You log onto Twitter, let your followers know what's happening in your world, and catch up on their mundane activities.
It's fun, it's a great time-waster, and everyone's doing it.
The software is free. All you need do is sign up and you're tweeting. Did you ever once stop to wonder how the developers of Twitter's software ever could make money from their discovery?
Surely it cost money for servers and the like. There's upgrades to be made, anti-hacking to be installed, and that can't be free.
It's not free. But now that you're hooked on the instant inanity of Twitter, the Big Twit in San Francisco has decreed that advertising will now appear.
Before long, you'll have what Twitter calls "promoted tweets" popping up on your Blackberry.
What the....?? you'll splutter. I don't follow Starbucks or Best Buy. Where's the latest from @badagentsydney? I want to know if @colleenlindsay is open to queries or not! I don't need a coupon for ten cents off a tall latte.
Starbucks, Best Buy, and whoever else buys advertising space on Twitter will be following YOU. Against your will, but the service is free, and beggars can't be choosers, can they?
Biz Stone of Twitter fame has posted all the info to his blog, if you're curious about what's in store for that Twitter app on your iPhone. Or, you can just go with the flow and not get overly resentful when Sony Pictures starts tweeting every few seconds about their latest film.
For a long time, I've been receiving tweets from publishers like HMH, Knopf, and Harper Fiction. They're all promotional, in that they trumpet new releases or author appearances. Literary agents often tweet about a client's new website or new release or book signing. It's all business advertising, and you take the good with the bad when you're following in the hope of catching some snippet of info that makes all the difference in your writing or querying.
Now Twitter will make money off promotional tweets that have been skating along for free.
Want to reach a bigger audience? Then pay Twitter for advertising space. Happy with reaching a more limited audience, like the publishers who are followed by writers? Tweet away. Those 140 characters are free.
Just don't interact with the promotional tweets. Like feeding a stray dog that follows you home, you'll never get rid of the things if you encourage them.
4 comments:
Speaking of tweets...well, not quite.
What is your opinion of the value of author's websites (I don't mean authors like J.K. Rowling and such)?
It seems that every writer/author feels compelled to create a website. Now, this pains me greatly on three levels--1. I am very technologically challenged, 2. I don't want to do anything that I MUST do, and 3, following the aspiring writer herd has gotten me nowhere so far.
But my negative diatribe aside, any thoughts? Any value to it? Other than more work... and social sites to keep up with.
And tweeter, btw, bores me to death.
Agents will tell you that authors need a website and if you're querying, they'll Google you to see if you're on top of things.
What would the website be beyond a marketing tool? You'd have to maintain a blog to let your readers know what you're up to, and then there'd be e-mail to return. If you're selling copies of your own book you need a place from which to sell them.
It's like any business. The website is your home office. If you're an author, it's a job and you're self employed.
I was hoping you'd way it's a waste of time... ***collapses in anxiety attack***
At this point is counter-intuitive to do anything that agents say I should. But that's another story. :)
However, I do have a couple of months, if not more, to develop one. I've got a book on how to do it, I'll try my hand at it. This is also, for me, and exercise of getting over my techno-phobia. After all, for goodness sake's, I am an engineer! True, it's no in computer stuff, but still. I am kind of excited to learn something new.
You're right of course, a website is like an office. Thank you for the advice.
And the previous poster, Marry, is quite right--you're blog is wonderful. I know that it takes a lot of work. Although I don't always comment (I'm unlike you, lazey...) I do read it regularly.
Hosting services like Dotster or GoDaddy have simple, menu-driven applications to develop a basic website. Unless you're looking for flash intros and Vivaldi's playing softly in the background.
The way things are these days, I wouldn't be surprised if big-selling authors are slaving away, updating their website when they'd rather be working on the next novel.
Besides, whatever you do can be undone so if you don't like it, you can erase it and start again.
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