Do you Twitter?

A woman at an event last week asked, "Do you Twitter?"

I know what she meant but I was surprised she was asking. This wasn't a 20-something author but rather a middle-aged author.

When I confessed that I had never Twittered, she laughed. "You know,dear, you can't market effectively unless you Twitter."

I don't know. I have a Face Book page. I blog when I can. I send out tons of press releases, read and write on various lists of mystery writers. What would make Twitter so much better?

Of course, no one really knows. I guess it's the idea of doing whatever you can. Shortly after the woman had gone back to her table to sell books, another woman came by and asked if I had a trailer for my new book.

Hmmm.

"You know, dear, you can't market effectively unless you have a trailer."

One thing I DO know and that is you can't market effectively if you don't have a book to market. All the Twittering, trailers and everything else is only as effective as your next book. You can lose yourself in doing all the things there are to do that ornament your book. I know writers who have had to give back advances because they forgot they had to write too!

Of course, sales are important. It's always tough to say when you should write and when you should market. Sometimes, I feel like you have to do both all the time, kind of like juggling.

I guess I'll go find out how to Twitter.

Joyce Lavene