Does Twitter Actually Sell Books?

In a thoughtful post about a Twitter experiment, the Vroman’s Books blog asked a question that cuts to the heart of 21st Century bookselling: is Twitter a valuable tool for finding readers or an “echo chamber” for publishing folks?

Yesterday, the literary journal Electric Literature concluded a “microserialization” experiment by publishing a new story by Rick Moody (pictured) on Twitter–co-publishing the story on other Twitter feeds, including the Vroman’s Books feed. After readers complained, the bookstore dropped out of the Twitter experiment.

Here’s a quote from the blogged essay: “it made me wonder what we’re all doing on Twitter. If so many of my followers are book industry people, am I wasting my time with it? All this time, I’d hoped I was reaching customers. To be sure, Twitter is useful for talking to colleagues in the book industry, and I’ll continue to use it for that purpose, but if it doesn’t have a reach beyond that, I’m not sure what the point is.”

What do you think?

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