I've been doing something crazy these last few weeks. I've been cleaning up my Twitter, like, REALLY cleaning it up. If you have followed me on social media from the very beginning, you will recall that I have started out from nearly nothing, have built up quite an audience, and then have slowed down. I've been doing this for 10+ years (social media), so I know the automation tools and the various ways of "boosting" your numbers for show. I've been guilty of doing it for myself. Hey, it's so awesome watching your Twitter followers grow! And even cooler to brag about it to others, exaggerating a little, like, oh yeah, I have almost 70K followers on Twitter. Then give that nonchalant look like I don't care. So vain, ugh, I want to puke. I have even written a blog post on how to grow your Twitter numbers and what not to do on Twitter. Over time I have realized that these numbers don't do me any good. They don't exactly equal book sales. Plus, I'm not being honest with people. And being a writer is all about ripping off your skin and showing raw heart underneath.

So. I have decided.

FUCK NUMBERS.

Marcelle Liemant asked: "You are a marvelous blogger and you have a very distinctive presence in everything you do online. I was just wondering how you inject so much of your personality into your blog posts/tweets etc. It's actually not such an easy thing to achieve!"

I am? Really? REALLY?? Thank you, darling, thank you! Now, what a wonderful question, and what an easy answer I have for you. You will be tittering with silly laughter. Notice one thing we're talking about here.

Writer's online presence.

Online presence.

Presence.

There you go. This is the magic word.

I actually get asked this quite a lot and I can't remember the last time I answered it or blogged about it, so you're lucky to get a fresh perspective (I expect freshly baked cookies for that). People assume there is a magic pill for everything, or they can get a magic wand and wave it and... KABAM! ...glittery shit will start flying in all directions and suddenly everyone will be loving them and buying all their books and writing them 5-star reviews and sending them life-size chocolate ponies (not that I have anything against that, I don't want to hold you back if you have a pony for me). Well, sadly, it doesn't work like that at all. What people see as glittery and shiny and alluring and seductive hasn't become that overnight. It was years in the making, and those years were riddled with cloying empty efforts and mistakes and episodes of guile and guilt and blood welling out of the writer's eyes and ears and every single pore. Only...nobody's got to see it. Well, a few people did, the very first ones who stumbled upon said writer, looked down upon her misery, and sauntered on.