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Tip Tuesday #122

Tip Tuesday features writers' tips on craft, research, querying, blogging, marketing, inspiration, and more. If you'd like to send in a tip, please e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com.

Today's tip was sent in by Kendall Kulper of Blogging for YA. Please take a moment to stop by her blog as she's currently running a fun YA character bracket until Friday, April 6th. See this post for details and check her recent posts for the latest match to vote on. You can also find Kendall on Twitter @Kendall_Kulper. But before you run off, here's her utterly fantastic tip!

Often when I'm researching an agent on Twitter for queries, I like to know if they've said anything like "Loving sci-fi and want to see more," or "Saw 20 vampire queries today, NO MORE!!!" Things that are good to know but not really something an agent would put in a profile. The Twitter search feature isn't super helpful because it only loads recent tweets and you can't search someone's specific stream. But, there's an easy way!

Go to Google and in the search, type site:twitter/[twitter user name here] and your search term. So, for example, let's say you'd like to see what Rachelle Gardner has tweeted about queries. You'd type in this:

site:twitter.com/RachelleGardner query

and all of Rachelle Gardner's tweets with the word "query" pop up. It's a really useful way to skim someone's twitter feed and see what they've said about different subjects and genres.

~Kendall Kulper

29 comments:

  1. I'm not on Twitter yet but plan to soon. What a great idea. Thanks for sharing it.

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  2. Now that is a great tip and very practical use of twitter. Thanks.

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  3. Wonderful idea! I'll pass this one to other folks.

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  4. Good to know. I've been trying to figure out how to meaningfully use Twitter.

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  5. That's brilliant. I had no idea you could do that. Is there anyone Google can't do? I will definitely take advantage of this tip. Thanks Kendall!

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  6. Such a great tip! I'm going to try this.

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  7. I'm always impressed by the new and creative tips I get here!

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  8. Goodness me! I'm just in awe that one can look up agents on twitter! Ok fess up - I can't get to grips with this twitter thingy but glad such a way to research potential agents is possible! :-) Take care
    x

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  9. Cool tip. Thanks for the insight

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  10. I can see how that would be useful in many cases, not just for researching agents. Thanks for the tip.

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  11. That's an inspired tip. Thank you!

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  12. Thank you again for the tip, Kendall. This is so incredibly useful!

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  13. Great tip...especially for those of us who are still struggling with how to use Twitter. Thanks, Kendall!

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  14. That is a really great tip! Thank you, Kendall!

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  15. Great tip, especially for me right now, since I'm in the process of querying. Thanks so much.

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  16. That is a great tip! I'd never have figured that one out on my own. :)

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  17. I was so excited by this tip, but when I tried it, it didn't work.

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  18. So glad I could help, guys! And Elizabeth, I answered your question on my own blog, but in case anyone else runs into any problems, here's the twitter-newbie-friendly directions:

    You replace the twitter handle of the stream you want to search with "AgentName" and what you want to search for with "query."

    So let's say you want to find out everything Janet Reid has tweeted about sharks. Her twitter handle is "Janet_Reid." You go to Google and type in this:
    site:twitter.com/Janet_Reid sharks

    Now let's say you want to search Jennifer Laughran's twitter to see if she's said anything about conferences. Her twitter handle is "literaticat" so you would type this into Google:
    site:twitter.com/literaticat conference


    Good luck, everyone!

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  19. That is a great tip - especially for those of us that aren't on twitter yet!

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  20. OOOH, YEAH! Great tip! I've been wondering how to do this, and had NO IDEA how to go about it. Thank you!

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  21. Very cool...I didn't know a person could search like this! Thanks for sharing this tip!

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