I have a confession to make: I love Twitter. I love all the cool people I meet on Twitter and I especially love interacting with them.
I love it so much, in fact, that it sometimes cuts into my word count.
But does that make it a timesink?
I say no and I say that because one of the important activities for a writer (in my opinion, of course) is to connect with people. You never know who you’re going to meet online and ultimately your success as a writer is dependent on the books you sell. To sell more books you need people to know about them. To get people to know about them you need something that makes people aware of your work.
What better way than to have people talk about it?
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t follow people on Twitter merely to shill my work. I follow people to make that connection with them. To trade ideas, converse and do all those things that people do when they talk. For example, JAHite and I are having some fun talking about being each other’s alter-egos.
JR Murdock and I connected and we are now collaborating on a book together. It is a story that we came up with together and I know is one that we are both having lots of fun with.
I have met many cool and interesting people who have increased my own understanding of the publishing industry (many have appeared on my podcast “Get Published”) and have pointed me towards information I would never have found otherwise. In fact, I met my publisher via Twitter.
You could say, Social Media has been very good to me. I know I would say that.
How else would I meet such a diverse group as all of you? From every continent on Earth, no less (well, maybe not Antarctica – ping me if I’m wrong). Using conventional methods that wouldn’t be possible. Getting all the different feedback and opinions can’t help but make me a more well-rounded person and improve my writing.
I’ve also discovered a huge body of work from my Social Media friends. Writing and art I may not have had the opportunity to experience otherwise. That can only be a great thing too.
So thank you everyone for being part of my online life. It is because of you that I have dared to reach as far as I have and do what I do.
