Thanks for the 140-Character Memories

There are different levels to how annoyed I get when unfollowed on different social media platforms.  Instagram is too difficult to even try and keep track of who follows and unfollows on any given day, so there's no reason to get riled. I tend to feel the same way about Twitter because for me that platform is 99% business, even if a real human connection is made on occasion.

I only bring this up because lately on Twitter there has been a clear and patterned departure in who follows my account. I first noticed this about three months ago with the unfollow of one of the first writers that I made a connection with. I was a little disappointed in that one because it was a writer who I was looking up to and gaining a lot of knowledge from by example. We never corresponded directly, but I did read many of her books. But there were three or four others like this writer, so it didn't matter.

Until this week, that is. The rest of them, all female writers, all working predominately in romance, all starting out as independent and transitioning into traditional are now unaware of what I'm up to. I'm quite sure none of them were paying close attention to my posts anyway, but I do find it interesting that it is happening now. I've been immersed in poetry almost full time for the past six months. I haven't thought about any of my romance manuscripts for a good long while. I don't tweet about romance novels at the moment and I haven't been reviewing many of them either. These could be reasons for the departure, but there are many other plausible reasons too. They could have unfollowed me through a management service that told them I was inactive for a period of time (which is how I found out about the unfollows in the first place), they could have hired a social media manager--I've been in the game awhile now so I know how easy it can be to flush the followers that aren't serving a very specific goal.

I'm not dwelling on the act itself of unfollowing, which can be misinterpreted as removing support for a fellow writer. I really don't think that much thought was put into it. What I did want to do is thank these writers for giving me what I don't think I would have had otherwise--a clear perspective of what its like to be a writer in this day and age. What this job entails, which has a lot less to do with writing and a lot more to do with marketing.

And they all taught me many important lessons about writing in a professional capacity. They taught me that your first book is probably of significantly lesser quality than your latest release, which once I discovered this with all of them was a relief. They also taught me that a devoted, highly engaged following is the only way to keep moving up in the industry. I'm still working that one out, but I do have insights that I can use to try and keep that train chugging along through my own career.

These lessons were important, so I'm glad that I was able to receive them just before and during the early days of my career. Of course those lessons could keep continuing, but like these writers, I have to keep my social media in check--so I've followed their lead and rid myself of what's no longer useful.