Twitter branding, and a “contest”

So, in the wee early morning hours over on Twitter, I cracked 100,000 tweets. This is something of an accomplishment not just for the volume of my tweeting, but also for my continued desire to stay on the network. I haven’t wanted to stay with any forum longer than a year, and many communities make me feel like an outsider within a few short months. But I love twitter and never get tired of it or the people I follow. But this is because I’m really picky about who I follow.

I really hate following authors of a certain type. These are the people who talk about how we should all band together and support each other, but when you look through their tweets, you can’t find RTs for anyone else. If there is a RT, it’s a review for one of their books. So when they say, support the writers, they really just mean “support me.” This is a huge turn off for me. These people usually out themselves because the instant I follow them, they send a direct message like “Thanks for the follow! BUY MY BOOK!” And these people usually have a self-help book on how to publish for profit that includes all the usual rah-rah writing advice.

As much as I hate their methods, I have to admit, I’m not having much luck in the “branding” game. When people mention me they often say I’m a great art supporter, or I’m always a good social sharer. But it’s more rare for someone to say that they read my book and think others should try them out. My reputation is based more on my good deeds than it is on my creative efforts.

I’ve realized that I need help with branding, so to that end, I’ve started a Goodreads event going on until the end of this month, cheekily called The everyone’s a winner “contest.” The premise is simple enough: I’m willing to give out copies of any of my books for a limited time to people on Goodreads, and all I’m asking is that they add the books to their to-read shelves. No review or rating obligation is made by taking a book, but by having people add my books to their shelves, they also give me a little promotion via the Goodreads updates on their home page and through the email updates. If some of the people who take books also post reviews, that’s even better, and it’s hopefully a step in the right direction.

I only have 240 friends, and of the friends I’ve invited, only a few have responded so far. I’d like to make the same offer to y’all on my blog, so if any of you wanted to get a free copy of any book I’ve written, now’s the time to look over my back catalog and choose one. I want to state again that simply agreeing to pick up a copy does not obligate you to make a review. But if you finish reading the book, it would really help me out if you would leave a review or a rating.

Now that I’ve broken 100,000 tweets on Twitter, I’m going to be trying to promote my own stuff more often. I don’t know if it will help me gain new readers, but I do need to do a better job of letting people know that I have books for sale. After all, being known as a great sharer of tweet doesn’t pay nearly as much as being known as a great writer.