Friday morning quick hits

It is hard to top yesterday's wedding videos (which I'm still laughing at) but here are a few of the things that are getting our attention this morning.

Publicists: have you checked out Twittorati?

The tagline is "where the blogosphere and the twittersphere meet" and while that may not wow you, the site is actually very useful for PR types.

Much like Muck Rack, which provides a real time stream of journalists' tweets (along with their titles), Twittorati provides a real time stream of top blogs on Twitter. It also provides a ranking of the Top 100 blogs (which we're curiously absent from) and a list of each tweeter connected with those blogs.

For example, Huffington Post is #1 and on the site you'll see links to the handles for five of the editors and a stream of recent Huff Post tweets: Glenn Beck meltdowns, Beergate...you get the idea.

We are fans.


Speaking of Huff Post, are you reading Carolyn Rubenstein?

Arianna's newest blogger has been providing very cool content on perseverance.

Conveniently, she has a book due out from Tor/Forge in a few weeks on the same topic. How's that for timing?

This is an amazing book that we're honored to represent and, frankly, we're not sure if we have an author that has a schedule more packed than Carolyn.

Ready for this?

She blogs regularly for Psychology Today, Huffington Post and herself.

She Tweets. She Facebooks. She newsletters.

She runs a nonprofit organization, “Carolyn’s Compassionate Children” (CCC), a group that began as a pen-pal program for kids with cancer that now provides scholarships and support to childhood cancer survivors.

She wrote a book and is in the middle of a very time-consuming publicity campaign.

Oh, and while she's doing all of this she's also a full-time student, pursuing her PhD program in clinical psychology at Harvard University.

Her publicity team really appreciates her.

I should note that we're having a blast with this campaign because in addition to getting to work with Carolyn, Ben and the fabulous publicity team at Tor/Forge, we're also getting a chance to work alongside super-publicists Angela Hayes and Grace McQuade at Goldberg McDuffie, who are working with Senior Publicist Amy Currie to line up some very impressive opportunities for the book.

Keep an eye out for Carolyn this fall and head over to Huffington Post for a good taste of her work.

Tweet the Author: Brandon Sanderson

What: Tweet live with New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson about his newest book, Warbreaker.

When: Wednesday, July 8th, from 1-2 PM CST

Where: Twitter (hashtag #tweettheauthor)

How: As part of the "Tweet the Author" discussion, Brandon Sanderson will be chatting/tweeting live on Twitter for the full hour to answer questions and chat with fans, readers, bloggers and others.

To join in on the live discussion with Brandon, you will need to have a Twitter account. Assuming that you do, here are step-by-step instructions for joining the chat:

1. Log in to your account and type in #tweettheauthor in the right hand search column.
2. Hit enter and bring up the live discussion with Brandon. At this point you will be able to view recent questions from readers and his answers.
3. To refresh the discussion, type in #tweettheauthor in the right hand search column again and hit enter or refresh your page.
4. To ask a question or make a comment, simply type out your tweet and add the #tweettheauthor hashtag to the end (this essentially identifies your tweet as part of this specific discussion)
5. Once you have tweeted your question, update the page and it will show up in the live chat.
6. If you have any questions or issues joining the chat, please contact me at rshelton@phenixpublicity.com or DM us @PhenixandPhenix.
   

More about Brandon Sanderson:

One of the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy literature, Brandon Sanderson's latest novel, Warbreaker (Tor Hardcover | 0-7653-2030-4 | $27.95 | June 9, 2009), debuted on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction bestseller list.

But the road to the bestseller list wasn't without bumps.

Five years ago, Sanderson was a college student by day and a hotel front desk clerk by night. He wrote while sitting at the hotel desk from 11 pm—5 am, did homework from 5—7 am, went to class until about 4pm, went home and sleep, then started all over again. He wrote 12 unpublished manuscripts that way, before a chance encounter led him to send his unagented manuscript to an editor at a convention.

More than a year passed and Brandon had given up all hope. When the editor finally got the chance to pick it up and read a few hundred pages, he immediately knew he wanted to buy it. Sanderson’s first published book, Elantris (Tor, 2005), earned a Publishers Weekly starred review was chosen by Barnes and Noble.com editors as the best fantasy or sci-fi book of the year.

Today a best-selling author, Sanderson continues to offer his fresh brand of fantasy with the Mistborn series. He was recently chosen by the wife of the late author Robert Jordan to complete his international bestselling Wheel of Time series, which will release in November.

Visit the author's website for additional information.