Folio: blogger Dan Blank has an interesting post this week about how several Reed publications use Twitter to improve their brand and connect with their readers.

The varying uses fall in a few broad categories that all publishers can emulate:

• Announcements
  Using Twitter to post about new columns, or give a heads up on new coverage. This is the most obvious, and perhaps the most over-used, use of Twitter.
• Reputation Building
  By contributing responses and original “tweets” to the topics they cover, reporters can increase their reputation as experts in those topics. If those in the niches know they’re actively covering those topics, they’ll likely be notified of anything newsworthy
• Conversation and Feedback
  Using Twitter to get readers involved in the content of the magazine can increase loyalty, as well as help shape future coverage of similar topics. Asking specific questions to your niche followers can lead to stories and angles you wouldn’t have discovered on your own.

  Library Journal Managing Editor Heather McCormack….. [ Twitter] allows her to interact with her audience in small ways each day, even though she is actually sitting in a gray cubicle in New York City.

• Primary Source for News
  While Twitter should not be used as the basis of a news story without collaboration, it is a way to get a heads up on online happenings quickly.

  The recent battle over e-book pricing at Amazon is a good example. I heard about Amazon removing the buy buttons from Macmillan titles on Twitter first and we were able to respond quickly with our own story. — Calvin Reid, Publishers Weekly

Read the full post here.

• RT @JDEbberly: Two College Newspaper Columnists Discuss Reading, e-Books, and Bookstores http://bit.ly/c2KG7v (via @resourceshelf) #
• RT @martyhalpern: Goodbye CA Amazon Affiliates: Calif Senate approves 'Amazon tax' http://bit.ly/cPwXry (via @sarahw @jafurtado) #

• Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Now Accepting Submissions http://bit.ly/b3FlfH #
• RT @Scobleizer: The best "hire me" website ever, done by a guy with an MIT PhD: http://bit.ly/aNsq2H thanks @jolieodell #
• RT @educationweek: Blog: Study Finds 'Excellence Gaps' Growing for Top Students http://bit.ly/b9U54S #
• RT @corb21: RT @AmericanPublish: The Onion makes fun of book publishing: http://onion.com/cFLba8 #

This landed in my mailbox today, so I thought I’d share….

Greetings,

As an author who has used the Amazon’s Digital Text Platform, we want to let you know about an exciting opportunity for authors at Amazon. Amazon.com and Penguin Group (USA) announced the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA), an international competition seeking fresh new writing voices. One of the great new aspects of the contest is that self-published novels are now eligible to be submitted. There will also be two categories this year, Young Adult Fiction, and General Fiction. One Grand Prize winner from each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin including a $15,000 advance. Contest details are listed below, and further information and official rules can be found at www.amazon.com/abna. To get tips on how to enter or sign up, visit www.createspace.com/abna

What is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work, and compete for a chance to get published. Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award first launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. In the inaugural contest, Amazon customers voted and named Bill Loehfelm the winner with his novel, Fresh Kills. Several of the other Top 10 finalists also received publishing deals with Penguin.

The 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award started out even bigger than the first contest, with over 6,500 authors signing up. After narrowing the field, the top 500 excerpts were available to Amazon customer to read and review while Publishers Weekly reviewed the full manuscripts. From that information, Penguin selected 100 semifinalists that which were then reviewed by a group of Penguin editors who the three finalists. Excerpts from Ian Gibson (Stuff of Legends), James King (Bill Warrington’s Last Chance), and Brandi-Lynn Ryder (In Malice, Quite Close) were voted on by Amazon customers, and in a ceremony in New York, James King was announced as the 2009 winner.

What are the grand prizes?

The grand prize winner in each category will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute the Grand Prize winner’s winning manuscript as a published book, including promotion for the published book on Amazon.com and a $15,000 advance.

How do interested authors enter?

The Submission period is now open, and will stay open until February 7th, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when the first 5,000 entries have been received in each category, whichever is earlier. There is no entry fee.

• @creazatweet – Loving your site. How do I upgrade an account to full version? #
• RT @SandraFoyt: Fascinating read: James Patterson Inc. – NYTimes.com http://bit.ly/65xagI #
• RT @merylkevans: Updated: 70+ PowerPoint and Presentation Resources and Great Examples http://bit.ly/6T2OSK #
• @creazatweet Thanks. Is that only for group licences, or can individuals upgrade too? in reply to creazatweet #
• RT @loganberrybooks: Follow #dbw for discussion of the future of publishing from Digital Book World http://tinyurl.com/yeoyf73 #
• RT @foliomag: Private Equity’s View of Magazine Publishing in 2010: http://bit.ly/b4kC1V #
• RT @epublishing: AmazonEncore to Publish First Original Titles http://bit.ly/bVICOn #
• Facebook yanks a vanity URL so they can sell it to a corporation. http://bit.ly/5gflvJ Bad form Facebook & Harman Int'l #
• I'm unclear on why I (or anyone else) would want to buy an ipad. Isn't it just a big screened itouch? #