A Writer’s Newest Tools: Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook

In these sultry Gulf Coast days, visiting is such an effort -- you've got to step out of your air-conditioned house and into your car, which feels like an oven set to 350 degrees. Of course, it also has an air conditioner which, if you turn it all the way up, cools you off right about the time you arrive at your destination. Or you can stay home and blog-hop. Today it's my pleasure to host poet J. Bruce Fuller, whose 28 Blackbirds at the End of the World I reviewed in an earlier post (June 6, 2010). 

Take it away, J.

It is a common misconception that all a writer has to do is get a book published and sit back, relax, and let the publisher do the mysterious work of promoting and selling. The truth is that publishers expect their writers to promote their work. Even J. K. Rowling, undoubtedly the biggest writer on the planet, has done book tours and signings for each of her Harry Potter books. A very sad but simple fact is that there are a lot of books out there, and less and less people are searching them out. Promoting yourself and your writing then becomes a major part of a writer’s work, and while the purist in us all may cringe at promoting our writing instead of actually writing, the ultimate goal is to find a readership.
About a year ago I had a revelation. I decided to do everything I could to build a readership. If it is hard to build a career as a suspense novelist, it is worse for a poet. I realized that anything that could help me find the people who were interested in my work was a benefit, not a burden. The obvious choice for a Nintendo Generation guy like me was social networking.

I already had blog, which was mainly used for me to keep track of publications. I never really made an attempt to promote the blog, or for that matter, post anything on it that would be worth promoting. I decided to make my blog my “home base,” a sort of central hub that would serve as an archive of my career and a place to send people when they wanted to know more. Blogs are a great way to track all sorts of things such as submissions and publications, and lets you keep a long list of links.

I also had a personal Facebook account (who doesn’t?) but quickly realized that all of my family, friends, and old classmates are exactly the people who would be most interested in my poems. I had over two hundred people in my friends list who would read my posts and click my links—and the best part is, if you post it, they have to see it—it comes up on their page automatically. This core base of friends/fans is a writer’s bread and butter—if your mom and your best friend from college won’t buy your book, you’ve got real problems.

Then there is Twitter. With Twitter being the newest craze in social networking, many writers are hesitant to jump into the pool. I pondered over starting an account for a few months, but decided that it couldn’t hurt to try. Out of the three Internet tools mentioned, Twitter is the most likely to earn you new readership. It is a much more interconnected network of people, and it is easier to access the people you want to follow. There is no “accept friend request” button; anyone who is interested in you can follow what you post. Writers follow other writers who in turn follow you. I have discovered several new writers through Twitter, and developed better friendships. After a year of “Tweeting,” I am prepared to call the experiment a success.

There are pitfalls to avoid, the most obvious being that all this time spent posting and tweeting could be used for actually writing. This is true, but the fact is that most writers write on some kind of schedule, and as long as promotion doesn’t interfere with writing time then there’s no worry. Writing should be first, because if there’s no writing then there is nothing to promote. Sarah Weinman’s article for Poets & Writers, "Are Authors Who Twitter Any Fitter?", looks at the issue of social networking and brings up some more good points. In the end, writers must do what they can to stand out, and each new means of promotion that evolves should be given a fair look.

J. Bruce Fuller is the author of 28 Blackbirds at the End of the World (Bandersnatch, 2010), which can be purchased on his blog, http://jbrucefuller.blogspot.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JBruceFuller.

"I haven't got this time to waste. I haven't this time to spare." -- Book 1, The Raj Quartet:  The Jewel in the Crown, by Paul Scott (Avon Books, 1979).


Those words were written as dialogue for a young woman in the midst of a forbidden love affair, but they apply to us all, don't they? Since the first time I read them, years ago, I've remembered them and often told myself the same thing. I haven't got this time to waste. And yet I've wasted so much time I could have spent writing and perfecting my craft. Some "wasted" time was necessary. One must work at a marriage and child-rearing, and eat, pay bills, and sleep. But when I recall years going by when I did essentially nothing with my writing gifts, or when I used them sloppily.When I let opportunities pass me by, or actively sabotaged myself. When I grew stale and tired.

I thought I had time. Well, I don't. So I'm not wasting any now. I'm seizing every writerly chance that comes by. I can't wait for ops to come to me. I go out looking. When I spot one, I pounce on it.

How much time do you have to waste?

Help for writers

A writer has advantages in the technology-driven process which is contemporary publishing: Twitter, blogs, and websites. Conventional wisdom claims an unpublished writer needs to know someone who can recommend her to an agent, or needs to meet one at a writers’ conference and make a good impression. My experience of reading what agents and editors have to say leads me to think there is certainly value in personal contact, but it isn't necessary as long as your query lights the agent's fire.

Finding out what ignites the fire, and what puts it out fast, has never been easier. Follow as many agents as you can find on Twitter. Read their tweets. They often post their submission peeves and frustrations, so you know what to avoid. They also post, along with what they're eating for dinner and how many mice they've discovered in their houses, what they like writers to do and what they want to read. Agents fill their blog posts with advice on how and what to submit and alerts as to when they are and aren't accepting submissions. They run contests where the winner gets a free query critique. Sometimes the winner also gets a crit of the first ten pages or a first chapter. Websites are also valuable, but blog posts give you a feel for the agent as a person as well as a professional.

Some agents to follow on Twitter (not an exhaustive list!): @nathanbransford, @Ginger_Clark, @chipmacgregor, @rachellegardner, @LukemanLiterary, @jonnyagent, @ColleenLindsay, and many, many more. Once you start following a few, you'll find more. Check out their profiles for their blog and website addresses, where you'll find a wealth of information.

Big and small magazines like the Atlantic also tweet, along with some publishing houses, and many writers. Once you get started, you'll be overwhelmed with information and possibilities. Take some time, sort everything out. Don't stalk anyone! But do take part, get your name and photo out there with some fun or serious posts, and see what happens.

I don't write for the Christian/CBA market, but several of my friends and fellow writers' group members do. Here's a post you might be interested in reading:  June 14, 2010, "CBA Trends," at literary agent Chip MacGregor's blog.

Rejection from another angle

If you don't know about literary agent Nathan Bransford (Curtis Brown Ltd), you ought to, if only for his blog. A good introduction is his latest entry, reposted from The Huffington Press Thursday, June 10, 2010, "The Rejection Letter of the Future Will Be Silence (And Why This is a Good Thing)". His follow-up post from Friday, June 11, 2010, is meant to clarify any misconception created on June 10, though I found his original meaning clear.

Bransford takes a clear-eyed, optimistic look at the near future of traditional and e-publishing. See what you think of his reasoning.

Dubious advice from George Orwell?

"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:   What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more:  Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?" ~George Orwell

"And at the end of a month, the writer has a complete paragraph but cannot recall what the deuce his story was about." ~Jan Rider Newman

Becoming Chinese

I love The Daily Show. I almost always get a chuckle. Last night's episode (June 7, 2010) sent me into a wave of guffaws. I'm always glad when Aasif Mandvi is featured. He is so cool. Last night he explored the uproar about teaching Chinese culture and language at a middle school in Hacienda Heights. Some of the parents are concerned that the course will brainwash their kids into becoming Communists. (If you're not laughing yet, go find Rush Limbaugh's blog.)

Mandvi:  "In the same way that anyone learning German becomes a Nazi, or anyone learning French becomes an asshole, learning Chinese has only one outcome."

I lost it at the French thing. Being French and speaking it and all. You know.

Yeah, I was pretty sure it's just me.

Blackbird of the Apocalypse

Blackbirds are my favorite. I grew up on a farm in south Louisiana, and of the many birdsongs I heard every day, the voice of the blackbird sounded sweetest. I loved to see them fly overhead in sinuous, miles-long ribbons. I'd watch them coming and think there was no end to them. Where had they all been? Where were they going?

Yesterday I met J. Bruce Fuller, cofounder of Yellow Flag Press and bought his chapbook 28 Blackbirds At the End of the World. The title intrigued me. I had no idea what the twenty-eight haiku were about, and the only thing the title made me think of was "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie."

By the time I finished the last poem, the old nursery rhyme had been replaced by word-visions of blackbirds bathing in rivers of blood and wings disintegrating in acid rain -- my introduction to horror poetry? But the collection ended on the idea of humankind blasting off a ruined Earth in search of a new home, with a pair of blackbirds as stowaways.

Bye-bye, blackbirds.

I like these poems. I like their voice and their startling images. They are, oddly, fun.

Ho-hum

Ever lose interest in writing? For the last week or so, I'm so not interested. I've got two novels and some short stories to work on. Don't wanna. Is it summer fever? Is it seeing Son and Granddaughter for five days last week and getting out of writing mode?

Whatever happened, I'm just picking at my work as if it's an unappetizing plate full of food. Or avoiding it like a big pile of laundry I don't care to tackle. Which, by the way, I've also got to tackle.

Loss of interest in writing is frustrating. One day I'm bursting with ideas and working them out at the computer, then the next day, all those errands I've been putting off get so urgent. Got to get that bottle of Rose's Lime. Never know when I'm going to want a gin and tonic. That book needs returning the library. It's not due for 3 days, but no use putting it off, is there? The only thing I'm not putting at the head of the list, besides writing, is housework -- yech.

I really think it's time to try a little more self-discipline and maybe some free writing, drawing, photography. Or a cappuccino with a friend, or lunch with my mom, or . . .