When I got done writing just two chapters in Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting, I swore I’d never write another book again. No way. I tweeted that the authoring process was like punching yourself in the junk as hard as you could while editors stood behind you asking you to punch harder and faster.
But whaddya know….
This book is completely different, though, and v1 is more of a booklet than a book. While I was on a week-long Caribbean cruise with my mom, I decided to bang out a short ebook covering as much as I could about Twitter. My Twitter articles get tens of thousands of hits per month, and I figured these kinds of people would love to read an ebook all about getting started with Twitter. When I walked off the plane after the cruise, I would call the book Version 1.0 and be done with it. I’d publish it online, give it away for free, and see how it goes.
The result is The Simple Twitter Book, a free 24-page PDF that covers:
- Why your location and description really matters
- Why you shouldn’t change your photo willy-nilly
- How to build a more-information page and a better background
- Where to find cool people to follow
- Why you shouldn’t follow everybody who follows you
- How to reply, retweet, and send direct messages
- The best tools to share links, photos, and music
- How companies can get started with Twitter
- How to get more followers
You, dear reader, already know everything in it, but if you agree with what’s in it, the best thing you can do for me is get the word out. Send the link to your friends, tweet about it, or email a copy to somebody who’s trying to learn Twitter. You can download it now.
9 Comments. Leave new
Brent, Paul Randal *reads* 100 books a year, I think you should *write* a hundred books a year. That’s only 2 books a week, and you can even have 2 weeks off to punch yourself in the junk!
Thanks for the free eBook! I’m currently trying to incorporate Twitter and other social media into good SEO practices and I’m constantly looking for new ideas and thoughts, so I’m sure your book will help me a lot.
Thanks again!
– Sean
That was a fun and informative read!
It looks awesome too…please let us know ..what software was used for e-authoring
Love the way you describe the Twitter usage. Looking forward to improve my twitter experience be following the book. Already downloaded last week.
Awesome e-book!
Very last page, though, says “You’re holding the version from March 2010”. Not sure if this is correct, or if you simply missed updating this line for the April version.
Come to think of it, you should probably publish the “May 2010” version in April, kind of like magazines do. That way, it doesn’t appear out of date if you fail to update it on the 1st of each month.
Thanks! I fixed that in the most recent version.
I totally dropped the ball on providing content for you for this. Maybe I’ll put something together for v2 🙂
Hahaha, no worries! I’ve got a post coming about that. There’s tons of stuff I left out too – figured I’d just throw it up against the wall and see what happened.