10 Reasons Why Every Writer Should Join Twitter

First, that's a great article Carissa. And second, it's very timely for me. I've been interested in getting involved on Twitter for a little while, but I haven't been quite sure where to begin. Some of your tips - particularly the writing chats and the query research - give me a foundation on where I can start.

Consider me inspired. I think I'm going to stop thinking about joining Twitter and get to joining right now. Thanks for the motivation.

Loved the article, Carissa.

As you know, I'm new to Twitter - this was a great help. Thanks.

Great article, thanks, Carissa! I've had a Twitter account for a couple years, but just hooked it up with FB, where I'm far more active. Now I'm getting more active!

I started to get more active on Twitter at about the same time I got annoyed enough to dump Facebook. I feel like Twitter is much more a conversation, and it's fun to get involved and find new and interesting people to follow.

I love twitter!

andiwrite said:

I love twitter!

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And I find it totally irrelevant.

Laer Carroll said:

And I find it totally irrelevant.

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Twitter is one of those platforms where if you enjoy it for its own sake, you can leverage it for some useful writerly stuff. But if you don't already like it, trying to start using it specifically for writerly stuff is probably not going to be very productive for you. I've had a twitter for awhile, and I just don't care enough about it on a daily basis for it to be useful for socializing or marketing or whatever, when I have other things I prefer to spend my time on.

Twitter works for a lot of reasons, but the thing to remember with Twitter is engagement with your audience. It has it's ups and downs, but for the most part, it will drive traffic to your links, like blogs and books, and traffic never hurts! It's a love/hate relationship, but it works if you build your platform, and it's truly a part of your platform as are other social media channels plus blogs!

I have one for my professional connections and one for my writing connections, and it's helpful. The trick is to treat it more like a public chat room and less like Facebook. The point is to connect with people, and that's where the magic happens. It's next to worthless if you only follow brands (who can't follow back) and if you never interact with others conversationally.

What a spectacular list. I'm just getting going and I wasn't sure where to turn. Oddly, one of my freelance gigs is helping small businesses strategize small business management to meet their business goals and helping them accomplish those goals. But for myself, in my nascent freelance writing career, I'm frozen. With this list, I feel a great thaw ... thank you!

This is great. Thank you for sharing all the hashtags. I've been looking for something like this.

I think this is a twitter pitch day you missed: #PitchCB I forget when it is, maybe the last Friday of the month? It's the only one I knew about before reading your post.

Thank you again!
Michael

Great post! I never thought I'd like Twitter when I used to just hear people talk about it, but now it's my favourite social network. I guess I was just confused by all this talk of hashtags and retweets and stuff, but now I'm hooked!

I've been on Twitter for years and couldn't agree with you more on all of those points! I loved that you listed some of the chats you know of though as i wasn't aware of all of them, but now am and will be participating in some of them

In my country, twitter is not popular at all. Facebook is the king and I have 5,000 people in my friend list and another 900 followers. I am also the admin of a very active Facebook group. Sharing a link of a blog post through Facebook is effective for me.

I do really love Twitter, though it can be difficult not to get drawn into heated discussions! I've met so many writers on twitter, and it's allowed me to connect with the community. I met my roommate for a conference on twitter, and I was so much less nervous going in, becaue I'd already made friends in advance of the event.

God this is hard. Your post makes me want to return to Twitter, but I had such a miserable time there when I tried it a few years ago.

InBloom said:

God this is hard. Your post makes me want to return to Twitter, but I had such a miserable time there when I tried it a few years ago.

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Why?

I started out very reluctantly with Twitter, at the strong encouragement of Viking's marketing gurus. At first I didn't get it at all--- my feed was full of self-promoting junk, a lot of it from s-p writers but all sorts, really. Then I figured out how to use lists to categorize people...then I figured out how to find and follow interesting people...then I started interacting with them. I love it. People compare Twitter to a water-cooler, where anyone can talk to anyone. That's pretty accurate, but on Twitter you get to pick the people who share your water cooler.

Then other stuff started to happen. Writers I care about read my books and commented on them. Literary agent Janet Reid, who's not my agent, read A Dangerous Fiction, a thriller about a literary agent being stalked, apparently, by a murderous writer. She live-tweeted her reactions, ending with one in which she's reading in bed under the covers because she's too afraid to peek out. I figure she sold more books for me than my own publisher with that series of tweets. I was asked to do a writers' conference and some book club presentations and a whole bunch of interviews.

In other words, my world got bigger and my reach further. Readership of my blog is ten times what it was pre-Twitter. I'm with the OP--it's a wonderful tool, well worth the admittedly steep learning curve.

I've found Twitter invaluable for meeting other writers. I'd still be my isolated self without it.

I'm not seeing much use with Facebook.

Thanks for this. It was my final push I needed to sign up to Twitter!

Nice article! I use only Twitter as social media apart from this place but I take a different approach.

My screen presence is a character I created who is rather outrageous and funny. I use the account for political humor and I don't break character when I'm there. All responses are from the perspective of my obviously fictional character. People eat it up. I've picked up 5,000 followers in a month by being a smartass.

Elias Graves

Is there a reason you're posting in every ancient Twitter related thread you can find?

AW Admin said:

Elias Graves

Is there a reason you're posting in every ancient Twitter related thread you can find?

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Yes.
For the first time in my writing career, I'm gaining readers and enjoying a little success. I'm excited.

Interesting. So let me ask you this... I don't have a blog. No Twitter account. I have an FB author's page that I barely use. I am focusing mostly on writing. Do I need to be on Twitter now or should I wait until my novel is finished? In the back of my mind I always have this nagging thought that if I don't succeed in finding an agent or a publisher, I am going to self-publish. So in order to sell and promote, I do need to build some following. When should I join Twitter (if at all)?