Monday, February 20, 2012

Twitter Tips

I love getting book recommendations. I mean face it, I'm a book person, I love to read and I love it when someone emails me or sends me a Tweet to tell me about something new they have just discovered. That being said, there's a big difference between Tweeting about your book release and spamming your book.

If you're a Tweeter it's perfectly acceptable, and encouraged, to let all of your followers know when your book releases, when you received your new cover, or where your edits stand. Of course, it's also encouraged to let them know where you are on vacation, what you're eating for dinner, what you're reading and other more personal bits of information.

It is unacceptable to send Tweets directly to other Tweeters (starting your Tweet with an @BookEndsJessica is what does this) to tell them about a "great new read" and have it be your book. Frankly, it turns me off. If you're telling me about someone else, I'm interested and appreciate it; if you're telling me about your own book, it's spam and it's irritating, and out of irritation I will probably not read your book.


Jessica

15 comments:

Michael Seese said...

It's always good to get clarification on topic like this.

Thanks.

Ashlyn Macnamara said...

Even worse, when you've just followed them back and they do this. Even worse than that is when they DM you with their book. And no, I'm not going to buy it.

Donna K. Weaver said...

Yep. That bugs the heck out of me and if I see too much of it, I'll block the person who does it.

Brianna Soloski said...

This is important. I follow a few people that only tweet their books and where they can be purchased.

Deborah Serravalle said...

Agreed.

JO said...

I agree completely - twitter seems to be overflowing at the moment with people demanding I read their books. If something crops us I like the look of, then I'll make a note of it. There is no point in telling me over and over again - I'm more likely to cross the book off when people do that!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you posted about this. I think I get at least fifty of these a day sometimes, from twitter and goodreads and other social media. I don't mind and I'll live. It just takes a second to delete them. But it hurts the author. By doing this they are sending out annoying messages/signals, and that's counter productive to good promoting.

Heather Marsten said...

Seems that is commonsense etiquette. If I make a mistake re twitter, it is ignorance, not to play off of someone else's twitter membership list. I would imagine politeness would be to ask first.

Mart Ramirez said...

I hate it when they do that.

Sandra said...

Twitter is highly social, but it can also be highly intrusive if handled incorrectly. Promoting your book on Twitter can be great, and I think tweeting good reviews & other book-promo is fine in MODERATION. A good rule is NO direct promo & NO excessive pimping. The retweets get old fast, kinda like telemarketers or commercials. Enough is enough.

Mark S. R. Peterson said...

Very well said. An update every so often is okay, but some go overboard with repeated tweets. I ignore them before too long. It's sad, really, and I'm a writer.

Sebastian Clouth said...

Hi!

I am the Books editor at Before It's News (beforeitsnews.com). Our site is a rapidly growing people-powered news platform currently serving over 3 million visits a month. We like to call ourselves the "YouTube of news."

We would like to republish your content on our site. Our visitors would love to read it, and find out more about you as a blogger and editor.

It's a great opportunity to spread the word about your work and reach new readers.

We will be featuring and promoting books, excerpts, posts, and reviews on our homepage, on Twitter, Facebook, in our newsletter, and more.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Sebastian Clouth
Sclouth@beforeitsnews.com

Kristin Laughtin said...

People do that? Tacky! I wonder if they realize it's more likely to lead to dropped subscriptions than sales.

Nicole Pyles said...

Ohhh I hate this. One person I'm following on Twitter has been doing this A LOT lately. It's gotten to the point where I'm considering no longer following them even though they are a good blogging friend. Once or twice to promote yourself is okay, but every hour??? Not to mention other people's retweets??? I wouldn't buy the thing now simply because it's been shoved in my face too much!

Glad to know I'm not alone on this one! :)

Amanda said...

I will never buy one when they've never talked to me and start plugging their book directly to me. I have email for that!

Actually, I usually will unfollow anyone who DMs or only ever tweets about their book.