Periscope: authors to give live tours around writing spaces with Twitter’s livestreaming app

Jodi Picoult, Ian Rankin, Joanne Harris and more will be taking part

The Periscope app, pictured, appears to be winning the battle against its rival, Meerkat

Famous authors will be giving live tours of the areas that they write on Periscope, in one of the first major uses of the new livestreaming app.

The series, called #WhereIWrite, began today and will run through the whole of April. It is one of the first major uses of Periscope, which launched last week and allows users to send live videos to their followers.

The series is being run by publisher Hachette in conjunction with Twitter, and features a range of the company’s authors. It begins with Huey Morgan from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, and will feature authors such as romantic comedy writer Jenny Colgan, Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh and science fiction author Pierce Brown.

A full list of the authors taking part is available on Twitter’s blog, and the company recommends that interested users follow the writers that they are interested in watching. Periscope sends out push notifications when any user that has been followed begins a stream.

Twitter launched Periscope last week, amid much excitement about livestreaming online. While so far streams have mostly been pictures of people’s keyboards, walks to buy coffee and the inside of their fridges, the app has already demonstrated its use in more substantial uses such as the fire in New York’s East Village soon after the launch.