Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Am I a Twit Now?

Something I've managed to avoid for a long time is Twitter. Until now. Suddenly having excessive amounts of spare time on my hands has driven me to find new ways to fill it (wait.. shouldn't I be writing? I hate you procrastination..).

So I finally bit the bullet and signed up. Is it just me or is Twitter unnecessarily complicated? I mean.. it's just supposed to be max 140 character updates right? So what's all these hashtags and @'s and TweetDecks and everything else that goes with it? I'll figure it out, but until then - confused!

I was inspired to sign up because, even though I'm a long (long, long, long, looong) way away from being published, if ever, one of the things that all the industry blogs agree on is that authors need a platform, and they should start early. This advice is generally aimed at non-fiction writers, but it can't hurt for fiction writers, right?

Rachelle Gardner has a great blog post about how she manages her various social media outlets, and this blog has tips on Twitter for bloggers.

Have you signed up for Twitter? What's your favourite thing about it? Least liked aspect?
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3 comments:

  1. Stephanie McGeeDecember 8, 2010 at 4:39 AM

    I'm on Twitter. What I like is how quick it is to connect with people. You have 140 characters to get your thoughts out.

    And there are the chats and agents who open Twitter to questions about the industry and are very generous with their time.

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  2. Kari MarieDecember 8, 2010 at 5:17 AM

    I'm a twit (ahem) Twitter user, but I probably don't utilize it as much as I could. Right now I'm doing "research" by just "listening" to what other writers tweet, how often, and about what. (that's just fancy talk for "I'm being lazy and resisting learning more about Twitter's benefits.")

    Clearly I could get more out of it based on Stephanie's comment. I'll check out Rachel's post-thanks for the link.

    And welcome to the nest. Ok that's creepy. Welcome to the world of twitter. Good luck.

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  3. Sari WebbDecember 8, 2010 at 2:30 PM

    Stephanie, Thanks for the tips! I'm looking forward to an open question session run by an agent. And I'm sure I'll enjoy Twitter more once I get the hang of it.

    Kari, I don't think there's anything wrong with being a "researcher". I guess it's like being a "lurker" on blogs, which is me most of the time unless I can think of something interesting to say (which sadly isn't as often as I'd like).

    I've already discovered a cool blog through Twitter. AuthoressAnon's blog Miss Snark's First Victim just ran a Baker's Dozen Agent Auction. It sounds like a good opportunity for noice writer's and I'm disappointed I only discovered it after it was over. Hopefully she'll run something similar next year, and hopefully I'll be ready to submit something.

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