Tweets as Telegrams

Tweets as Telegrams

It occurred to me as I edited my historical novel that Twitter is the 21st century equivalent of a 19th century telegram.

Think about it. A telegram, for those of you who don’t know, was a succinct and fast way of communicating with others. People sending a telegram would be very brief because there was a cost associated with sending a telegram based on the number of words. So, as one of my characters said in a telegram,

In America Stop On way to new home Stop Will write when there Stop Love Stop Isabelle

In 17 words, Isabelle has conveyed that (1) she’s in America, (2) she’s head for a new home, and (3) she’ll write with the details once she’d settled. What it doesn’t say is (1) why she’s in America (Isabelle is British and is thought to be in China), (2) why she has a new home, (3) when she has an old one in England, and (4) when the letter with the details can be expected.

That’s not too far off the mark from Twitter. Although, with Twitter, my character could have added another 85 characters and been a little more forthcoming with details. So if she’d had Twitter, she might have said this,

I've safely arrived in America and am on my way to New Mexico Territory. I'll write with the details after arriving there. Love, Isabelle

Her Tweet probably wouldn’t satisfy her family any more than her telegram did, but at least they know where she’s going.

While her telegram would have been read by at least three other people, her tweet would have been read by thousands if not millions of people.

History of the Telegram

The telegram first came into use in the 1830s. In 1851, the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was formed. In 1855, it merged with the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company to become Western Union. In 1861, it created the first transcontinental telegraph

The Demise of the Telegram

On Monday, 12 July 1999, the final commercial U.S. ship-to-shore telegraph message transmitted from North America by Globe Wireless, a company founded in 1911.The sign-off message repeated Samuel Morse's message from 155 years earlier, "What hath God wrought?"

It wasn’t until January 27, 2006 that Western Union announced, on its website, that it would no longer be transmitting telegrams. Western Union’s 155-year history came to a halt.

An Era’s Demise

An era of communications was dead and almost no one noticed. We were all too busy IMing and emailing to mark its demise.

Beginning of a New Era

Six months later, Twitter was launched in July 2006.

The Twooth about Twitter - Part 3

Hashtags, Lists, and Other Uniquely Twitter Things

1. Hashtags (#) are an easy way of following tweets without following a ton of people. For instance, there is a hashtag called #queryfail where agents talk amongst themselves about the query letters they get that are a mess. They never use names, etc., but it is a helpful list to follow because (a) you may recognize that you’ve done the exact same thing in your own query letter and (b) you get an idea of what they like and don’t like. Any hashtags you follow are saved under “Saved Searches.” You can only have 10 Saved Searches at a time, though. Also, when you tweet add a hashtag or two (I invariably add #amwriting to my tweets because my tweets are almost always about writing (occasionally that’s a stretch, but you know what I mean). People who read those hashtags may become your followers.
2. You can divide the people you are following into categories or lists and follow them that way instead of getting hundreds of tweets streaming into your Twitter home page. Like your Saved Searches, you’ll see the lists you’ve created in the right hand column on your Twitter home page. For instance, you may have a list where you put all the agents you are following. Using a list means that you won’t miss a single word they’re tweeting and you won’t have to sift through hundreds or thousands of other tweets to find them.

Pitfalls of Twitter

Like any social media outlet on the Internet, Twitter can be a time black hole. You may find yourself spending hours on Twitter. You’ll have to develop some serious discipline. You’ll have to be able to not feel the need to read every tweet sent by every person you follow - they could number in the hundreds or thousands each and every day depending on how many people you follow. You could spend hours reading each 140 tweet. Don’t do it. Yes, you’ll miss a few pithy remarks, but you’ll also be wasting a lot of time.

HINT: I check Twitter once or twice a day and I’ll read tweets for an hour. I’ll go to a recommended blog post or two and leave comments there. But I don’t fret over all the tweets I’ve missed. It is what it is.

I Don’t Have Anything Interesting to Say

You may think you don’t have anything to say that would interest anyone else. Tweet about an interesting book you’ve just read, an interesting article you’ve read in the paper about writers, an interesting interview you read (or wrote), an interesting blog that resonated with you. The possibilities are legion. Remember, though, that you’re building a following and an online presence. Keep your tweets positive and professional.

Another Opinion

For a more detailed take on Twitter, go here

http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/2010/08/twitter-for-authors-part-1-why.html

This is another author’s take on the pros and cons of Twittering.

The Twooth about Twitter - Part 2

Twitter Protocol

There are some who will tell you that if someone follows you, you must follow them. There are others who say, only follow those who interest you. I’m from the latter school of thought. I see no reason to follow the guy who wants to sell me a self-published book on how to write a book. If you don’t follow them back, you’ll undoubtedly lose a follower, but the only reason he’s following you is to (a) get you to buy his book and/or (b) to increase the number of people following him. When I first started, I’d check to see how many people a person was following and how many followers he had. If they were very close in numbers, I declined to follow them because they were merely trying to increase their number of followers.

How do you tell if someone is following you because they liked your tweets? Look at the number of people she follows and the number of people who are following her. If the two numbers are close, the person probably isn’t so much interested in you as increasing the number of followers.

There are people, celebrities, like Oprah, whose followers number in the millions. Obviously, there is no way they can read all the tweets from a million followers. They want to be heard. As long as that’s understood, go ahead and follow your faves. I have to admit a tingle of a thrill when Oprah added me to her list of followers. Do I think she’s intrigued with my 140 characters every day? No. But the thrill was there anyway.

How Much Should I Twitter?

That question has been the subject of many a blog post. Some say once or twice a day is sufficient. Others say, no, no, you have to tweet at least a half dozen times each and every day. The bottom line is that you don’t want to annoy people. Don’t tweet more than once or twice a day if you have nothing to say or share. If you don’t have something pithy to say, find a blog post you like a lot and tweet it’s URL with a comment that says what it’s about. Or retweet (passing on another’s tweet) a tweet to your followers. I needed an extra tweet one day so I tweeted the following:

To paraphrase Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 [queries] that won’t work.”

Blogging and Twitter

Blogging is yet another way to develop a following and help brand yourself. Blogging is a topic best left to another day. However, don’t forget to put a link to Twitter on your blog so you’ll gain a few more people as followers.

The Twooth about Twitter - Part 1

This is the handout I provided when I spoke to the local Romance Writers Association two weeks ago. I’ve divided the presentation into three parts to run consecutively on September 28, 29, and 30.

What’s All the Fuss? I Don’t Get Twitter

I’ve heard the above statement dozens of times. It is hard to easily explain the fascination that Twitter holds. Twitter is a social media tool that every writer needs because we all need to market ourselves these days (well, maybe not if you’re one of the Stephen Kings of the world, but the rest of us do). Twitter is one way of getting a following, staying in touch with them, and keeping your name alive. Twitter can be one more gun in your arsenal of ways to promote yourself and your books. If you aren’t Twittering, you are ignoring a valuable source of information about the publishing world and missing a valuable way of finding out what agents/editors are really looking for straight from the agents/editors themselves.

Twitter isn’t easy. You have to work at it. You have to be a consistent presence on Twitter. But once you start, I’m sure you’ll find it an interesting place.

Why Use Twitter?

1. There are a ton of agents, editors, and publishers on Twitter. Your favorite author is probably on Twitter to say nothing of your favorite athlete (i.e. the Williams sisters are both Tweeting).
2. Twitter is one way to brand yourself. Coupled with your blog and website, Twitter will help define who you are.
3. Twitter helps your writing. By being limited to 140 characters (not words, characters), you learn to write succinctly and delete non-essential words (you know those pesky words such as “just”).
4. Twitter is no longer used as someone’s diary (well, it probably is, but not by the people we’re interested in). When I first joined Twitter a few years back it was all about “I just got up” followed a few minutes later by “I just took a shower.” Those Tweets are boring to everyone but the person sending them.
5. If you are not yet published, now is a great time to join Twitter. It gets your name out there. You’ll be able to connect with other writers in your genre and sub-genre, with agents handling your genre, and with publishers publishing your genre. When it comes time to submit your query to agents, you’ll know exactly what the agent is looking for. When your book is published, you’ll already have thousands of people you follow or who are following you and therefore, have thousands of potential buyers of your books.

How to Get Started Using Twitter

1. Go to www.twiter.com and set up an account. I would suggest that you not use the same Twitter account for your communications with family and friends. Reserve one Twitter account for your writing persona.
1. Be sure to add a photo of yourself or use an avatar (check out http://tinyurl.com/2398odv for an avatar) or a favorite photo of something pretty. This will be something you will consistently use where ever you go online.
2. Use a short biographical statement, such as, I am a “Published author, reader, late bloomer, and addicted to chocolate.”
2. Choose some people you want to follow. Once you follow them, you’ll be able to see everything they tweet.
1. Some agents you might want to follow are Janet Reid , Irene Goodman, Nathan Bransford, Deidre Knight, to name but a very few. Search for your top tier agents to see if they tweet, if they do, follow them.
2. Publishers you might be interested in are Random House, Simon & Schuster, Harlequin, etc.
3. Athletes like Billie Jean King, Albert Pujols,
4. Authors like Jodi Picoult, Judy Blume, Carrie Fisher, Anne Rice
5. Misc. querytracker.net, slushpilehell, queryshark
3. After you are following a few people, look at who is following them, you might find someone else you’ll want to follow. Before you know it, you’ll have quite a few people to follow.
4. Spend a week reading the tweets of the people you’re following. Notice how other people respond to them. Keep adding to your Following list.
5. Start responding to tweets that you like. Try to avoid saying things like, “Me, too” or “awesome.” If you’re going respond to someone else’s tweet tell them why. And try to write a response like a writer, i.e. grammatically correct, spell checked, etc.
6. Follow the links provided in tweets on topics that interest you. The agents on Twitter are especially helpful in giving the links to blogs they like or found interesting. If you go to someone’s blog, leave a comment behind. Again, do not say things like “I really like this. You’re awesome” on some agent’s blog. Instead, tell them why you found it interesting or helpful. Go to your favorite author’s blog and leave a comment.
7. You’ll find your Followers list growing. Be patient. It will take time. The more you Tweet, the more likely you’ll gain followers.

HINT: If you need answers to questions about Twitter, try http://support.twitter.com/ which is the Twitter-based help system. Click on the link to Twitter Basics.

On Joining Twitter

A few years ago, I joined Twitter. A few months after that, I quit. Now, I’ve joined again. Call me fickle.

The first time I joined Twitter, I had no purpose for being there except a few friends were also on Twitter. To tell the truth, I got tired of the 140 character messages telling me what someone was doing, i.e., “I’m out of the shower and going to the kitchen.” This from someone I didn’t know much less cared that they had just showered. I find tweets like that BORING. Soon, however, I had way too many followers filling up my account with just that sort of information. I stopped going to Twitter.

Now I’m back. I’d been reading reports that Twitter was a great place for authors. I was willing to test that premise. I returned to Twitter with high hopes of connecting with other writers, and with agents, editors, and publishers. Twitter did not disappoint this time.

I started out reading the Tweets of agents. They were giving a wealth of information to authors at a remarkable pace. I quickly determined who I wanted to follow. Next I started looking for my favorite authors. I was pleasantly surprised to find several were tweeting away and disappointed that others were not.

I think in the phase of following people, you have to be somewhat obsessive. I would see who the agents and authors I admired were following, I would click on them, see what they had to say, and decide whether to follow them. If the answer was yes, then I’d check to see who they were following. Before you could say, “following,” I found myself following 50 people.

Next I found myself checking out other professionals and the media. I started following professional bloggers for their tips on blogging, I added Publishers Weekly to the list, and the Wall Street Journal.

I was now following 100 people and media sites. I quickly learned that everyone who followed me wasn’t doing so because they found my 140-character Tweets enlightening or even interesting. No, they were following me to add to their follower-count. The courteous thing to do, I learned, when someone follows you, you are supposed to follow them as well. It turns out that those who just want to add you as a statistic are the ones with thousands of followers and are following thousands of people. It was apparent from the 100 people I was following that keeping up with them was time consuming. There isn’t any way, I don’t think, that anyone can follow thousands of tweets never mind millions. You have to know that Ellen DeGeneris is not reading every tweet from the 5 million people following her.

There are many tricks of the Twitter trade to be learned, like using hash tags, i.e., #amwriting, or creating lists to make following certain categories, like agents or authors, easier.

Twitter, as it turns out, is a great place to learn about the art of writing, what agents really want, and what established writers do as well as authors aspiring to be published are doing.

If you are an author and you haven’t joined Twitter, give it a try. You might be surprised at what you find. Be forewarned, however, it is addictive. And it can be time consuming.