve embedded the publisher’s tweet.

If you want to see the series of fake tweets, we’ve collected his or her work in a Storify collection. Did you fall for the Twitter hoax? Read more

To protest the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and “Protect IP Act” (PIPA) bills in Congress, Wikipedia has shut down for the day. As readers around the world cope with the loss, Facts Without Wikipedia has become a trending topic on Twitter.

We’ve enjoyed reading these fake facts all morning, and we collected our favorite encyclopedia flash fiction below–what have you learned without Wikipedia? Author Ben Greenman has published a helpful essay at McSweeney’s.

Here’s more about the protest:  “Wikipedia is protesting against SOPA and PIPA by blacking out the English Wikipedia for 24 hours, beginning at midnight January 18, Eastern Time … SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively … In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet.”

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Curtis Brown literary agent Jonny Geller created the book product placement hashtag today, polluting classic novels with brand names. Here is our contribution to the genre: “The Picture of Dorian Grey Poupon.”

What product will you add to a book title? Follow this link to read a free copy of Oscar Wilde‘s The Picture of Dorian Gray without ads. Oddly enough, with public domain eBooks you can actually make a quick eBook loaded with product placement.

In the initial tweet, Geller added a British supermarket chain to the famous first line of Daphne du Maurier‘s novel, Rebecca. He wrote: “Last night I dreamt of Morrisons.” We’ve collected some of our favorites below…

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How to build a Book Christmas Tree & show support for print books & bookstores this holiday: mbist.ro/vm3CA8

— GalleyCat (@GalleyCat) December 12, 2011

All the Twitter-obsessed authors have a new tool: embeddable tweets. As you can see by the Tweet embedded above, it is a slick way to share your favorite Twitter posts on your blog.

As Twitter unveiled its newest redesign (see below), it included a simple “Embed this tweet” feature in the architecture of all posts. Once you learn the five steps, it is an easy process. We’ve outlined the embed steps below, with pictures.

Check it out at 10,000 Words: “The end result is an embedded tweet that looks cleaner and is more enhanced than before (it even allows you to follow directly from the embedded tweet!) … The embed code is versatile: It works in Tumblr (a big surprise) as well as other content management systems that frequently reject embed code.”

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Pay with a Tweet allows writers, publishers, musicians, artists and companies to set up social network exchanges. Readers simply click on the “Pay with a Tweet” button on the website, downloading book excerpts, eBooks, music and other goods in exchange for a promotional tweet (video embedded above).

Over at Keyhole press, readers can “buy” three books with tweets. As you can see on the site, companies have used the service to sell book excerpts, articles, white papers and beer. What do you think?

Here’s more about the company: “More than 400,000 people paid for something with a Tweet or a post on Facebook … Journalists and Publishers: Sell your leading article for a Tweet to promote your magazine, newspaper or charged online service. Authors: Sell a teaser version of your book with a Tweet to boost your sales.” (Via Jennifer 8. Lee)

Three hours ago, Penguin Press ruined the productivity of readers around the country with a distracting Pop Music Lit hashtag on Twitter.

On Twitter, hundreds of readers have combined the names of pop bands with classic literary titles. Here is an Elvis-themed example from this GalleyCat editor: “The Hound Dog of Baskervilles.” You can also read a free eBook edition of the classic novel.

Here’s the original tweet: “Please help us, @FSG_Books, @doubledaypub, @wwnorton and @AAKnopf start #PopMusicLit. e.g. What A Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Wants”