Monday, August 17, 2009

If At First You Don't Succeed, Tweet Tweet Again

So one of the hot topics of conversation and workshops at the recent SCBWI conference was all the social media opportunities available to writers. It was all Facebook this and Twitter that. Well, let me tell you, Mary and I felt a bit Tweaked because we had tried Twitter and we weren’t wowed by it. Clearly we were missing something. Not only that, we were in danger of being passed over by a major trend. SO not acceptable!

So we put our thinking caps on and, with a great Aha! moment, came up with a new idea. This whole process has been a great reminder to us that one should constantly revisit this stuff when it feels like the universe keeps shoving it in your path, and snickering when you trip over it. ☺

In addition to hearing all-Twitter, all the time at the conference, we’d received a few emails from readers who miss our twice a week posting. So….we are going to begin twittering again, but as the Shrinking Violets, not Mary and Robin! (Anyone else hearing a resounding d’uh! in the background?)

Yeah. Pretty obvious, huh? Not sure why we didn’t think of it before, but for the both of us it was like, of course! We need to turn to our strengths when we have to stretch our comfort zone. Peppering people with twits felt a lot like saying look at me, which is way outside our comfort zones. But giving away something—whether advice or encouragement or reminders on how to promote your books—well, we’re all over that.

So we have formed a new twitter account: @shrinkngviolets. (Notice that missing i in there. Someone else got to our name first—le sigh!) We will begin tweeting today, so pop on over and follow us. We promise not to flood your tweet deck. Instead, we will send you once daily tips, reminders, affirmations, and suggestions for caring for your introverted self as you navigate the extroverted world of book publicity.

Be one of our first fifty followers and you will be entered in our First Official Twitter Drawing, in which the lucky winner will receive a personal pedicure by Mary Hershey, who will travel to your home and paint your toenails a special Shrinking Violet color, blended especially for us.

No? O-kay. Be that way. How about a box of Sees Candy instead?

Speaking of followers, we’ve been noticing on other blogs those cool squares of blog followers and thought we’d try that out here. It’s fun to see everyone’s lovely avatars. AND, just to make the whole following thing a lot more fun, in the future, whenever we have drawings for prizes, we’ll pick the winners from the followers rather than the comments. That way the super-introverted of you won’t even have to speak up to enter. Unless there’s a quiz involved, and then you will have to enter in the regular, old fashioned way.

And one last thing. The conference also reminded us what a great, big thrilling event it is to have a book published, even if it’s not your very first one. In honor of that, we here at SVP want to start celebrating book launches. So if you’re a Shrinking Violet and have a book launching in the next year or so, let us know, would you? We’d like to celebrate those moments and shout your accomplishments far and wide. Email Mary with the deets, and we’ll coordinate a list. Also, if you have a book out and you haven’t seen it up on the sidebar, be sure and email me the info so I can get it up on one of our book cover rotations.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you're back, guys. If you're around Tuesdays at 6:00 our time (I think!), stop by at #kidlitchat for an hour or so. It's Twitter at its craziness, but full of great kidlit writers just talking.

Anonymous said...

Great ideas!

Katy Cooper said...

This is genius! A brilliant idea.

Crystal-Rain Love said...

I actually just joined Twitter today so I'll hop over now and add you.

Anonymous said...

I just joined recently, and was looking for you! Serendipity that you posted this today. I've added you. @JennRHubbard

I read this blog regularly, but I don't "follow" because I'm on LiveJournal. So I suggest taking entries from both followers and comments.

R.L. LaFevers said...

Yeay, so happy to see you all over there!

And Jenn, great point about the "follow" thing being Blogger-centric. I'd forgotten about that. Although, I do think that you can do the sign in thing using Open ID, but yeah, we'll have contest entries come from both sources. Thanks for the head's up!

Becky, totally missed the live chat. We'll try to catch it next week!

Mary Hershey said...

Thanks for all the "deets" from everyone about their launches coming up this year! Most excellent.

Love-LOVE-love seeing your lovely mugs on our sidebar. Fabulous idea, Robin!

And we're OFF!
:-)
Mary Hershey

Tabitha said...

Yet another reason why I love your blog so much. :) I'm one of those non-vocal followers...

I'm following you on twitter, and am glad of the promise not to flood my tweetdeck. I just can't keep up with the chatty extroverts!

i, chihuahua said...

your blog is trualy just what i needed in my life. i too came back all astounded at the online world of promotion, and am grateful to you for taking on the subject in a way that us sit alone in our studios types can digest.

thank you, and i look forward to the future with you.

Robin L said...

Yes, Tabitha. We promise not to chat! And thanks so much for introducing yourself and letting us know you're one of the silent followers!

Karen Ann, SO glad you found us! Because yes, the world of online promotion--and the perceived demands that we all jump on board ALL the platforms--can be overwhelming.

giulia said...

I, too, am a voracious reader and silent writer. I have a deep set horror of Los Angeles, so I am ready to learn other ways. I could really use some techie help with developing my blogspot as well as a website for faceless interaction with the public. Also, my best work gives a lot of folks the "vapors", but scary, creepy movie lovers absolutely love it. How do I find the movie makers without ever having to suffer L.A.?

Thomma Lyn said...

What a fabulous idea! I'm a fan of your blog, but I don't comment much (guess because, well, I'm introverted ;) ). But I'm now following you on Twitter, and I retweeted your marvelous tweet on making your next book better than your last. My debut novel came out in May, and I'm hard at work on my next one -- moving right along, and thank you for your blog -- I've learned a great deal from it and found marvelous inspiration from my fellow introverts.

BonnieA said...

I'll second Becky's invitation--please do join us at #kidlitchat Tuesdays, 9 pm Eastern.

Glad to know you guys are tweeting (am off to follow as soon as I post the reply).