Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "twitter"

Recently, I began fiddling around again with my twitter account, and I have to admit that I'm left somewhat bemused. Beaming out laconic message about me throughout the day would bore my "followers" to tears. I just don't lead an exciting life. Plus which, I'm not sure I can come up with a slew of witty or funny one-liners like those I keep reading in the tweets. I guess I'd rather try to be witty and funny while writing my novels. That's not to say the other writers shouldn't be tweeting since they are engaging and humorous. One thing I don't get is the "following" and "followers" aspects of Twitter. I grasp what they are, but how do you get them? Or do they just come to you? I also wonder if writers, especially those like me, could suffer from overexposure if they tweet numerous times. "Oh look, here's another dumb tweet sent by Lynskey. I'll never read or buy one of his books." Like I said, I just don't know.

For a few weeks now, I've tweeted. Mash a message into a 140 characters. Yeah, I can do that. I write in a laconic style. Learn arcane commands. Check. I'm an old UNIX user. I've yet to figure out just what to say. Retweets (RT) have given me some fits. Hash (#) marks are, I've come to believe, a separate art unto themselves. But I know the difference between the "followers" and the "following." I also grabbed my own handle: @edlynskey (in case anybody wishes to "follow" me). I read how some of the famous brand names didn't move fast enough to claim theirs. Snooze, you lose. During slow times, I scan the feeds. Some folks' tweets are creative, others are witty, while others are informative. That's cool. I put out reminders of my book giveaways, big reviews of my books, and pointers to my blogs like this one as well as other stuff. Anyway, I'm getting there. I think.

If you're like me, you're still fairly new at this little thing called "social media." You know: Blogs, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Librarything, Myspace (?), Google X, etc. I'm trying to learn the ins and outs, doing this and doing that. I'm seeing what works (5%) and what doesn't (95%).

Anyway, I'm keeping close tabs on my social media work because it can be a time hog if I let it. It's easy to spend an hour writing a blog entry. Do you know how challenging it is to come up with fresh content? Or I'm lured off to use Twitter and that eats up another hour.

So, time management is essential. Since I write novels, most of my productive day goes into that endeavor. That means I fit social media around my writing, not vice-versa. Or at least that's how I've got it figured out right now. Who knows? Next week may have me realigning my schedule.

Happy reading to you and yours!

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews

Every few weeks, I write about my experiences with the social phenom (or perhaps by now it's blasé) known as Twitter. Well, I've tweeted 742 times, gained 330 followers, and follow 229. Does this qualify me as a more than a novice? Beats me.

I've noticed a few things. One, I try to include value added (good content) with my tweets. Two, my dry humor is usually best untweeted. Three, most fellow tweeters are nice, helpful folks. Four, if I'm not disciplined, twitter eats up my work time.

Since I write fiction, most of my tweets are on that subject. Sometimes I get a little passionate about it. But nobody seems to really mind. What amazes me is I've not run across any flame wars on twitter that is an unmoderated forum. Good stuff, so far.

Maybe I'll read your 140-character message in tweetdom.

By Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews

Every now and then, I weigh in on a blog, talking about my ongoing twitter adventures. I've tweeted almost 2K tweets, so I'm either doing something right, or I'm a failure doomed to repeating myself. LOL. Just kidding. Twitter is fun.

I've met some good folks via twitter. They're friendly and helpful. I also try to support my fellow writers on #WritersWednesday and #FollowFridays. The good karma is returned to me. Do I sell any books? No idea.

My twitter mood is usually upbeat. Nobody likes a whiner. I like to share links to newspaper stories I find interesting. Or I'll give a pointer to a book review (including my own here on Goodreads) I think is worth sharing.

Lately, I've been promoting my new noir Lake Charles released this week in paperback. But I also do my other tweets, since I'd get pretty sick and tired of just tooting my own horn all the time.

Anyways, here's a useful link I dug out covering twitter acronyms and abbreviations from the good folks at digiphile. I bookmarked it for when I get stuck trying to decipher the tweets:

http://digiphile.wordpress.com/2009/0...

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"The most fun traipsing along the muggy, rugged backroads of Appalachia since DELIVERANCE."
Barnes & Noble Mystery Blog

I like tasty foods. Who doesn't? So, early Saturday morning, we rush off to the local Farmers' Market. It's worth making the effort to visit it. Their fresh produce's cost is usually competitve with the grocers' prices. After all, we've shopped all winter at the supermarket to know what the going prices are for each item.

You get to know which seller has which vegetable or fruit you like the best. We bring our own bags or else recycle the plastic trays. The atmosphere stays pretty relaxed, and the people are friendly enough. The most dangerous thing are dodging the yellow jackets attracted to the fruit smells.

If you grew up with tending a family garden, then you can appreciate the Farmers' Market value. Their produce just tastes better. Not all the time, but mostly that's true. Fortunately, I like just about everything except for maybe the beets.

All of the transport, stall set up, and product handling must be a ton of work for the vendors. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of growing the produce. Of course, the fuel costs aren't cheap, either. But one of the good things about the summer is the Farmers' Market.

I've been on Twitter for going on nine months now, and, for the most part, it's been a surprisingly pleasant experience. I've met some great folks, including fellow readers and writers. One good aspect I've noticed on twitter is just about everybody tries to "play nice." The few that don't, I guess, end up getting blocked or unfollowed. Which brings me to my next point.

Creating consistently interesting and worthwhile content for tweets takes some effort. At least it does for me. Variety is what I strive for, rather than repeating the same "buy my book, buy my book" pitch. I read a "20-1 Rule" where you post 20 tweets (not counting retweets or RTs) for each book tweet you make. It's better to give than receive.

Of course you get out of what you put into something. The time invested in twitter can't be evaluated in terms of what returns you get from it. I like to practice time management while using twitter, so I don't let the time get away from me. The twitter admins also impose a ratio rule of followers v. following on its users. That means if you're inactive on twitter, you're likely to lose your followers. So hey, if you're ever on twitter, drop me a tweet.

I'm at @edlynskey.

Ask the Dice (Newest Stand Alone Washington, D.C. Crime Noir)


The Zinc Zoo (Newest P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery)

From time to time, I like to do a blog post on my Twitter experience. Right now, I'm fast closing in on my 10,000th tweet, so I've been at it for a while. I should say up front that I'm using Twitter as a promotion tool for my published novels and writing.

With that said, I hasten to add I've found that doing a lot of promos on Twitter gets old real fast. When I have a new book published, I feel it's necessary to promote more heavily to get the word out. I make announcements by posting links to the new reviews and interviews. But most of my tweets are non-commercial in content.

I follow the old rule don't tweet (or blog) on the controversial topics like politics and religion. On the other hand, I go a little crazy on things I like which includes baseball, film noir, current movies, history, and books. I've also met some great "tweeps" who share my different passions. I've done the same thing through my blog here with the super commenters.

Is twitter still puzzling to me? Sure. But I'll just keep on muddling through with it, and continue to have fun.

Happy holidays to those who observe Easter!

But I didn't get to see it making its final air flight into Washington, D.C. Yes, the old bird has been mothballed for museum enjoyment only. I was out for my two-miler timed, of course, to coincide with the scheduled flyover. I'd almost completed my circuit when I heard the unmistakable roar created by a low-flying jet.

The leafy treeline obstructed my view, but I knew what the noisemaker was, all right. A few of the neighbors were out in their yards, gazing up into the sky. Yeah, it was something to get choked up about.

Now I read for the next few years, NASA astronauts will use tickets costing millions for rides in the Russian Soyuz capsules in order to reach the International Space Station. That's a royal shocker for you. I remember the night of the first moonwalk. That made for international riveting TV viewing.

Still, I suppose the lull will be worth it as NASA and private industry get ramped up for whatever comes next. Mars colonization? That monumental event streamed back to earth would top the moonwalk, no?

Every day I get invites on Facebook to participate in different online games. Farmville, Hidden Chronicles, and I don't what all. But I never play. Games just aren't my cuppa. Nothing is wrong with them. In fact, I have family members who are big gamers. I'm already pressed for time (who isn't, right?), so I can't take a break and learn how to play even if I wanted to do so.

That said, I can see how many dedicated gamers there are, and how much delight they derive from playing their games. So, in my scouting around to create new characters to populate my novels, I'll probably turn to creating a gamer in a future title. Maybe a twentysomething who gets turned on by playing computer games. So, I'll add him or her to my mental list of book characters.

Handheld games have always enthralled folks. Remember the private detective (Dana Andrews) in the film noir LAURA (made in 1944 well before I was born) who played the bead game where you try to roll around the bead and fit it in a tiny hole. Then again, I'll also watch or listen to a baseball game for three hours straight which isn't different timewise to online gaming. Different strokes, hey.