1) You can scout for talent. Twitter grants you incredible access to high profile writers. Interested in acquiring food books? Have a look at who @ruthreichl is following. The same goes for politics (@maddow) business (@tferriss) – any category you can think of.

2) Keep up with your competition. I didn’t know Hank Paulson’s memoir is being published this January by Grand Central, but now I do (thanks @katelaurielee).

3) Early buzz machine. Why leave it up to your publicist to promote the book the month before it goes on sale when you can start publicizing it the day it is acquired? You’d be surprised how eager people are to have a window into the creative process: And when the book does go on sale, you have one more channel for publicity.

4) Be there first. By getting up to the moment information, you can immediately respond to breaking news or approach a writer you stumble across.

5) Watch and learn from innovative people outside of book publishing. @tedtalks @hotdogsladies @doctorow @jkottke inspire me.

*Bonus! Community. A lot of editors still associate Twitter (and blogs in general) with snark culture. Twitter can actually provide a great sense of community and positive energy. People are passionate about books. Just look at @booknerdnyc @randomeditor @debbiestier @spiegelandgrau

PS: This video of old school journalists talking about twitter was the impetus for this blog post.