The Way You Tweet Makes Me Cautious of Working with You
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Nov 30 2021
Twitter. That horrible wonderful place where you can get all of the information you need and also, nothing you needed to know. Like many, I have stepped away from Twitter in the past year or so. I’ll share things and I’ll skim through, but I don’t spend that much time there. I’ve found that Twitter, like other social media, can be a dangerous place for my mental health and also negatively impact the way I think of other people and colleagues.
As I discussed in a previous blog post about how I choose editors to submit to, part of that process is finding a good fit for my client. That means personality, it means how they might be viewed within their company (clout) and it means editorial style. Some of this I know through conversations with editors and some, sadly through how they interact on Twitter.
Yes, I have made decisions to cross editors off my list based on their Tweets. The editors who are constantly criticizing or throwing shade at authors and agents aren’t people I feel would be a strong part of the author team. I want editors willing to work together for the author. Editors who like authors and want to fight for them. Editors who don’t hate agents.
The editor constantly subtweeting their own company concerns me. How much support will this editor have for their books when the author needs support? If the editor is constantly complaining about their company how long will they be there, or are they already looking for other jobs?
And the editor who just plain complains constantly doesn’t really fit the type of person I personally like to work with. I’m not all Pollyanna about the world, but I do like to see hope and confidence.
What you say publicly does matter and does get remembered. It doesn’t mean you can’t make mistakes or say the wrong thing, but how you consistently represent yourself, tends to show who you really are.
I’m the same, having mostly stepped away from twitter. I’ve stayed only to do research on agents really, although I am thinking of abandoning it altogether because it is such a negative space these days.
Yes, agree… this also goes for agents. It’s very telling. Conversely, the absence of a social media presence is also revealing too.
I just decided not to query an agent who had previously been really high on my list for this very reason. After a few years on the platform, it’s pretty clear that Twitter won’t get you a lot of book sales/clients, but it certainly can cost you plenty if you’re not careful. This is why I focus on building relationships within the writing community and not much else at this point. Reading this validates that decision a bit.