It’s usually a waste of time to tweet at your favorite movie star or singer – they receive thousands of tweets, likes and comments every day, so it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. Add to that, your average Hollywood starlet has a team running their social media pages. So why would you tweet at them if they’re not going to see it anyway?
Authors also have the option to leave it to their media team to post for them – for example, the media team for Emma Cline, author of The Girls, is very good at ‘liking’ every comment left behind on Cline’s Facebook page. These types of teams, however, are less common for authors, probably because authors have fewer opportunities to put themselves out there than actors or singers do. So when it comes time to face the fans, they might as well do it themselves.
Still, it’s one thing to ‘like’ a fan’s post, but it’s another to truly interact with them. It’s the difference between being “reactive” versus “proactive” on social media.
Here are five awesome female authors, listed in no particular order, who are proactive on social media — whether it be Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and/or Youtube.
1. Fiona Barton
Twitter: @figbarton; 1,873 followers
Website: fionabartonauthor.com
Fiona Barton’s debut novel, The Widow, was released on January 14, 2016. In the book, the titular character, Jean Taylor, is still coping with the aftermath of her husband’s recent bout in police custody while he was a suspect for the disappearance of a toddler named Bella. While the charges were dismissed, the community—and Jean—learned that Glen’s computer contained evidence of sexual predilections. Now that Glen is dead, a journalist comes to Jean for the truth that she suspects Glen couldn’t tell.
Barton credits her success at telling such an intricate story to her past career as a journalist for Britain’s Sunday Mail and Daily Telegraph, where she spent quite a bit of time in court covering criminal trials.
As far as her social media is concerned, she only has a Twitter account and a website, but she gets bonus points for being proactive, simply because her reply had the ability to turn my query into a conversation:
Completely brilliant. What are you writing? https://t.co/lNX1digOHJ
— Fiona Barton (@figbarton) August 29, 2016
2. Jenna Moreci
Instagram: jennamoreci; 4,103 followers
Twitter: @jennamoreci; 8,028 followers
Tumblr: jennamoreci
YouTube: Jenna Moreci; 39,296 subscribers
Website: jennamoreci.com
Jenna is what I call a “new media author” – these authors, usually millennials, are known for taking extra care when cultivating their fan base on all types of social media, most notably YouTube.
Her YouTube channel, Jenna Moreci, has almost 40,000 subscribers, most of whom are probably wannabe authors who take advantage of videos like “How to Write a Plot Twist,” “How to Create a Character Profile” and “How to Handle Self-Doubt as a Writer.” (I watched this one and the advice is on point).
On all of her social media, you’ll find Moreci claiming to be a cyborg. I suspect that’s an inside joke from her book, Eve: The Awakening, the first in an eight-part series. Eve Kingston has superpowers, which gets her enough criticism from the normal people she’s surrounded by. But then come Interlopers, an alien race intending to on experiment on people like Eve. The last thing Eve wants is to be a science experiment, so off she runs in the other direction as fast as she can.
For the most part, Jenna’s Instagram and Twitter are an extension of her YouTube, places where she posts screenshots of her videos to advertise them in case those followers aren’t also subscribed to her YouTube.
If you’re not all that interested in self-promotion, her Tumblr appears to be the place to get your fan questions answered.
3. Rainbow Rowell
Instagram: rainbowrowell; 60.5k followers
Twitter: @rainbowrowell; 133k followers
Tumblr: rainbowrowell
Website: rainbowrowell.com
Everyone else’s picture on this list is from their Twitter page. Not so with Rainbow Rowell, because her profile picture is a cartoon mouse in a red beret.
@hanna_schwinn Bernard from the Rescuers.
— Rainbow Rowell (@rainbowrowell) August 31, 2016
She’s best-known for her novels Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, both of which were published in 2013. The New York Times Book Review named Eleanor & Park, the love story of two misfits living in Nebraska in the late 1980s, one of seven Notable Children’s Books of 2013. Fangirl, although considered the sequel of Eleanor & Park, does not contain any of the characters from the previous book, although the two books are a part of a series called “True Love”. Cath, the eponymous fangirl of the story, writes fan fiction while struggling with social anxiety, her father’s mental illness, her outgoing twin sister and being a freshman in college.
Rowell’s most recent novel, Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow, has the same title as Cath’s fan fiction from Fangirl, and involves the same characters that Cath was struggling with, but does not mention Cath and can be seen as a standalone novel. It’s also Rowell’s first divergence from young-adult/adult realistic fiction, as it’s classified as a fantasy novel. Simon Snow is the “Chosen One” and is finishing his final year of magical schooling so he can defeat the Insidious Humdrum. His world is an obvious homage to Harry Potter, but distantly diverged enough so as to be a breath of fresh air.
As for Rowell’s social media, her Tumblr seems particularly devoted to fan art that her fans send her.
Her Twitter is everything I wish I could say, but can’t properly verbalize in the moment. Her pinned tweet is especially good.
Tweet like everyone’s muted you.
— Rainbow Rowell (@rainbowrowell) August 27, 2015
I think I’ll be taking it to heart.
4. J.K. Rowling
Twitter: jk_rowling; 8.04m followers
Website: jkrowling.com
Best known for the Harry Potter books, which turned into the mega-successful movies, amusement parks, the website Pottermore.com and the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, J.K. Rowling is the first author to become a billionaire. This means she’s super busy spending her money, and her social media is run by a team because J.K. Rowling has no time for pandering to her fan base… right? Wrong.
Google “J.K. Rowling tweets fans” and there’s plenty to see of Rowling replying to fans’ tweets, from playfully teasing fans, to replying to criticism. My personal favorites are her replies to post-Potter inquiries, like revealing Dumbledore was gay, or like this one:
Dean Thomas was called Gary in the first draft of Philosopher’s Stone. I renamed him after a boy I knew! https://t.co/Aq8A6GZGvf
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 23, 2016
Of course, getting a response from her is pretty rare (I was not that lucky), but following her is worth it for her other Tweets. My favorite?
It’s Friday, the sun’s shining, I’ve surpassed word count this week and some of it’s not bad. This is as good as the writing life gets.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 26, 2016
Hang on, she’s still writing? You bet she is! The Harry Potter saga isn’t over as of September 6, 2016, with the release of three new ebooks.
Three. Count them: 1. Short Stories from Hogwarts: Of Power, Politics And Pesky Poltergeists, 2. Short Stories from Hogwarts: Of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies, and 3. Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide.
5. Lindsay Cummings
Instagram: authorlindsaycummings; 31.6k followers
Twitter: @authorlindsayc; 39K followers
YouTube: Lindsay Cummings, Author; 12,492 subscribers
Website: lindsaycummingsbooks.com
Another new media author, Lindsay Cummings, also posts writing advice videos on her YouTube channel, like Jenna Moreci. But she’s worth following for what she does that Moreci doesn’t. That is, Cummings shows us that the the writing life isn’t all sunshine and roses.
It’s not an obvious conclusion to make – Cummings is cheerful even at the worst of times with bags under her eyes and a coffee cup shaking in one hand. But Moreci never shows these moments, hasn’t yet done a daily vlog. Cummings dabbles in day-in-the-life vlogging, and has taken her audience behind the scenes of book signings, Q&A sessions, book tours and Book Fest, showing them all the work that goes into those events.
Currently heckling #1 NYT Bestseller @authorlindsayc at a panel pic.twitter.com/uyEsh7H1LB
— Sarah Z (@zorabet) September 4, 2016
My favorite video of hers is titled “An Author’s Confession – Life After the Book Deal” where she chats about avoiding procrastination, and the aimlessness along with the depression that she felt after achieving what she thought was her #1 goal as a writer.
The issues that she faced after the publication of Murder Complex don’t appear to be affecting her now. She’s published six books in two series (“Murder Complex” series and “Balance Keepers” series) and a seventh book is on the way.
6. Sasha Alsberg
Instagram: sashaalsberg; 189k followers
Twitter: @sashaalsberg; 48.8k followers
YouTube: abookutopia; 305,530
It would be remiss to exlude Emerson College’s own Sasha Alsberg (class of 2019) from this list.
Looking at her stats, especially for YouTube, you might think she’s a new media author like Jenna Moreci or Lindsay Cummings, but Alsberg’s fandom has been carefully cultivated since her start as a YA book reviewer in February 2013 when she was just fourteen years old.
Her typical video is a book review, but she occasionally branches off to do movie reviews based off of books, daily vlogs, book hauls, creating outfits based off of book characters and Buzzfeed-style videos like “If a Reading Slump Was a Person.”
She doesn’t fall prey to only allowing her Twitter and Instagram to promote her YouTube, which is refreshing. She alternates between asking fans for advice and gushing about her favorite TV shows and actors.
OMG WHY WHYYYYY MUST I HAVE A MEETING AT THIS TIME (even though I’m super pumped for the meeting) WHYYYYYYYYYY https://t.co/oyjL31o7S9
— Sasha Alsberg (@sashaalsberg) September 21, 2016
Alsberg is branching out in the literary world. She no longer wants to just talk about other people’s books. She wants to write her own.
At the moment, she’s pairing with Lindsay Cummings (#5 on this list) to write Zenith, a serialized space opera starring Androma, a badass starship pirate.
Life of @sashaalsberg – the highlights #helpsashameetsam pic.twitter.com/Ia9iIp7sgm
— Androma Saga HK (@AndromaSaga_HK) September 22, 2016
Cummings and Alsberg’s original plan was to write Zenith in a series of ebooks, but after Zenith became #1 on the New York Times List of Bestselling Ebooks, it seems plans have changed.
Zenith will be physically hitting shelves sometime in the fall of 2017, thanks to Harlequin Teen.
Cummings and Alsberg better get to work.
What’s that, you ask? It’s the page that @sashaalsberg and I just hit on the full manuscript of ZENITH! @LaurenES pic.twitter.com/jAlbJQa5kF
— Lindsay Cummings (@authorlindsayc) September 5, 2016
Do you have any favorite female authors whose social media pages you love? Give them a shout out in the comments below (and don’t forget to let them know).