How to use Twitter to expand your #AuthorPlatform

Unless you are completely unfamiliar with social media, you've at least heard of Twitter. A social media platform where you send out messages of 140 characters or less. When I first heard about it in 2008, someone explained it to me as a site based entirely on Facebook Updates. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of," I said with disdain. Fast forward to when I decided to indie publish and I knew I needed an author platform. Blog… and what else? I wanted my internet presence to amount to more than a few blog posts that would get lost in the void. So then I reluctantly went to Twitter. I created my profile and tried to figure it out. Fast forward again, and I'm at nearly 4K followers and I pretty much "live" on Twitter.

It is my absolute favorite way to connect with readers/bloggers/fans/other awesome people. It's also a quick way to reach a lot of people that you might not be able to reach. So how do you make Twitter work for you?

1. Follow as many book people/bloggers as you can. Don't do this all at once, because Twitter will think you are a spambot and shut down your account for a few days. Follow people who write in your genre, bloggers you read, agents you might be interested in. I'd also suggest following @maureenjohnson and @TaherehMafi, both authors who are brilliant at using Twitter.

2. Watch and learn. I spent at least a week just creeping on other people's Twitter feeds to figure out "how" to tweet. What people liked, what they found interesting/funny. Which leads me to…

3. Figure out your Twitter "style". This is very much like figuring out your writing style. I try to tweet in the same style that my books are, so people can judge what kind of books I write based on my tweets. I follow the styles of Maureen and Tahereh because they are similar to my personality. Some have described my feed as a string of non-sequitors and it is. Some of my tweets this week:

I also live-tweet events and my observations on them, like the Oscars, or the Superbowl. Other people find these observations amusing, so I normally gain a few followers during those times. I also added a "follow me on Twitter" option to all my contest entries.

4. Tweet! The best way to start is by responding to people. It feels REALLY WEIRD at first to tweet a complete stranger, but most people on Twitter are used to it. My beta reader/very good friend and I met on Twitter when I tweeted about sending out ARCs of one of my books. When you respond to people, that opens up a conversation and then those people will see how lovely and smart and witty you are and follow you back. The way to gain followers is to ENGAGE. The way to LOSE followers is by spamming EVERYONE with links to buy your books.

5. Host contests for bookmarks/swag/ARCs on Twitter. This is a quick and easy way to get some buzz going.

6. Join a chat. Every Thursday night I participate in #NALitChat, which is a chat for authors of New Adult. If you are unfamiliar with that little number sign and what it is doing in front of those words, read on. That is called a hashtag, and anything after that (WITHOUT spaces or punctuation) turns into a link that you can click on, and see what other people are saying about that subject. It's like a flag to add to your tweet so people can see what it's about.

7. #Use #Hashtags #ToYou #Advantage. There are a few writing #Hashtags like: #amwriting, #amediting, and those for various genres and categories.

8. BE YOURSELF. This is MOST important :)

Now get #Hashtagging!

Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA and Adult New York Times/USA Today Best Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world's worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing in the car and tweeting (this one time, she was tweeted by Neil Gaiman). She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is.

Her New Adult Contemporary Romance titles include My Favorite Mistake, which has been bought by Harlequin along with a sequel, My Sweetest Escape (January 28, 2014), Deeper We Fall and Faster We Burn and For Real (November 14, 2013) and the novella, Christmas Catch (November 1, 2014).

Her Young Adult books include Nocturnal, Nightmare, Neither, and Neverend (The Noctalis Chronicles) and Whisper, the first in The Whisper Trilogy. The second and third books in the series, Silence and Listen, will be out in 2014.

Her Adult Contemporary Romance titles include Sweet Surrendering, and, coming soon, Dark Surrendering.

Visit her online: http://www.chelseamcameron.com

Five Myths About Writers: Busted...

Before I became a writer, I used to think that writers were some kind of special breed of human. They lived on a higher plane than the mere mortals. Basically, the human equivalent of a unicorn. Now, I'm not saying that writers aren't unicorns, but there are five things about writers that people seem to believe that simply aren't true:

1. Writers are solitary. Yes, we may spend hours upon hours locked in rooms with only our imaginary friends for company, but we are not anti-social people. All you need to do is go to a book signing with multiple authors to figure that out. Or look on social media. Or go to a writers group. Because we spend so much time alone, I think we crave community even more than the average person.

2. Writers are smarter than normal people. I consider myself to be relatively smart, but I'm not a genius. Not even close. I couldn't do long division to save my life right now. Or tell you all the elements on the periodic table. Or even tell you what a dangling modifier is. BUT, I can tell you all the name of Angelina Jolie's children without looking it up (Knox, Vivienne, Pax, Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh, in case you were wondering). Writers are curious people, and we seek knowledge. We want to know why things are the way they are. That's what makes us writers. Wanting to know the "why" of things. We're curious at best and nosy at worst.

3. Writers are socially inept. Yes, some of us are. But I think on the whole that writers nowadays have to be able to function in social situations. We have to tweet and be charming at book signings and witty on our blogs. We have to always be "on". This is exhausting, but it's all part of being a successful writer in the social media age.

4. Writers are boring. I have never been LESS bored in my life than I am when I'm hanging out with other authors. Especially romance authors. They usually have the best stories. I think this one stems from the idea that writers will drone on and on about "when I was writing my first novel..." I have encountered writers like this, but they have been few and far between.

5. Writers are self-absorbed. Okay, this one is a little true, but it's an occupational hazard. We have to put writing first sometimes, and that means neglecting spouses/children/family/friends in a way that makes it seem like we would rather be alone than be with actual people. But when you have a job, don't you go off to work every day and neglect those things? We just have a different schedule. When inspiration strikes, we have to seize it. Even if that's in the middle of a party and we have to run to the bathroom with a stack of napkins so we can jot down a few lines.

What myths about writers have you heard?

Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA New York Times/USA Today Best Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world's worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing in the car and tweeting (this one time, she was tweeted by Neil Gaiman). She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is. You can find her at her blog, on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

She is the author of The Noctalis Chronicles (Nocturnal, Nightmare, Neither, Neverend), Whisper, My Favorite Mistake, My Sweetest Escape (January 28, 2014 from HQN), Deeper We Fall, Faster We Burn and coming soon, Sweet Surrendering (Adult Contemporary; October 17, 2013) and For Real (New Adult Contemporary Romance; November 14, 2013).

From Fangirl to Member...

Hi everyone! *waves enthusiastically with both hands* My name is Chelsea M. Cameron, I can't tell you how HONORED I am to be a part of this group.
I don't remember when I heard about this group, but I started seeing these amazing authors supporting each other and writing amazing books, a lot of which I read and loved, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Seriously, I'm still in shock. Let's go back in time, shall we?
Rewind to February of this year. I had just put out my first independently-published ebook, Nocturnal. I sold 15 copies at 99 cents in two weeks and I was THRILLED. Fast forward to the present, and I've sold over 70,000 ebooks and I'm quitting my job to write full time and I have a literary agent. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Honestly, I don't know. It might have had something to do with this --->
I wrote a book that I was passionate about, that people wanted to read. But that's not what I'm going to talk about in this little introductory post.
Here are five random things you may not know about me:

1. I am really short. Like, only 5'0 tall. Some of the kids I used to babysit dwarfed me. I also look WAY younger than I am. Even at 26, I still get asked if I've graduated high school.
2. I am both the oldest and younger 26-year-old you will ever meet. I can go nuts for a Disney Princess movie one minute and geek out about Downton Abbey the next. I LOVE watching old black and white movies.
3. Tea is my caffeine delivery system of choice. My favorite is lemon ginger, but I'm also partial to Morning Thunder when I need a jolt.
4. I have been a vegetarian for six years, and all my female characters are also vegetarians. It was a lifestyle choice I made, and I've been happy with it. I can make fake beef stew that will knock your socks off. Seriously.
5. I enjoy chaos when I write. Some people need silence, but I need as much noise as possible so my brain can tune it out to focus. I'll usually have a movie on, and then my iPod turned on low as well. It sounds crazy, but it works for me.

So there you have it! I'll be posting more about me and my books in the future, so stay tuned :)

Peace out, and catch you on the flipside!

~*Chelsea*~