Unhinged: for Profit

AKA Threads and how to go nuts over there & make people read your books

The irony is not lost on me that I am finally feeling confident enough to write on Threads about when everyone has finally decided to check out BlueSky. I’m going to go ahead and assert (in advance) that if this methodology worked on Twitter (which I think it did) and on Threads (which I think it does) then it’ll probably work on any micro-blogger platform, like BlueSky.

With that out of the way - how should we be using threads, then?

I am DELIGHTED to tell you that after studying literally hundreds of authors over the last year, as well as brands, apps, shops, everything in between, that the key to threads is authentic connection.

Why is this so good? Well, it means that unlike a lot of other platforms, you’ll ideally be getting as much out of the app as you put in. This is a space for “back and forth” and “public conversations” (per Meta) and it currently does not offer any kind of ad spend or placement. That’s a sort of magical space, IMO.

Think about Threads like this:

1. Threads themselves

   1. A space where you toss up whatever is on your mind. What’s bugging you, what’s delighting you, morning views, shower thoughts, all of it. Even brands are doing this - check out (@)barnesandnoble, which you probably recognize more from replies, and the relatable (and personal) threads they create. This isn’t selling, and it’s not product - it’s people.

2. Replies

   1. The part where you become a conversation partner with half the internet. Throw in your two cents! Respond to their gripes! Relate to their excitement! Where you give, you get - and this is the best part, IMO, because you are only ever responding and relating, which should take up far less brain space.

3. Reposts

   1. This is the “official co-sign” in my opinion. Both quote-reposts and straight-up reposts go to the same place, and it’s a way for you to implicitly say “110% yes” and bring it to your followers’ orbits, too.

Now the reason I’ve chunked these three is because this is also the way YOUR feed is set up if someone were to come check out your profile. They each live in their respective slots there… but show up integrated in your followers main feed equally. This is the way that 99% of your interactions will come to you.

Threading in Practice

So keeping the above in mind, we can focus on some objective threading best practices.

1. The Golden Rule

Yes, seriously! But for a good reason, trust me. I’m going to continue to ask you to be your whole unhinged self. If you’re philosophical and thoughtful and ponderous, be that. If you’re chaotic and caffeinated and clever, be that. But when we’re our whole selves, we sometimes also forget that we are public figures.

Other authors are your colleagues, and readers are your customers. That doesn’t stop when we hop over to threads. BUT - this is a space where we’re hanging out conversationally, so we just want to move with a certain base level of politeness. If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need this reminder lol.

But you might need this one: if someone is rude to you, block them. SOME of you are brave and careful enough to clap back - we’ve all seen it, we adore it. Do what you need to do. But the majority of us - myself included - do not know how to do that safely, lmao. I have to block people because if I even TRY to clap back, my anxiety spikes, it’s all I think about, I’m constantly refreshing the app. I hope people understand I’m standing up for myself, and I hope they don’t think I’m the rude one. That’s all too much. Protect your peace & block liberally.

2. The (1/?) Thread

We’ve all seen it! “Interesting thing happened to me, but I didn’t react the way you’d think. XYZ was so rude, and I felt horrible. Blah blah was happening. But then….(1/?)” and then it cuts off. We need to go investigate the rest of the thread and know what happens!!

Now, I don’t recommend always doing it just like that. I think people actually get fatigued on it, and they know they’re being “sold” at. But I’m also talking to a bunch of story tellers here!! If you’ve got more than just a sentence or two to say, break it carefully into multiple parts.

The reason for this is that the app is called Threads. They literally want you to be creating threads yourself, and then again as people respond to you. The goal of the app is to have all these many interconnecting and cascading threads! So by starting with a multi-thread point (where appropriate and sparingly) we automatically increase our chances of engagement.

3. Hashtags and keywords (the algo)

Controversial take maybe, but don’t bother with hashtags. The Threads algorithm has a much easier time than the instagram algo - it’s only got to read the words! We’ve all seen this to our detriment - interact with one single post about “fantasy romance vs romantasy” and then it’s your entire feed for days, lol.

This does mean though that instead of saying “Does anyone else feel like they cannot do a single thing in the morning before they have food??” we want to make it more specific with keywords. This may be hard at first, but it’ll become automatic eventually. Think about how “Do any other authors feel like they cannot write a single word in the morning before they have food?” will attract the kinds of folks who will have a conversation with you about this. It’s probably what you meant, anyway - but it helps the algo help you.

4. Exclusive content

Basic but worth saying - your threads can have some overlap with your social media, but over time, the following is going to be a little different - and the content should be specific to that space. I’ll get into book-posting in the next section, but there’s a couple ways I mean this literally.

For one, threads does not seem to love images and links as much as text posts. So if you post something on insta and WANT to share to threads, you should consider how you can turn it into a longer chain, and maybe nest the link or image lower. Prioritize the threads audience.

For another, it means you shouldn’t be sharing every thread you post over to your instagram. Do this so sparingly! If they wanted to follow you on threads, they would - so at most, I would “cross-post” to your insta stories once a week or less to remind new followers they can head on over to threads and find you.

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So what’s the strategy??

Well… with no ad spend, no way to track link clicks or traffic (outside of your website or newsletter sign ups), no in-app shopping…. the content strategy, in my professional opinion, is to be yourself. Your REAL self, wholly and unabashedly.

For CONTENT (threads):

The most jarring thing first: make a post with a link to your book (buy, pre-order, whatever) and pin it on your profile. Now stop trying to advertise your book with links the way you’re used to on instagram.

• What are you watching or reading? What have you been up to lately? I’m dead serious when I say you should thread whatever stirs up emotion for you, because it’s going to do the same for others.

• Share WIP bits - lines you love, funny mistakes even - this is a much less serious (and less permanent feeling) place, so being less formal is great.

• Post liberally. Threads isn’t zero sum - go ahead and blabber!

• Tonally - use your Person Voice, not your Writing Voice. They’ll get to know you better this way.

• Anecdotally - I’ve seen a lot of authors have a ton of success advertising their book NON-TRADITIONALLY. Check out Victoria Mier on there for a great example of this!

  • I’ve also seen a lot of authors have success looking for ARC readers on threads, for whatever that’s worth. Your mileage will for sure vary.

For REPLIES

• THIS is where I feel the opportunity lies!!!!

• But FIRST: a warning on engagement bait.

  • if someone is saying “authors!! rec me your book/show me your cover/respond in some way!!” …consider that this is just their way of getting engagement. Do they mean it? Do they post this kind of thing ALL the time? Do they seem to be reading any of them? I’m just saying. I see it a lot, and I see a lot of authors spending a lot of time commenting on all of them, and I’m not sure it’s…doing anything.

• Now that that’s out of the way - I cannot even tell you, anecdotally, how many authors have made it onto my radar because I saw them say something smart or funny in someone else’s replies and they simply have “author” in their username.

• AKA - just truly being yourself over there is going to pull a lot of weight. You don’t need to try to go viral, be quippy, or bring perfect brand new thoughts into the world / to the internet table. You can simply be the other half of conversations that people are looking to have on Threads and be seen.

Reposts don’t really need their own section here because I think you can pretty much do whatever you want there lol. When you re-post it, followers will just see the “original” post with a tiny grey note that you’re the one who re-posted it (unless you’re adding your two cents).

Sooo.. TLDR?

I mean, it’s not complicated, and it’s not really a science (yet). Threads is still a bit lawless. If I had to pick three tenants to guide my Threads strategy as an indie author, it would be community, authenticity, and agility.

I would focus on making genuine connections with both readers and other authors. I would be my whole self, knowing that will attract exactly the right type of person to me. I would free myself to move quickly, hopping on trends without overthinking, and responding to current events in a way that feels like me.

I would stop trying to advertise my book so traditionally in a space that’s made for conversations and community. I would chat about my book or my characters where it makes sense to do so, but relieve myself of the pressure of the constant ad cycle. I would try to have fun with it! I would check out accounts like Barnes and Noble and Bookshop.org and study the way they barely seem to be advertising at all - just hanging out, being funny, and responding to relevant threads.

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I hope that this serves as a reasonable starting point for those who are trying to think about Threads more intentionally. I think, in my humble opinion, that a lot of authors are currently wasting a lot of energy treating Threads like instagram, when they could at least be having more fun.

That being said, this is obviously nowhere near comprehensive - so I very much look forward to your questions! Please pop them in the comments section below so I can follow up and help out as best I can.

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(some housekeeping)

I will be taking the month of December off from deployments! To that end, I’ve turned OFF billing and the ability to pay for a new paid subscription at this time. I’ll turn that back on in January - I just hate to feel like I’m taking when I’m not giving :) Thank you to everyone & I’ll speak with you again at least one last time before the holidays! xoxo Charlie