According to who you ask Twitter is dead. In a surprising move, South African-born American entrepreneur Elon Musk proposed to buy out Twitter after previously acquiring 9.1% of the company’s stock for $2 billion on April 14th, 2022. With all the controversy surrounding the Twitter buyout Bethany Jett and Cyle Young answer, the question of whether is Twitter dead for the writing world?
Twitter is a versatile platform that can be used for many things, from finding new clients and growing your audience to becoming an even better writer. In previous articles, we’ve discussed How to Find Content to Share on Social Media and Tips for TikTok. Now without getting into things or stepping on toes, Twitter has seemed to suffer recently from people thinking that if they don’t agree with what is being said that they are wrong. This has sent shockwaves throughout the Twitter community and as a result, we’ve seen some users completely stop using the platform.
Is Twitter Dead?
That being said, we would like to explain some of the changes that may be coming to Twitter and why you should still be on the platform as a writer. First, Twitter has been a very viable platform for the writing world and is going to come back into relevance. With it being huge in the Writing and Entertainment world, you have to go where your audience is.
This is basic marketing.
You’re not gonna try to promote your book at an NHRA event and expect to get results (unless the book is geared for high-powered cars, but we digress on that for now).
Next up are the changes that Elon Musk spoke about implementing on the platform. The biggest takeaway that you should know about this is the open-source algorithm information. Without getting nerdy, the algorithm is what drives your content. Miss the algorithm and your content hits a small group of people. Nail the algorithm and your content can go viral in hours.
But what does this mean?
Platforms do not really share what can trigger the algorithm. Savy people will often figure these algorithms out over time. Now if you know exactly what you need to do to trigger the algorithm it’s huge. Your strategies can be tailored specifically to your needs as a writer. Now for the best part, hitting that algorithm will rapidly grow your platform. Putting that into numbers for a visualization would you rather have 10% of your current audience buy your books or 5% of a million followers buy your books.
Hear us Out:
Part of this podcast episode is all about Twitter, and the second half is about diversifying your writing income. Enjoy!
Bethany and Cyle go into this in greater detail on the Serious Writer Podcast and we urge you to tune in to hear what they have to say. As the famous quote goes “Knowing is Half the Battle”, if you are not competitive on Twitter you are only hurting yourself. Spend the time learning and following what is going on with Twitter to stay ahead of the game, because it’s not just about having a great book you have to get it into the hands of the right people.
We are absolutely thrilled to announce the semi-finalists of the three contests for Serious Writer this year. Our judges had such a hard time narrowing down the semi-finalist lists, and we can only imagine it will be harder for them to pick finalists, and then winners.
Below you’ll find the lists for each contest.
Announcing this year’s Book of the Year Semi-Finalists. We had so many wonderful entries.
The Very Best Story Ever Told – Robin Currie author Easter Is Coming – Tama Fortner Books Kind Soup – Jean Petersen Willoughby Goes a Wee Bit Batty – Pam Halter I Know What Grandma Does While I’m Napping – Shelley Pierce Author Fire Dancer – Catherine Jones Payne Keen – Laura Croman Zimmerman In Search of the Beloved – Marian Rizzo Practically Married – Karin Beery – Author Off-Script Over-Caffeinated – Rhonda Rhea Deadly Guardian – Deborah Sprinkle Pocket Change – Debbie Archer Valerie’s Verdict – Hallee Bridgeman Shattered Treasure – Cindy Patterson The Watanabe Name – Sakura Nobeyama Dandelion Summer – Mary Ellen Bramwell – Author When Valleys Bloom Again – Pat Jeanne Davis Shadow of the Dagger – Anne Greene The Truth that Lies Between – W.D. McComb Restoring the Shattered – Nancy E. Head The Joy Box Journal – Adria Wilkins The Art of Hard Conversations – Lori Stanley Roeleveld Anxiety Elephants – Cari Snider The Gratitude Challenge – Stephanie Jones Celebrate Grandparenting: 101 Ideas to Intentionally Connect with your Grands – Elaine McAllister Pursuing Prayer – Penny Cooke I Am Cyrus – Dr. Craig Von Buseck Refine & Restore – Rachel C. Swanson – Author, Speaker, Life Coach When you Need to Move a mountain – Linda Shepherd Smack Dab in the Midlife zone – Leigh Ann Thomas
Because we’re judging this contest blindly, only the names will be provided of the authors who have advanced to the next round of the competition. Some authors have more than one entry going onto the next round. If this is the case, it is noted by their name in parentheses.
Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Amazon Best Selling Author of The Tracy Crosswhite series, The Charles Jenkins Series and the David Sloane series.
His books have sold over 5 million copies in over 25 countries, and his novels My Sister’s Grave and The Eighth Sister have been optioned for television development. Robert and I discussed the ins and outs of writing crime thrillers and police procedurals. Here’s a look at our conversation.
Join us as we break down the four most popular genres in the industry! This first episode in our Back to Basics series will take an in depth look at Suspense, Thriller and Science Fiction books!
Cherrilynn Bisbano is an award-winning writer. She founded The Write Proposal after reading hundreds of book proposals with avoidable errors. These errors cost the author a contract or representation. As a submission reader and junior literary agent, Cherrilynn wants you to succeed. Her desire is to help you present a professional and memorable proposal. She has written proposals for Paws for Effect, a Hollywood movie company, and helped edit many proposals. As the managing editor of Almost an Author, she helped the website earn the #6 spot on the Top 100 best writing websites for 2018 by The Write Life and Top 101 Websites for writers with Writers Digest. Cherrilynn can be reached at editor@thewriteproposal.com For more information about the Write Proposal visit www.thewriteproposal.com
