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Building a Vibrant Social Writing Community with Stellar Sales Platforms

Woman types on her laptop that has a heart on it. [To inspire positive emotion toward writing.]

By Christina Goebel

Woman types on her laptop that has a heart on it. [To inspire positive emotion toward writing.]
Inviting all writers! Tune in to X Spaces each Tuesday at noon Eastern Time (New York time) for the Cozy Book Nook X Spaces show. If you follow Christina Goebel at https://x.com/lovegoldenheart , you will easily see when the show is live.

While sharing with thousands of writers at Twitter, now X, I discovered several things that will help authors expand their platforms to ensure real growth. The writing community at X is loving and supportive. They are generous too, opting to share your pinned tweet, which most authors use to advertise their books. Unfortunately, I noted many of their tweets gain few likes or retweets, which translates into less promotion for their work. They deserve more credit and traction for their books.

In light of many recent webinar training I attended, I realized that few authors have a well-rounded platform of the type that will get them attention. They tweet about their books. A lot of writers have great videos and reviews that they share. Fewer showcase quotes from their work–as if social proof is more important than the language in their work. I’m not too sure about that.

I don’t think a lot of us have understood how X functions. People go there to socialize or gather some news. They don’t visit X to purchase things. It’s not a store. It’s difficult to encourage a person to leave an app to make a purchase when that wasn’t their intention. While authors market their books with tweets or posts on other social media, that doesn’t automatically lead to sales conversions (purchases of their books).

If you’re an author, verify what I’m saying by examining a tweet where you included a link to purchase your book. At the bottom of the tweet, select “View post activity.” Now, note the number of impressions. This is how many people at least had the tweet within their possible view. Engagements include how many times users clicked anywhere on the post, including links. If you don’t have engagements, you lack link follows and purchases.

If you’re self-published, or with the gracious support of your publisher, you can track sales or free downloads after you post tweets about your book. This is easiest when you haven’t had sales or if you are publishing a new work.

We should all pay attention to any data we can gather to gauge the effectiveness of our marketing and sales. Certainly, data helps. We need more too. We need to develop well-rounded campaigns that use an array of tools to inform the world of who we are and the works we have produced.

I’ll share more on this topic soon and how I decided to change the odds for the X writing community.

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Best Editing Tips for Writers Series: 1

Woman walks with a book from outside into a room full of books.

Christina Goebel, M.A.

I developed this editing series for fiction and nonfiction authors to save them time and money. After having edited for many authors and poets, I will tackle worst offenders here. Today’s topic is eliminating useless words. Let’s examine some.

Woman walks with a book from outside directly into a room full of books.
The best editing takes your readers into your world without a thought for any mistakes. Image: Image by Ria Sopala from Pixabay

Sentences Needing Work

I am going to go to the store.

Are you preparing to leave?

He began to write furiously.

I am starting to believe that you have an excuse for everything.

The examples above contain words that serve no purpose in the sentence, and they are untrue. I am not going to to go the store. I am going.

Let me show you edits for the sentences above.

Revised Sentences

I am going to the store. (Didn’t need “to go.” )

Are you leaving? (Didn’t need “preparing to.” Notice the verb change.)

He wrote furiously. (Didn’t need “began to.” Notice the verb change.)

I believe you have an excuse for everything. (Didn’t need “starting to.”)

Further Edits

A further edit for the final sentence might be:

You have an excuse for everything. (After all, if I say it, then I believe it, yes?)

I suggest when drafting and editing your books or writing that you develop a suspicion of the word to. Am I using to as a preposition that indicates movement, such as “to the store”? Those are okay. Can I remove the phrase using to and the sentence will still make sense? If you can remove the phrase using to, do so.

In the final example, I removed I believe. Sometimes, saying I believe is useful. Other times, you won’t need to say that. Examine words you use frequently and if you or your characters say I believe often, have a good reason for the repetition.

Why Edit My Work?

Some people hate editing rules, but they are practical and meaningful. When you remove the extra words, your writing reads cleaner and truer. When I edit for the most advanced writers, I spend more time removing words that make their writing sound less unique and ensure they use more action, dialogue, and literary devices.

How to Save Money on Editing Services

If you hire editors for line editing (correcting the small mistakes like those above), Heaven help you. They charge more than other editors because it takes them hours longer. If you learn editing techniques, you then only need a lighter editing job, saving you money.

Future editing examples I provide will address some of the issues above, but next, I will share other problematic words and structures.

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