Twitter Tips

Smarter, more savvy Twitter users than I have already addressed this topic. Nathan Bransford, for example, wrote a post a year and a half ago about How to Use Twitter. Some of his tips are outdated (Twitter now shortens URL's all by itself), but most of it is still very sound. I especially like his advice on how to start an @ reply tweet: if you want it to go to all your followers, you need at least a period before the @.

For example:
@Robin_Weeks--haha I can't believe you said that!
Will only broadcast to your followers who also follow me.

but
.@Robin_Weeks--haha I can't believe you said that!
Will broadcast to everyone who follows you.

Did you know that? Well, I didn't before I read Nathan's post. :)

Anyway, I just have a few tips for using Twitter that have really helped me enjoy it and make the most of my time there. If you've been using Twitter for any length of time, you might know these tips already. If not, read on.

On Getting and Keeping Followers
There are these incredible apps you can use to generate thousands of followers fast. They work on the "follow back" premise--that most people you follow will automatically follow you back. These engines will search out people with similar interests and follow them. Then you can just unfollow those who don't follow you, so your following/followers numbers don't get too pathetic. I've seen accounts with literally tens of thousands of followers and they've only tweeted a few hundred times. These accounts and the engines which drive followers to them are also known as SPAM. They must constantly switch techniques to avoid getting shut down by Twitter. They are not interesting and they do not add to the conversation. They are interested in the numbers, not in talking to me. DO NOT DO THIS.

Instead (wait for it)--just follow people you like. Authors, writers, librarians, rock stars you can't help but like. The famous people probably won't follow back unless you actually know them in real life. But really, we don't usually follow famous people because we want them to talk to us (though that is awesome when it happens) or because we think they'll enjoy reading our own Twitter feed (though we can dream). We follow some people because we're voyeurs. We want to see what they say.

Most of the people we follow, though, will want to follow us, too, if we really do have common interests. If they don't follow back automatically, try saying hello. Reply to one of their tweets. Start up a conversation (TWITTER'S MAIN PURPOSE IS TO HAVE A CONVERSATION).

When I first started out, I scoured my friends' twitter friends and followed the ones I also thought were interesting. Today, I'm following almost 400 more people than I have followers. And that's okay.

Don't:

• Auto-Direct-Message new followers with a link to your blog or an impersonal welcome message. That's extremely annoying and some people will unfollow you just for that. They followed you because they thought you were unique or interesting... now they know you're not.
• Dump people who don't follow back. Did you follow them to increase your numbers or did you follow them because you thought they were interesting? Are they less interesting because they take a few days to decide if they want to follow you? Nothing is more annoying than getting a new follower notice, then, a few days later when I have time to see who they are, find that they're not following me anymore. 
• Worry about who is following you. Just don't. You'll give yourself a complex and that's not interesting.
• Exclusively use your feed to plug your books, or your blog, or your whatever-else-it-is. That's like asking people to sign up to watch a commercial. Would YOU volunteer to watch commercials? You'll want to plug your stuff, of course, but use care. Twitter shows the most recent three tweets to most people who click on your profile name. If all three are about what they can purchase from you, they'll run away. Make sure at least one (better if it's two) of your last three tweets is something real. A witty observation. A book recommendation (not yours, not a good friend's, just a book you really enjoyed). Something to prove you're a real person and not a spam-bot.

On Lists
If you haven't experienced the joys of lists, do yourself a favor and start now. Following 1500+ people gets to be a lot like trying to pick gems out of a rushing river. Lists help filter the river down to a very manageable stream. You don't have to make your list public. No one has to know who is on what list--or even that you HAVE lists.

That said, I have a couple private lists that I urge you to create for yourselves:

• Favorite Writer People: These are the people in the writing world whose tweets I don't want to miss. They aren't the thousand people who I followed because they're writers or because I stumbled on their blog. These are people I regularly talk to, or who I've found tweet things that make me laugh. People I'd love to be friends with in real life. I'm VERY selective about who goes in this list so that I don't have to be selective about who I follow. 
• Favorite Writers: These people I'd still love to be friends with, but I follow them because I love their books. If they never follow me back or even reply to me, that's okay. I just like to know what they're up to.

TweetDeck

This is a program you download to your computer that holds all your lists, your contacts, and your direct messages for you. You get to have your lists side-by-side with your regular stream, DM's, and you get to pick which ones are on which screen. You can even have a column with a favorite hashtag, like #YALitChat or #askagent.

That's all for now. Do you have any favorite Twitter Tips you want to share? What bothers you about Twitter (or about the Tweeps on Twitter)? Do you use it or are you still resisting?

Awards (for me) and the One I REALLY Want

If you're a writer, you know the importance of maintaining some healthy delusions. Odds say publishing a book is about as likely as winning the lottery? Pshaw. That doesn't apply to me! First book never sells? Stephenie Meyer's did! Why not mine? Most published writers can't support themselves (much less their families) on their writing? Well, some of them do! Why not me?

If we believed the odds, we'd never try.

I don't buy lottery tickets because the odds of winning are so minuscule that it's not worth my money--but I've spent thousands of hours creating my own, custom, lottery-ticket novel (no, it's not about lottery tickets). And I believe in it. I do. I think it's a winner.

This is my first full-length novel (though I wrote the first 5 chapters of a few others--do they count?), but I'm still going to query it. In a few more months, when I get it perfect. And I'm going to cross my fingers, send up a prayer, hit send... and then start refreshing my email inbox. Because, you never know, my dream agents might be so enchanted by it, they'll immediately want the full. And I wouldn't want them to wait more than five minutes before they get it, would I? Of course not.

I want to sell it for a lot of money. Because, see, I have this dream life in my head. Free of debt. Living in a house without threadbare carpet. On a ranch, where my husband can raise cows and my sons can ride horses. With an office just for me, where I can continue to write books people will love. Occasionally leaving to attend conferences and to go on tour. To England. To meet my father's family. Perhaps with a baby daughter (or two) in tow. Doesn't that sound good? Would you give that up just because the odds say it'll never happen?

So I say it's okay to dream. Hard cold reality doesn't have any place in my world. Even if this book doesn't sell, the next one will. Or the one after that. Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gol-darn it, people like me!

Don't believe me? I present Exhibits 1, 2, and 3:

From Anita


From Deirdra


From Jenny

I received these three awesome blog awards within the last week. See? I told you people like me! :) Anita and Deirdra custom-made theirs, which make them doubly awesome, but I have to like Anita's best because she only awarded hers to five people--and guess who was #1? ME! :D Are you jealous? 

Of course you are!

You know who I'm jealous of? I've mentioned her before (once or twice): Brodi Ashton. Brodi I-had-to-choose-between-five-awesome-agents Ashton. Brodi I-waited-24-hours-before-I-got-a-preemptive-three-novel-deal-on-my-debut Ashton. Brodi, who is awesome for reasons I can't even tell you about because I promised not to!!! (Yes, you want to be me. No, I can't tell you why.)

Brodi, who, this time last year, won the LDStorymakers First Chapter Contest.

I was in that contest, yo. I sat through the awards ceremony, watched some dude win first and third in my category, and then watched them announce Brodi's name as the Grand Prize winner. And she wasn't even there! Valynne had to go up and accept her laptop for her. I texted her, though. Yeah. Me. 'Cause I'd had dinner with her the night before, and had her cell number. (You want to touch me now, don't you?)

Anyway, I wasn't at all upset, because I'd already read the first page of Brodi's book and she totally deserved it, but it didn't stop me from rejoicing in the fact that she'd likely sell her book before the next contest and would therefore be ineligible for the 2011 contest. (Really, I'm just too good at this predicting stuff.)

So Wednesday, I'm driving down to Utah. Wednesday night, I'm pushing shiny buttons for another Farland's Authors' Advisory Conference Call--this time with Laura Ann Gilman, who's giving VERY timely advice on professionalism, including how to talk to editors (like at conferences and stuff), so you should totally call in with all your questions. Then, on Thursday, I'm picking up Susan Jensen at the airport and attending the Bootcamp at LDStorymakers, where the first fifteen pages of my book will be torn to bloody shreds (if all goes well).  Friday and Saturday are for the conference, where I will network, hob-nob, hand out business cards, meet cool writers, learn some stuff, and hunt down a few future guests for Authors' Advisory. Lunchtime Saturday, they announce the First Chapter Contest Winners. Not that I'm paying any attention to things like that.

So who's gonna be there? If you're going to be there, I'll tell you a secret: I get a text every time someone @'s me on Twitter. Just sayin'. My Twitter ID is @Robin_Weeks. Don't forget the space. I'd love to get together with you. Meet in person. You know, for meals. Really cool classes. (I sit at the front. Always. That's what elbows are FOR.) Or just for pal-ing around in the hall. I'm the one with the obnoxious rolling briefcase. If you trip over something, it's probably me.

Oh, and only the Blog on Fire Award requires me to pass it on. Since I love so many of your blogs, please let me know if you want it--I'll give it to the first five takers whose blogs are over in my blogroll on the left. :)

See you in a few days?

LTUE Top Ten

Life, the Universe, and Everything was just as fun as I thought it would be. I'll never be able to summarize all the cool things I did, but here's the highlights:

1.      I got to fetch James Dashner his water, and helped him connect his Macintosh to the overhead projector (press and hold F7, apparently) so he could show us the cover of The Death Cure. Then I helped persuade him to read three chapters (instead of two--he swore us to secrecy, but you're gonna love it. I can't wait until it's out!!!). I invited him to do an Authors' Advisory conference call and he... was noncommittal. Didn't say yes, didn't say no. If you know James, tell him he should do it! He has my card….

2.      I moderated three panels and NO ONE asked why the heck I was there! Rather, I find that my voice is famous. A few attendees approached me afterward (which was really confusing—why were they talking to me?) and said they recognized my voice from the calls. So cool! I hadn’t even mentioned Authors’ Advisory (probably should have, though…).

3.      When I approached J. Scott Savage to give him my card and invite him to do a call, he already knew who I was! Neither of us was sure if we’d met before, but we shook hands and proclaimed our happiness to know each other. He said he’d be happy to do a call sometime. *Squee!*

4.      I got to see a certain book cover (it wasn’t authorized to be shown around, so I won’t say whose) that made me squeal and jump up and down. Literally. I want that cover as a poster to hang on my wall. It’s gorgeous. Breathtaking. The cover alone will sell the book, and the book itself needs no such help!

5.      Howard Tayler’s wife Sandra says he’ll do a call, too, in a few months. I confess that I am a little intimidated by Howard—not sure why—but I still managed to approach him at dinner (he and Sandra obligingly sat down at the table right behind me). I was in the middle of my explanatory spiel when Sandra pipes in with “he’d love to do that.” :) Yes, Sandra is cool—it was great to meet her, too.

6.      Being a Gopher is cool. I got to carry a clipboard, flash a bright pink 5-minute warning sign, fetch and carry water, and march around importantly. I got to know the shortcuts to all the rooms. I had the perfect excuse to talk to the authors on each panel. We got to know the conference from back-stage, as it were—which has always been my favorite place in any production—and therefore had a much fuller experience than anyone else. (So there.) Donna Weaver and I were the only Gophers over 25, but I, for one, never felt the age gap. (I think I stopped maturing at 17, anyway.) I got to meet Toad the Gopher King, Jenna-of-The-Jenna-Award is now my Facebook friend, and we got to see four teenage girls fit inside one 5X t-shirt. Best moment? Someone said “and there was much rejoicing” and the whole room gave a half-hearted “yay.” Sigh. I’ve missed being in a group like that.

7.      Dinner with David Farland, his wife, his son, and a huge table of forum-mates. You know how, in situations like that, you always want to be the one sitting across from the super-duper cool people, but you never are? (Well, I never am, anyway.) Friday night, I was right across from Dave. He regaled us with some very scary predictions about the industry and some things we’ll want to watch out for about our digital rights, but it was still amazing. He also said he wants to do another call in a few weeks. Yay!

8.      Brodi Ashton, (who wore her red scarf and got teased by James Dashner for her popularity with the agents), Bree Despain (who was on too many awesome panels to count), Emily Wing Smith (why wasn’t she on panels?), Kimberly Reid (who I’d never met IRL before), and Sara Bolton (with her adorable brand-new baby) were there. All just as nice as ever.

9.      I discovered that Twitter is a great way to take notes in a conference—especially when you’ve forgotten to bring note paper and your laptop only has enough juice for two hours. Or when you've figured out that taking notes on Twitter is just plain cool. There were tons of people taking notes that way, BTW—check out the #LTUE hash tag on Twitter for a lot of great quotes.

10.  I got to live with and hang with Donna Weaver—who is a kindred spirit. She has children my age, but we found we agreed on almost everything. After reading her blog, I suspected that I’d like her—now I know. She’s awesome. She even let me read her copy of Anna and the French Kiss (in two very late nights--AMAZING book).

There were other highlights--and other authors who will be doing calls for Authors' Advisory, but I need to get back to the one thing I didn't do at all: WRITE! I'll never feel like I've earned a permanent place in this awesome community until I have the publication cred to back it up!

Who else was there? What was your favorite part?

How Twitter is Cooler than High School

I have recently discovered the joys of Twitter. I know, I know, it's been around for a while, but I've always assumed it was more of a time-waster than an actual, like, tool and stuff.  Well, I was right and wrong. Twitter is a time-waster. I can sit for hours watching it... but that's because of all the cool writerly people who are tweeting.

The other night I was fascinated by an interchange between Dan Wells (@johncleaver) and Howard Tayler (@HowardTayler)--they were done writing for the day and needed to blow off some steam. Being LDS, they didn't head to the bar: they scheduled an evening of board games and popcorn. Through Twitter. (Like they don't have each other's direct phone numbers? Ever hear of texting? Or, well, talking on the phone?) Entertainment at its finest, folks. In the midst of this, Aprilynne Pike (@AprilynnePike) did what I really wanted to do and popped in to say she wished she lived closer so she could join in the fun. Me too, me too!!

Last week, Shannon Hale (@haleshannon) noticed that Logan, Utah's libraries are constantly checking out her books, so she blogged about it, promising to visit them--and to drag two other locally popular authors--James Dashner (@jamesdashner) and Jessica Day George (@JessDayGeorge) along with her. Then she called James and Jessica out on Twitter--and soon had replies from both, promising to go. Am I the only one with a sudden desire to visit Logan later this year?

I'm new, like I said, so I'm not following very many people yet (88 right now), and even fewer are following me (18), but #therearesomanycoolpeoplethere!!! I got the thrill of my Twitter experience when Gail Carriger (@gailcarriger) started following me this week. ME! Gail Carriger! And she was completely gracious when I went all fangirl on her and even agreed to do a conference call for Farland's Authors' Advisory!!! (June 1st--read her books now, if you haven't: they're awesome!)

Watching all this fun, I can't help but feel a little like I'm in high school again (where I was far from popular), watching the cool kids hang out, plan fun parties and road trips, and generally flaunt their coolness. Oh, how I wanted to be included! I had my own friends and we had a good time, but, well, that looked like fun, too. Now, rather than just sitting back and dreaming about inclusion, I have an actual goal to become one of the cool kids. I want Shannon Hale to invite me to go on road trips with her. I want Dan Wells to issue an open invitation to his house for popcorn and board games (and the scones they've been tweeting so much about) the next time I'm in town. I want these awesome writers to know my name and to think of me as #oneofus.

Because I want to BE one of them. I want to be a bestselling YA fantasy author. There: I said it. AND I want to be friends with all the other cool authors--because, let's face it, they're really, really cool. How do I know? I stalk them on Twitter, of course... which encourages me to read their blogs... which encourages me to read their books... which only makes me want to know them more. Lather, rinse, repeat. See? Twitter works.

Now I'm going to get going on my editing so I can someday invite them all to my book launch party....