I’m so pleased to be able to share with you this review by Austin Gisriel, an author both self-published and published by a small press who has been working with me via phone consultations to build his platform and marketing his work.
As a brand new tweeter, I was most anxious to read a reliable guide to Twitter, and so I was happy to download Shelley Hitz’s Twitter 101 for Authors. Hitz’s website and free material is very useful and while it seemed that $10.00 for a 60 page download with a few extras thrown in was a bit steep, it would be well worth it considering the time that I would save by otherwise having to locate such information myself. Furthermore, I inferred from the title that Hitz’s work would provide insight on using Twitter specifically as a writer. Unfortunately, Twitter 101 for Authors just doesn’t contain much worthwhile information at all.
The section entitled, “How Can Authors Effectively Use Twitter,” which one would reason would be the core of the work, lasted all of one page with another page dedicated to the topic of “how personal” one should get on Twitter. On page 5, Hitz writes, “Unless you’re deliberately trying to get followers, your followers will mostly be your close friends.” That much I knew $10.00 ago. Where’s the part about how I attract legions of Twitter followers in the first place? (In fairness to Hitz, no one seems able to really answer that question.) And once I attract those loyal followers—my legion currently numbers 14—what do I want to say to them? Should I inform? Entertain? Opine? Tell them what I had for lunch in my “voice” so that they’ll feel personally connected to their favorite author?
Instead of answers to any of those questions, I got a “tour” of Twitter, which I had already easily obtained by simply cruising around the Twitter page after I established an account. That tour was followed by introductions to Flock, Postling (I still don’t know what that is), Hootsuite, and TweetDeck. There was no comparative discussion, just a run down on how these systems operated. Then came the pages on Twitter Widgets (Wasn’t that a Monty Python sketch? . . . I digress) where the first mention—in passing—of hashtags occurred. There was no definition or explanation of them although a list of hashtags for writers was included in the package. This list contained the definition, “They are basically like keywords for a webpage.” That made sense—after I read about them in another source. The chapters on promoted tweets is out of place in a beginners’ guidebook and seem to be included just to give the e-book some e-bulk.
Much of Twitter 101 for Authors is written for a generic business, but not specifically for the business of writing. In addition to being relatively useless, Hitz’s work is often poorly worded. “In fact, most businesses will find themselves having to balance personal and professional” is a good example of a Hitz sentence that distracts from her substance.
Twitter 101 for Authors also includes a list of quotes, the hashtag list, a set of Twitter templates (that require Photoshop in order to avail yourself of them), a 10-page brief entitled, “50 Powerful Twitter Tips for Authors” (replete with editing errors and strange wording), and a 33-page collection of tips from a variety of media consultants and writers entitled, “How to Use Twitter in Just 15 minutes A Day.” This contains some useful suggestions, but is often redundant and begins to read like advertising copy. This is because the various authors plug their online, order now, double-secret Twitter tip downloads and incantations at the end of each piece.
Shelley Hitz has offered some very valuable suggestions to writers on a variety of topics. Sadly, Twitter 101 for Authors is not one of them.
About the Reviewer:
Austin Gisriel is the author of Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley which explores the relationships that develop in the course of a college summer league season, not only among the players, but especially between the citizens of New Market, Virginia and their team, the Rebels. His latest effort, 3 Tales From the Grand Old Game is a trio of short stories and is available for any e-reader. In addition, Gisriel has penned Their Glorious Summer which details the year that John Kruk, Tom Browning, and Dan Pasqua played in New Market, as well as articles and essays for multiple venues including Virginia Living, Baseball Digest, and Seamheads.com, one of the country’s leading baseball blogs and for which he is a regular contributor. You can now read all about him at www.austingisriel.com.
