Before it occurred to me that I could write anything at all, I was a voracious reader. Certain authors have that certain kind of magical ability that makes you forget about the real world around you, and get lost in the worlds that they create. It’s a form of love, I think. I greedily awaited new books from my favourites, impatiently awaited sequels in series. For any book I truly love I’m always hopeful of sequels. I suppose that any writer who writes something that really resonates with a reader must share something in their character with that reader. Kindred spirits in a way. And the feelings or emotions that those books brought on always made me feel a very real connection to the author. It’s what kept me going back for more. That, and the personal touch. Knowing something about the real person behind the pen.

I remember always reading the “About the author” blurb before starting in on any new read, and I always wanted to know more, so I do that even if I’ve read ten of the author’s books just in case they’ve shared something new. Someone who can write a story that you can almost believe you’re living, someone who takes you places nobody ever has before – that is definitely someone you want to call friend. But famous people can never be your friend, not only because of the real live weird stalker trolls out there, but because they have way too many fans to chat to all of them. The few that they do chat to will be their slaves for life though. I’ll be Leo Sayer’s slave for life because I got a kiss on the cheek from him in a shopping mall when I was fifteen – had to bend down to get it though. No cracks about short people now. Ahem…

Things are very different with indie authors these days. Just the opposite in fact. Indie authors are very happy to connect with their readers, and if they’re not, they really should be. Most people lead busy lives. Even though I am a writer myself, and spend most of my hours dealing with others involved in writing, I’m very much a lover of reading. But because I’m also very busy these days, it’s not easy for an author I don’t know to catch my attention well enough for me to want to read their book. I actually have bought a couple of books from the “Oy, buy my book!” brigade, but that was only because my actually wanting them really, really badly overrode my normal reaction of not buying them on principal.

So, what is the indie author to do? I think that connecting with as many people on as many sites as you can manage is a start. My favourite places to be are my blog and Twitter. Twitter is often much maligned as too time consuming and a waste of time, but I truly believe that the time spent there can be one of the most worthwhile investments a self published author can make. I personally really have a lot of fun on Twitter these days, but until a few months ago I was terrified of it. I’d log on and wade through hundreds of retweets owed, and finish up hours later exhausted, and in a really bad mood. Auto retweeters and Hootsuite don’t do it for me because I have serious control issues – but that’s just me. I love that so many other people are on Auto Tweet though. I get a lot more retweets from them than I used to.

Back to the point I was getting to. I went through a few weeks where I couldn’t get to my computer at all, and by the time I logged back on, and the ocean of notifications from all of my sites hit me in the head hard enough to knock me over, bringing on a panic attack of epic proportions, I decided to just start from scratch. I’d got so stressed about being unfollowed and being thought of as someone who doesn’t pay her dues, that a line had to be drawn, so I shrugged my shoulders and decided to have a little fun with Twitter instead. I read through the tweets, and suddenly realised that there really are a lot of fun people out there. I have loads of followers who aren’t writers, and I follow all of my followers back, apart from the bots. There were tweets about all sorts of non book selling things that I really enjoyed. The short and sweet tweets, the funny photos, the fantastic musicians – so many people that I wanted to know.

It was never my intention to turn them into friends or readers, but that is what happened when I started to just enjoy Twitter. I still do, and even though it’s got busy again, I find that my silly tweets, my tweets of the funny birds that I love, and my replies to other tweeters actually have caught the eye of readers much more than the “Oy, buy my book!” ones have. These days I pop over to my gmail as often as I can, and if there is a notification from Twitter, I head straight over and either reply or retweet immediately, so I seldom get bogged down and have to do major catch-ups the way I used to. I’ve bought lots of things because I’ve found them on Twitter. Mostly books, and mostly because their authors caught my attention with something funny, cute, or interesting as I was zooming through.

So my advice for indie authors considering using Twitter as a marketing tool would be to tweet at least five personal tweets for every two book advertisements. Reply to others tweets. Don’t only retweet the bookish. Retweet a variety of things from a variety of people. Add pictures to your tweets. For instance, when you post a book link, add a gorgeous picture relating to it. I’ve used all sorts from angels to dragons. These are the things that catch the eye for long enough for a potential reader to click on your link. For indies it’s all about interaction. And it should never stop. Think Hugh Howey – he still spends lots of time on Twitter, no matter how many books he’s sold. He still interacts, and he still posts the funny and the cute. Instant fame is unlikely indie guys, so, go forth and Tweetaply.