Am I really pathetic if I’m excited that I have 27 new followers on Twitter? Never mind, I know the answer. Maybe I’m becoming a Tweet Geek. Or is it Twitter Geek? Whatever you call yourself, writers must tweet to stay relevant. As an editor, I tweet things that I feel writers, authors, and poets will be interested in. Often, it’s something fun, entertaining, or newsworthy going on in the publishing world. But you, my dear readers, should be offering writer tweets.
- One trend that’s gaining momentum is to link to a snippet of your latest book. Who doesn’t love something free? Get those readers interested, and they’ll buy the book in its entirety.
- Tweet a free giveaway for the ebook or hardbound copy.
- Got a YouTube channel? Create a cool video post and tie in a tweet to it.
- Tweet about someone else’s book that you loved! Make sure to toot other writers’ horns.
- Have you read a recent article of interest to writers? Tweet about it!
- Did you just come across someone else’s tweet and wish you had tweeted it first? Retweet it!
- Here are a few things to avoid in the tweetosphere:
- Senseless tweets. Think: “I just made the best veggie ravioli! My mother would be proud.”
- Negative tweets: “I just read ‘Novel Nick’s’ new book. It’s awful. You’ve been warned.”
- Boastful tweets: “I just wrote the best short story ever written. If Tin House doesn’t grab this, their loss!”
- Over-tweeting: As a rule, don’t tweet more than once or twice per day. You want your readers look forward to your tweets, not dread them.
The bottom line is, writer tweets should contain anything of interest to writers, readers, agents, and publishers. Think about the people you want to attract most, and craft your tweets around them. Looking for readers to buy your new book? Tease them with a link to a chapter. Tweet to groups specific to the subject of your book. Looking for agent representation? Tweet an engaging question to them (not one that can easily be answered on a Google search). Tweet to other writers to congratulate them on a recent accomplishment, and they might just follow you and do the same for you.
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