Wednesday 25 July 2012

Twitter Angst

Everything I've read post-publishing my e-book suggests that Twitter is a way of promoting yourself, learning from other writers, networking ..... and countless other good things which I'm not positive enough to recall at the moment.

I set up my account (second to my personal one which I use just to follow pro-cycling, the odd comedian, politician etc.) and started to add authors, publishers, others who seemed to have similar writing or relevant interests to me.

I read all I could every day for around half an hour in the morning, and the same again in the evening, figuring this would give me a good 'spread' of tweets from around the globe.  I bravely made a few comments, thanked people for following me and tried one of those multi follower thingies to attract new followers (until I realised that it was auto-tweeting a load of crap when I wasn't paying attention and some of the new followers were not quite what I had in mind shall we say).

I tweeted links to my e-book on Amazon, to Pinterest where there's the makings of a picture gallery relative to the book and to this blog.

When I'd built up a few followers, I felt it was a good time to start asking some questions.  I do want to learn from others, so tips on 'print on demand' publishing in the UK, the Amazon KDP package and learning about using Google+ effectively are all things which would really help me.

But my tweets went unanswered and the only feeling I have for Twitter in a 'work' capacity is that it is just a listing zone for people to advertise their wares, rather than the community feel I was hoping for.  Just looking at my timeline tonight, all it contains is links to author's new or existing books, blog entries (which I do try and read and have commented upon, but there's no real interaction there either) and retweets.

I know I must be missing something big-time here.  But how am I going to find out when no-one answers my questions or read my blog I wonder?

On a lighter note, because there always is one, today's biggest visitor to the bird feeder wasn't a bird.


Not much modesty either :)

Spent a restful hour after work crashed out on a bean bag watching hundreds of herring gulls and common gulls milling around in the sky.  We decided they were catching flying ants - the hot/humid weather today forcing them out of the nest.  Amongst the gulls, three buzzards circled and swooped, which was beautiful to watch and above all of them, were half a dozen swifts, so high in the sky that I had to strain to hear their haunting shrieks.

2 comments:

  1. I understand your frustration with twitter, I, too, am a new addition JewellD@jewellD3. Don't give up, I've found some great resources from twitter. Charge ahead!

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  2. Hi Joyce. Crumbs, it's been a long time since I blogged :) Always nice to get a comment and a bit of interaction! Yes, I appreciate your comments about Twitter, although lately I must admit I've taken a back seat. It is so time consuming and to be honest I'm not a great 'self-promoter' - I admire people who can do that, but my published book won't get very far with me as the only marketer! Thanks also for your kind comments about our garden. The snow brought a load of less common bird visitors, which was lovely to watch. My best wishes
    p.s. I've just added your blog to follow on here.

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