Bodacious & Sundry #7: Review of "Twitter for Writers" by Rayne Hall

I recently finished reading Twitter for Writers: The Author’s Guide to Tweeting for Success by Rayne Hall. Rayne is a speculative fiction writer from the U.K. and has an impressive following of fans on Twitter, 81.6 thousand as of this review. The lady knows what she’s doing. And yes, she does write steampunk.

Facebook has been clamping down on group postings. I like to share my blog posts, especially my interviews with people in the steampunk community, in relevant groups. This is usually greeted with many likes and positive comments, and the posts get a lot of views. However, suddenly Facebook restricted my group usage, and so I started thinking about Twitter. That’s when I found Rayne’s account, and her writing series. Twitter for Writers seemed like exactly the right book.

It covers everything from attracting the right sort of followers to the importance of social interaction on Twitter. Of course, it also covers what not to do in great detail. In the last week, I’ve grown my follower base from 63 people to about 2,200, and have been getting to know other writers and fans. Why post to fifty Facebook groups on a certain topic when you can send out one tweet and get the same, or better, results? Twitter for Writers will teach you the best writer hashtags, best advertising practices, and more.

I would say which chapter I found the most helpful, but honestly, ever chapter was full of ideas and tricks. Learn how to get your conversations with fans and other writers noticed. Learn what image sizes work best. It’s all there.

And now, to admit one more thing. Another reason I took a chance on this book was the attractive price: 99¢. Ever book in her writing series is at that low price. For some perspective, the print edition costs $9.98 and is 240 pages. That's still worth the price, but if you have a tablet, the Kindle version is perfect.

Eventually I plan to compile a list of marketing books for writers that I recommend, and this will be on that list. If you want to improve your Twitter presence, this is the book for you.

Emerging from the Writing Cave

"Where has Jonathan been?" you may wonder. NaNoWriMo, that’s where.

The majority of my evening writing time I’ve been dedicating to finishing the first draft of Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western. I’m using NaNoWriMo as a push to get this draft done with the intention of writing 50,000 words of it during November. I’m just about 3,500 words short of that now. I’ll still have more to write. After the NaNo portion I expect to have between 10,000 and 20,000 words to go. This is by far the longest novel I’ve written, and it’s a blast. I’ve created a world that I want to keep writing about and exploring for years to come.

Incidentally, you can see the current word count by scrolling down to the bottom of the right hand column on this page.

If you’d like to read more about Bodacious Creed, just click the title. Want to explore this world now? You can also read the first prequel story, The Obstructed Engine, simply by signing up for my newsletter either below, or right here.

As always, feel free to comment below. Oh, and click the little blue bird to follow me on Twitter.