The other day I did a blatant self-promotion tweet about my freebie days on Kindle. I had little hope that it would do me any good, but I figured...what the hell? Why not?
Then I saw that one of my "friends" from GoodReads (who's also a Twitter buddy) had retweeted my tweet. At the time, I was so grateful because my tweets hardly ever get retweeted. Actually...uh..."hardly" might be a euphemism word for "never" in my case.
Anyway, so he retweets my self-promotion post. Not only that, but two of his followers retweeted his retweet. I was so touched, but not sure how to respond to this kindness. I had already vowed not to become one of those people who clog up other people's Twitter feeds with retweets of compliments and retweets they've received.
I ended up favoriting the tweets. Then I followed the people who retweeted for me. But now I've come to realize something. From what I can see these people retweet a lot of self-promotion posts. It's an act of kindness that's on auto-pilot.
And it is sort of kind. I appreciate it. But my gratefulness has been somewhat reduced.
I think there's a difference between promoting something you really stand behind and just shouting out blindly with no real loving (or liking) behind it.
I belong to a group on GoodReads that picks a writer of the month...or maybe week. They ask fellow group members to promote the book on Twitter and other places. Then those who promote might be chosen for the next promotion. As far as I can remember, they don't ask you to actually read the book.
It all seems a bit fake to me.
I haven't joined in. Yet.
I hope I don't ever feel desperate enough to do that.
Personally, I love to promote things. But I like to promote stuff that I actually like, or at least I'm interested in it. I did some promotional Tweets for self-published novels that I heard about on Twitter. But this was only after I had bought the books and planned to read them. And I DID read them. I didn't blindly promote books I had no plans on reading.
Another friend of mine from GoodReads did some very nice promoting tweets about my novel. She's actually read a sample chapter of my novel and bought it. And I have an old online friend who retweeted my book promo and bought the book. I'm much more appreciative of both of their retweets. It's authentic.
Now are their tweets going to bring me more attention than those who whore-tweet? I don't know. I just know I like them better.
Well, and I would also think that if someone over-frequently promotes other people, his or her followers are eventually going to think Well, he's not really standing behind this piece of art. He retweets everything. It all becomes a bit meaningless.
Then I saw that one of my "friends" from GoodReads (who's also a Twitter buddy) had retweeted my tweet. At the time, I was so grateful because my tweets hardly ever get retweeted. Actually...uh..."hardly" might be a euphemism word for "never" in my case.
Anyway, so he retweets my self-promotion post. Not only that, but two of his followers retweeted his retweet. I was so touched, but not sure how to respond to this kindness. I had already vowed not to become one of those people who clog up other people's Twitter feeds with retweets of compliments and retweets they've received.
I ended up favoriting the tweets. Then I followed the people who retweeted for me. But now I've come to realize something. From what I can see these people retweet a lot of self-promotion posts. It's an act of kindness that's on auto-pilot.
And it is sort of kind. I appreciate it. But my gratefulness has been somewhat reduced.
I think there's a difference between promoting something you really stand behind and just shouting out blindly with no real loving (or liking) behind it.
I belong to a group on GoodReads that picks a writer of the month...or maybe week. They ask fellow group members to promote the book on Twitter and other places. Then those who promote might be chosen for the next promotion. As far as I can remember, they don't ask you to actually read the book.
It all seems a bit fake to me.
I haven't joined in. Yet.
I hope I don't ever feel desperate enough to do that.
Personally, I love to promote things. But I like to promote stuff that I actually like, or at least I'm interested in it. I did some promotional Tweets for self-published novels that I heard about on Twitter. But this was only after I had bought the books and planned to read them. And I DID read them. I didn't blindly promote books I had no plans on reading.
Another friend of mine from GoodReads did some very nice promoting tweets about my novel. She's actually read a sample chapter of my novel and bought it. And I have an old online friend who retweeted my book promo and bought the book. I'm much more appreciative of both of their retweets. It's authentic.
Now are their tweets going to bring me more attention than those who whore-tweet? I don't know. I just know I like them better.
Well, and I would also think that if someone over-frequently promotes other people, his or her followers are eventually going to think Well, he's not really standing behind this piece of art. He retweets everything. It all becomes a bit meaningless.
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