Writer Publishes First Novel, One Tweet at a Time

It was bound to happen sooner or later — San Francisco novelist Matt Stewart, unable to land a publishing deal for his first book titled, The French Revolution, is releasing it through Web 2.0 service Twitter instead. A new 140-character snippet of the novel is released every few minutes or so to those who follow his Twitter feed.

He explains his rationale for in an interview with Computerworld: "My agent submitted The French Revolution to all the major publishing houses. Many of them loved it, but none were willing to buy what they viewed as a 'risky' novel — vivid language, elements of fantasy and farce, raunchy humor. What better place to take risks than Twitter?"

With a total of 480,000 characters, it will take Stewart approximately 3,700 tweets to transmit the entire novel (Twitter limits its users to just 140 characters per tweet), which he began tweeting earlier this week. But for those who prefer reading at their own pace, Stewart also makes the novel (about a family in San Francisco) available via PDF download at his website.

The idea of using Twitter to release a novel is not a new concept, but most earlier attempts have been focused on tailoring the content — often very short stories — to the constricting parameters of the 140-character tweet, as opposed to tweeting an already completed novel. There are even tutorials to help would-be Twitter novelists get started.

Call me old-fashioned — I still think a bound book in the hands is the ideal way to read a novel. Still, it's a fascinating way to promote a novel nevertheless.