Platform Building – Twitter

My name is Baillie Winters and I am a writer. In fact, we all are. Pretty much everyone in this world is a writer – if you can use a pen and paper, you can write. So, when did writing become synonymous with good writing? Who even defines the art of good writing? What is good for one most definitely may not be good for another. It’s all in perception. Success is a huge factor many people coincide with being a good writer. Money and popularity as well. But today isn’t like the old days. It’s become harder and more taxing to become a good writer, or a successful one or even popular one. Us writers now have to take these things into our own hands. Force our success in the face of adversity and say listen to me. And listen good. Because it’s not enough to just be a good writer. You’ve got to be a whole lot more than that.

In light of this, it seems only fair that for my first proper blog post, I talk about my biggest ally in the writing community and the place that started it all – Twitter. Now for a lot of writers, I’m sure you’ve all had the same thoughts as I: my book will speak for itself; the followers will flock in thousands purely for my eloquent words and big ideas and the richness will be plenty. And it’s a fair ideal. Before social media, you didn’t need to build a platform – you let the writing speak for itself and marketing was just a ploy for your publishers to deal with. Before, you’d write. And that was all. But since the introduction of Social Media starting with Myspace and Facebook etc, the need to market yourself amongst a sea of other writers with the same hopes, wishes and maybe even talent as you has become apparent. Back then, indie writers just didn’t ‘exist’. They were a myth. The way to move forward was by hitting it big with a big publishing company and you were set for life. eBooks didn’t exist. The ability to be in control of your own publishing story didn’t exist. But the truth is, they do now. The ability to publish your ideas and thoughts into a series of pages binded together is plausible for the many. And now so many people want that.

The first place I wanted to start off with, with my marketing strategy, was to create a Twitter account. It was just after my inspiration for a new WIP and I really truly decided I was going to be a bomb bitch. I created my twitter account (@bailliewinters) and I had everything set up perfectly. My first ever tweet was in fact ‘Dear Carter’ (the name of said work in progress). And although it’d become a really good way for me to pinpoint exactly when inspiration hit, it had done little else for me. Because the truth is, I just expected people to hit that follow button and be interested in my work, despite not having shared a single thing about it. I was in such a euphoric phase of new ideas and inspiration at every corner, I completely forgot that I would have to actually work for it. So, I made my twitter account and a WordPress and thought fuck it. I. Am. Good. And for the first maybe two days I was feeling on top of the world. Nothing could bring me down. I decided I was going to start book reviewing like mad – because people love book reviews so surely that would attract me new followers? And admittedly, I was reading a crazy number of books. But of course, this also threw out my writing time (as we all know no-one can get the perfect ratio of reading to writing). Yet the more times I checked twitter, even having posted maybe one or two reviews on it, still nothing. I think I may have had about 14 followers. The real OG’s am I right? But even then, they weren’t followers of value – they were the classic follow for follow kind, despite my inclination to only follow some of the best writers I knew. And I wondered, and wondered, just why I wasn’t hitting it big time. I’d posted some great reviews; I had an unreal bio and my website was so aesthetically pleasing I wanted to print it out and use it as wallpaper. And this really demotivated me. I continued to read, but I stopped wanting to pour out all of my feelings into writing reviews because who would actually care? To me, nobody would. And writing started becoming a chore.

Fast forward to a few months later, having periodically glanced at my twitter page every once in a while, I logged on one day and decided I was going to sort out my life. I remember seeing a #writingcommunity follow train, posted by the amazing @serahjauthor who encouraged all those in the writing community to help us starting out. And I thought damn there is so many of us struggling to make it. But rather than deterring me from following down this route, it encouraged me that this was the best path to take. So, I decided I was going to force my way into the community. I started asking questions and tweeting at and about pretty much anyone and anything within the writing community. My tweets had no responses. I had maybe one or two pity likes but nothing big time. But soon, slowly but surely, I started gaining followers. Follow trains were great and helped me mix with some incredible new people – but they were also a recipe for disaster. Follow hungry people started infiltrating the systems and more often than not I’d find myself following people I really didn’t want to. So, I started vetting who I was following off of the writing trains. And in doing this I started to realise just how great those of us who were truly a part of the writing community were. By looking at individual profiles I was able to interact more and comment on so many new people’s thoughts and tweets. And although I might have been a nuisance on the timeline, I made sure to reply to each and every person who had @’d me. No matter who they were or how many followers they had. And I still do. And it made me realise that I was trying too hard to get lots of new followers and that the number really didn’t matter – it was all about the people who liked me for me, and who would want to see me succeed. Your followers won’t read your books just because you asked them to, but your friends will.

The writing community has become a phenomenal factor in my life. I’ve made so many friends already who all share the same passion and interest for writing that I’ve never found in anyone in real life. It has been a blessing in disguise. It’s made me realise that I don’t want to be that mysterious and elusive author whose followers are bots and inactive accounts. I want to be that author that has an incredible relationship with her readers and future readers. I want to be a part of this community. And I feel like I am. And I hope you do or will feel this way. And for all of you who have been with me since the beginning, thank you. I will never stop thanking you. This journey has been so wonderful because I’ve had you guys to help me see it through.

All the love,

B