I have mentioned before that I am Twittering more, perhaps even with a modicum of ease these days. Not without help though, Holly Jahangiri being the most notable contributor to my curriculum in that regard. Someone on BBT Cafe posted this link recently by Kristen Lamb, author of We Are Not Alone, about Twitter etiquette and protocol that was extremely useful to me as well.
We are back at this well because it is time for me to begin a re-edit of The Last Prospector, a more informed edit this time. Sadly, this is still a DIY project because we just can't afford a professional, if I could, I would. I do not think that I can do it better than they, but do it I must.
This time I have resources though, not flying as blindly as usual, and some concrete general instructions about the process of editing a book. A generous man named Bob Sanchez, author of When Pigs Fly, looked over the first chapter and gave me notes; the first page alone was a revelation. Many of the folks in the cafe contribute to Blood Red Pencil, and this site is a trove of practical editorial advice for any kind of writing.
And I have friends now, authors who have been here before who can pat me on the back in a comforting way when I sigh unhappily. That alone is pretty great.
So what does this have to do with Twitter? I have decided to tweet my editing experience, If Wil Wheaton can tweet himself watching A Christmas Story, so can I.
My TweetDeck (yes, this girl knows what TweetDeck is, so there) will be open whenever I'm working on the book. It's my social media experiment; if I commit to it, engage in it and fling myself out into the Twitterverse, perhaps I will find the audience that Prospector deserves.
Perhaps not, I've been wrong a lot, in case you haven't noticed. But even a failed experiment yields valuable wisdom, usually more than a successful one - I'm still hoping for success, it would be a nice change of pace.
So, here goes nothing once again! Let's have some fun, let's start a conversation #TwitizenCairn.
I will follow and learn. I do not use twitter as I should so this will be great.
ReplyDeleteThank you William, I really appreciate the support and look forward to seeing you there!
ReplyDeleteI am a lapsed twitter-er.. It's essential we are told, but I confess the time I spend social networking is time I am not writing, It's such a juggling act for writers these days. It's not enough to simply pen a novel or knock back a blog post on a weekly basis... we have to soar.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's essential to do any social media if you're not comfortable with it. Agatha Christie managed perfectly well without it!
ReplyDeleteGood point about Agatha, Cairn. But I also think she had lots of help from her publisher to get the books out into the marketplace. We, who I call no-name writers, don't have that push behind us, so we rely on ourselves and our friends. Doing team-effort promos really do make it easier.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly Maryann. We are all links in a chain :)
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