10,000 Followers on Twitter! Celebratory Song

There is a twitter tradition than you must sing a song when in the vicinity of 10,000 followers so, as I'm only about 30 away. Here's my embarrassing song:

OK... I wimped out.  My bad. This is the real deal...

Want to sponsor a writer? If you'd have thrown me
some pennies for that performance had I been busking,
you can do so below.

Whether you decide to help or not, thanks for listening.
Hope you enjoyed it. xx

10,000 Followers on Twitter! Celebratory Song

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The Most Expensive Tweet in the World?

Prepare to Laugh at My Expense


UPDATE: Order has been restored to Trumpton. It was a tech problem. I am, indeed, one of the 5,000 most influential people in the world on Twitter (but only whisper it in case the Bragging Fairy takes it away again!) Read what follows though, and feel free to mock me. It IS pretty bloody funny. 


I hope you find this as funny as I did. I honestly could not write this kind of comic timing. Nobody would believe it. 


For reasons I won't go into, for fear of disappearing into Irrelevant Tangent World,  I was feeling pretty shoddy about myself. I posted the following declaration:

I am so utterly, utterly cr*p sometimes. *Irons hands to make reparation*

In an attempt to cheer myself up, I thought I'd post my Twitter Grader score. Over the months, I'd noticed it sneaking closer to the top 5,000. I'd made a decision to share the news once it crossed into this magical 5k territory. I'd forgotten. At this moment of hand-ironing low self-esteem, however, it felt the perfect 'ta-da' moment to reveal my enviable status. The hope for a jolt in the ego that would make ironing my hands unnecessary was to be short-lived. 

Mildly fabulous (improbable) news: am now in top 5,000 on whole of Twitter!

I announced - with the URL to prove it. To make sure I'd put the right link up - anyone else ever get that paranoia? - I clicked it. The following comedy is mainly visual. In a 'before and after gone wrong' reveal, permit me to show you the screen capture of what I THOUGHT they'd see, followed by what they ACTUALLY saw. You'll like this:

 This is what they saw (screen shot taken - in disbelief - 1 minute later)

Either Twitter Grader is having technical problems or that one tweet was the most expensive - in influence terms - in the whole history of Twitter. Oh, the shame!! :P

The Most Expensive Tweet in the World?

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Twitter - The Insignificance Awareness Engine

Twitter - The Insignificance Awareness Engine

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Do You EVER Sleep?

Every day, someone asks me: 'do you ever sleep?'  Much of my time on Twitter at the moment is spent on DM-ing the answer, so I thought I'd write a post to explain.


Being Human-Shaped on Twitter


The 'rules' of Twitter pass via osmosis to newbies.  They are a hodge-podge of theories by various 'social media gurus' and celebrities.  My most favouritest sleb of all - Stephen Fry - described it thusly:


It is important for all of us to understand its [Twitter’s] nature. It is human shaped, not business shaped. (Telegraph)


I agreed with Mr Fry to the tips of my toes, having found it very easy to embrace the human-shaped Twitter in my early months on the network.  All was well.  The Twitter bird was an amusing little chum who brought light-hearted chatter into my world.  After a while, however, I noticed something.  People were treating me in a different way.  I was becoming a channel.  


Never Broadcast


One of the Laws of Twitter is that you should never broadcast, because that indicates a lack of engagement or interest in others.  It is non-human.  There's a problem with that.  It's a fib.  It's a big old fib.  If you blogged twenty times a day and checked and replied to your comments every day or two, would people say you weren't engaging with the blogosphere?  Heck no!  Then why apply that rule to a micro-blogging platform?  


It is possible to be human in a face-to-face type way while your account is a human size (up to a few hundred), but to do so when it is much larger can be de-humanising.  Twitter is human-shaped, in that it is society-shaped.  Society is a wonderful mix of different people with different expectations and habits.  Twitter is the same.  To assume that we must all use Twitter in the same way is as arrogant as assuming we must all watch the same TV shows, drive the same cars or support the same political party.  It's daft.  


Many of the people on Twitter are shy in 'real life.'  They may start off a little more bold when they come onto social networks but, eventually, everyone becomes themselves.  That's the 'human' way.  Nobody can act 100% of the time, unless they have assumed a persona (Mrs Stephen Fry springs to mind given the context.)  


Most people are used to being entertained.  They read blogs, but they don't comment.  They watch TV, but they don't expect to submit content for the shows.  They listen to music, but they don't perform.  Why should they?  For many people, social networks are a fun place to hang out,  They are great places to find interesting news or funny videos, but providing that content - or provoking debate - is not where their focus lies.  They want to be entertained.  They want content that they can enjoy and share with others.  They don't all want to chat.  Many of them want reliable broadcasts.  


Celebrities have a level of immunity.  They already broadcast on TV, film or radio.  When they come onto Twitter, they can get away with a few 'I am having lunch now' tweets.  Early in Twitter's development, people followed the 'what are you doing?' question very literally.  Some yearn for the return of those days when the details of 'real life' were displayed for all: 

What 'human' twitter looks like (not suitable for work - 
or for those with delicate sensibilities)

Most of us can't get away with that kind of approach these days - fortunately.  People want our considered opinions.  They want to know that we care enough to make something special to share with them.  They don't want our bubble and squeak.  They want cake.  


I didn't get this.  I was busy chatting and throwing out things I thought people would enjoy and I didn't realise that I had established a precedent.  During a few spells of recession-induced insomnia, I had picked up followers from different time zones.  Now my sleep pattern approached normality they were complaining.  Why wasn't I tweeting at a convenient time for their time zone?  Who did I think I was?  


How to Please Followers and Stay Human


For a while, I attempted to get in everyone's good books by living on Twitter.  I stayed up late, hit as many time zones as was humanly possible and became crankier by the day.  There was nothing 'human-shaped' about my miserable experience.  I had become a robot.  I looked at the tweets my followers craved - the ones that were most retweeted.  They liked the goodies.  They liked the trinkets I'd picked up on the net - the quotes and videos and news.  The chatter got a mixed response, but the broadcast?  They loved it.


I had an idea.  I told my followers I planned to schedule some tweets so I could get a break.  I used the service that used to be called Tweet Later - it is now called Social Oomph - and wrote some tweets ahead of time.  The process of finding my tweets was way more fun that I had thought it would be.  It was like Christmas shopping for friends.  I had become resentful of the thousands of demanding voices.  Suddenly, I wasn't.  Instead, I was thinking of all my wonderful followers and the kinds of things that would excite or intrigue or amuse them.  Trawling the interwebs for tweetworthy treats took a bit of work, but it was fun.  


After I'd scheduled them for the next couple of days, I signed out of my Twitter account and looked.  The first update appeared, all by itself!  I went to search.twitter.com and put in 'rebeccawoodhead' to see if anyone had replied.  They had.  The tweet had gone down well.  Over the next few hours, I checked back a few times.  Lots of retweets, LOLs, and general frivolity.  My pressies were well received.  The same people who'd chided me for needing rest were now retweeting my tweets!


That night, I could barely sleep - ironically enough - I knew I'd been given permission to take this step but I felt guilt.  I felt a level of empathy with the first woman in a street, back in the day, who surrendered her household's laundry to a machine.  How must her neighbours have regarded that fiendish and less-than-human being?  How could she turn her back on those for whom she should be providing a loving service, and surrender that work to a machine?  I imagined some kind of social networking ducking stool would be waiting upon my return.  


The next morning, I couldn't resist it.  I had to check.  I crept downstairs while my husband slept.  I switched on the netbook and looked at my replies.  All good.  Not one bad comment.  I glanced at the follower number, certain that many would have fled.  No.  Quite the opposite.  I had new followers from different time zones.  Shocked, but pleased, I closed the netbook and prepared for a day off.  It was the first day I had ignored social networks for months.  I spent it enjoying the very human company of my husband.  Every now and then, I looked up from a cup of tea or a book and said 'you know I'm tweeting at the moment right?'  He nodded.


Over the next month, my following doubled.  Your mileage may vary, as the cliche goes, but I have found Social Oomph to be a re-humanising collection of tools.  It finds me new people to follow, tells me when someone is reading a book I might like, and makes it easier for me to list the people to whom I want to give recognition.  Most important, it lets me sleep.  Now, when I am on Twitter in person, I have enough energy to enjoy my friends and I no longer feel like a robot.  For me, Twitter is human-shaped again.

You can try it out for free here

Do You EVER Sleep?

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10 Easy Steps to Becoming a Published Writer

If you like this, please tell your friends.  Thanks.  :)

10 Easy Steps to Becoming a Published Writer

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Thank You - Why My Followers Rock

The Academy Agreed 


The Shorty Awards are over, and The Academy agreed with your votes.  I finished third!  


There were 250,000 competitors.  Only 78 made it into the top 3.


This is a huge accomplishment.  How amazing are my followers that they could vote me into the final with legends like Neil Gaiman, and ahead of JK Rowling?  Pretty bloody amazing!  There is no way on earth I could have done this without you.  Not a chance.  


It needs to be put into perspective - because you need to realise how much you should be patting yourselves on the back for this.  Look at the stats above.  Can you believe you did that?  What an amazing group of people.  I'm not even a published author!  Not even Britney Spears made it into the top three.      


These are the most prestigious awards for micro-blogging and I feel very honoured to be placed.  There was a big awards ceremony in New York (footage two posts down) and huge brands were fighting to be finalists, as the page detailing finalists remains up all year.  It is good marketing.  This was not an easy contest.  Wall Street Journal live tweeted it from the ceremony for goodness sake!  


Please accept my thanks for all you did.  I may not have the greatest number of followers but I believe they are some of the most determined and supportive there are and, yet again, you have proved me right.  Don't know how I got so lucky.  

Thank You - Why My Followers Rock

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Twitter Comes to England and Puts Shorty Awards in Danger

I made this about the Shorty Awards and Twitter. It was inspired by Neil Gaiman's kind words of encouragement, and understanding of the complexities of life with goldfish.

Twitter Comes to England and Puts Shorty Awards in Danger

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I Finished THIRD in the Shorty Awards for Literature!

Thanks for all the votes.  The Academy are judging them between now and 3rd March, so I could end up in a higher or lower position, but I am definitely a finalist, and by their calculations (votes+content) at the close of the voting portion of the awards, I was third.  You know when they say 'the nominees are...'? One of those will be me :)

It has been an exhausting process - less so than for the Ms Twitter contest because we went crazy on that and fewer people were involved, but exhausting none-the-less.  There have been developments through the last couple of months.  I may have a writing-related announcement to make soon.  Keep an eye on the blog.

Thanks again everyone,

Rebecca

www.rebeccawoodhead.com 

I Finished THIRD in the Shorty Awards for Literature!

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Am Official Shorty Awards Finalist! Only 2 Days to Vote.

Only two days left of the Shorty Awards.  My hands have been slapped for suggesting it's enough to be in the finals.  My followers on Twitter have decided they want me to win.  If you would like to help, go to http://shortyawards.com/ and vote for me in the literature category or just tweet 'I nominate @rebeccawoodhead for a Shorty Award in #literature because...' and put a reason.  If you click on my avatar there you will go to my personal Awards page where you can read my Shorty Awards interview.  It's pretty funny.  Hope you like it.

The best help anyone can give is to blog about it and send more voters across.  It is a huge deal that we managed to get an unpublished writer into the most prestigious awards on Twitter - and I am honoured that I am the one carrying that flag.  We convinced the Awards Academy to raise the profile of literature to an official category.  It is a great achievement.  

At the moment, I am in third place.  Any help you can give to keep me there would be much appreciated. This is a way bigger deal than Ms Twitter was, and it is helping me reach more readers.  The more readers I reach, the better chance I have of writing my way out of poverty.

PLEASE use the share button below to share this post with your networks, as time is running out.

Thanks everyone,

Rebecca.

Am Official Shorty Awards Finalist! Only 2 Days to Vote.

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Shorty Awards - top non-published Writer!

WE DID IT!

Literature is now recognised as an official category and I'm now the top non-published writer in it.  Can we get me into the final? It has been an intriguing journey.  I even got (almost)punked by a famous comedian who then kind-a-sorta complimented me for taking it well.  He's v funny actually.  Didn't know him by name before this but knew him by reputation.  His 7-legged spider picture gag is legendary.  Am honoured.  


Anyhow, by some strange coincidence, a bunch of my chums are also in 4th place on the front page - out of reach of the screenshot, Stephen Fry is 4th in the celebrity category.


Things are getting really competitive in the literature category so I need your votes.  The link is shortyawards.com  for the front page (you need to pick 'literature' when it asks for category) and the direct link is http://tiny.cc/TheRandomer 


Can an unpublished writer be placed in the Twitter Oscars?  Come on guys.  I need your help!  Tell everyone you can as the number of voters is more important than the number of votes.  PLEASE HELP.  


Thank you.


Rebecca

Shorty Awards - top non-published Writer!

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The Randomer Returns

I overtook Neil Gaiman but then New York Times best selling author Sherrilyn Kenyon snuck up and overtook both of us so I need your help. Please put the word around.

If you need short URLs, the following go to the literature category http://tiny.cc/TheRandomer  http://tiny.cc/ShortyAwards    

One thing I have going for me is that Shorty Awards have chosen one of my answers to their interview as a featured quote - there are about 15 and mine is one of them.

Did the newsletter come out okay by the way?  Would love some feedback.

Thanks everyone.

Rebecca.

The Randomer Returns

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I Have Been Nominated for a Twitter Oscar!

Real-Time Academy for Short Form Arts and Science Award ('Shorty')

This is a real, proper, no nonsense award and I've been nominated for it by a bunch of people, including the top magazine for writers in the UK! The people behind the award are here:http://rtacademy.org/ 

At the moment, I am in 3rd place behind multi-award winning best selling author, Neil Gaiman .

Please vote for/nominate me.  To do this, click here - http://tiny.cc/VoteRebecca and tweet a message about why I should win.  Look at what others have said if you need an idea what to write. It needn't be anything amazing but to qualify as a proper nomination/vote it has to be something.  In only 7 votes time I will be in 2nd place but this will get very competitive. It's a big award with a ceremony in New York and everything so what I really need you to do, if you feel you can, is to blog about it.

I am very close to getting published and this could tip me over the edge.  You are the best friends and supporters I could hope for in the online world and I know you'll help.  Thanks in advance. 

Rebecca

 

I Have Been Nominated for a Twitter Oscar!

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Booktrust Guest Blog is Up!

Words about me from Booktrust...

Our Twitter page has put us in contact with diverse parts of the publishing industry, from publishers to writers to book bloggers to parents and carers who benefit from our bookgifting. One of the more interesting personalities on our Twitter feed has been aspiring author Rebecca Woodhead. Author of two books and unpublished, she has been using the internet to her advantage, to build up a loyal following of visitors to her blog and writings. Then she was nominated for Ms Twitter UK, a Twitter competition pitting her against celebrities like Lily Allen and Fearne Cotton and their extensive fanbases. Mobilising her band of followers, cutely named the Word Nerd Army, and rallying publishers, agents and literary types alike (including Twitter god Stephen Fry), Rebecca won Ms Twitter UK, with the motto 'the pen is mightier than the pin-up', promising to help promote literature and reading and aspiring authors and libraries, all issues close to the heart of Booktrust. Now with a land of opportunities awaiting her following her victory, Rebecca has written two blogs for us, this week on how she came to write her novel and use the internet to help promote it and in the next blog on how she won Ms Twitter UK and what it means and how other writers can follow in her example of using the internet to pursue their dream of being published....

To read my article, click the bus at the top or click here... http://news1.rebeccawoodhead.com

Booktrust Guest Blog is Up!

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Now Officially Ms Twitter UK!

Finally the Tweeterwall of Fame is up and I no longer have to say 'no - I am Ms Twitter - honest.'

There has been much interest in the blog I set up to fulfil my Ms Twitter promises. I have sent in two of the articles I was asked to write. One - a guest blog - goes up on a very exciting site at the start of next week. The Word Nerd Army blog will have its first influx of new observers. I wonder what they will make of the issues and comments.

Look forward to reading all your comments. :)

Rebecca

Now Officially Ms Twitter UK!

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Rebecca Woodhead is Ms Twitter UK thanks to Word Nerd Army!

We did it!! Thanks to all the wonderful word-people who've supported me. My own personal goals aside, the random collection of supporters who became known as my Word Nerd Army have taught me so much about the industry over the last few weeks.

From people who work in libraries to people who advise the government on library policy to publishers, teachers, readers and retailers, I've been able to pull together different stories of the book community and come up with a list of ideas that we broadly agree upon. If anything comes out of my being Ms Twitter, I hope it will be that bloggers will pick whichever of these inspire them and will blog and tweet them into the limelight. These are the issues that matter to the people who helped me to become Ms Twitter UK:

1. Millions of people don't read, because they can't read. More money needs to go into schemes to give word skills and confidence.
   
2. Millions of people don't read, because they are not inclined to read. Being a 'word nerd' needs to be seen as a good thing.
   
3. Libraries are variously under-funded or under-attended. More effort needs to go into reconnecting societies with libraries.
   
4. Many people are not aware of the benefits of using libraries during a recession. Free books, cheap DVDs & music, free net access etc.
   
5. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a pin-up. There is everything wrong with thinking that is your only option. Choice is crucial.
   
6. Men and women can work together towards a common goal - as can different cultures - on twitter. Twitter has a positive part to play.
   
7. The online book community is very motivated & incredibly supportive of new & established talent. Reading and writing are solitary activities. Twitter brings in a social element regardless of location or physical mobility.
   
8. Illness, bad fortune and/or poverty need not be a significant barrier to success. Web 2.0 can re-enable people facing hardship.
   
9. Books give you access to great minds.
   
10. Stories are important.
    
11. A large number of people in UK prisons (around 3 in 5 according to one prison librarian) have reading problems or dyslexia. There needs to be research into the connection between difficulties with literacy and eventual crime to help people before they resort to crime. Access to good help with reading and communication difficulties needs to be a priority. Wouldn't it be great if by addressing this issue, we could build more libraries and fewer prisons?

Point 11 is a big issue and we, as a group, didn't have the necessary information to suggest anything. It may be coincidence but it's got to be worth a look.

Sorry about the third-person-ness of the heading - I'm not being a diva, I'm just aware google likes it and want people to see the points above.

Thanks again everyone. So glad it's over. If anyone's scratching their head and thinking 'but you're in the Europe contest representing the UK next' read the previous post. I'm hanging up my sash after this.

Rebecca - Ms Twitter UK (*hee hee*)

Rebecca Woodhead is Ms Twitter UK thanks to Word Nerd Army!

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Miss Nobody, The Randomer... A Writer by Any Other Name Would Still Win Ms Twitter UK

I'm back! May relative obscurity wrap me in its fluffy arms and say 'welcome home.'

In 21 hours, 7 minutes and 20 seconds Ms Twitter UK comes to an end. I'm 1048 in the lead so it's pretty likely that I will win. My long-standing online chums know there's always some method behind my mad schemes. This one has certainly been madder than most but I'm uber chuffed about how well it has gone.

As I've said before, my sense of self worth has never been bound up in this contest: my bid for the Ms Twitter UK crown was a cheeky attempt at subverting a cultural milieu that prizes youth and beauty over age and experience. It was always a bit tongue-in-cheek. Beauty and popularity contests have never been my thing. When I was the age of the celebrity in second place, I was deep in books on legislation, psychology, politics and sociology. I shook my fists at inequality and hated the fact that I had the kind of looks that made people say 'oh, isn't she sweet when she's angry?' when I laid into them about equal pay. This contest, for me and my book-loving followers, has been a fun way to promote the idea that the pen is mightier than the pin-up.

Miss Nobody - The Randomer

One thing I hadn't prepared myself for when I embarked upon this cheeky jaunt into Twitter stardom was how very seriously other people would take it. The best example of this is the endless abuse I have suffered from fans of The Saturdays - a UK pop group. The person in second place is 'Vanessa from The Saturdays' and evidently a large number of teenagers were heavily invested in her winning this contest. On The Saturdays' official website were calls for votes and much celebration when she finally 'won'...except she hadn't won. I came out of nowhere and beat her. This went down very badly indeed.

The first wave of attacks came on Twitter. Two fans of The Saturdays launched missive-missiles at me and my followers. I found it quite amusing and adopted the title 'Miss Nobody' they had given me with some pride. I was perturbed to have lost my crown polish but otherwise was entertained by the exchange. My followers were of a different mind and retaliated. Who knew publishers, editors and librarians were such 'bad-asses'?! In the end, I chatted with the girls who agreed I wasn't 'that bad' and asked me to call off my followers. It all ended well enough and I thought that was the end of it.

When I noticed that the vitriol was continuing elsewhere, I blocked them and got on with my life. Days passed. I googled my name to see what impact the contest was having on my Google placement and found a link to an ant's nest of bad feeling.

About 50 pages of official 'The Saturdays' site had been set aside for defaming 'the randomer' who was stealing Vanessa's rightful throne. 'The Randomer' beat 'Miss Nobody' as a name so I also adopted that one. The pages and pages of utter drivel about me have given me some fairly impressive super-villain powers.

• I can hack Wikipedia (isn't it open anyhow? That one's not a great super-power).
• I can, and frequently do, hack into the Ms Twitter UK contest and change the results.
• I have also hacked the Ms Twitter UK contest to stop people being able to vote continuously for Vanessa (obviously I left the 20 min delay in on votes for me just for a laugh).
• Nobody votes for me for any reason. They are all brainwashed by me because of my hate for Vanessa (for whom I have no bad feeling whatever given that I'd never even heard of her until they started attacking me).

So, I am master hacker and brain-washer. If I had only known this sooner I would have chosen a different career path. Doh!

Game Over!

I have accomplished everything I set out to accomplish with this contest. My following has expanded but, more importantly I have shown:

• Neither age nor wealth, physical ability or mobility need be a barrier to success online,
• The book community is HUGELY motivated online. This is significant information for those considering the digital future of the book industry,
• I am good at mobilising an army of book lovers. This is comforting for whichever publisher decides to take me on,
• I am now on friendly terms with some of the most important people on twitter and in the book industry
• I have a platform to gain column inches. If I make a comment about the publishing industry/reading community on twitter it will have more quotability if I'm 'Ms Twitter'.

I'm of a 'job done' frame of mind now. When Ms Twitter UK ends I will automatically be entered into the European final and from there will go into the 'World' contest. I'm done. There is nothing more for me to prove, so I'm going to see if Tweeterwall will allow me to sit out the future contests. 'The pen is mightier than the pin-up' is a battle cry for cultural sanity, not a boast. If I win this and then bow out and get on with my writing, it will remain that way.

Will pop back on after Ms Twitter UK ends and let you know whether or not I won. Thanks for all your support. My followers are amazing.

Miss Nobody, The Randomer... A Writer by Any Other Name Would Still Win Ms Twitter UK

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I'm Winning Ms Twitter UK!

An Unknown Writer is Winning Ms Twitter UK and it's Me!

What a crazy journey! I can't believe all the celebrities I've overtaken. Lily Allen seemed impossible to beat - how could I ever get over 3000 votes? It happened. Not quite sure how, but I beat her and this morning I overtook Vanessa White from The Saturdays.

What I'm Learning

Ms Twitter is basically a popularity contest. My preconceptions were that on the level playing field of Twitter, the usual stereotypes would rise to the top: models and celebs with professional photos, make-up artist-and-cosmetic-surgeon-perfected faces and publicity machines would wipe the floor with the 'normals'. After all, that's what M.O.P.s (Members of the Public) are for. Hasn't happened though.

True, all the others in the top 10 are celebrities...but I'm not. The person behind me was born in a year in which I remember lying in a field with my friends and a bottle of cheap cider, and watching the stars above as The Cure left outdoor speakers and thudded through the ground beneath us.

My lack of spring-chickenyness caused a crisis of confidence early in the competition when I had to wade through a field of impossibly beautiful young models. I asked my followers on Twitter for advice. They would need to put in all the hard work to get me to the front page after all, so I needed to know how they wanted me to play it.

Back in the day, I wasn't bad looking and I have some old modelly shots I thought I could pull out so I'd be fighting the battle with a youthful face at the very least. They said I must not do this. They were very firm on this point. Interestingly, they were also fairly evenly split between the genders. It was almost unanimously decided that I must fight with brains only.

That said, the fact that I've suffered brain injury was to be no excuse for failure. A number of people with disabilities and hidden illnesses also got on board. I wasn't going to be allowed to hide behind any physical difficulties because they wouldn't let me. They encouraged me to use what I have now and focus on winning. Strict crowd.

The Battle Plan

All possible excuses for failure now behind me, we came up with a battle plan we could all stick to. The slogan of the campaign would be:

'The pen is mightier than the pin-up'

The weapons we would use to fight the battle would be the tools of what became known as 'literary stand-up.'

Through trial and error, we discovered that I can come up with ideas very fast so this became my strategy for gaining votes. When votes were needed, I'd make myself really vulnerable and let people quiz me however they felt fit.

Of course, this was all under the watchful eyes of the publishers and media types that follow me so it was a huge gamble but it paid off. Before long, agents and publishers also joined in. Not only were they asking me questions and requesting haiku, stories, medieval translations etc against the clock but they were even promoting my bid for the Ms Twitter UK title and encouraging others in the literary world to follow me.

This whole process has been exhausting but it's also been exhilarating. From a personal perspective, it makes no odds to me whether I win or not. The contest is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. At the moment, I'm winning. At the moment I have proved that someone like me CAN win. That's the important bit.

What matters to me is that I've proved to myself - and hopefully to others - that you don't have to be a certain age or of a certain physical ability or image or income or any of those things to build a market for your writing online. As I have said before, these are "mind forg'd manacles" not real barriers to success. Publishers are pretty Twitter-savvy and I'm sure this hasn't skipped their notice either. Web 2.0 gives writers legs - whatever their physical constraints. Little triumphs like these amongst writers battling with disabilities, poverty or other problems are bound to give publishers more confidence when it comes to taking a chance on the 'imperfect' unpublished author.

The contest is not over. I've no idea whether or not I will be in the lead when it closes. What I do know, however, is that thousands of people have followed my progress over the last couple of weeks and, after weeding out most of them, a good thousand or so remain. Of these, about 90% are die-hard book fans and they've fought for my success. Chaps... I have a platform. Mission accomplished.

Ms Twitter UK: http://rebeccawoodhead.com/vote

My Twitter Page: http://rebeccawoodhead.com/twitter

I'm Winning Ms Twitter UK!

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New Writer Next to Lily Allen In Twitter Popularity Contest!

How Did This Happen?

Can you believe this madness? I'm competing with Lily Allen for goodness sake. It's nuts.

They haven't put up the end date for this round yet - still showing the update from the last competition - so there's probably still a good couple of weeks in it and I'm already in the top three. There are so many people following me now, I feel like there's a kind of expectation that I'll pull some giant metaphorical rabbit out of a hat if I actually win this. I hope it's a rabbit with the words '3 book deal' in big, friendly letters on its tummy. :)

http://rebeccawoodhead.com/vote

New Writer Next to Lily Allen In Twitter Popularity Contest!

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Tony Robbins is Following Me!!

A Bizarre turn of events has occurred in my bid for the Ms Twitter UK title. A man of 898,688 followers on twitter - who was following only 204 - backed my bid and started following me!


He's a bit of a hero of mine, I've got to be honest. When I was living in America, I split up with my then boyfriend and ended up sitting in an apartment on my own watching shopping channels - an unheard of invention in England at the time. On one of these channels I saw a positive chap talk positively about something. I wasn't feeling very positive so I thought I might be able to buy some positivity off him. I phoned and gave over my card details.


A little while later a bunch of tapes arrived in a box. By this point I was feeling a bit better so I put them in the cupboard. The box came back to England with me. It travelled all over the place with me then, one day, I was on the phone with my bank in America trying to find out what had happened to a small amount of cash and whether it could be transferred into my English account. 24 hour news had just been introduced and I watched the TV as a plane flew into a tower. I had to break the news to the person on the other end that their offices in New York had been attacked. I phoned my dear friend (the chap of earlier in the story - ex and now best chum) and while I was on the phone, another plane flew over his building. The line went dead.
Fortunately, he was fine but that hour was the longest I had ever experienced. I knew I had to move somewhere else and start afresh so I handed in my notice and moved to the other side of England.


When I arrived at my new flat/apartment, I unpacked my boxes. There sat the unopened box of tapes. I was really in need of positivity. I found an old Walkman and as I unpacked and tidied my new home, I listened to Tony Robbins telling me ways to look at my life differently. He's not a 'positive-thinking' guru, but it felt pretty positive to me. By the time I'd finished the tapes I knew I had to change my life so I set up a new business, met new people, learnt new things and ultimately met my husband.


Okay, I have a wreck of a life now. I wasn't able to 'bounce back' from the death of my brother in the same way and I had a relapse of bad health but I never forgot a few of the things Robbins taught me on his tapes - and later at a seminar in which I walked over hot coals. The three main things I remembered were:

• to 'live with an attitude of gratitude'
• 'the past does not equal the future unless you live there'
• 'God's delays are not God's denials'

I remembered these things because I've used them. They're all relevant to me every week. I am aware that we live at a subsistence level but I'm also grateful for the fact that we do so in a lovely rented cottage with beautiful views. If you're going to be poor you may as well do it in style!


I know that the past does not equal the future because I've got through things I felt were insurmountable.  I know that God's delays are not God's denials because ill health kept me out of university but I fought through it the first time I became really ill and was able to attend a uni that I much preferred a few years later.


Tony Robbins following me on twitter has reminded me that however grim my situation may appear, there is still hope. The chances of him choosing to follow me were... well I'm not a mathematician but I'd have to say the chances were tiny. I follow more people on twitter than he does! But... he did follow me.  If that can happen, what other improbable things can happen? Maybe I will actually get into the top 20 in this competition. It looks unlikely but it might happen. Maybe a publisher will look at my illnesses and accomplishments and instead of passing me over for someone with perfect health will think "she's bloody resourceful. We could use an author like her." Who knows? Intriguing to find out.


May 2010: Update... I won Ms Twitter UK (the contest in this post), went on to come third in the Shorty Awards, and am now the most influential non-celebrity female in the UK according to Klout.  I had interest from publishers, but chose to become an authorpreneur and my first book, Palaces and Calluses,  will be out soon.  


August 2010 Update... I'm now one of the 100 most powerful women in the world on Twitter, according to Twitter Grader. I've won numerous more awards, been published in an anthology, and commissioned by a UK publisher to write the foreword for a book they are publishing.


Sept 2010 Update... http://thebexter.com named Blogger Blog of Note


Sept 2011 Update... Palaces and Calluses is not only out, but it's on best reviewed and bestseller lists on Amazon. I'm now the most influential woman in England on Google+ and have been verified ... as a celebrity, I guess ... by Google. I'm also a columnist for my very favourite magazine, Writing Magazine, and have money coming in from various places to support my writing habit. I'm building a team of aspiring writers and teaching them how to become resilient and resourceful too. 

Sept 2012 Update... I've been named one of the top marketers to circle on Google+ by Mashable.com, one of the top Tech Journalists by Robert Scoble, and I spoke at this year's Swanwick Writers' School on the subject of ePublishing. My first information products: The Right to Write and The Mindset Behind the Magic - Volume I: Money Acceptance (featuring Ray Higdon) are launching this month and next month respectively. Oh ... and I interviewed Tony's son, Jairek Robbins. Stay tuned... :)

Me on a panel, with publishers and an editor, advising aspiring authors on becoming published.
Whatever you're going through ... keep going!
NEVER
EVER
EVER
EVER
 EVER
GIVE UP!!!

Tony Robbins is Following Me!!

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