What Not To Do
Twitter Tips: The #FF Faux Pas
On Wednesday, I talked about some Facebook pet peeves. Today it’s time for another little talk about Twitter.
If you’re on Twitter, you’re probably familiar with the #FF (Follow Friday) trend. The idea is that you use the hashtag to give a shout-out to someone you think other people should follow. Here’s what a lot of the #FF tweets in my feed look like:
#FF @ThatOneGuy @TheOtherDude @ACoolChick @MyBFF @SuperAwesomeLady @BoyITweetedOnce
Um … I have to confess. I’ve never once followed anyone who showed up in a list like that.
A slight improvement might look like this:
#FF some cool writers @WritesALot @WritesAndReads @AnotherAuthor @FictionaholicsAnonymous
At least I know they’re writers, but … I already follow a lot of cool writers. I get random writers following me because they found “writer” in my profile, and I already have to decide whether to follow them back. I’m not in the camp of trying to follow every writer on Twitter.
What would an effective #FF look like (in my opinion)? It’d take a little more effort and require spreading a little less love, but that love would be more apparently sincere. For example:
#FF @SaraMegibow for her #10queriesin10tweets every Thurs. Great stuff!
Or …
#FF @bigblackcat97 for no-nonsense YA, rural-life hilarity, and general randomosity.
Like I said the last time I talked about Twitter, tweet like you mean it.
As a corollary, the “reply all” style thank-yous for #FF mentions. Here’s my thinking. If I’m already mentioned in the #FF, I saw it. Why do I need to see that someone else in the list thanked the initial tweeter?
Of course, that leads to a bigger question: Is our goal in thanking someone to show gratitude, or to be seen to show gratitude?
And have I been guilty of all of the above at one time or another? Absolutely. But I’m going to try to do better.
What are your thoughts on #FF? Do you find them effective? How so? Please share your tips and tricks.
Speak up:
Comments Off on Twitter Tips: The #FF Faux PasThe Dilemma of Authors on Facebook
It’s a question that comes up all the time on AgentQuery Connect. How (if at all) should authors use Facebook?
After being heavily involved in a couple of online writers’ communities, I ended up with a lot of writer-friends on Facebook. Some are aspiring, some are self-published, some work with (or have founded their own) small presses, some are agented, and some are traditionally published.
I admit, I’ve been cutting back on my Facebook use because it’s gotten overwhelming. Book release parties, announcements for signings, groups for these authors, groups for those authors … and that’s in addition to the invites, groups, and requests to play some game or another that I get from non-writing friends.
Slightly overwhelming, especially when I want to keep my Facebook check-in time brief.
I tried just ignoring things, focusing on what I prioritized, but darn if Facebook doesn’t make notifications obnoxious. If I get added to a group, I get a notification every time someone (or a friend, at least) posts in that group. If I get invited to an event, I get a notification when a friend posts in that event, even before I’ve gone in to say Join, Maybe, or Decline.
So, I say no. Not to everything, but to a lot of things.
Turns out for some of these things (Events, at least), the person in charge gets notified when I decline. Enter the guilt.
Cluttering feeds doesn’t sell books. Neither do guilt trips (at least not for me). How, then, does one effectively use Facebook as an author?
I’ll throw a few ideas out there, all of them theoretical from my perspective, and all of them just my opinion. I’m sure others will disagree.
Use a separate page. Either an Author Page or a Book Page for a specific book/series. Whatever you like. Let us know the page is there (and link to it conveniently on your blog/website), and then use that page for posting promotional information.
Don’t double-dip. This might just be me. If so, no problem. I’ll chalk it up to another of my picky quirks. But once you have that separate page, don’t simul-post the same information to both it and your personal account. Sure, some people will only see one or the other, but those of your friends who also Liked your page? Shows up twice back-to-back.
Be judicious in your use of Events and Groups. I’m fine with the occasional event invitation. When Events are created for every little thing, though, it crosses into the land of annoyance. I’ve never set up an Event, but I assume it’s possible to not invite ALL your Facebook friends. Choose invitees mindfully. Groups are especially tricky since Facebook allows you to add friends to groups without really asking them.
Think before you add—Does this person really fit the parameters of this group?
Don’t take it personally. If a friend declines an invitation or leaves a group you added them to, don’t assume it means they hate you, or are jerky poo-heads. Everyone has their own way of using Facebook, and maybe your event or group doesn’t fit in their model. And remember that it’s much more likely to reflect an annoyance with Facebook and its settings than you personally.
Do you have any tips or tricks for making Facebook use easier? Pet peeves of your own that you’ve seen done by writers? What ways do you see Facebook working for authors?
Speak up:
4 commentsYou Might Have a Bad Prologue If …
If you lurk around writing/publishing sites or follow such people on Twitter, you’ll see a couple (hundred) comments on the evils of prologues. And they can be evil. Quite often are, especially in unpublished manuscripts. I used to spend a lot of time on an online slushpile of a site. I’ve seen a lot of such manuscripts, and I think I only ever saw a couple of prologues where I said, “Oh, yeah. That works. That’s a keeper.”
People wiser than I have posted on the topic, but I never let that stop me. So here’s a Jeff Foxworthy-style (but probably not as entertaining) list. Read it over, take a good look at your prologue, and try to be honest about whether it fits into any of these clues that
YOU MIGHT HAVE A BAD PROLOGUE IF …
- … you only wrote the prologue because EVERY book in your genre has one. Every single one. Not one out there that doesn’t in the whole wide world. Well, except those over there. They don’t count.
- … you only wrote the prologue because you’re completely enamored with the idea of prologues. You love them. The books you worship most and aspire to be like have them, so clearly you must have a prologue so your books can be just like the oh-so-awesome works of [fill in the blank].
- … your reader feels like they were walking to an important appointment and got held up by a chatterbox in the hallway who won’t let them go until they’ve heard all about the stapler that keeps disappearing from the copy room. In other words, they feel like they’re being held up from the real story. (Even a prologue should feel like part of the ‘real’ story.)
- … your reader feels compelled to take notes on all the names of characters, their vital stats, and how they interrelate, only to find out none of them will show up again in the next 80,000 words.
- … your reader learns something through the prologue that the main character is ignorant of until the third-to-last page of the novel, and spends the whole novel screaming, “No, you idiot! He’s your FATHER!” (Or equivalent.) Letting the reader be in the know when the MC isn’t can be cool. It can also be seriously frustrating. Fine line to tread.
- … your reader gets annoyed because they already have a long-winded, boring history teacher, and it’s no fun in real life, so even worse during pleasure reading, thank you very much!
- … you could avoid all of the above with three well-placed sentences rather than the prologue, but you can’t see that because you’re utterly certain that your novel REQUIRES a prologue to work.
This doesn’t mean all prologues are evil and bad and smelly and gross. Plenty of published books have them. They got past an editor’s desk that way for a reason. Are you sure you likewise qualify?
Really sure?
If so, go ahead. Just remember, every time you assume you’re one of the exceptions, you’re taking a risk.
Can anyone add to the You Might Have a Bad Prologue If… list? I’m sure there are things I missed.
Speak up:
4 commentsTweet Me Like You Mean It
Everyone has their list of Twitter pet-peeves, right? So I figured I’d add mine, knowing that the offenders are little-likely to see it.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. What bugs me may be fine for another person.
The Bait-and-Switch Follow. Have any of you caught people at this? You get a notification that someone’s followed you. You take a look at their feed and decide sure, you’ll follow back. A day or so later, you get another notification that they’ve followed you. So they followed you, unfollowed, and waited to see if you would follow back before committing to following you. (Do you follow?) The new Twitter interface shows “Follows You” prominently on people’s profiles, so it seems that practice has trailed off for me, but it still happened the other day. Maybe there’s a lag?
The Super “Welcoming” Auto-Tweet. I think this one is pretty specialized to people like writers who are trying to sell something. You follow someone and immediately get a tweet—usually a direct message—with something along the lines of, “Thanks for following! Check out my blog/book/butterific-bacon-buns (insert link).” I’ve limited my reaction to rolling my eyes at such tactics (and have never once clicked the link), but it’s happening so much now, I think I’m going to automatically unfollow anyone who does it.
The Feed-Flooder. First of all, I can’t imagine what it’s like to have enough free time to tweet upwards of 100 times a day. (I know it doesn’t always mean the tweeter is actually tweeting … see below.) I only have so much time to devote to checking in with Twitter. I like to find relevant industry links/news, interesting conversations, and a little silliness with tweeps I know fairly well. If someone is filling my feed by retweeting everything in sight, pushing the Tweet This! button on every blog in the universe, and otherwise just making noise, I have to make it go away. Remember, when everything is special, nothing is.
The Robo-Tweet. I haven’t confirmed this—it’s just a suspicion. There are a lot of tweeting utilities out there to manage your social media experience. Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, I don’t even know how many others. I think I’ve spotted at least one that will auto-tweet random “ice-breaker question” tweets from your account on a scheduled basis … like every half-hour. Does this actually work for people? What happened to authentic engagement?
The Deja-Tweet. Another one that’s particularly prevalent in the writer-world. Send out a little promo-blurb tweet when your book comes out, or when some particular milestone is reached. That’s fine. I’m even okay with you doing it twice that day—once for the morning crowd, then later for the evening. But when I see the same blurb (or even a small rotating set of them) day after day after day … yeah, even among all the tweets in my feed, I spot ’em.
You know what I like best? Stumbling across people through mutual Twitter-acquaintances, having a little interaction, and then following.
I could probably come up with more nuisances if I tried, but I’m sure I’ve whined enough for now. It’s your turn! What Twitter behavior drives you up the wall? Am I out of line on any of those I’ve listed above?