Twitter, a double-edged sword for writers

Twitter

This afternoon I bring a topic that I have been marching since Saturday and that I did not know very well how to approach. What was clear to me is that I did not want this to be the typical list of things to do and not do on Twitter.

Yes, dear readers, this afternoon I want to talk about the bird's social network, the network of microblogging most used in the world. The reason for writing this post has been to see how some writers, unintentionally, end up misusing it. I am not an expert, but I do have enough training and experience in using this network to give some "advice" that I hope will serve some amateur or novice writer.

Let's put ourselves in the case that you have written a novel or a collection of poems and a small, modest but serious publisher has published it for you. You worry at that moment that your novel does not have enough diffusion and that your name does not ring in the literary world.

As a librarian, I tell you that the literary world is vast and that there are countless novels and poems sleeping the sleep of the righteous on the shelves without anyone ever borrowing them.

You realize that you have to make yourself known and for this you open a twitter profile, put a cool photo of yourself in which you have the air of a bohemian writer and write the «bio», those phrases below the photo over you.

First error, from my point of view: put in the bio the title of your novel and that you are a writer. Don't sell me the motorcycle on the street, invite me to come to the store and let me find out.

Suggestion: put an original phrase that somehow identifies you or your work. For example: "I like Christians, they taste like chicken"; "It is the fault of the muses"; "Nothing to declare" or something more classic that includes your studies or hobbies.

We continue. Once the profile is created, Twitter becomes very heavy for you to follow people. I clarify that there is no reciprocity clause and that if you follow someone, in theory, it is because you are interested in what that person writes.

Second mistake: Get to follow people left and right. Don't go crazy following 100 people in a week. After a month you will see that you are following more than 700 and you are only followed by 20. That is fatal.

Suggestion: Twitter must take it easy. Start by following people you know, people that interest you (writers, politicians, journalists, musicians, etc ...). And never follow anyone to follow you. Make follow to a person and if this does not correspond to you, you do unfollow It can make you look very bad and lose a future reader forever. I suggest starting with 20-30 and increasing little by little, five a week for example. It is a network, let it grow little by little.

And now we come to the most important thing that many forget: the content. If you are on twitter, you must generate content, that is, you must say something, tell something, because if you are here to contribute nothing, just to sell, you better not be.

Third mistake: become Francisco Umbral and be on twitter to talk about your book. Yes, you have written a book, but you should not sell the book, you should sell yourself as a writer.

Suggestion: Share fragments of your work (poems, verses, phrases). Talk about literature, share links and videos. Share your hobbies, opinions even. Show your personality. Do not become the heavy / a who is always talking about his work. Generate conversation.

However, the best thing that I can advise you is that you ENJOY. Twitter is a platform where you can discover many things, many writers, many readers. Enjoy and don't obsess over what you have written a book and you want people to read it.

Elvira Tailor is a great example of how to reach the public through this network. Sharing her verses, with sympathy and simplicity, this girl has a good number of followers and readers. (Me among them).

John Gomez Jurado is another writer who makes great use of Twitter because not only does he share his work, his achievements, but he also offers something else such as opinions, jokes, etc ... I have not read any of his work yet but I have it on my to-do list.

So now you know, be careful with twitter. Writing a novel or a collection of poems is a huge job so that it is tarnished by misusing a social network.

Happy tweets!


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