Christina Katz is the author of the forthcoming Writer’s Digest book, The Writer’s Workout, 366 Tips, Tasks & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach. She also wrote Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform and Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids. Christina holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in English from Dartmouth College.
Christina Katz
A “gentle taskmaster” over the past decade to hundreds of writers, Christina says that her students go from unpublished to published, build professional writing career skills, increase their creative confidence, and succeed over time. Christina hosts the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and far too many pets.
Christina has been honest with us – Twitter does help her to sell her books. But as you can read below, she uses Twitter in a far deeper way than just promoting. She thinks that we don’t need to over-think every our tweet and we always have to use social media with positive intentions. The fun part for her is that “you get to choose who and what you want to pay attention to and others get to choose whether to pay attention to you or not”.
We simply loved her inspirational and clever thoughts!
Twittering from @thewritermama
Number of followers: 12,404
Number of tweets: 9,834
When did you set up your Twitter account? Do you remember why you did it?
I set up my Twitter account in 2008, but it was in 2009 that I started really using it. I had attended the Tools of Change for Publishing Conference and everyone at that conference was plugged in and on WiFi. There were power strips for charging your computer and devices throughout the rooms. This was the first time I had been at a conference and experienced everyone being plugged in with a whole back room conversation going on. I was there to blog the conference but Twitter was so much more fun that I ended up tweeting the conference instead. People who were regulars at the conference saw my tweet stream and started wondering who I was. I was so new to Twitter at that time that I did not even have my real name on my account. I created some mystery tweeter buzz for a few hours until Ron Hogan finally figured out who @thewritermama was. Of course, the stir was totally inadvertent on my part. I was just a Twitter newbie, who didn’t know any better. I think a lot of people come to Twitter this way and learn as they go.
What is the most positive thing about using Twitter?
I think there are a lot more positive things about Twitter today than there were a few years ago. But I’d say the most positive thing is that you can reach out and connect with folks you’d probably never otherwise connect with. Twitter users are diverse and have multiple interests, so the conversations cross over and weave together. You never know who you might find, meet, or what you might learn, or who you might connect with on Twitter.
Do you have a Twitter strategy?
Because I have been online for so many years, I don’t tend to come at any of the online tools with a checklist or schedule or agenda. More often I just come to the tools with a clear intention and then see what happens. For example, I’m in an online blackout period right now and will be until the end of the summer. The intention is to get offline and rest after a long and intensive period of work and then come back to the tools refreshed in the fall. I’m not sure that people like to hear that the tools can become intuitive if you use them enough or that you are actually allowed to take a break because folks often approach the tools as marketing channels or bullhorns. But social media tools are really much more fun and intuitive if you use them for social artistry rather than if you spend all your energy trying to get followers or trying to get folks to buy your stuff.
How should writers use Twitter? Any tips or tricks that work for you?
My experience of using online tools is that you are basically plugging in and expanding your sensibilities the same as when you walk into any room. Writers should think of all of the online tools as an extension of their own nervous system. If you walk into a room, you would get an immediate intuitive sense of the environment. The same is true of Twitter or any online environment. When you connect into to theses contexts, you are not acquiring billboard space. You are entering a context, an environment. Don’t over-think how you are going to act. Just do what you would do if you were entering any new room. After a while, you will become “a regular” and people will look forward to seeing you when you show up.
Why do you think people are following you? Is it because you are a popular writer or it is more about the way you are using Twitter?
I think people are following me because we are all writers. I think they are following me in hopes of connecting or having some kind of personal interaction. I think they are following to see what kind of example I’ll set or what kind of advice I’ll offer. Some followers are readers or fans or former students or current students, but there isn’t much hierarchy on Twitter. It’s the great equalizer where actors and writers and artists and teachers and journalists and you name it are all just hanging out sharing ideas and exchanging what looks and sounds good. The fun part is that you get to choose who and what you want to pay attention to and others get to choose whether to pay attention to you or not. Real life is not as self-selecting because a lot of what we focus on is curated and controlled by businesses, organizations and government. So twitter really does offer any person a platform the same size as anyone else. What you create with that platform is up to you.
Have you got a special Twitter story? Something that you still remember and makes you smile/laugh/cry/angry?
I think of it as a Twitter initiation story. You haven’t really used Twitter until someone asks you for something and then curses you, unfollows you, and blocks you because you decline the offer. I’ll leave it at that but it really was a good wake up call for me. What I learned is something that I’ve learned in all the realms of my career: I have to set boundaries and have policies and remember what they are and why I have them, or the group mind will decide for me. There is a fine line between using social media and being used by social media. Using social media with positive intentions feels good. Getting used on social media feels icky, just like in everyday life.
How do you deal with your personal and professional chats on Twitter?
I don’t have many personal chats on Twitter because there is a high risk for error—meaning accidentally making something meant to be private, public. I mostly use my social networks for professional use and keep my personal life offline. I find I have more peace of mind this way. Even though a lot of people espouse the work/life blend, I have a family and a daughter, and I feel pretty protective of us and especially of her. So once again, I recognize that I get to call the shots and I am not afraid to call them.
Does Twitter help you to sell your books?
Twitter does help me sell my books. But it feels more like Twitter helps me help others sell my books. I’m not on Twitter to do a lot of hard selling, but I keep my eyes open for opportunities to share new reviews, testimonials, and praise for my work from others. I consider my primary job doing work that will become buzz worthy, rather than incessantly buzzing my own work.
Can you be a Twitter “star”, if you are not doing something substantial offline?
No, you can’t. Think about the people you like and respect most on Twitter. I would be willing to bet that most of them are not only doing respect-worthy work but are also constantly evolving in their careers and fields. These are the qualities that make people compelling. I eventually become bored or annoyed with people who are mostly using Twitter to rehash other peoples’ efforts with little contribution of their own. I always want to ask them, “Don’t you have something rich and creative of your own to share?” You don’t want to be the person, who spends their day forwarding other people’s tweets without ever contributing something of substance. I also believe, based on personal experience, if you spend your entire day on Twitter, wrapped up in the group mind, you’re going to have a tough time coming up with something original to contribute.
Tell us what “success on Twitter” means to you?
I think success on Twitter is the same as success in life. It’s never the equivalent of how many followers you have. It’s the how much substance you offer. It’s the measure of how much of a unique individual you are. It’s how strongly you can stand in the stream of popular opinion and still express something contrary because it’s true for you. Success is being on Twitter when you want to be on Twitter and being off Twitter when you want or need to be off. It’s enjoying Twitter when you are on it, and not missing it when you are away. It’s enjoying Twitter to the fullest in as many ways as possible, and still being able to have a life outside of Twitter. It’s knowing that you would still be you and would still behave the same way even if Twitter did not exist. It’s seeing Twitter for the wonderful interpersonal communication tool that it is without deifying it or the people on it.
