Author twitter was a thing, for years. Writers of all stripes, from all parts of the world, and at all stages of the journey made connections there. The very nature of twitter, being text-only, was an advantage to writerly-types. I’ve been on author twitter and connected with other aspiring and accomplished authors since 2009.
That’s a lot of time spent making friends, almost as many as spent writing this blog, which turned 15 this year.
There’s a sense of loss with twitter, because the platform had its own strengths. The easy, quick and transparent dissemination of information has been of real, offline consequence in hundreds upon thousands of cases. It was certainly a little toxic, especially author twitter, but it was also positive and beneficial.
People are mourning twitter (and author twitter), and while I’m with them, I’m grieving over the connections I’ll lose when the site finally goes the way of MySpace and Flickr. This article talks about it in more comprehensive detail and with stronger emotion than I could muster.
There have been many alternative author twitter suggestions floating around in the groups I’m part of. I’m on Instagram and Facebook, so if you’re on either of those, let’s connect. Drop me your profile in the comments, and I’ll follow you.
The author twitter alternatives I hear most about are Mastodon and Threads. I made a token Threads profile, but I haven’t done much. Tiktok scares the crap out of me because I’m not a video person, and flashy images give me migraines. There’s also Blue Sky, which is very twitter-like given that it comes from the twitter founder, but it is invite-only, and I haven’t had the energy to go begging for invites yet.
And that’s the crux of the problem. It’s social media burnout.
While I’m devastated that I’ll be losing all the connections I made on Twitter, I feel too exhausted to go and gather all those friendships and transfer them over to other platforms.
I’d love to stay in touch via this blog, and if we mainly spoke on twitter, I’d love to hear from you on Facebook, Instagram, and that most ‘traditional’ of ways to keep in touch over the interwebs: the humble email.
I send out free gazettes each month: one with writing advice, another filled with reading recommendations, and a third with snippets from my Blue Mumbai Universe. The links will take you to examples of each in case you’d like to connect on any one of those, and if you like what you see, you can subscribe to stay in touch. I’m always keen to give shout-outs and support to all my writing friends–please let me know if you have a book out, or would like to appear in a guest post.
My prayer today is that the death of twitter (and author twitter) doesn’t lead to a devastating loss of connections. That we all find each other, because as I’ve said often enough before on this site: online friendships count just as much as offline ones, if not more.
What about you? If you were on twitter, where are you moving to? Are you looking for alternatives to author twitter? Have you decided to stay away from social media? What do your social media connections mean to you?
This is the first Wednesday of the month post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Founded by the Ninja Cap’n Alex J. Cavanaugh, the purpose of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share their fears and insecurities without being judged.
This is a wonderful group–if you aren’t a part of it, I urge you to join in!
The awesome co-hosts for the August 2 posting of the IWSG are Kate Larkinsdale, Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence!
My literary crime novel, The Blue Bar is on Kindle Unlimited now. Add it to Goodreads or snag a copy to make my day. The sequel, The Blue Monsoon is up for pre-orders! And if you’d like to read a book outside the series, you can check out You Beneath Your Skin. Find all info about my books on my Amazon page or Linktree.
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I’m on HIVE, and I’ve mostly been promoting my blog there.
Thank you for sharing!!.. after watching the changes and the path they have taken over the years I quit Twitter, Facebook and others a few years ago.. not sure at present it I will try another social media like Twitter, Facebook at this time, will see how the world goes… there are many options out there… 🙂
Hope all is well in your part of the universe and until we meet again…
May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!
(Irish Saying)
Like you, I’m tired of it all. I just share blog posts I read and write to Twitter and have my few writing communities. I don’t click on anything to read there, there is just so much hate everywhere. Facebook is already making it hard for Canadians to see most anything. They can all take their greed and enjoy. Until FB boots me and Twatter closes completely, that’s it for me. 🙂
You and I go beyond Twitter, as do some of my dear blogger friends. So, I am not really worried if Twitter goes where it is headed. 😛
If Threads ever gets a desktop version, I might join. I’ll stick with twitter for now (X as it is called) since I can avoid all the BS by sticking with only book twitter. I’m on Instagram but only put posts up about reviews and not my other posts. We shall see…
I just found you on Instagram! I would love to stay connected. 🙂
I’m afraid of missing an opportunity and haven’t yet figured out where my ideal audience is so I’ve joined them all (well most). Mastadon I use as my safe haven. (No toxicity!) and finding experts (had a professional astronomer answer one of my science questions there for my novel). Threads I use as a twitter replacement. Instagram I share slices of life and book photos. TikTok I stressed too much before and now I’m just doing whats fun or what I enjoy which includes LOTR content, my flowers, reading, and my writing. Tumblr I cross post everything there. Facebook I cross post but also interact with local stuff like parks and museums. I’m still on Twitter and found several awesome writers I interact with regularly. My blog I’ve had for probably 15 years but still don’t have much of a following which makes it hard to stay motivated to post. At least I do IWSG!
I’m trying out Spoutible. It’s basically Twitter, got an app and a desktop site, but with a Whale as the icon instead of a bird.
I deleted my personal account over two years ago because of how toxic it was but kept DLP’s account. If the liberals all flee Twitter, I’m okay with that. I’ll certainly keep DLP’s site for a while.
I’ve had burnout from social media for some time now. Whatever I was doing, it didnt work from an author point of view, although I met loads of lovely people. I’m selling more as a result of the craft fairs I go to. It may not be a huge worldwide audience, but I’m happy with it!
Hi Damyanti – there should be a snail mail on its way to you – surprise, surprise! I don’t do any of those other things and am unlikely to add them in – blogging is sufficient … I have FB that I look at for contacts … but don’t do anything with it. I’m going to get going with a newsletter – and must get my mailing list sorted … the work is going on very slowly. I sincerely hope I won’t lose touch with you – cheers Hilary
This is me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090397669978 I’ve looked at Mastodon, but so far I’ve found it rather cumbersome and unwieldy. I’m staying on Twitter for the moment, but I do find I’m engaging less and less on there. Perhaps I’ll just stay with the blog…
I’m still trying to keep up the posting and interactions on Twitter, in the hope that it will pay off. I haven’t tried Mastodon, so thanks for letting me know!
It’s funny coz I chose Twitter over Instagram and Facebook! I closer the fb account and Instagram is dormant. I guess I will head back to Insta after a while. I used to follow you there. The blog is always there. But I will probably lie low until the children’s ms I’ve submitted finds a home. I’ll probably think of what to do then. But I will miss Twitter. I had a good circle there.
Same here. I just hope that the connections and friendships I’ve made stay strong, even beyond Twitter. Best of luck with the ms! Hoping it finds a good place soon.
Thank you!
Hi Damiyanti,
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog posts on writing for some time.
I left Twitter when Musk took over and am fed up with social media. I also have a distaste for corporations like Meta harvesting and selling personal data, whether for advertising, or for political manipulation as was seen in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. I believe that Threads is still unavailable here in the EU due to non-compliance with GDPR.
So I maintain reluctant Insta and FB accounts – I’ve followed you on Insta. I find that most of my connections on Insta are with writers and creatives in my local area, while I use FB to connect with specific closed groups. I also joined Mastodon but in doing so I lost track of the people I’d been following on Twitter.
It had taken years to find all the people in my Twitter feed – writers, historians, publishers, medics (I’m a doctor who is also a historical author) etc – so that’s all gone now. But I’d rather sacrifice that than have anything to do with Musk. I used to waste too much time on it, anyway. There are too many ads on social media – it’s like trying to have a conversation with the TV blaring. Nor have I ever found SM an effective channel for book promotion, an experience shared by other writers – the consensus seems to be that only adverts on Amazon and FB work.
I’m lucky that I have friends who are also historical writers. I met three of them though a MOOC run by the University of Iowa. I’ve met others through the Historical Novel Society – I belong to the Irish branch and we have quarterly meetings in Dublin. I’ll check out the group you mentioned.
I agree with Janet’s view that the golden age of social media is over.
Just have to keep on writing… what’s your next book?
Hi, Maybelle! Thank you for taking the time to visit the blog and comment your thoughts. I’m very grateful to have you here. I completely understand what you mean — social media can be so draining. I can’t say much about my next book yet, but I’m looking forward to when I can! In the meantime, I wish you all the best.
Hello we haven’t spoken on twitter but I follow your blog. I sent you a Facebook friend request and and started following you on Instagram.
It is too bad about twitter and especially author twitter, which I was not part of. But after Elon started mistreating his employees I decided to quit twitter. I was not very active there anyway.
It’s good that you managed to get out early! And thank you for being a constant supporter, Thomas.
I’m on Tribel and I like it… hope to see you there some day..
Maybe some day soon!
For now I’m still on Twitter (I refused to call it X), but I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the platform unless Musk sells it. Threads is OK but lacks something–not quite sure what. Facebook has become less and less engaging over the last few years. I fear the golden age of social media is over.
Twitter has been around for so long, that it’s near impossible for me to imagine calling it X. And yes, I fear the same thing!
Twitter is still around, it just got rebranded as X, for whatever reason. I will continue to use it, as before. I also joined Threads but am not thrilled with it. It’s only available as a smartphone app and I prefer using a laptop. As for Mastodon, it doesn’t hold much appeal. I opened an account there too, but haven’t been too active. Not much going on there, far as I can tell.
Thanks for letting me know, Debbie! I haven’t really looked into Threads much, but from what you’re saying, it doesn’t sound too promising. And as for Mastodon, you and Mick seem to share the same opinion of its capabilities.
Well, Twitter is still alive and well, just changed it’s name. I kind of like it. I assume there were legal issues with the ‘Twitter’ brand Musk is trying to get around. So far, usage hasn’t dropped. My understanding is he sees a vision of its future as something akin to the hugely popular WeChat. I don’t use Twitter enough to really care either way!
Fingers crossed! I’m hoping for the best.
I might look around for an alternative but I’ll hang with Twitter for a while longer.
I’ll probably do the same.
Interesting how Musk selected an X to substitute for the Twitter label. X is usually when you eliminate something and he seems to be a wrecker as well as a brilliant man with a king size ego. Let’s see how Threads takes off.
And the X couldn’t be more different from the original blue bird!
He has really messed up that platform
I definitely will miss Twitter when it goes. Although I haven’t been active in the last couple of years, I still think of it in fondness. I made so many connections there (including one with you! I think that’s how we connected). I’m hoping more online forums pop-up, like the one I used to have with Writer’s Digest. But for now, blogs and newsletters are the way to go I guess.
And I’m very grateful that we connected! Twitter has definitely played a role in enlivening my circle and helping me reach out to countless wonderful people.
The old adage “When it rains, it pours.” is certainly holding true. Like you, I’ve set up a Threads profile but not done much with it. It just doesn’t catch me the way Twitter did. I’m definitely not a Tic Tock devotee. Anything with Chinese underpinnings is not my cup of tea–to use another cliche. I’m in the process of dumping WordPress which has caused me more headaches than it’s worth, so I’m not sure where I’ll wind up, but I’m on the hunt. Substack is coming out on top so far.
Best of luck with everything — hoping your hunt yields good results! I think that I might check out Substack soon.
I left Twitter several months ago and haven’t missed it or replaced it with another platform. My most meaningful online connections are through blogging. I have the feeling that I will end up doing something on Substack because I’ve already found one community of like-minded literary fiction writers on LitMagNews. The main thing holding me back at this point is what content I would share with people. I don’t want to post content that I post on my blog.
I understand what you mean. Blogging is such a big part of my life, as are the friends I’ve made because of it. It’s lovely to hear that you’ve found a supportive group on LitMagNews! I wish you success with Substack!