Carefully crafted tweets are starting to pay off. I’ve seen writing contests for well-written tweets, whether prose or poetry, already. I think, however, that Thaumatrope is the first paying market for 140 character writing.

Thaumatrope publishes science fiction, fantasy and horror stories that fit into the 140 character space of a tweet. I’d call that extreme flash fiction. The site is also broadcasting tweets purportedly from the future, creating a much longer ‘day in the life’ narrative of a world that seems at least a bit post-apocalyptic.

Some of these extremely short stories are brilliant; others are a little more humdrum. But I can see a lot of potential: it takes a lot of skill to craft an ultra-short story. I don’t think that Thaumatrope will be the last market paying for tweets — although I’d be more interested in betting my Twitter-writing skills on landing more of a PR gig. There’s already plenty of companies investing in full-time bloggers. THere’s some future potential for work as a full-time tweeter.

Thaumatrope pays $1.50 per story — a surprisingly high per word rate. Of course, no one will get rich on it, but there’s at least half a chance that we’ll be able to make a living on Twitter in the future.