Fledgling tweets

Although I am not short of things to say, I have so far resisted the lure of Twitter.  It’s partly because I don’t have a smartphone (I’m almost allergic to mobile phones and often leave my own – elderly, clam-style – one at home.)  And it’s partly because I fear that once I start I won’t be able to stop.  But every website, book, blog, article and programme about self-publishing says that tweeting is an essential activity for today’s author, so I am giving it a go.

I signed up at the weekend, and spent a happy two hours wandering around looking up authors I admire, friends and random famous people (did you know that the Pope now tweets?) to get an idea of what they tweet.  Apparently it is a big no-no to self-promote on Twitter, which leaves me somewhat at a loss as to why everyone recommends it so highly for self-published authors, but I gather that it is more subtle than that.  You put “helpful content” onto Twitter, gather a following about you, and then they might buy your book.  After a brief flirtation with what I thought was amusing content, which just left me wondering what was the point of it all, I had an epiphany: I shall just use Twitter as I use my existing work website and blog, i.e. to share information about money laundering and financial crime.  After all, that’s the topic of “Fatal Forgery”, and people who are interested in the topic might be tempted by the book.

It’s a bit like watching your gran trying to get to grips with a PlayStation, I know, but if you’re minded to take a look, my Twitter username is @susangrossey.