Something I've noticed while on book tour for the past couple of weeks is that Mastodon is a really good way to let people know about bookstore events. So many people I've met on the road have told me that they found out about my book tour from me or other folks on the fedi. I think it's partly because so many book-loving people are on Mastodon. But also if you compare Mastodon to places like Bluesky or Insta, the community here has a higher percentage of actual humans vs. bots or operatives.
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@Shanmonster I definitely have more online engagement on Bsky. But I rarely meet people at my events who say "I came because I saw it on Bluesky." They do say it about Mastodon.
Smart human who read too!
And that means any given invite to a real-life event will probably result in more people showing up in real life. Because there is just a higher density of people here. More people per hundred accounts?
All this makes me think about how weird it is on most other platforms, where there is a lower person to account ratio.
@annaleen Thanks for coming to Vermont, it was a super interesting talk, and I'm halfway through the book already (it's incredibly good.) It was super cool to meet you.
And don't worry, I'm not bothered about the scribbling!
Also it’s just easier to connect to your local community on Mastodon. It’s the hashtags maybe? I follow hashtags for my state and local city, which leads to following other local folks and local businesses, which leads to hearing about local events…
@anne @annaleen I heard about it here, from Anne, but I've been to events at Phoenix Books before, so I was aware of what it would be like and was willing to go-Burlington is a relatively easy place to get in and out of, there's parking, and I got there early so I had dinner at the new Jamaican place in town.
Also, Vermont is kinda weird - I literally saw 2/3rds of my Congresspeople yesterday, Bernie was walking down Church St. and I saw Becca Balint walking on the new Parkway w/ her partner 🤣
Yeah! I was glad to see that you made it but too shy to say hi. 🫠
@annaleen One of the main reasons I love it over here.
Engagement seems to have picked up in that manner in the last 5-6 months - at least for me. It's really great to see this flourish; still reminds me of the old internet is some ways - one has to go out and 'find their community' (in a good way)
@annaleen I have definitely gotten the impression that a vast swath of Instagram is fake engagement.
I hope you bring this up to some of the lovely people that made accounts, now gone dormant, on wondering.shop, who presumably moved to Bluesky
I have bookshelves filled with own-voices science fiction and fantasy I discovered through the network of LGBTQ and POC authors there
I really miss that.
@annaleen any chance at all of an event in DFW?
@annaleen I was just saying the other day how much I liked being here so much better than any other app right now. It’s truly a community. Also, several years ago, this is how I got my first short story published!
@annaleen FWIW, I get a lot more people sharing links to my stories on BlueSky than I do here. I guess it depends how many authors/readers you follow.