I’m back on Twitter.
I had an account a while back but canceled it because at the time I was really struggling to maintain the accounts under my real name and just couldn’t manage one more. But times change and now I’m back.
Which means I’m attempting to rebuild my followers and (related but separate from that) create a feed of people I want to follow as well.
Right now I’m following a lot of people who seem to be interested in the same things I am, and I’m not splitting them into lists (aside from one for Red Moon Romance staff and writers) yet.
Yet.
Once my Twitter feed it large enough it begins to become unwieldy I’ll start to shape it. That means putting people on lists (Romance Writers / Writers /Publishers / etc. ) and unfollowing those who bore me*.
Who bores me?
Well, mostly people who only have one thing to say. Usually that thing is ‘Buy my book!’.
We, all of us, want to sell books. We do. But there is a huge difference between advertising and spamming, and when I go on Twitter I want to connect, not be sold to. And, interestingly enough, if we connect I’m actually quite likely to look up your book(s) and take a look. Just don’t spam me.
Cool?
Related… people can be spammy on Twitter no matter what, but it does seem to be especially common in regard to romance and erotica writers. I wonder if that’s because so many of us are using pen names.
Stay with me on this.
People using pen names are more likely to have multiple Twitter accounts and not want to reveal their real identity.
Given those two things, perhaps they don’t have as much time to spend on their pen name account as their primary one. Or maybe they are saving all their ‘best material’ or anything which could be deemed ‘personal’ for their other account (or not sharing it at all). While I might take issue with the second point, I certainly wouldn’t the others. However… even if I’m 100% right (and let’s pretend for a second that I am, because I like being right), there is still room for compromise.
Truly.
If this describes you, if you’re guilty of the incessant posts about your books, please let me offer a suggestion.
Give your followers something. Something that isn’t just one big long stream of #annoying #hashtags #and #links #to #your #books.
Give us something real.
Interact with other people now and then (beyond saying ‘Thanks for the follow!).
Share a joke or funny picture.
Tweet an update about what kind of story you’re working on (without a link to its prequel) or share a bit about how the progress is going (slow and painful? Swiftly and sweet?).
Something.
Anything.
Let us know you’re a real person, not just an advertising machine.
Please?
I’m looking for connections, not commercials and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.
In the meantime, if you’re on Twitter and you’d like to connect I’m at @CoriVidae and I’d love to see you there. Also? I promise not to spam you.
*I assume that if I bore you, you’ll unfollow me too 🙂
