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Of course. I thought of you when my writer talked about doing the article.
I've joined Twitter and have made a few posts, but it doesn't seem intuitive to me, the way, say, Facebook does. I'll definitely check out your article.
Thanks for an interesting article. I agree that you should do more than simply shout an endless stream of 'buy my book!' That certainly turns me off.I'm still a Twitter newbie, so in a few weeks (once I've got a string of book launches out the way) I'm going follow some accounts of self-pubbers who seems to have been successful and watch how they tweet. I'll let you know what I conclude.
I've been on Twitter since January and it's so far the source of many fantastic friends, most of whom are self-published or independently published authors, but also some readers-not-writers. I've found both my critique partners there and a mountain of great beta readers and I've been able to become friends with successful self-published authors whose work I really admire. If any wants to add me, I'm @AMhairiSimpson - I'll be happy to introduce you to various people :)
Good idea, I've followed Bookiewormie and Mhairi. What's your account, Ellen?Mine is @TimCTaylor -- must get in the habit of leaving that info around when I'm posting.
Is Twitter worth the time? I've found a few beta readers and reviewers (great stuff!), but I'm still making friends...
I've found three critique partners, reviewers, beta readers and loads of fantastic friends, quite apart from myriad links to blog posts and websites that I would never have found otherwise. #MyWANA and #pubwrite are two excellent hashtags that I suggest to all writers. They're full of lovely, supportive, talented people :)
Okay, I'm gonna add all you guys. :) I'm @LynneCantwell.
Great. I'll meet you on #MyWANA & #Pubwrite!
Excellent article, I agree about not using it as an advertising portal, you need to engage people and then slip in the reference to your own work. Besides, I've met some really interesting people on there as well. And I found Good Reads through Twitter!
Twitter is addictive! For me, it's resembles a huge barn like rave with everyone shouting at once & sometimes you're lucky enough to sort out the wheat from the chaff - It is a great way to meet new people though & I usually invite them over here where it's a bit quieter. Thanks for the article I'm off to read it now. Julia
Twitter is absolutely addictive!! I love it! I've found it much easier to handle since I downloaded TweetDeck though. Makes it easier to follow hashtags and you can add people to lists and then have all their tweets go into a particular column too, although I don't do that. I really should, but I'm terrible about checking all the columns :S
Would someone please explain to me about the hashtags? I got the sense, from what little I read of the Twitter help pages, that hashtags are sort of created organically -- is that right? Can you follow them the way you follow individuals? Is there a list somewhere?I think part of my problem with Twitter is not understanding how it's organized. Thanks for the help! :)
Hashtags are a way of following a multi user conversation without having to follow all the individuals in it. Apparently there are rooms or something on Twitter, but I never really figured that out. If you download TweetDeck (something I cannot recommend highly enough and it's free) you can do a search for a particular hashtag, like #pubwrite, and it will open up a column for that hashtag. Then any tweet that includes that hashtag will go into that column. It's also a great way to find new people with similar interests to you (pubwrite is a writer's hashtag) and you can then follow the good ones individually, or just converse with them by using the same hashtag.
It's really difficult as an author, where Twitter is concerned because I follow a lot of celebrities and famous authors and some of them use it as nothing but an advertising portal and it's so irritating, so as an unknown, even though it's tempting to constantly write about your books, it's probably helpful to tweet about other things too. Hash tags are invaluable but I would hesitate before joining someting that is trending, because out of the thousands of tweets, yours is unlikely to be read.karen (@authorkarenmaso)
I am on twitter @virginiallorca. One person retweeted me to 3,500, another to over 4,000. It resulted in a huge bump in my blog hits but no sales. Still I plod onward.
Agree with Mhairi (Hey!).Twitter without hashtags is the Tower of Babel. It is a free-flowing stream of multiple conversations. promotions and random comments. THe hashtags allow you to extract specific conversations. That is why we created the #pubwrite hashtag. We are a a group of authors with many followers who found it difficult to keep track of our own conversations in the general stream. I like Tweetdeck better than HootSuite because TD is livestreaming HS has a slower refresh rate, unless there is a way to adjust that.
Thanks for the advice. :) I will see about downloading TweetDeck and I will look for the #pubwrite hashtag.
The down side is that I find I'm tweeting instead of writing. Writers beware! Twitter can help you promote your book and keep informed but it is distracting when what you really need to be doing is write your next book. Or maybe it's just me. I am easily distracted . . . Ooooo! another Tweet. Gotta go!
K Victoria wrote: "Agree with Mhairi (Hey!).Twitter without hashtags is the Tower of Babel. It is a free-flowing stream of multiple conversations. promotions and random comments. THe hashtags allow you to extract spe..."HEY!!! Didn't realise you were on here!! I haven't seen this thread go by, missed all the updates!! Grrrr...
Some thoughts on how Twitter can be a double-edged sword. If all your Tweets are about your book(s), you'll lose rather than gain followers. I have a number of author friends who do quite well on Twitter because they hardly EVER mention a book.
They tweet about lifestyle things, current events, and activities that are related to what they write about. e.g. Deborah Coonts tweets a lot about things in Las Vegas, where her books are set.
Another important component to Twitter is that it is for dialog and connections - NOT and advertising push. You need to be sure to respond and retweet appropriate conversations from others. If all you do is send, you'll lose followers. (Unless, of course, you've got a few million sellers under your belt.)
Hashtags, while making it easy to find things, can get your account suspended if you get too spammy at trying to create a trending tag. Or if you create a tag specifically related to what your selling.
There are some really great resources available by the forerunners in social media development who can explain this much better than I.
I would caution use of Tweet Deck, HootSuite etc, as you can easily become addicted to posting overkill using automatic tweets. Many people I know will not follow, or stop following, anyone who tweets more than five or six times a day. Unless the material is exemplary I cut of anybody tweeting more than five.
Please, don't just tweet links. Add some relevant commentary.
A sarcastic reply to someone's humor attempt got me retweeted to thousands of people. Maybe a few will click on my name. I click on very few unless they say something to me. Retweets of blog mentions get retweeted to thousands and I see a bump of maybe five or six hits on my site. And so far nothing has led to sales.
Virginia wrote: "A sarcastic reply to someone's humor attempt got me retweeted to thousands of people. Maybe a few will click on my name. I click on very few unless they say something to me. Retweets of blog men..."I'm with you there. I think the 'Buy my book because it's cheap!' tweets might get a handful of sales, probably from people who you've already established some rapport with. Others it will drive away (I suspect). But if I post about my blog posts (in between other kinds of posts) I get a boost in my site traffic and (I suspect) is responsible for at least part of the growth in my blog subscribers. And it's those subscribers who beome fans and spread the word.
In other words, it is probably best seeing Twitter as something fun that may bring some sales and recognition, but only over the long term. Unfortunately, it is impossible to be sure how much effect Twitter has separated from other things we do... such as be part of Goodreads!
Hey, I'm recently on Twitter myself. My handle is @PaperSeraglio
Hope you don't mind if I add some of you nice folks.
Ron wrote: "Some thoughts on how Twitter can be a double-edged sword. If all your Tweets are about your book(s), you'll lose rather than gain followers. I have a number of author friends who do quite well on..."
Since I've been on goodreads I've cut my tweeting way down. Haven't been in 3-4 days and I've added followers.
I've participated in the follow friday, the sample sunday and the six sunday hashes. I get a lot of site hits on the six sunday but only two clickthroughs to point of sale.
I've made some good contacts and 140 character friends though and many of them have carried over here where I can run on and on and on.
Glad to find this as I am still learning twitter myself. My name is @mortimercrump which is my character's name, not mine. Lol. Just in case you wondered. Lol. I will go follow all of you. :)Mandi
Ok, I think I found and followed everyone. :O) Happy tweeting!!
Here's an interesting perspective on "The Twitter" Maybe I can be reincarnated as a Kim Kardashian clone.
B^)
http://redpenofdoom.com/2011/11/08/th...
This is going to sound like I'm plugging Google but not the case.I'm on my e-mail today and at the bottom is 'click for the new look'. Being a sucker for an invite I click. Just a quick perusal of the features and it looks like there is better organization and the avatars from goodreads or Twitter can be displayed in your inbox. That's as far as I've gone.
Now, for the bad news. Received an invite to sign up for Google+, their answer to Twitter. I'll look but I sure don't need another social media site to spend time on............or do I?
I've been on g+ for a while, but don't use it much. All my other Google is related to my business so I had to create a totally new Google account to attache to g+. I haven't bothered to chase down connections. Total PITA. Just two days ago, they sent me a note at my company-related profile and asked why I hadn't signed up for g+ yet.
BookieWormie wrote: "Ron wrote: "Here's an interesting perspective on "The Twitter" Maybe I can be reincarnated as a Kim Kardashian clone.
B^)
http://redpenofdoom.com/2011/11/08/th......"
Good article and they're probably right in that social media isn't suited to selling books. I know it hasn't worked for me but I've gotten a lot of info about writing from folks on Twitter. Just can't figure out how to get that name recognition to attract readers to my books.
Mhairi wrote: "I've found three critique partners, reviewers, beta readers and loads of fantastic friends, quite apart from myriad links to blog posts and websites that I would never have found otherwise. #MyWANA..."hash...what ?
JL - was out there maybe 10 minutes and was found by a bunch of teeny bopper vampire/supernatural & family/incest erotica writers - WOW. Not my thing, thank you, and I definitely don't need their pissed off parents writing me) ... not to mention I have a full time job during the day and family/kids who'd like me to feed them occasionally in the evenings I was starting to fall apart! Thank you so much for the article, it makes me feel less guilty about going low tech for a little while... I'm turning off EVERYTHING except for Goodreads, which I enjoy!
And tonight I may actually sit down to a book that is NOT MINE and just enjoy the reason I started writing in the first place :) Jannette
LOVE IT !! there are days... ya know?
I also work full time - exec. asst. to pres. of title company... - an hour away from home...no kids (except the goat baby "kids")assorted chickens, dogs, cats (inside and out) and one lonely adopted Burro, named Homer. LOL I was born to be a farmer!
but gotta pay bills too!
see my video on YouTube: it's kinda funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0a4vq...
I would love to find out what works for you as far as using Twitter to self-promote. Is it the same as the techniques in this article? do you have different strategies?
** This is not a place to promote your personal Twitter account.**