@GargoylePhan on Twitter
I was about to RT (retweet) a check-out-my-book link for a writer I've been following since I first joined Twitter. Then I stopped to think about it. No, she doesn't RT anything of mine, but if I based my decision on that, I'd rarely RT anything. I just don't get RTed a lot, that's a fact of life. But I like to RT. I try to RT as much as I can without overdoing it, and I try and spread it around. But this writer (and she shall remain nameless) … I don't remember ever seeing her RT anything by anyone. But then, in a busy stream of tweets it's easy to overlook things and impossible to keep track of everyone, so I went to her Twitter page. And holy %#&$! … every tweet is about her books. There's not a single RT for anyone else's work, not a RT of someone else's amusing or informative or interesting tweet, not a link from her about a cool website or a fascinating newspaper article.
She's been on Twitter for years. She's been on it longer than I have. Yet she doesn't get it. Not only does she not get the purpose of Twitter – you know, socializing on social media – but doesn't get that, if she wants people to help promote her book, she needs to participate. She needs to see us as, if not friends, then friendly acquaintances, or fellow writers, or something other than a means to an end. I can't imagine how someone could be a member for this long and not realize that.
Of course, she's not the only one. But generally the others are very successful, well-known writers. Although most big-time authors do get it, and do share more with us (Including the Twitterly awesome Neil Gaiman, Lilith Saintcrow, Clive Barker, Ryne Douglas Pearson, and Harlan Coben), there are a few who only show up when they have a new book out, or a signing somewhere, or they're going to be interviewed on TV. That's not news to anyone – we all know that a lot of celebrities do that to some extent.
But you'd think that someone who is just starting out, who wants to become a very successful, everybody-knows-your-name, Hollywood-wants-to-make-a-movie-out-of-your-book author would understand that not only can't you do it alone, but that it's just plain not very nice to have no interest in those people you expect to help you along the way.
In the end, I RTed her book link anyway. I may be a wise-a$$ at times (at times?!), but deep down I'm nice.