Twitter: Is there any point following fellow indie authors?

Being a bit green and wet behind the ears when it comes to this Twittering business, I'm discovering things as I go along, and I write this for those of you reading it in the future (hello, I'm Jon Lymon, and I'm probably a bit dead now) so you don't make the same mistakes.

One thing I've discovered is that the people most keen to follow me are fellow self-published authors.
I've been happy to follow back and have even initiated a few follows myself.

But I'm using Twitter to try and raise my profile and sell a few ebooks. And for my money, fellow authors aren't going to be up for buying my stuff (just as I'm not really up for buying their stuff). So why am I bothering?

I don't have an answer to that question right now. I suppose it's a case of wanting as many followers as poss. But recently, I've tried a change of tack and have started to follow avid readers, book bloggers, people into thrillers and horrors.

Problem is not many of these are following back.

Even bigger problem: since upping my Twitter usage, I've sold precisely zero books.

The 'Write About What You Know' Myth

There's been a mini backlash against the old adage about writing about what you know recently. And I'm right behind it.

The only thing I like about rules is breaking them. When it comes to writing, anyway.
(I'm a law abiding citizen of course, allegedly.)

But writing about what you know is so limiting, not to mention potentially dull, unless you've got SAS, KGB or FBI on your CV.

I know shit about travelling into space to hunt down an asteroid made of diamond. So is that what I've written in The Money Star? (Yes, some might think it's shit.)

Surely we should be writing about WHO we know. Combining traits from people we're close to, have met or have seen on a train to form recognisable characters (not too recognisable though - like I said, I abide by that thing called the law.)

Then we should be putting these characters into places and situations that are created or enriched by our imaginations. Shouldn't we?

Next in this almost certain to be shortlived series of rule breaking posts: The 'Never Start A Book With Dialogue' Myth or something more interesting.

The Money Star is out there.

And if this article is anything to go by, it's way bigger than an asteroid...