Writers and authors often times work in a vacuum, operating alone at a laptop in the extra bedroom or study. But what if you’d like to hook-up with other authors in your area, join a book club, or just network with other authors to exchange your work and get feedback? Answer: Meetup.com.

Meetup.com is a social website that goes one step beyond the likes of Facebook and MySpace: these people actually “meet up” in person! Local people with common interests in anything from atheists to zoo lovers can go online and find, join, and meet up with other people with like interests.

For writers, this can be a great way to find and join local writers groups. Just do a search for “writers”, “authors”, or “books” in your local zip code and you’ll more than likely find a group or two within 50 miles that you can join.