Shouting into the Echo Chamber

Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none. — Jules Renard

There comes a time in every new author's career when they have to see the light for what it is. Sometimes it's jarring, sometimes it's disconcerting or painful … and sometimes it turns out to be just one very unpleasant flop.

I joined Twitter sometime last year on a personal account. I haven't hidden it or who I am on there, but most people who know me by that account are friends, family, or random acquaintances I've connected with. There MIGHT be 50 people following me, without checking, and I think that number is still too high. I didn't do anything on Twitter for more than half a year — it was there for a nebulous "some day," and I left it at that.

When I put Neverend up for sale, I created an "author account" as an experiment — it's the one I link on the Contact page you can find at the top of the site. I was a Twitter neophyte at the time — still am, mostly — and I knew Twitter was and is mostly a victim of the "echo chamber effect," where people stand there shouting things about themselves to anyone else who happens to be listening. That may or may not be what Twitter was originally intended to do, but that's what it has turned into.

Earlier today, I became aware of The Independent Authors Network (IAN), which promotes itself as "a group of like minded authors who are self published or published by a small indie press." A basic membership is free, but they ask a $24.95 set-up fee to pay for web traffic and server maintenance. Seems legit, but it never hurts to ask, right?

So off to Twitter we go! I've got almost 250 people following me on Twitter, and that's after less than a month of trying to find people who might be interested in my writing. I asked about IAN, seeing if anybody knew anything about them. I've seen people using the "#ian1″ hashtag, by which people identify or categorize certain subjects or questions, like ebooks or Kindle or Amazon, so people can find posts about that subject.

My response was about what I expected, unfortunately: lots of things for people to say, but very little in the way of finding out what I needed to know. Another author named John L. Betcher was kind enough to answer my questions, and for that reason I want to point you in the direction of his IAN page, where you can find more information about him and the books he's written. IAN looks on the up-and-up and admits the $25 fee is a one-time cost of admission (handled through Paypal, no less), and I'm looking forward to contacting them as soon as Paypal has the funds available.

I've had a few conversations over Twitter now, and it's still a useful tool for getting news of your writing out to those who're interested in hearing about it, but it helps to remember the bad of it with the good that comes with it. Sometimes shouting into the echo chamber is a useless exercise, but sometimes you get lucky and you'll find a glimmer of someone who wants to talk back to you.