When I learned
that my publisher expected me to build Twitter followers, I wasn’t
altogether excited. Not that I hadn’t
found Twitter to be useful in my journey to publication. Quite the opposite. I actually
landed my book’s contract because of a Twitter pitch contest. I tweeted my
pitch during Adpit last February and was favorited by Zara Kramer, head of
PandaMoon Publishing. Months after submitting Beautiful Secret to Pandamoon, I
got an offer of publication.
All because of
Twitter.
Twitter is a
great tool for authors looking for representation. The MSWL hashtag is super useful to link
writers to agents who are looking for specific kinds of writing or even subject
matter. Agents or editors will tweet out their wish lists and embed the mswl
hashtag into their tweet. Surfing through the #mswl tweets can be entertaining
in and of itself. You often find wishes like “space unicorns who fall in
love over cookies and milk,” or “robot online dating stories.” It can be bizarre.
Usually, though, an agent or editor will tweet genres, maybe a setting or a
specific character trait. I subbed Beautiful Secret to agents who professed to
be looking for stories set in Europe or family sagas with secrets. The mswl
hashtag can really help a writer nail down agents who want what they have
written, so it’s helpful.
Writers who are seeking community have
options galore available to them on Twitter. They can follow and participate in
the amwriting hashtag and be favorited and supported by other writers. With
#amwriting, you can share what you’re currently working on or just say “good
morning #amwriting on this snowy Monday.” You never know who will reach out to
you and say hey – I’m writing the same thing or “ooh, that sounds interesting.”
Sometimes, we need this type of encouragement. Another community-building trend
happens every Wednesday with #onelinewednesday during which you can tweet one
line from your manuscript with the hashtag and share it with a host of other
writers who are doing the same. This builds interest and gives the world a taste of what you are
writing.
All in all,
Twitter is a great place to connect with other like-minded people.
I just didn’t see
how connecting with other tweeters would help me sell more books.
I was wrong,
though.
In early
December, I had about 600 followers on Twitter. To be honest, I didn’t really
interact much with any of them. Now, in mid-February, I have about 6,000. I interact with several of them on a daily
basis, and guess what?
I’m selling books
because of it!
I learned that by
following people who follow authors like me, I can gain followers who are
likely to be interested in my book. Now, when I run a promotion and tweet about
it, a bunch of my followers retweet it, and my reach is exponentially larger.
If I share a #onelinewednesday, it’s also retweeted by my followers, allowing
their audiences to learn about my books as well. I have reviewers who are
following me and are interested in posting reviews of my trilogy on their blog
sites. Twitter is an explosive marketing tool.
What I’ve also
realized is that Twitter is a place to connect to people who can become
marketing partners with you. For
example, last week I did my first podcast interview with this amazing guy.
Jon Filitti
reached out to me over Twitter because our names are pronounced the same way.
Coincidentally, everyone misspells his name to look like mine (because mine is
the way Faletti should be spelled, of course - ha.) Jon humorously mentioned
all of this in a direct message, we started dishing Italian backgrounds, and he
asked if I’d be interested in letting him interview me on his Mindsoak Podcast.
I was both
enthused and terrified at the idea of being interviewed for a podcast, but I
went with it and was pleasantly surprised. Mindsoak is a super cool project in
which Jon, who is endlessly curious about everything, interviews interesting
people from all walks of life. Actors, lawyers, writers like me. He wants to
know what makes us tick and what makes us feel most alive. It’s a super
interesting sociological project, and
Jon is incredibly easy to talk with. He asks fantastic questions that go just
deep enough. On my podcast, he introduced my Whisper trilogy and gave me the
opportunity to tell the world why I wrote it. He also asked me to talk about my
publication journey and my women’s fiction debut novel, Beautiful Secret.
Since we
connected on Twitter, Jon and I have shared contacts. I’ve hooked him up with
some great subjects to interview in the coming months, and his followers have
shown interest in my writing. Now that we’ve connected, we are more committed
to promoting each others’ works.
All because of
Twitter.
Here’s a link to
the Dana Faletti episode of Mindsoak.
http://mindsoak.me/the-dana-faletti-episode/
Check it out and follow Jon Filitti on
Twitter. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get your own podcast opp too!
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