Why Writers Must Embrace Social

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on April 18th, 2011 at 02:23 AM | | Tweet

Author Sara Sheridan (SECRET OF THE SANDS) has a great piece in The Guardian cautioning writers who think they can ignore social media. 

As an historical novelist, Sheridan rebelled every step of the way. She admits to being a late-adopter of email, and a holdout of a cell phone that’s “big enough to fling at the wall when I lose my temper.” When a colleague invited her to try Twitter, she says, “My soul rebelled. This wasn’t my thing. No way.”

She did put up a Twitter profile, and was soon rewarded by a following full of librarians, historians, readers and the like. But what struck me as the most important point of the article’s caution against keeping one’s head in the sand when it comes to social media was when Sheridan discussed digital rights: “[In] an era where our digital rights are being defined and because so many writers consider it beneath them, many important issues are not being considered and decided by writers themselves but by the digital operations departments of major publishing houses, online booksellers and other corporate entities.”

Clearly, the world of words, publishing and literary relevance is largely taking place on a digital medium where succinct brevity is key, and time is of the essence.

Follow Sara on Twitter at @SaraSheridan.