it all depends how you built up your twitter following. If you built a twitter author profile and started tweeting about books and such as well as followed other authors and publishers, and have them following you, then it could be a very good promotional tool.

If, however you have not built anything on twitter and are now hoping to start then it will be like anything else.

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If you're using the 'follow you so you follow me then I blast you with commercial content' Twitter promotion 'strategy,' it might not work for you.

Seriously.

Focus instead on building a custom following with influence leaders.

This requires using lots of high quality content that has something to do with the general theme/niche of your book.

Use hashtags to attract the attention of these people

The real value of Twitter is the RELATIONSHIPS it enables you to cultivate with influence leaders in your niche/genre

Twitter's a slow game. Assuming you have no audience then you'll want to be on Twitter for about 6-7 months prior to launch.

During Months 1-3 you want to start building g yourself a following. Search relevant hashtags, find thought leaders and stars in your area. Talk to people, tweet and retweet.

As time moves on like month 3 or 4 let people know you are writing a book. Ask if they have suggestion.

Be open with your following have them vote on book covers. Give them chapters to edit and read. Continue to grow your following and provide useful content.

The key is to know who the leaders are and what the right hashtags to use are.

Personally I would never use my Twitter following to give away my new book.

I use Twitter to promote my books. I post a tweet about it with a link to Amazon, pin it on top of my profile, then go ahead and follow fellow writers in the same genre. Some of these writers would retweet my promotion, and I get sales from their followers