Have All Your Friends Disappeared From Your Twitter Timeline?

 

I've seen stacks of people complaining about this recently, and have found a sort-of solution.  It won't make them all come back again, but it's something I've found that works well for me now, and what I'll be using until the Twitterly algorithms sort themselves out (she says, optimistically).

I'm talking about Twitter Lists - I've never fully understood their usefulness before.  Now I do!  You can make a list of all your favourite profiles and use that as your timeline instead, if you wish.  Here's how:

(Please note: I only use a laptop, don't know how it all works on a phone.)

1. Go to the list on the left side of your page, and click 'More'.

2. You will then see this.  Click 'Lists'.

3. That takes you to this screen.  Click on the little rectangle with the two lines, top right (new list).

4. You will now see the screen below, where you can create your list.  Give it a name, a description if you wish, and make it private if that's what you want to do.  Click 'next' in the top right hand corner.

5. You are then given the option to add people to your list

6 ...you do so by using the search facility - click 'add' for everyone you would like to be on this list.

7. Keep adding, and you will now have your list of people whose tweets you don't want to miss.  Obviously you won't be able to think of all those random people you see and exchange the odd emoji with on a regular basis, but they'll pop up here and there, and then you can add them to your list by clicking on the three little dots on the profile page (top right, under the header photo) and choosing the 'Add/remove from lists'. 

 

Here is mine.  If you don't make it private, others can follow it too.

The link to it is HERE

8.  You can now follow the initial procedure to go to your list every day - there you will see all your friends' tweets and nothing else :) 

 

9. Now ... once you start using your list, you may find that you don't want to see stacks of retweets, from people (like me) who retweet a lot.  Might be too many book promos, or just stuff you don't want to see, generally.  In order to see your friend's personal tweets but not their retweets, go to their profile page and head for those three little dots at the top.  

10.  Click on the three dots and you will see this - the first option is to turn off retweets.  Click!

Hope that's easy to follow and is a help!  Do pass on to anyone else you think might find it useful :) 

A Few Dos and Don'ts for #Writers new to Twitter

If you've just started writing your first book, or if you've recently published and have heard that Twitter is a good place to spread the word, you're probably wondering how best to go about it.  I've seen lots of new users asking for advice lately, so I thought I'd compile a quick, easily accessible list.  Please note: it is mostly applicable to writers who have work published, but it's all worth bearing in mind!

There is so much conflicting advice, on blog posts and in 'how to' books; I've read some articles by social media 'experts', and wondered if they actually use the site at all.  One I read recently advised the busy writer to 'do' Twitter quickly each morning by going down their feed and 'liking' all the posts...  😬

I make no Twitter 'expert' claims, but I have over 90K followers, have run very successful promotions for my books and gained lots of readers via the site, for both my books and my blog.  I have also made good friends in the writer/blogger community, some of whom I have met in real life, too.  If all or some of this is what you are aiming for, I hope you find the following helpful - it's not much to take in all at once, just basic dos and don'ts in bullet points.

Do:

• Be friendly, and take an interest in others' work.  Be generous; share and retweet your followers' posts.
• Be genuine, and helpful.
• Tweet about stuff other than your book.  Places you've been, photos you've taken, TV shows and music you like, observations, a funny cartoon, a helpful or interesting article.
• Ask questions.  Most writers and bloggers are happy to share their knowledge/experience.  But not those 'What do you prefer, breathing or yawning' ones, unless you want to alienate anyone who has more than one brain cell.
• Follow, follow, follow ~ not just other writers, but book bloggers, avid readers, and those who share your interests outside the book and writing world.  If all your Twitter activity consists of cheerleading with other writers, you won't reach the reading public.
• Make your profile picture a photo of YOU, preferably smiling, or at least looking approachable (or cool, if you're very good looking!).  Not your dog, or your child - save those for Facebook.  Not your book cover, either - this gives the impression that you're only on the site to sell your book.
• Block anyone who is needlessly rude to you.  Don't engage, just block.
• Retweet, don't just 'like' ~ clue's in the logo and name; Twitter is all about spreading the word.  If you have found a tweet interesting/funny/useful, chances are your followers might like to see it, too.
• Understand that Twitter is not Facebook ~ it will not be possible to interact or keep up with everyone.  In a way, it's a numbers game; out of all those you follow and who follow you within a week, a few may become people you talk to regularly, while most won't.  But that doesn't mean they won't be interested in anything you tweet about, and vice versa.
• Take it slowly; at first, have a look at what other writers do.  Find them on hashtags like #WritersCommunity, #WritingCommunity, #Writers, #amwriting #writerslife - but, as mentioned previously, don't get too caught up in discussions about what your MC might like for breakfast, or those threads that ask you to post a gif expressing what your protagonist's third cousin might think about you getting a book published.  There's a whole world out there.
• Pin a post to the top of your page, by clicking the little arrow at the top right hand of the tweet.  Change it often, at least once a week.
• Add pictures to your tweets; you can add up to four, or one gif.
• Make sure, if promoting a published book, that your tweet contains links to where it can be looked at/bought.  Sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed how many Twitter newbies smother the book promo tweet with hashtags, but leave the link off.  No, people won't go to Amazon and look it up.  If there is no link to click, they'll move on to the next tweet. 
• Enjoy it.  If you don't, if it becomes a chore, it's possible that Twitter is the wrong site for you. That's okay; I've never been keen on Facebook, and this year I finally decided to close my account.  Different strokes, and all that.
• Retweet stuff that isn't about writing and books, too.  Beautiful scenery, interesting articles, funny one-liners, etc.
• Try not to do too many retweets all at once.  It can put off followers who don't want to see a hundred tweets by people they haven't chosen to follow.  Yes, I know, I do too many, sometimes; it's an easy practice to fall into.  Incidentally, if you want to follow someone but don't want to see all their RTs, click onto their page, then onto the three little dots by the 'follow' button.  This gives the option to turn off their retweets.
• Reply, if someone gives you a bit of advice you've been seeking.  Don't just 'like' the tweet; it only takes a couple of seconds to say thank you, and this will make all the difference to the person who tried to help; they may help you again, but are less likely to do so if all you could manage by way of thanks was a quick mouse click.

If you do all this, you will develop a following and, hopefully, find people who are interested in your work. 

Now, I'll balance this out with some advice about what not to do....

Don't:

• Expect to obtain lots of followers, book sales and reviews within a couple of months.  Building up your 'platform' on social media is a long game.
• Introduce yourself to people by providing your book links, either by tweets or DMs.
• Send auto DMs to new followers, with links to your book/blog/website/Youtube channel/Patreon/requests for votes in an online competition/offers of a free book if they sign up for a newsletter/anything else at all.  This is a huge Twitter no-no, and a large number of people unfollow those who do it.
• DM/tweet to new followers/strangers/random people asking them to read/review your book.  Everyone moans about this.  Yes, you may get the odd taker, but these will be far outweighed by the amount of people you piss off.  Seriously.  Just don't do it.
• Make your bio all about your book, and (even more don't!), never use the words 'check out book here', 'buy book here' or anything similar in it.  This is your bio, not a 'buy my book' desperation headline.  Also, don't write it in the 3rd person, as this gives the impression you have someone 'doing your social media' for you; at the very least, it looks a bit pretentious.
• Take notice of those who send those auto DMs - especially not dodgy looking profiles that try to sell you book promotion, claiming thousands of readers in your genre, or whatever.  Often, they just want you to pay for advertising space on their site, or tweets that you can do yourself.  Scammers of all types have been cashing in on the Kindle gold rush since it began just over 10 years ago - please don't get sucked in! (See item 2 of the article on this link for others to watch out for)
• Communicate mostly in the blurred gifs you get by clicking 'add a gif'.  Most are pretty lame, and Twitter is about words, first and foremost.
• Make it all about getting reviews.  Some people do general tweets offering a free copy of a book in exchange for an honest review.  It's up to you if you want to do this or not.  But it's a bad idea to ask for them in a promotional tweet.  Even if the book is free; never, ever tweet anything like 'please download and review'.  Wait until someone has read your book and told you that they've enjoyed it, of their own accord; then you can judge whether or not it's okay to ask them to review it.
• Call yourself a 'best selling author' if you're not.
• Hard sell.  If someone expresses interest in your book, just thank them and answer any questions.  If they want to buy it, they will.  If you hard sell (i.e, by telling them how much they'll love it, quoting from reviews, offering them free copies of other books if they buy it), it may put them off.  Most of all, don't ask them to review before they've even bought it.  They might not like it, or might not read it for six months, and it's too pushy, anyway.
• Engage in a gif game with one or two friends, while 48 other people are tagged in.  Nobody wants to log on to find themselves tagged in 30 blurry gifs of 1990s sitcom stars/yawning chimpanzees.  You want to play gifs - untag everyone else.  Yes, I know they can mute if they don't want to see (the mute option is in the little arrow, top right of a tweet), but it's nicer if you do the job for them.  If you're mentioned in an #FF (Follow Friday) tweet, untag everyone else before saying thank you.  All too often I log in to find myself with over 100 mentions, the majority of which are people I don't know talking to other people I don't know.  Lots of people moan about this - untag, untag, untag!  You do this by clicking on 'Replying to' and unticking the box 'Others in this tweet', and saving it at the bottom.
• Ask strangers for retweets.  You know, you follow someone back and within a couple of hours you get a DM saying 'Hi, thanks for following!  I'd be so grateful if you could retweet my pinned tweet.'  If you want retweets, do retweets.  With luck, others will reciprocate.  Oh, and please don't ask for them in your bio.  This is super-naff!
• Ask people to follow you back.  If they want to, they will.
• Overdo hashtags on your tweets.  I'd say two or three max for a book promotion tweet.  More if it's an advice post or one of general interest, because you want it to reach the right people, but don't go overboard. 
• Hashtag hijack - by which I mean checking out the trending hashtags, and adding them all to your tweets in the hope that this will improve your 'reach'.  Yes, more people will see you, but they will also wonder why this idiot is tweeting about his book on a hashtag that's for football fans, or whatever.
• Let your stream become nothing but endless streams of book promo retweets, with one pinned tweet about your own book at the top, without ever interacting.
• Forget the 'social' in social media!

For more advice for debut authors, here is a list I compiled of useful articles:
List of Useful Articles 

If you would like to read more about how to use social media, I particularly like this article by Emma Lombard, which gives practical, up-to-date advice on how to use Twitter. 

Three Mistakes New Writers Are Still Making

I've been doing this self-publishing thing for seven years now, and during that time I must have read, written, tweeted, retweeted and commented on hundreds of blog posts about the whole complex subject.  Sometimes, when writing a guest post, I think, 'does this really need saying yet again?'  But I forget; I may have been seeing all this stuff forever, but new writers are starting out every day, and won't have read seven years' worth of dire warnings about not getting scammed, not spamming people on social media, etc, etc.

Or maybe it's just that the people who need to read all those advice posts are clicking on the ones entitled 'Three Reasons Why Everyone Will Want To Read Your Novel', instead.  Anyway, a few recent conversations have made me think that these three old chestnuts could do with underlining again.  And again, and possibly again!  So here goes:

Mistake 1:  Skipping the proofreading step.  

Recently, I looked at a novel on Amazon because the (expensive-looking) cover interested me, but I rejected it as a possible buy because several reviews complained about the large amount of errors.  One demanded both an explanation (why would the author publish a novel without getting it proofread first?) and an apology for her wasted money.  The author had commented back that he was so sorry, but he couldn't afford 'expensive proofreading and editing' (although he clearly thought the 'packaging' was worth spending money on!) and he hoped readers would be patient with him while he realised his dream of becoming a published author.  Or something. 

Sad but true: Amazon is not a 'have-a-go' writers group.  The reading public are less interested in your personal dreams than in reading something with the commas in the right places and no spelling mistakes.  

Professional proofreading isn't cheap, but many proofreaders will take payment in instalments if money is a problem, and it really is essential if you want to avoid those bad reviews.  You can edit yourself (if you don't know the difference between editing and proofreading, please read this), but it takes time, patience, attention to detail (ie, considering every sentence), an understanding of pace and structure and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to see when a passage must be cut, no matter how dear it is to your heart.  A good piece of advice I read was to read the book as your enemies would read it, not your friends.

It's also worth bearing in mind that every time someone reads a self-pub novel that's full of typos and punctuation errors, it enforces the theory still held by some that all self-published material is substandard crap.  

Most important: when choosing a proofreader, don't necessarily go for the cheapest, or those who say they use 'proofreading software'.  You need the human eye.  Get recommendations from other authors. 

Mistake 2. Spamming on social media

By which I mean tweeting the book to strangers by tagging them in the tweet, in the hope that they will be interested in it.  Or doing auto DMs asking everyone who follows you to read and review your book.  If you want reviews, you need to look at book blogs individually, see what the blogger likes to read, study their submission guidelines.  If you really feel you must resort to the asking random strangers method, at least check out whether they read your genre, if they do actually review books, and enquire, first, if they might be interested in taking a look at yours.  But it's still best not to do it.

The best way to get people to know about your book is to be active on social media.  Share other people's stuff.  Talk to them.  I've written more about writers on Twitter on Swirl and Thread blog, here.

Mistake 3.  Not understanding the difference between Big 5 publishers, good independents, bad independents, and vanity presses.

... or researching the subject before signing a contract with a small independent publisher or a vanity (often called 'hybrid') press.  

If this is you, please read this article; it might save you much angst and frustration further down the line.

Research, research, research.  Talk to published writers.  Get recommendations.  Don't just google 'publishers'.  And good luck!

Good sites with writing/self-pub/book marketing info:

BadRedhead Media 
Anne R Allen's blog 

More Annoying Language Trends, or just trends....

Bundle

Have you noticed this one?  It's the latest word for any group of related products, e- or otherwise, available for sale, usually at discount.  A 'bundle' of games can be sent to your internet each month.  Looking up our options for paying for WiFi on a long train journey recently, we saw that we could purchase a 'minute bundle'.  Outside Asda, I saw a Virgin van offering their services as a 'customer discount bundle'.  It's not only the internet, though; outside a local butcher, on the blackboard, was advertised the specially priced 'meat bundle'.  Sounds disgusting.

 
Reach Out

No longer do you make enquiries, or ask people about stuff; you reach out to them.  You don't apply for a mortgage, you reach out to your mortgage advisor.  GRRRR!


So

So, I forgot to put this one in at first...  Thanks to Julia and Judith for mentioning it in the comments.  It's the way people randomly start sentences with this word.  As illustrated so well by Julia:
"What do you do for a living, Tom?"
"So, I'm a dentist, and..."


Pulled Pork

It's pork and it looks sort of shredded instead of in slices.  And so it costs more and it's trendy.  I'd noticed it only in my subconscious until Sharon brought it to my attention.  Now, I see shelves full of the wretched stuff every time I go into a supermarket.  Oh, and when you've bought some, you can put it in your...
 

Hand-Stretched Ciabatta.  

Give me strength.


No Problem

Can you remember, back in the olden days, when you'd ask someone in a shop, or behind a bar, or a counter, or on the phone, to do/get something for you, how they'd say "Certainly, madam", or "I'll be just a few moments," or "Yes, that'll be fine," or even just "Yes"?

They don't say any of these things anymore.  Since about 2000, the affirmative answer has changed from that nice, short, convenient little word ('Yes') to the ghastly No Problem.

"Please can I have a taxi from outside Morrisons to *my address*?"
"No Problem"
"I'd like to book an appointment with Doctor Black on Wednesday."
"No Problem"

A while back I was in a restaurant with my father and we'd been waiting for our main course for about an hour.  Every suggestion and request we made to the waiter(s) was greeted with the answer 'no problem'.  In the end, my father said, 'well, there clearly is one, because we don't have our main course yet'.  The waiter's slightly red-faced reply?  'No problem, sir, I understand.'

 
And don't get me started about 'content writer'......

 

How do readers discover books?

If you're a self-published or independent/small press published author, you've probably read many blog posts about what makes a reader choose to buy a book.  Is it the eye-catching cover?  The favourite genre?  The catchy blurb?  The price?  The reviews?  Of course, it's a combination of some or all of those elements.  Before any of them, though, comes the greatest problem of all:

In a time when thousands of new books are published every week, how do you get the reader to discover the actual existence of your book in the first place?  

As well as being a writer, I am an avid reader.  I read 99% of books on the Kindle app on my tablet, and download between 1 and 10 a week.  I read, or start to read, between 6 and 15 books a month.  I'm sure you've seen all those graphs showing how most readers discover the books they buy, so I thought I'd do an assessment of the around 300 books I've reviewed on my book blog.  The categories differ slightly from those you see on standard graphs, but I think the results will be interesting for writers and book bloggers to see how an average Kindle user makes her choices ~ particularly for those writers who don't buy Kindle books themselves, but hope to sell their own.

Here goes:

Amazon: chanced upon during an Amazon browse (usually in 'also boughts'), 

or books that have come up as recommended for me by Amazon.

16

Book Blog: downloaded after reading a review on a book blog, 

or other article about the book/author.

36

Personal Friend Recommendation.

4

Twitter, after talking to the author/getting to know them.

34

Twitter, via a passing tweet.

16

Favourite author: 

When I've read one book by an author via one of the other discovery routes, 

and liked it enough to buy another of their books ~ sometimes just one other, but with some authors that initial discovery has resulted in multiple downloads.

92

Chosen to review from the list of submissions

on Rosie Amber's Review Team, of which I am a member.

90

Other Review Request: I don't take requests generally,

but on occasion a fellow writer has asked me to review a book, 

or I've read submissions for an award.

10

Paperback lent to me.

3

Won the book 
(incidentally, I've since bought and reviewed all of this author's work)

1

Bought after watching a TV programme or film.

8

Classic I always meant to read.

1

Facebook promotion or advert.

0

Goodreads recommendation.

0

Sometimes the categories merge, for instance, when I choose a book from Rosie's review team list that I would have bought anyway.  And do bear in mind that I don't use Facebook much, and when I do it's mostly in a non-book/writing fashion.  It's worth noting, too, that I am about 50% more likely to download a book if it is available on Kindle Unlimited.

I'd be most interested to hear how you make your choices 😃

I am honest caring doctor and have communion in the face and breasts.....

.... I'm talking about the fake profiles that have been following me on Twitter of late!  I get followed by roughly 20 of these per day at the moment, and am writing this so that you recognise them and don't follow them back 😂😄

They target middle-aged women and are clearly made by people looking to carry out some scam or other ~ you never know what you might be clicking on if they send you a link in a DM 😱😲😳.   As Julia has said, in a comment below, it's a numbers game; the people who make these profiles are often run by the master scammer, who knows that if they make enough of them and follow enough people, eventually they'll get a 'hit' ~ someone who is foolish enough to send them money. 

 

Please click the links and enjoy...

Take a look at @Steven21773017

(Note 2024: Steven has recently had a head transplant)

He is a perfect example; a photo that's clearly taken from photobucket or similar, and a bio in bad English.  No tweets.  They're usually 'medical doctors' or 'bankers' or 'army officers', and claim to be 'simple' or 'humble' or 'love God'.  'Am honest and caring man' is another favourite.  Sometimes the maker of these profiles has taken two pictures from whoever's profile they downloaded the photos from, and used one as a header photo too...like Lucas20Davis who is even tweeting the occasional one!

Harry Smit is a great one - look at his tweets; he hasn't realised you need to leave a gap between words to make the user name link work...!!
 
@dennisham3131 can't seem to decide how to spell his name and, though a 'military office', cannot write basic English....

... but centre stage must be given to @albertgrandy3

At least this one's tried harder with the bio!  

....although he appears to be the same person as @Drjimwilliam, a man of 'dignity and honest', albeit about 10 years older.....  and @wonderwilliam56

And then there's @willians6643007 who is clearly the identical twin of @Lewis336David!
whose picture is actually that of Dr Steve Jones, NY hypnotherapist (see below).

They target us in the hope that we are lonely, naive and looking for love; they've probably seen all these programmes like 'My Online Nightmare' about women who fall 'in love' with men they meet on the internet, and get conned out of their life savings.  My sister says she gets them popping up on Skype; they're always respectable looking, middle-aged men in military uniform, but have no actual profile.  Those on Twitter are the lowest of the low when it comes to internet scam hierarchy; they don't want to pay for online dating profiles, and aren't even intelligent enough to make sure their English is right and their profiles convincing!

I was followed by one this morning who claimed to be 67, and left the army in 1971.  That would have made him 18.  Yet he was born in 1947, which would make him 70.  Looks like the maths is as bad as the English....

Be careful.  They might con you out of your life savings.  
Then again,  I doubt they'd know where to start.

(Note: Nov 2017.  This is Dr Steve Jones, a New York hypnotherapist.  His pictures are used for many of the profiles.)

If Twitter had been around in the 1980s... (Part Four)

.... what would some of my Twitter friends looked like, and been tweeting about?

To see what we're up to 30 years on, just click the user name above the picture.
😀😂😈

More youthful faces and Yuppie restaurants in Part One  HERE
... big hair and lack of jowls in Part Two  HERE
... Levi ads and pixie boots in Part Three  HERE

Alison Williams @AlisonW_Editor 

@AlisonW_Editor
#FridayNight: Black hat? Check.  Black make-up? Check.
See you after the black hours....
(btw, am not a Thompson Twin)

~~~

Trisha Ashley @trishaashley

@trishaashley
Pregnant, barefoot but not in the kitchen!  My #artwork on the wall; post-birth, do I take A Leap Of Faith and concentrate on #art, or #writing? 

~~~

Barb Taub @barbtaub

@barbtaub
Where did these come from?  Aren't I supposed to be a high-flying journalist? #amdreaming about a no-kids trek around India....

~~~ 

Sarah Boucher @saraheboucher

 

 

@saraheboucher
Am hoping my fairy godmother will magic me some new shoes 😍 .... the modern day fairytale!  #SixYearOldShoeaholic

~~~

Rose Edmunds @RoseEdmunds

@RoseEdmunds
Life Goals:
Be Sleeping Beauty
Be #POTUS
Be Famous #Writer
Wear pyjamas most days.
Yes, all at once.
#MondayMotivation

~~~

Val Poore @vallypee

@vallypee
That was me, thinking I'd never wear school uniform again... #ProperWritingJob
I WILL live on a barge one day, I will, I will....

~~~

Terry Tyler @TerryTyler4

@TerryTyler4
What a great way to see out the 1980s: meeting Steven Tyler on Saturday, November 25th, 1989! 


..... and I'll leave you with a few more, just for laughs.  First one is Proofread Julia and me, in 1984 😂😆😅

 I think this one was at the beginning of 1983 

(I had my first blonde highlight in 1984!)

 Julia outside my shop in Northampton, in 1984

 ...and a very early 1980s one - think this was taken in April 1980

Might think about doing a 1990s one some time......