Bad Art Friend

[Anonymous]

I took issue with Ng book “everything I never told you”. As a college professor it’s NEVER ok to have sex with a student. But it’s ok if you are POC?

[Anonymous]

Also life must have been very hard for Ng is Shaker Heights Ohio. Yes very rich area. Like mclean. Cry me a River.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest to God, I'd like to pursue writing, but I just CANNOT STAND writer Twitter. And it seems like you have to have a Twitter following to get published. Have some other folks decided not to take certain career paths because of social media nonsense?

Agreed. This has been a barrier to my development and confidence as a writer, tbh. I've mostly kept away from social media for my mental health. Privacy is incredibly important to me as a survivor of violence. But my lack of social capital via a notable twitter/ig presence, or the desire to achieve one, has discouraged me from submitting my work and connecting with other writers out of fear of rejection. I'm still trying to forge my own little path but I do worry that there is no space left in this field for people who aren't Extremely Online.

This is how i feel too -- that success would require embracing Extremely Online stuff, which i just can't ever do.

I’m very sorry for this, PPs. As a visual artist I feel similarly. The cream is not rising to the top, just the IG detritus.

This is so, so true

Unfortunately this is how it is for anyone in any creative field now. If you want to be a model, writer, singer, actor, artist etc. nobody will look at your or your work without already having a social media following. If you go to audition for something or submit work you are expected to put you social media handles and number of followers on the resume you submit. There is no room for discovery or introductions anymore because there is too much media and everyone is trying to grab your attention plus the fact that at least in the entertainment world profits have plummeted and there is only room for safe guaranteed hits.

Can you all please stop circulating this myth, at least as it pertains to fiction writers? It just does harm to people who want to write, who are mostly introverted. You need zero social media presence to be a novelist. ZERO.

I had none when I signed my two-book deal. My publisher asked if I would be willing to create any accounts to help promote them first book and I said yes. I have a minimal presence now, I check my IG and FB once a week.

I could list many, many novelists who have little or minimal social media presence. And you certainly won't need it to get published.

And yet every writing conference and seminar you go to has 15 speakers telling you the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Yaa Gyasi is not only not on social media, but does not even have a website.

Karin Tanabe, a local writer of historical fiction, has fewer than 4K followers on Twitter and fewer than 2K on IG. Her book is being adapted by Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya.

I'm not published, but would like to be and follow the industry. What I've heard is that if you write an amazing fiction book you don't need a following, though the publishing house will still want you to help with promoting it. In general, recommendations are for at least 1K followers for fiction and 10K for NF. The latter requires more because people really buy if they are already following the expert.

Don't get discouraged!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:And despite Ng commercial success I take issue with here writing her themes her characters and her poor me attitude. Now the real person is revealed.

Is Ng's book like the Reese Witherspoon show? That show was so ham handed and stupid. Every single person was an over the top caricature, obvious, one dimensional and so dumb. Couldn't stand it. It watched like a cheesy soap opera.

I read LFE before it got a TV deal and felt like her prose was a cut above "grabbed it at the airport kiosk" but the plotting was very heavy-handed and predictable. I'm not surprised it got a TV deal because of the themes and soapiness, but I am surprised to learn this week that she's considered Literary Fiction and not just . . . fiction.

It must be because she has an MFA. I find her writing prosaic and clunky, at least in the excerpts I've skimmed. Not a reader of hers.

I guess I will be the dissenter. I read LFE well before it got the TV deal and really loved it. In part I think I loved it because while closer to commercial fiction in tone, it brought in a host of complicated and sometimes unlikeable female characters and gave them lots of room to be themselves. That is so, so rare in mainstream fiction. It's becoming more normal, thankfully, but I would credit LFE a bit with showing that there is a huge audience for that kind of thing and that protagonists don't always have to be charming or weak or in love. I also feel that Ng made a lot with her familiarity with both Shaker Heights, and put her intimate knowledge of that place and time to good use, especially in exploring the intersection of class and race. It's not a perfect book but I did feel it was a good one and different from much of what was out there at the time. I tried watching the TV show but agree with all the criticism above -- it just didn't capture the nuance from the book for me. I actually think the book was not as ripe for a soapy TV adaptation as, say, Big Little Lies.

A thought that has come to me now after all of this, though, is that it is interesting HOW Ng writes about class and race in Shaker Heights. Notable to me is that she chooses to place all the white characters on one side of the SES divide (rich) and all the POC on the other side. I think it works in the book specifically because there are these other themes (largely around art, ownership, and motherhood) that connect characters and create sympathies in interesting ways. But it does not reflect Ng's own background. She grew up middle to UMC in Shaker Heights as a WOC. She was the child of immigrants, but they were scientists and academics. Very unlike the AAPI immigrants in LFE, who as I recall work in a restaurant and live in poverty or close to it. Her other major novel does explore a family more similar to the one she grew up in, but it's interesting that the book that made her famous portrays all the POC as much more marginalized than what Ng has actually experienced in her life.

To be clear, I am not saying Ng has not experienced racism -- I am certain he and her parents experienced plenty of it, in many forms. Being an educated immigrant, especially if a POC, can be an easier road but it is by no means free of oppression. And I'm sure the same is true of Larsen. However, having now also read Larsen's story, something that jumps out at me that both of these women grew up as middle class, fairly assimilated POC, but both choose to write about characters who are much more othered. Ng made the POC characters in LFE extreme outsiders to the white, UMC culture of Shaker Heights. Larsen writes about a Chinese-American woman with a Chinese name and husband, while Larsen is herself mixed race and could be white passing.

Again, not trying to say these women don't have something valuable and important to say about being POC in a country that has always been and is still white supremacist. In some ways I wonder if they are writing about more marginalized, less assimilated POC characters because they know that is what many white readers expect to see, and that their own more nuanced experiences may be too complex for a predominantly white audience to understand. But after seeing these women also accuse Dorland of being a white savior and using white womens tears to oppress a WOC, I also wonder if they have a hard time reconciling with their privilege alongside their oppression. Because there is privilege in both of their backgrounds, a lot of it.

Just thinking out loud here.

I enjoyed the book and the TV series, but now they are tainted to me. Just as an aside - I recall that a difference between the book and the series was that Ng did not make the artist character a Black woman, but the series did. In stories I read, Ng said that she was thinking about having the character be a Black woman, but she was uncertain about her ability to write a Black woman's perspective. I thought that was interesting.

But forget all that, because I'm never reading Ng again.

[Anonymous]

I'm pp and should mention that if you haven't yet read Gyasi and Tanabe what are you waiting for!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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God, is this saga going to be never-ending?

But this entire thread is excellent.

That was excellent, and should be an essay in its own right. I'd like to see the NYT to publish it as a letter to the editor.

It was really excellent but I wish it was getting more traction from Twitter.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yaa Gyasi is not only not on social media, but does not even have a website.

Karin Tanabe, a local writer of historical fiction, has fewer than 4K followers on Twitter and fewer than 2K on IG. Her book is being adapted by Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya.

I'm not published, but would like to be and follow the industry. What I've heard is that if you write an amazing fiction book you don't need a following, though the publishing house will still want you to help with promoting it. In general, recommendations are for at least 1K followers for fiction and 10K for NF. The latter requires more because people really buy if they are already following the expert.

Don't get discouraged!

I'm sure Tanabe didn't benefit from the fact that her father was Book World editor at Washington Post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest to God, I'd like to pursue writing, but I just CANNOT STAND writer Twitter. And it seems like you have to have a Twitter following to get published. Have some other folks decided not to take certain career paths because of social media nonsense?

Agreed. This has been a barrier to my development and confidence as a writer, tbh. I've mostly kept away from social media for my mental health. Privacy is incredibly important to me as a survivor of violence. But my lack of social capital via a notable twitter/ig presence, or the desire to achieve one, has discouraged me from submitting my work and connecting with other writers out of fear of rejection. I'm still trying to forge my own little path but I do worry that there is no space left in this field for people who aren't Extremely Online.

This is how i feel too -- that success would require embracing Extremely Online stuff, which i just can't ever do.

I’m very sorry for this, PPs. As a visual artist I feel similarly. The cream is not rising to the top, just the IG detritus.

This is so, so true

Unfortunately this is how it is for anyone in any creative field now. If you want to be a model, writer, singer, actor, artist etc. nobody will look at your or your work without already having a social media following. If you go to audition for something or submit work you are expected to put you social media handles and number of followers on the resume you submit. There is no room for discovery or introductions anymore because there is too much media and everyone is trying to grab your attention plus the fact that at least in the entertainment world profits have plummeted and there is only room for safe guaranteed hits.

Can you all please stop circulating this myth, at least as it pertains to fiction writers? It just does harm to people who want to write, who are mostly introverted. You need zero social media presence to be a novelist. ZERO.

I had none when I signed my two-book deal. My publisher asked if I would be willing to create any accounts to help promote them first book and I said yes. I have a minimal presence now, I check my IG and FB once a week.

I could list many, many novelists who have little or minimal social media presence. And you certainly won't need it to get published.

I actually know someone from a major publishing house who quit over this policy and became an independent editor. While you may get published it will probably be by a smaller or independent publishing house. Self publishing has also become popular.

You are mistaken. I am with a big five publisher, enjoying commercial success, and I just sold the TV rights to my book. One of my author friends, also with this big publisher, has even less social media presence than I do. A huge best-selling author that I met with last week to do an even with has a bare-bones presence, and definitely did not have one before she was published.

I get that you know one friend who quit publishing. But I know many authors, most of whom are with big five publishers. And your narrative does not hold true. Sorry.

Now it is a different story for non-fiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest to God, I'd like to pursue writing, but I just CANNOT STAND writer Twitter. And it seems like you have to have a Twitter following to get published. Have some other folks decided not to take certain career paths because of social media nonsense?

Agreed. This has been a barrier to my development and confidence as a writer, tbh. I've mostly kept away from social media for my mental health. Privacy is incredibly important to me as a survivor of violence. But my lack of social capital via a notable twitter/ig presence, or the desire to achieve one, has discouraged me from submitting my work and connecting with other writers out of fear of rejection. I'm still trying to forge my own little path but I do worry that there is no space left in this field for people who aren't Extremely Online.

This is how i feel too -- that success would require embracing Extremely Online stuff, which i just can't ever do.

I’m very sorry for this, PPs. As a visual artist I feel similarly. The cream is not rising to the top, just the IG detritus.

This is so, so true

Unfortunately this is how it is for anyone in any creative field now. If you want to be a model, writer, singer, actor, artist etc. nobody will look at your or your work without already having a social media following. If you go to audition for something or submit work you are expected to put you social media handles and number of followers on the resume you submit. There is no room for discovery or introductions anymore because there is too much media and everyone is trying to grab your attention plus the fact that at least in the entertainment world profits have plummeted and there is only room for safe guaranteed hits.

Can you all please stop circulating this myth, at least as it pertains to fiction writers? It just does harm to people who want to write, who are mostly introverted. You need zero social media presence to be a novelist. ZERO.

I had none when I signed my two-book deal. My publisher asked if I would be willing to create any accounts to help promote them first book and I said yes. I have a minimal presence now, I check my IG and FB once a week.

I could list many, many novelists who have little or minimal social media presence. And you certainly won't need it to get published.

And yet every writing conference and seminar you go to has 15 speakers telling you the opposite.

It is easier to amass a small Twitter or Instagram following than it is to do the one thing that you really should be doing: working on your craft, writing.

Publishing is tough and everyone wants a ticket to what "works". Nothing works. You write, you edit, you submit, you persist. If you keep at it, you will get things published. But there is absolutely no guarantee that you will ever make a living as a writer and that's just the economics of publishing. If you like social media and get something out of it (community, ideas, even validation) there's nothing wrong with it. But if it distracts you from the one thing you need to be doing -- writing -- it's not worth anything at all to you. There are lots of "writers" who Tweet a lot when they should be writing. Is that the kind of writer you want to be? Not me.

One of my favorite writers is Ted Chiang. He writes short stories, mostly in the science fiction arena. He wrote an absolute masterpiece of a short story called Story of Your Life (seriously, find it and read it, it's gorgeous and a billion times better than anything produced by a Chunky Monkey). It was adapted into the movie Arrival with Amy Adams (even if you have seen that movie you should read the story, which is much, much more even thought the movie is good -- much of it is not adaptable to the screen because it's is conceptual but Chiang makes it feel real and immediate on the page, I cannot recommend it enough). Anyway, Chiange is an amazing writer who largely works in a form -- short fiction -- that is not very lucrative. I'm sure he got a decent paycheck for the film adaptation of his story, but he didn't write the screenplay so less than you think. He has made a living as a technical writer for many years, which supports his fiction. He is not, to my knowledge, on social media at all. His writing has changed my life and lives in my head and I recommend it to people all the time.

You do not need to be on social media to be a successful writer. All you need to be a successful writer is to write something really good and then find someone to read it. That's it. Don't write to get rich -- there are much easier and more direct ways to do that! Write to write, and to be read. The end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest to God, I'd like to pursue writing, but I just CANNOT STAND writer Twitter. And it seems like you have to have a Twitter following to get published. Have some other folks decided not to take certain career paths because of social media nonsense?

Agreed. This has been a barrier to my development and confidence as a writer, tbh. I've mostly kept away from social media for my mental health. Privacy is incredibly important to me as a survivor of violence. But my lack of social capital via a notable twitter/ig presence, or the desire to achieve one, has discouraged me from submitting my work and connecting with other writers out of fear of rejection. I'm still trying to forge my own little path but I do worry that there is no space left in this field for people who aren't Extremely Online.

This is how i feel too -- that success would require embracing Extremely Online stuff, which i just can't ever do.

I’m very sorry for this, PPs. As a visual artist I feel similarly. The cream is not rising to the top, just the IG detritus.

This is so, so true

Unfortunately this is how it is for anyone in any creative field now. If you want to be a model, writer, singer, actor, artist etc. nobody will look at your or your work without already having a social media following. If you go to audition for something or submit work you are expected to put you social media handles and number of followers on the resume you submit. There is no room for discovery or introductions anymore because there is too much media and everyone is trying to grab your attention plus the fact that at least in the entertainment world profits have plummeted and there is only room for safe guaranteed hits.

Can you all please stop circulating this myth, at least as it pertains to fiction writers? It just does harm to people who want to write, who are mostly introverted. You need zero social media presence to be a novelist. ZERO.

I had none when I signed my two-book deal. My publisher asked if I would be willing to create any accounts to help promote them first book and I said yes. I have a minimal presence now, I check my IG and FB once a week.

I could list many, many novelists who have little or minimal social media presence. And you certainly won't need it to get published.

And yet every writing conference and seminar you go to has 15 speakers telling you the opposite.

I doubt that. I doubt agents and editors are telling fiction writers to beef up their social media. Please show me the agents and editors saying this.

Look, I know a lot of published authors. I am in private FB groups for published authors. I have friends who are authors, and mentors. Not self-published but commercially successful. I've discussed this issue with my agent.

If you have a huge SM following it can help you publicize your book, but it will not GET you an agent, and it will not GET your book published. It's a nice thing to have when it comes time to promote your book, but that's it.

This narrative of needing to be all over SM does a disservice to writers who tend tone shy and introverted. Yes, you will be asked to promote your book, but plenty of writers don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yaa Gyasi is not only not on social media, but does not even have a website.

Karin Tanabe, a local writer of historical fiction, has fewer than 4K followers on Twitter and fewer than 2K on IG. Her book is being adapted by Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya.

I'm not published, but would like to be and follow the industry. What I've heard is that if you write an amazing fiction book you don't need a following, though the publishing house will still want you to help with promoting it. In general, recommendations are for at least 1K followers for fiction and 10K for NF. The latter requires more because people really buy if they are already following the expert.

Don't get discouraged!

I'm sure Tanabe didn't benefit from the fact that her father was Book World editor at Washington Post.

Ok, sure she writes really good books, but you want to cross off her off the list.

How about local writer Kathleen Barber, who has fewer followers than Tanabe and has a book of her adapted for Apple TV. How about local writer Dolen Perkins-Valdez? Or, Saumya Dave, Kathleen Grissom, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jennifer McVeigh, or Finola Austin? What about Sarah Penner, who is now shortlisted as the BOTM award finalist for her debut novel, who says that she had zero following when she got the book deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest to God, I'd like to pursue writing, but I just CANNOT STAND writer Twitter. And it seems like you have to have a Twitter following to get published. Have some other folks decided not to take certain career paths because of social media nonsense?

Agreed. This has been a barrier to my development and confidence as a writer, tbh. I've mostly kept away from social media for my mental health. Privacy is incredibly important to me as a survivor of violence. But my lack of social capital via a notable twitter/ig presence, or the desire to achieve one, has discouraged me from submitting my work and connecting with other writers out of fear of rejection. I'm still trying to forge my own little path but I do worry that there is no space left in this field for people who aren't Extremely Online.

This is how i feel too -- that success would require embracing Extremely Online stuff, which i just can't ever do.

I’m very sorry for this, PPs. As a visual artist I feel similarly. The cream is not rising to the top, just the IG detritus.

This is so, so true

Unfortunately this is how it is for anyone in any creative field now. If you want to be a model, writer, singer, actor, artist etc. nobody will look at your or your work without already having a social media following. If you go to audition for something or submit work you are expected to put you social media handles and number of followers on the resume you submit. There is no room for discovery or introductions anymore because there is too much media and everyone is trying to grab your attention plus the fact that at least in the entertainment world profits have plummeted and there is only room for safe guaranteed hits.

Can you all please stop circulating this myth, at least as it pertains to fiction writers? It just does harm to people who want to write, who are mostly introverted. You need zero social media presence to be a novelist. ZERO.

I had none when I signed my two-book deal. My publisher asked if I would be willing to create any accounts to help promote them first book and I said yes. I have a minimal presence now, I check my IG and FB once a week.

I could list many, many novelists who have little or minimal social media presence. And you certainly won't need it to get published.

And yet every writing conference and seminar you go to has 15 speakers telling you the opposite.

I doubt that. I doubt agents and editors are telling fiction writers to beef up their social media. Please show me the agents and editors saying this.

Look, I know a lot of published authors. I am in private FB groups for published authors. I have friends who are authors, and mentors. Not self-published but commercially successful. I've discussed this issue with my agent.

If you have a huge SM following it can help you publicize your book, but it will not GET you an agent, and it will not GET your book published. It's a nice thing to have when it comes time to promote your book, but that's it.

This narrative of needing to be all over SM does a disservice to writers who tend tone shy and introverted. Yes, you will be asked to promote your book, but plenty of writers don't.

I think there is an issue here in the fact that there are writers and there is the business of publishing and they aren't always in step. Sure you can be a great writer and produce fantastic work and practically be as reclusive as Emily Dickinson. Then you have the publishing world-specifically the big firms. They are businesses out to make a profit and the art and quality of writing is in a sense a secondary concern. There is a reason why they would at least would prefer to work with an author who has a strong social media presence. It gives them some assurance that your book will be read and that your ideas have active and engaged readers out there while they spend money editing, printing and promoting your book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yaa Gyasi is not only not on social media, but does not even have a website.

Karin Tanabe, a local writer of historical fiction, has fewer than 4K followers on Twitter and fewer than 2K on IG. Her book is being adapted by Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya.

I'm not published, but would like to be and follow the industry. What I've heard is that if you write an amazing fiction book you don't need a following, though the publishing house will still want you to help with promoting it. In general, recommendations are for at least 1K followers for fiction and 10K for NF. The latter requires more because people really buy if they are already following the expert.

Don't get discouraged!

I'm sure Tanabe didn't benefit from the fact that her father was Book World editor at Washington Post.

Ok, sure she writes really good books, but you want to cross off her off the list.

How about local writer Kathleen Barber, who has fewer followers than Tanabe and has a book of her adapted for Apple TV. How about local writer Dolen Perkins-Valdez? Or, Saumya Dave, Kathleen Grissom, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jennifer McVeigh, or Finola Austin? What about Sarah Penner, who is now shortlisted as the BOTM award finalist for her debut novel, who says that she had zero following when she got the book deal?

I am the PP with the two-book deal. I agree with you (and I know Sarah Penner!) There are so, so many authors one can list who had/have minimal SM but some people really need to believe it is necessary in order to justify not trying to get their own writing out there.

Is it hard? Yes. It took me years to get published. I had a lot of learning to do -- both about craft and about business -- like how to write the kind of novel people will actually pay money for. I had years of rejection and then boom, success.

And absolutely none of it had anything to do with SM, or "knowing" people. I had no connections. I wasn't on social media at all.

As they say at the end of every #amwriting podcast (which I really recommend) keep your head in the game and your butt in the chair.

Meaning, there is no subsistute for the work. Keep writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest to God, I'd like to pursue writing, but I just CANNOT STAND writer Twitter. And it seems like you have to have a Twitter following to get published. Have some other folks decided not to take certain career paths because of social media nonsense?

Agreed. This has been a barrier to my development and confidence as a writer, tbh. I've mostly kept away from social media for my mental health. Privacy is incredibly important to me as a survivor of violence. But my lack of social capital via a notable twitter/ig presence, or the desire to achieve one, has discouraged me from submitting my work and connecting with other writers out of fear of rejection. I'm still trying to forge my own little path but I do worry that there is no space left in this field for people who aren't Extremely Online.

This is how i feel too -- that success would require embracing Extremely Online stuff, which i just can't ever do.

I’m very sorry for this, PPs. As a visual artist I feel similarly. The cream is not rising to the top, just the IG detritus.

This is so, so true

Unfortunately this is how it is for anyone in any creative field now. If you want to be a model, writer, singer, actor, artist etc. nobody will look at your or your work without already having a social media following. If you go to audition for something or submit work you are expected to put you social media handles and number of followers on the resume you submit. There is no room for discovery or introductions anymore because there is too much media and everyone is trying to grab your attention plus the fact that at least in the entertainment world profits have plummeted and there is only room for safe guaranteed hits.

Can you all please stop circulating this myth, at least as it pertains to fiction writers? It just does harm to people who want to write, who are mostly introverted. You need zero social media presence to be a novelist. ZERO.

I had none when I signed my two-book deal. My publisher asked if I would be willing to create any accounts to help promote them first book and I said yes. I have a minimal presence now, I check my IG and FB once a week.

I could list many, many novelists who have little or minimal social media presence. And you certainly won't need it to get published.

And yet every writing conference and seminar you go to has 15 speakers telling you the opposite.

I doubt that. I doubt agents and editors are telling fiction writers to beef up their social media. Please show me the agents and editors saying this.

Look, I know a lot of published authors. I am in private FB groups for published authors. I have friends who are authors, and mentors. Not self-published but commercially successful. I've discussed this issue with my agent.

If you have a huge SM following it can help you publicize your book, but it will not GET you an agent, and it will not GET your book published. It's a nice thing to have when it comes time to promote your book, but that's it.

This narrative of needing to be all over SM does a disservice to writers who tend tone shy and introverted. Yes, you will be asked to promote your book, but plenty of writers don't.

I think there is an issue here in the fact that there are writers and there is the business of publishing and they aren't always in step. Sure you can be a great writer and produce fantastic work and practically be as reclusive as Emily Dickinson. Then you have the publishing world-specifically the big firms. They are businesses out to make a profit and the art and quality of writing is in a sense a secondary concern. There is a reason why they would at least would prefer to work with an author who has a strong social media presence. It gives them some assurance that your book will be read and that your ideas have active and engaged readers out there while they spend money editing, printing and promoting your book.

What PP is telling you is that a large social media following can help but it isn't essential.

She gave you the best advice you are ever going to get: if you want to be a writer, go write. Go hone your craft. Produce. Get better. Get good. Don't let yourself get distracted by things like not being on twitter enough.