I so much prefer your newsletters and Substack content. It is more thoughtful and leisurely than the manic craziness that is Twitter, Intagram, etc (mind you having grown up in the 80's everything seems frantic). Thank you for your content, no matter what platform it is on. It is a pleasure to read.
I needed to hear this. It's all too easy to get distracted by the shiny thing and when you don't know if the shiny thing will last... plus I want to write, not make Reels or TikToks or whatever, darnit.
Thank you for writing this. I've struggled with social media for months, to a point that I was having performance anxiety trying to find ways to get more followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. That's when I decided to do a social media purge, both for Tatooine Times and my personal accounts and just remain on one platform, Instagram (and now Substack, but only as a reader). Deleting Facebook and especially Twitter felt like a huge relief, and guess what? My website traffic has increased! Sharing my posts on social media was not the main contributor of my traffic. In fact, my latest interview with Emily Swallow (aka the Armorer in The Mandalorian) has over 660 likes and over 38,000 reached the post, but guess what? Less than 10 people ACTUALLY clicked my link in bio and read the interview. For me Google Search is how I get hundreds of visitors. It's all about SEO and trying to write evergreen content, and it's almost out of my control once these pages are indexed by Google, so in all honesty it's a huge relief! I am not stressing out about pushing to promote on social media, it just happens organically. Anyways, my word of advice is, find what works for you, and don't stress too much about not getting enough followers, likes, shares. If someone is interested in your content, they will find you ✨
Thank you Cavan for being honest and for inspiring me to open up here in your safe space!
Most of my Japan immigrant friends and I who hung out on Twitter migrated to a Mastodon instance FOR immigrants here in Japan. It's like sitting in your living room once again. Makes being creative easier, too. No stress.
I'm not a writer but i do agree that we get too hung up on social media. Lovely reminder for me to focus more on taking photos and trying to make videos than obsessing over social media numbers.
I've been experimenting with a variety of platforms, and I'm finding different ones support different things. I've had to build that time into my regular writing work day. I've dropped some platforms already because they skew towards diffeent mediums/audiences. I have accepted the fact that it will take time to rebuild what it took 13 years to build on Twitter. That's the reality. It's a necessity for my work. I'm trying to have fun with it rather than resent it (and not always succeeding). It's also not instead of the writing; it's in addtion to the writing. So I'll just be tired for the next few years.
It's also reinforced how important it is to have one's own website(s) as basecamp .
I do have a lot of fun here on Substack, though. I'm glad this is one of the platforms on which I'm rebuilding.
I'm old enough to look back with fondness on the Compuserve Bulletin Boards! ;)
Like many others, I left the bird a while back and have admittedly missed some of the interaction. However, newsletters are much more interesting and I'm glad you're here (and still writing!)
I could not agree more! I have been feeling increasingly burnt out about social media for the last six months or so - and I'm not even very active on Twitter. I have a small presence on Instagram, with 700 or so followers, but when I do put up a new post it's mainly crickets followed by a few likes trickling in over 48 hours or so. It's demoralising to say the least - but pretty freeing to not be stressing myself about what I "should" be posting! I hope that in some way this goes towards changing how marketing works in publishing, allowing the writer to do a little less of it and the publisher to do a little more of it - perhaps even some job creation. Oh, and what I really like about your new Substack (particularly when I comment here), is that it feels like a blog!
I prefer newsletters as well. And prefer spending my time reading or doing something else rather than social media. I have been known to not read any social media for a couple of days. Especially the weekends. My only problem with Substack, is that there are so many good posts from writers, and a number require a sub and atm, I cannot be a paid subscriber.
Right on about all this, especially about the difference between some big number of followers and actual engagement. My wife (who is not on Substack but is a writer and podcaster) uses Twitter and Instagram to engage with her followers. She is not an "influencer" or someone with a million followers, but the followers she has? They love what she makes and support her Patreon and care. She's been able to sustain herself as a small business on a truly dedicated and growing following and sell books, even without staggering social media numbers that seem to exist more to create engage for the platform than for the people.
And, as you said, writing is the job. It exists with or without these ecosystems!
It felt as though I was just gaining steam with my follower count when Twitter turned bad. This was well before the recent acquisition and around the time when a certain divisive sequel was released. As an (aspiring?) author, I was worried about social media fragmentation but it’s encouraging to see authors being honest about how little impact follower count actually has on book sales.
I recently discovered there was the Substack app (thanks to you) to follow your newsletter. I feel more invested to it now than just receiving emails about your news! Also, I have the notifications on for your Twitter account, so I don’t miss anything. Anyway, I’m glad you were able to step back from that social media rush and were able to center yourself to what is important to you: writing books. Because Cavan, I started Path of Vengeance a few days ago and it just reminded me how delightful your writing is :)
Stop worrying about social media and do the work
I so much prefer your newsletters and Substack content. It is more thoughtful and leisurely than the manic craziness that is Twitter, Intagram, etc (mind you having grown up in the 80's everything seems frantic). Thank you for your content, no matter what platform it is on. It is a pleasure to read.
I needed to hear this. It's all too easy to get distracted by the shiny thing and when you don't know if the shiny thing will last... plus I want to write, not make Reels or TikToks or whatever, darnit.
I love hearing from you every few days in my inbox, it feels more personal than social media and it means I don't miss anything!
Thank you for writing this. I've struggled with social media for months, to a point that I was having performance anxiety trying to find ways to get more followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. That's when I decided to do a social media purge, both for Tatooine Times and my personal accounts and just remain on one platform, Instagram (and now Substack, but only as a reader). Deleting Facebook and especially Twitter felt like a huge relief, and guess what? My website traffic has increased! Sharing my posts on social media was not the main contributor of my traffic. In fact, my latest interview with Emily Swallow (aka the Armorer in The Mandalorian) has over 660 likes and over 38,000 reached the post, but guess what? Less than 10 people ACTUALLY clicked my link in bio and read the interview. For me Google Search is how I get hundreds of visitors. It's all about SEO and trying to write evergreen content, and it's almost out of my control once these pages are indexed by Google, so in all honesty it's a huge relief! I am not stressing out about pushing to promote on social media, it just happens organically. Anyways, my word of advice is, find what works for you, and don't stress too much about not getting enough followers, likes, shares. If someone is interested in your content, they will find you ✨
Thank you Cavan for being honest and for inspiring me to open up here in your safe space!
Most of my Japan immigrant friends and I who hung out on Twitter migrated to a Mastodon instance FOR immigrants here in Japan. It's like sitting in your living room once again. Makes being creative easier, too. No stress.
Thank you for this! Your words ring true!
I'm not a writer but i do agree that we get too hung up on social media. Lovely reminder for me to focus more on taking photos and trying to make videos than obsessing over social media numbers.
I've been experimenting with a variety of platforms, and I'm finding different ones support different things. I've had to build that time into my regular writing work day. I've dropped some platforms already because they skew towards diffeent mediums/audiences. I have accepted the fact that it will take time to rebuild what it took 13 years to build on Twitter. That's the reality. It's a necessity for my work. I'm trying to have fun with it rather than resent it (and not always succeeding). It's also not instead of the writing; it's in addtion to the writing. So I'll just be tired for the next few years.
It's also reinforced how important it is to have one's own website(s) as basecamp .
I do have a lot of fun here on Substack, though. I'm glad this is one of the platforms on which I'm rebuilding.
I'm old enough to look back with fondness on the Compuserve Bulletin Boards! ;)
Like many others, I left the bird a while back and have admittedly missed some of the interaction. However, newsletters are much more interesting and I'm glad you're here (and still writing!)
I could not agree more! I have been feeling increasingly burnt out about social media for the last six months or so - and I'm not even very active on Twitter. I have a small presence on Instagram, with 700 or so followers, but when I do put up a new post it's mainly crickets followed by a few likes trickling in over 48 hours or so. It's demoralising to say the least - but pretty freeing to not be stressing myself about what I "should" be posting! I hope that in some way this goes towards changing how marketing works in publishing, allowing the writer to do a little less of it and the publisher to do a little more of it - perhaps even some job creation. Oh, and what I really like about your new Substack (particularly when I comment here), is that it feels like a blog!
I prefer newsletters as well. And prefer spending my time reading or doing something else rather than social media. I have been known to not read any social media for a couple of days. Especially the weekends. My only problem with Substack, is that there are so many good posts from writers, and a number require a sub and atm, I cannot be a paid subscriber.
Right on about all this, especially about the difference between some big number of followers and actual engagement. My wife (who is not on Substack but is a writer and podcaster) uses Twitter and Instagram to engage with her followers. She is not an "influencer" or someone with a million followers, but the followers she has? They love what she makes and support her Patreon and care. She's been able to sustain herself as a small business on a truly dedicated and growing following and sell books, even without staggering social media numbers that seem to exist more to create engage for the platform than for the people.
And, as you said, writing is the job. It exists with or without these ecosystems!
It felt as though I was just gaining steam with my follower count when Twitter turned bad. This was well before the recent acquisition and around the time when a certain divisive sequel was released. As an (aspiring?) author, I was worried about social media fragmentation but it’s encouraging to see authors being honest about how little impact follower count actually has on book sales.
I recently discovered there was the Substack app (thanks to you) to follow your newsletter. I feel more invested to it now than just receiving emails about your news! Also, I have the notifications on for your Twitter account, so I don’t miss anything. Anyway, I’m glad you were able to step back from that social media rush and were able to center yourself to what is important to you: writing books. Because Cavan, I started Path of Vengeance a few days ago and it just reminded me how delightful your writing is :)