Unfollowing Authors (Not All of You. But Some? Definitely)

I am an active Twitter guy, and have been since about 2008. In fact, the main reason I got onto Twitter was to start promoting Flagrant Foul. Obviously, over the years, I’ve gotten away from that considerably.

Also, over the years, I’ve picked up a number of followers who are authors like myself. However, some of you really, really don’t get Twitter.

For that, you’re getting unfollowed.

Now, this doesn’t apply to all of you, obviously. But here’s why some of you frankly aren’t making the cut.

1. If every other tweet is a link to your book(s). Seriously, that is annoying. Yes, I understand that your new followers may not be aware that you are an author and you have a book to sell. But come on! Throw some other stuff onto your Twitter line. Readers would probably like to know a little bit about you, rather than get hit up to buy a book every time they see your Twitter handle pop up.

2. You’re not actually tweeting, but just set up to auto-tweet your blog posts or RSS feed. This is a problem that permeates Twitter in general, not just authors. You set up your Twitter account, and instead of putting tweets up manually, you just hook it up to your blog or RSS feed. The only people who should ever get away with this are news organizations and the last I checked, you’re not CNN.

3. The infamous auto-DM. Again, this is one of those general pet peeves I have that includes my author followers. I’m pretty good about following back author Tweeps. However, I know some of you have your accounts set up to automatically send a direct message, usually with the link to your site. Look, I already saw your site because you followed me in the first place and it’s on your profile. Sending me this exact same info in your DM is redundant. That’s not really a good look.

4. You charge for reviews, re-tweets, etc. Don’t even get me started on you clowns. Instant unfollow.

Let me reiterate that none of these actually apply to you, which is great. You get what Twitter’s about.

To those of you that some of this does apply to, seriously, do better.