Skip to content

Adventures in Career Changing Posts

How Social Media Can Ruin Your LifeSocial Media, Social Media Writing, Social Media Writing Part, Social Media Writing Part 3, Best Lengths, Hesitation Generation, screen name, Happy Holidays, Relentless Pace, Cyber Infidelity, Podcasting, Neurotic Writers, Social Media Balance, Social Media Perfection, Losing Control, Social Media Tips, Employee Passwords, Look Like Online, social media, Social Media Platforms, Promoting Writing, Social Media Marketer, EditMe Webinar, Demand for Social Media Jobs, Stumbleupon surpasses, Less Conversation, Snapchat Settles with FTC, Quickly Boost Results, Hope and Hype, Auto-Service Economy, Sharing Less, Social Media background check, formatted posts, Four Important Social Media Stats, Cheat Sheets, Social Media Seduction, social back, Social media background check, Collaboration rocks, Wikileaks knocks, Editme Webinar, Cyber Legacy, Campaign 2012, Demographics, ways to improve, Time-saving tips, They Used to Call me Robot Girl

How Social Media Can Ruin Your Life

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 15, 2026

Do You Know How Social Media Can Ruin Your Life?

Woo doggy, social media can really do it to you. It can absolutely ruin your life.

Oh. My. God.

You did WHAT???!?!?!?

Quick, lemme tweet it!

No, I will take a picture and upload it to Instagram.

And I can never forget to blog it!

This kind of gaffe deserves a Facebook post, too!

Really?

So, you know what’s it like. You post a selfie taken at the ballgame. Except you told your boss that you were home sick, with the flu. Or maybe you were supposed to be with your significant other.

But, oops, you checked into a locative media site. But it was with your friend. You know, the one with benefits. Or maybe you rant against your kid’s soccer coach on X. But then he calls you out on it. Or benches your kid because of it.

Hence in May of 2014, The Boston Globe presented a half a dozen ways that social media can ruin your life.

And the article presents some boneheaded moves, including a poor choice of a Halloween costume (because evidently the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing are a laugh riot to someone out there), a Candy Crush addiction, and some poorly thought out tweets.

You Did What?

I am sure that the following will, eventually, be the kinds of behaviors that I could add to a successor article (Note: some of these are real, some are speculative. I will not name names. So you decide whether any of these have really happened, or are still in the maybe column):

1. How about claiming a permanent injury for your lawsuit and then checking in from a dance contest?
2. Or what about if you blow off a court-ordered Gamblers Anonymous meeting for a trip to the track. And adding a selfie with the dogs or horses running their hearts out in the background.
3. Or saying nasty things about your ex on Facebook or X, and your child growing up to read your sunshiny status updates.
4. And then maybe a job interview, as you tout your fine record of academic achievement, with old Instagram photos of you showing off your barely passing C-average transcript.
5. Finally, politicians caught with underage drinking photos, sexting, pictures of their junk, and a panoply of other nuggets of oversharing.

And lest we forget, this has not gone away. Remember those folks caught on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert? That was in 2025.

I love social media but man oh man, people! But have a little self-control and some common sense.

Set this site as a preferred source

QR Code

So, Do You Want More About Social Networks and Platforms?

So, if my experiences with non-platform-specific social networking and media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.

Social Media in Our Society

† Its Relentless Pace
• Seduction AKA Oops, Did I Do That?
† Background Check Being Used For Jury Selection
• Hope, Hype or What?
† Balance

In Addition, Social Media for Writers

• The Power of Social Media (Neurotic Writers’ Edition)
† … and Writing
• … also Writing Part 2
† … and Writing Part 3
• Are You Promoting Your Writing With Social Media?

Next blog post

1 Comment
The Cyber LegacySocial Media, Social Media Writing, Social Media Writing Part, Social Media Writing Part 3, Best Lengths, Hesitation Generation, screen name, Happy Holidays, Relentless Pace, Cyber Infidelity, Podcasting, Neurotic Writers, Social Media Balance, Social Media Perfection, Losing Control, Social Media Tips, Employee Passwords, Look Like Online, social media, Social Media Platforms, Promoting Writing, Social Media Marketer, EditMe Webinar, Demand for Social Media Jobs, Stumbleupon surpasses, Less Conversation, Snapchat Settles with FTC, Quickly Boost Results, Hope and Hype, Auto-Service Economy, Sharing Less, Social Media background check, formatted posts, Four Important Social Media Stats, Cheat Sheets, Social Media Seduction, social back, Social media background check, Collaboration rocks, Wikileaks knocks, Editme Webinar, Cyber Legacy, Campaign 2012, Demographics, ways to improve, Time-saving tips, They Used to Call me Robot Girl

The Cyber Legacy

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 13, 2026

The Cyber Legacy

What is your cyber legacy?

Introductions

So you find a new site. You look around. And you think – this looks like a place I might like. Therefore, you take the plunge and you register.

And it does not really matter if it is Bluesky, or Facebook or something like Able2know. If it is big enough, it scrolls and leaps by so fast that you can barely get your arms around it. And in the beginning, that can be incredibly exciting.

However, after a while, it is a bit too much. So if you want to hang around and have a more meaningful interactive experience than complaining about the weather, you end up finding yourself some sort of an enclave. I have covered this before, actually.

Life Online

You find your niche, whatever it is. And you start spending time with people. It does not matter what you are doing, be it playing fantasy sports, or comparing notes as new mothers, or trading rumors about the next season of Doctor Who. What matters is, you have found your peeps.

And that is when it can get kind of complicated.

Transitioning to the In-Person Experience

My husband and I once met a fellow we had know for a few years from online. He was passing through Boston on his way home from Maine. And one thing he mentioned was – my online friends and my offline friends are pretty well-integrated. I like that.

After all, consider some of my closest friends who I did not meet online. Most of them either attended school with me at some stage or another, or they worked with me. In some fashion or another, we hit it off. However, the same is true of the cyber world, is it not? You meet someone, and you hit it off with them, and you thereby become friends.

No great mystery there. The only remarkable thing is that the lines are being forever blurred between people we met physically first, and people we physically met later, if at all. And we care less and less about how we met our friends, these days.

Cyber Mourning

With cyber friendships – as with all friendships – there can be loss. And we all know that it is going to happen sooner or later. A voice will be stilled, a timeline no longer updated.

We may or may not know the correct or full name. We may never have heard that person so much as speak on a video or on the telephone. Yet we feel a sense of loss just the same.

I have found that, as this has happened on Able2know (and it has happened several times now, a function of both the size of the site and its skew in the direction of more elder demographics), people have wanted to rally around.

It is not necessarily a formal obituary type of posting or topic.

Instead, it can be a topic that is more like a wake in its layout, verbiage and intent. There is no real template for this. You just go with what works.

And recognize that there are people who grieve in their own ways. There may even be hostility (“You were never kind to him until it was too late!”) or one-upmanship (“I got to meet her in person!”).

Internet Afterlife and a Cyber Legacy

The If I Die app allows for a final status update once three people (you choose them) confirm to the service that you have shuffled the mortal coil off to Buffalo.

It almost seems like a video will, where the rich uncle leaves everything to his parakeet and, while the cameras are rolling, also tells the assembled family that they were all wastrels.

But it is not just that. It is also – look at the data that is out there. What sort of a legacy are we leaving for future generations?

A tour through Facebook reveals an awful lot of appreciation for cute cats who cannot spell, George Takei and political soundbite memes.

And if future generations only look at that (which might happen, as it could very well be the only thing that survives long enough and is complete enough), they might just see that cyber legacy and feel we are rather shallow people indeed.

Forums Tell a Different Story

However, if they dig into communities, I think they would see a rather different picture. A picture of real caring. Of reasoned and impassioned debate.

Or of rabid fandom. Of people who help each other by answering questions or offering advice on things like repairing a fan belt on a 1968 Buick or ridding a computer of spyware. And of some fall on the floor humor as well.

So, what footprints and fingerprints will you leave behind for your cyber legacy? And what digital fossils will await future archaeologists’ discovery?

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.What will the people of 3026 and beyond (way, way beyond) think of us? What is your cyber legacy going to be?

2 Comments
Why Use a Screen Name?Social Media, Social Media Writing, Social Media Writing Part, Social Media Writing Part 3, Best Lengths, Hesitation Generation, screen name, Happy Holidays, Relentless Pace, Cyber Infidelity, Podcasting, Neurotic Writers, Social Media Balance, Social Media Perfection, Losing Control, Social Media Tips, Employee Passwords, Look Like Online, social media, Social Media Platforms, Promoting Writing, Social Media Marketer, EditMe Webinar, Demand for Social Media Jobs, Stumbleupon surpasses, Less Conversation, Snapchat Settles with FTC, Quickly Boost Results, Hope and Hype, Auto-Service Economy, Sharing Less, Social Media background check, formatted posts, Four Important Social Media Stats, Cheat Sheets, Social Media Seduction, social back, Social media background check, Collaboration rocks, Wikileaks knocks, Editme Webinar, Cyber Legacy, Campaign 2012, Demographics, ways to improve, Time-saving tips, They Used to Call me Robot Girl

Why Use a Screen Name?

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 8, 2026

Is There Any Good Reason to Use a Screen Name?

So, is a screen name a good idea, or no? Particularly in the age of Facebook and the real names requirement.

I was inspired by this post in Angela Connor‘s blog. If you do not know Angela Connor, I urge you to check her out; her blog is extremely insightful and is still one of my favorites.

Her ideas make a great deal of sense, and I think some of this is why the Blizzard forum experiment in real names for users was such an immediate and egregious flop.

Masks

The internet, like it or not, is for many people a place of masks. You pretend to be younger and thinner than you are. Or you pretend to be unmarried. You pretend to be a Klingon. Or you are a teenager and pretend to be an adult.

Or you pretend to be another gender or richer or lovelier or more conservative or whatever.

And the masks can be freeing to many. Perhaps they were freeing when the ancient Greeks donned them while performing Oedipus Rex for the first time. I think there is more of a place for them than perhaps we would all care to admit.

Because there seems to be a value to being able to put makeup on one’s face, or wear a Halloween costume.

Screen Name Unreality

And this is not the same as our reality. It is related but not identical. Maybe the librarian who goes out for Halloween dressed as a dance hall girl wants to be known as someone who takes risks (and maybe foolish ones, at that).

But when the morning after rolls around, she is back in the library helping others do research.

A Screen Name Allows for (Somewhat) Anonymous Commenting

This kind of anonymous commenting allows for something like this. Because the sympathetic guy who is really seething inside gets to call people out.

He gets to be a bully and be an all-around racist jerk (I have worse names, but do not wish to besmirch my own blog) behind one screen name.

But then he surfs to a different site where he can chat up the ladies with his sensitive New Age guy demeanor, all behind another screen name. And then when the time to log off comes, he goes home and kisses his wife and plays with his children. And this is all just one guy.

Facebook and Screen Names

To comment openly through a full, correct name (usually) medium like Facebook would be to cut off the dance hall girl. And it would stifle the racist jerk, the ladies’ man, and any number of other secret selves in favor of a drab and ordinary world.

Even on a news site, which is pretty much the definition of drab unless there is some sort of a hot story, the jerk, the dancer and the Romeo all want to be free.

Still, Facebook has been a runaway success. But some of that is still screen names. A person with Au at the end of their name is identifying to all and sundry that they are on the autism spectrum.

I have seen last names like Lionchaser and Orange and Juneberry. The chances are extremely good that none or most of these are real.

But does that actually matter, in the grand scheme of things?

Screen Names and Reviews

Hey, are you writing the occasional bad reviews, but still want to remain friends with the people you’re reviewing? Then you might just need to be using a screen name, eh?

Who is Real?

But we should never take their opinions as seriously as the real people. Because, even though those personae live in real people’s skins, it is the real people who vote, marry, pay taxes, work, make the news and are members of our real society.

The trouble is telling them apart and knowing which one is real.

Can you always tell? I bet you cannot. Not always.Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

ChatGPT Adds to the Confusion on Screen Names and More

Beyond whether the name is real, are the posts real these days? A few years ago, a friend who runs a writing contest had to jettison a few entries because they were written by AI.

AI is only going to get better and better—and more unnerving—as time marches on.

We may very well look back on questions about screen names as being a quaint little hiccup. You know, right before the Apocalypse.

1 Comment
Social Media BalanceSocial Media, Social Media Writing, Social Media Writing Part, Social Media Writing Part 3, Best Lengths, Hesitation Generation, screen name, Happy Holidays, Relentless Pace, Cyber Infidelity, Podcasting, Neurotic Writers, Social Media Balance, Social Media Perfection, Losing Control, Social Media Tips, Employee Passwords, Look Like Online, social media, Social Media Platforms, Promoting Writing, Social Media Marketer, EditMe Webinar, Demand for Social Media Jobs, Stumbleupon surpasses, Less Conversation, Snapchat Settles with FTC, Quickly Boost Results, Hope and Hype, Auto-Service Economy, Sharing Less, Social Media background check, formatted posts, Four Important Social Media Stats, Cheat Sheets, Social Media Seduction, social back, Social media background check, Collaboration rocks, Wikileaks knocks, Editme Webinar, Cyber Legacy, Campaign 2012, Demographics, ways to improve, Time-saving tips, They Used to Call me Robot Girl

Social Media Balance

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 6, 2026

Social Media Balance

Social media balance is sometimes elusive. Yet much like everything else, social media needs to be balanced. Too much, and you will alienate your readers. And too little, and they will wonder if you are still alive.

I will confine my comments to just blogging, Facebook and X. Of course there are other outlets, but right now, we will just look at those three.

Too Much

During the 2012 Christmas season here in Boston, the oldies station began broadcasting all-day Christmas music early. How early?

So it was, if I am recalling correctly, even before Veterans Day. Egad, it was awful. And then of course other radio stations also began their regular broadcast of holiday music. So it was very hard to get away from it all.

Now, lots of these songs are lovely. This is not me slamming religion. Do not misunderstand me. Rather, it was just … c’mon already! Because it was way too much!

It was not festive. Instead, it annoyed people (not just me!). And the same can be said of social media. If yours is a small outlet, a tiny company, a Mom and Pop operation, here is a little secret. You do not need to constantly tweet and update Facebook.

Reasons Why You Should not Overdo It

You will oversaturate the people you are trying to endear, and they will turn off to your message. Most definitely, you will burn right out. Also, you will run out of things to say.

Not Enough

It continually amuses me when people say something like, “I have a blog.” And they will post their link. However, the last time they updated was 13 months ago, or more, or they have never updated.

Or it is a Twitter stream with three tweets, and the account is over a year old. Maybe they have a Facebook page with nearly nothing on it.

Given the number of abandoned accounts, and the number of deceased persons’ accounts on Facebook and the like, followers might be wondering. Have you gone to the great computer room in the sky?

Per my SEO pal Garit Boothe, best practices is to keep everything fresh to the tune of nothing being over 3 months old (so, posts are updated and re-released at later dates).

Reasons Why You Should Never Underdo It

• Your readers will leave you, big time. They may be loyal but the audiences of today are also pretty fickle. You are no longer shiny and new. So they leave.
† Google still indexes abandoned accounts, although the information is out of date. And it can sometimes end up making you look worse than not having a social media presence at all. AI will not be any kinder to your abandoned blog.
• You show, essentially, that you no longer care about your subject matter. So why should anyone read what you write at all, if even you do not believe in it?
† The algorithms will smash your site into smithereens.

While the exact, perfect information on any algorithm is proprietary and kept secret from us hoi polloi, one thing is certain. Newness counts. No posting means you have nothing new going on.

And it will push your site down in rankings on Google and YouTube. Facebook also values recency. And as for Twitter? No one will be able to find your stuff. AI will also disdain you, unless your information is 100% unique.

Seeking Social Media Balance

It is rather Zen, I suppose, to seek a balance here.

But how do you get it?

The easiest way is to consider the people who you follow where you just love their updates. They never seem forced or rushed, and they seem to come in, just at the right time.

This is not the time to think of really big wigs in social media, like George Takei, Shama Hyder Kabani, Wil Wheaton, Guy Kawasaki, or Ashton Kutcher, etc.

Instead, consider your friends, colleagues, and neighbors, even if these are people who are not making (or trying to make) a career out of social media.

Look at their Facebook walls and their Bluesky and X streams and their blogs. What is it about how they handle those outlets that grabs you?

By the way, recognize that a person might be really good at one form of balance, but not at another. That much is not unexpected, as these are all rather different forms of media.

Your friend who crushes it on Twitter might be just plain awful on Facebook.

2 Reasons Why You Should Strike a Social Media Balance

1. Posting too much at the beginning can lead directly to posting pretty much nothing later on, so spread things out over time, and you can avoid both issues simultaneously.
2. Giving yourself a degree of posting responsibility can help you take it all more seriously. Of course you can (and probably should) be playful. But even the silliest of accounts have some form of a schedule, particularly if they have gotten large. They can never just “forget” to post.

Schedule Those Suckers

• If you are really inspired and have a lot to say, then that is just great! But unless it is time-sensitive, use the scheduling features of programs like HootSuite. Or try Facebook’s own post scheduling feature. WordPress and Blogger both allow you to save drafts and schedule them to publish when you want them to. These functions are your friend.
† Spreading the wealth over time will assure your readers that you are not just some flash in the pan. It will also assure them that you are still among the living.
• Too many posts means that many of them will get lost in the shuffle. Too few means that they can loom large, and maybe seem more important than you think they should be. Spread the wealth, and you can avoid both problems.

One more thing about social media balance. While Tweeting, Facebooking, etc. should be mindful, it should also be kinda fun. Overdoing it means that you are probably spending too much time online.

While underdoing it probably means that it no longer interests you that much. Or, at least, what you are posting and sending out to the universe has lost its luster.

Consider what either of those scenarios means to you. Because social media balance matters.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About Social Media?

If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.

Social Media in Our Society

† Social Media Continues its Relentless Pace
• Social Media’s Seduction AKA Oops, Did I Do That?
† Social Media Background Check Being Used For Jury Selection
• Social Media: Hope, Hype or What?
† How Social Media Can Ruin Your Life

Social Media for Writers

• The Power of Social Media (Neurotic Writers’ Edition)
† Social Media and Writing
• Social Media and Writing Part 2
† Social Media and Writing Part 3
• Are You Promoting Your Writing With Social Media?

Next article

5 Comments
Writing Progress Report – Third Quarter 2026Progress Reports 2026, First Quarter 2026, Second Quarter 2026, Third Quarter 2026, Fourth Quarter 2026

Writing Progress Report – Third Quarter 2026

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 29, 2026

Progress Report –Third Quarter 2026

How was third quarter 2026 for writing? So, I spent pretty much all of third quarter 2026 working and commuting, or so it seemed. At the start of September, the company switched over to full-time in the office.

This effectively doubled the amount of time I spend on the road. Of course, this added to my fatigue and to time that I could not spend writing.

And I was starting to think that 30Day50k would be an impossible dream. It did not help that eleven- and twelve-hour days were becoming routine. But stay tuned, as I do have some news about that at the end of this blog post.

I still did some writing while juggling, well, the rest of my life. So, there was that.

Third Quarter 2026 Posted Works

First of all, I worked on a few new short stories. A lot of these had been drafted on paper and so I spent some time editing them and getting them into electronic form.

I also worked on editing some older stories and finishing some, to tie up loose ends. Although I have done less than I had wanted because the Fidelity Return to Office mandate is harshing my mellow in that area, big time.

Then on Wattpad I posted nowhere, although I did take note of stats.

Milestones

Also, I have written over 4.12 million words (fan fiction and wholly original fiction combined, with about 2.34 million words in original writing!). So right now, my stats on Wattpad for wholly original works are as follows:

† Dinosaurs – 49 reads, 11 comments
• How to NaNoWriMo – ended up with 26,183 reads, 340 comments (pulled from Wattpad due to their severing their association with NaNoWriMo)
† My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 1,020 reads, 133 comments
• Revved Up – 59,602 reads, 531 comments
† Side By Side – 35 reads, 2 comments
• Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 17,276 reads, 592 comments
† The Canadian Caper – 557 reads, 37 comments
• The Dish – 267 reads, 24 comments
† There is a Road – 198 reads, 28 comments

Published Works as of Third Quarter 2026

Also, I am amassing quite the collection of published works! So, here is everything that has found a home so far.

Untrustworthy, which is my first published novel. So, yay!

A True Believer in Skepticism, published in Mythic Magazine.

Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome, a site which unfortunately is no more. In addition, this story is now a section within a longer story completed in 2025—

Canaries, a short story in the March 29, 2019, edition of Theme of Absence.

Complications, a story in the Queer Sci Fi Discovery anthology. So, this is an anthology where the proceeds went to supporting the QSF website.

Cynthia and Wilder Bloom, stories in the Longest Night Watch II anthology.

Props, a story in the Longest Night Watch I anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds go to Alzheimer’s research.

Surprises, a story in Book One of the 42 and Beyond Anthology set.

More Published Works

The Boy in the Band, a story in the Pride Park anthology. So, this is an anthology where the proceeds go to the Trevor Project.

The Interview, the featured story in the December 14, 2018 edition of Theme of Absence. So they even interviewed me!

The Last Patient, a story in the Stardust, Always anthology. This was an anthology where the proceeds go to cancer research.

The Resurrection of Ditte, a story in the Unrealpolitik anthology.

This is My Child, a short story published in the April 8, 2019 edition of Asymmetry Fiction, another site which is no more.

Three Minutes Back in Time, a short story published in Mythic Magazine.

Killing Us Softly, a short story published in Corner Bar Magazine.

Darkness into Light, a short story published in Corner Bar Magazine.

Plus Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline was published in 2025. You can buy it at Amazon.

WIP Corner

In addition, my current WIPs are as follows:

The Obolonk Murders Trilogy – so this one is all about a tripartite society. But who is killing the aliens?

The Enigman Cave – can we find life on another planet and not screw it up? You know, like we do everything else?

The Real Hub of the Universe Trilogy – so the aliens who live among us in the 1870s and 1880s are at war. But why is that?

Mettle – so it is all about how society goes to hell in a hand basket when the metals of the periodic table start to disappear. But then what?

Time Addicts – No One is Safe – so this one is all about what happens in the future when time travel becomes possible via narcotic.

Time Addicts – Nothing is Permanent – this is the second in this trilogy. What happens when time is tampered with and manipulated in all sorts of ways? It is the ultimate in gaslighting, for one thing.

Time Addicts – Everything is Up For Grabs – as the timelines smack together and continue to diverge, it gets harder to tell the “real” timeline from all the newer fake ones. And what if some of the changes are for the better?

The Duck in the Seat Cushion – in the 1960s, MJ Tanner is the only Jewish student in her school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Navigating antisemitism is one thing. But when her mother abandons the family, MJ’s life gets even more complicated.

The Invisible Gang – a quartet of women of a certain age come together when one of them is diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. And when they figure out that she no longer has health insurance, they decide to find a way to afford her chemotherapy medications.

By robbing banks.

Prep Work

So, currently, my intention, for my 2027 or 2028 November writing, is to write the third trilogy in the Time Addicts/Obolonks universe. But I need to iron out the plot! So, I will undoubtedly spend some of this and next year on that. I have no name for this one yet.

For 2022 – 2025 NaNoWriMo/30Day50k events, I created a prequel for each of the 5 main universes.

These are: Real Hub of the Universe, Obolonks, Time Addicts (while the Obolonks and Time Addicts are in the same universe, I just plain wanted to write two separate prequels!), Untrustworthy, The Enigman Cave, and Mettle.

In 2022, I wrote the prequels for Time Addicts and The Real Hub of the Universe. For 2023, it was the Untrustworthy prequel and Obolonk prequels. And for 2024, it was the Enigman Cave prequel. The Mettle prequel is set for probably 2027 at this rate.

So, I anticipate a lot of fun and perhaps a little confusion. But it is all good!

But what about 2026? It will be a new story, tentatively called Obsidian Harbor.

Third Quarter 2026 Queries and Submissions

The older ones have moved. You can find them on my Publishing Stats page.

But good lord, all the adulting and driving I have had to do recently is just plain exhausting.

In Progress

As of third quarter 2026, Alix’s Apocalypse may still be in the running for publishing. But I am far from optimistic about it.

I have updated the Submissions Grinder and we shall see what happens. But the longer this goes on for, the less likely it becomes that the story will succeed.

Third Quarter 2026 – Most Popular Posts and Pages

And, if it interests you, here are the five most popular posts and/or pages from this site!

I look at the following metrics:

† Clicks – Set Dressing was easily the best in this area.
• Impressions – Set Dressing (again!), Dialogue Tags — How to Use them the Right Way, Getting Inspiration from TV Shows, and Why Use a Screen Name? all blew the other posts away in this area.

† CTR – Getting Inspiration from Films, Hot or Cold, Rough or Smooth, Hard or Soft—Tactile Cues in Writing, Self-Review – Alix’s Apocalypse, and The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, A Book Review all did decently well when it came to clickthru rates.

• Position – Self-Review – Fatima’s Minnesota Wish and Self-Review – The Lost Luggage of Time were #1 for their respective keyword phrases.

In addition, my self-review of the somewhat newer story, The Bleeper, showed up with stats this quarter. But that was mainly in July.

Third Quarter 2026 – Productivity Killers

So, it is all the time I spend on work and commuting, what else? And it is looking like third quarter 2026 will not be the end of that.

I. Am. Tired.

But there is a silver lining. My contract is up in the middle of November.

Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon
Querying and Publishing Stats
 Previous Progress Report Post
Next Progress Report Post

Leave a Comment
Color Theory, Part 3Covers, Color Theory, Color Theory Part 2, Color Theory Part 3, Part 4, covers, cover artist, working with a cover artist,

Color Theory, Part 3

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 24, 2026

Color Theory, Part 3

For color theory, Part 3 – If you want to create your own covers, or if you are a part of selecting your cover in your published work, you will need to understand color theory.

What happens when you select a cover color predominantly from the family of yellows?

The Basics of Color Theory, Part 3

Color theory is the associations and impressions we get when confronted with a certain color or set of colors. Color matters. What do we think of, when we think of yellows?

Yellow and its family of colors

Yellow is a vibrant color but it is rather difficult to see against a white background. If your cover is mainly white, then yellow is a poor choice for author or title lettering unless you outline the yellow in a darker color.

We associate yellow with sunshine but also with lemons, which can evoke either cleanliness or a car that just never seems to work right. Yellow can also evoke cowardice and caution.

It can also feel like early springtime, particularly in the northeastern United States. This is because two early flowers, forsythia and daffodils, are primarily yellow in color.

It can also remind us of taxis and urban living. But it can also remind us of Buddhist monks and their saffron robes, or even the spice saffron itself, which is rare and expensive. In science fiction, it signifies an intermediate alert, a cause for concern but not out and out panic.

But we also use an amber alert for locating missing children.

And, sorry to the squeamish readers among us, but we all know that it is the color of urine.

Gold

Gold more closely aligns with wealth and winning. We may also associate it with wedding rings and even old-fashioned false teeth. Gold is scarce. At least, that is what we tend to believe when it comes to gold.

Gold is also something we use in electronics, due to its inherent properties. But if you want to dissolve gold (as opposed to just melting it), then you will need to make aqua regia.

Oh, you do not have hydrochloric acid and nitric acid just lying around? So, maybe hold off on dissolving it just yet.

So, gold can be pretty. However, adding it can feel a bit much, like gilding the lily, as opposed to illuminating a sacred manuscript. Gold has ancient associations with wealth, and was reportedly used in the Ark of the Covenant.

Add yellow to your book cover for a splash of sunshine or wealth, or scarcity, depending on the shade. And watch the darker shades. Unless, of course, for some reason you want people to think of going #1 when they think of your book.Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More of Color Theory?

If color theory resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how colors can work with covers and more.

Color Explorations

† Color Theory
• Part 2
† Part 3
• Color Theory, Part 4

Videos: Color Theory Videos

Want More About Creating, Commissioning, and Deciding on Book Covers?

If my experiences with color resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my articles about getting the best cover for your book. Because, like it or not, we all use them to judge books.

Book Covers and You, the Writer

† Working with a Cover Artist, Part 1
• Working with a Cover Artist, Part 2
† Covers, Working with Them
• Video on Working with a Cover Artist

Next blog post on book covers

Leave a Comment
Color Theory, Part 2Covers, Color Theory, Color Theory Part 2, Color Theory Part 3, Part 4, covers, cover artist, working with a cover artist,

Color Theory, Part 2

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 22, 2026

Color Theory, Part 2

Time to look at Color Theory, Part 2 – If you want to create your own covers, or if you are a part of selecting your cover in your published work, you need to understand color theory. Knowing what works together—and what does not—will help you and your cover artist, big time!

The Basics of Color Theory, Part 2

Color theory is the associations and impressions we get when confronted with a certain color or set of colors. Color matters, even when we unconsciously do not realize that it does.

Red and its Family of Colors

Red tends to be a bold, standout color. It works with a lot of other colors. It can also help if you have a mainly black, white, or gray image for your cover. Red lettering can potentially work with such a background.

However, if the value (brightness) of the red is the same as the gray behind it, you may find it feels like the color is vibrating.

Red means stop or anger or ripeness. It can also feel like excitement or danger, as it can remind us of everything from sports cars to raspberries to stop signs. The Twilight book covers in particular rely on red accents to great effect.

Red is also common in sports teams, like the Boston Red Sox and the Arizona Cardinals. But the latter, clearly, is getting its red from the name of the bird.

We may also associate red with the College of Cardinals in the Catholic church.  But it evokes heat, too. Red eyes mean someone is either tired, or they have been crying. Drinking too much alcohol can eventually give you a somewhat red face. And, a classic clown will wear a big, red nose.

Pink

Pink comes across as a softer version of red. We often associate it with health and ballerinas, but also baby blankets and Barbie dolls. But its current association with femininity is fairly recent. Until about the Second World War, people considered it more of a masculine color.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has leaned rather heavily into seeing pink as feminine, and essentially appropriated the color for its own use. And, this may do a bit of a disservice to the men who get breast cancer (yet, it is possible). The fatality rate for men is far higher than it is for women, and men may even feel a stigma that to get breast cancer is somehow unmanly.

But I digress.

Sports teams tend to not use pink as a color. But they will break out the pink for Mothers Day, and for breast cancer awareness.

Color Theory, Part 2: Orange

Orange is more likely to be associated with hunters or the harvest or prisons. But it can also be associated with traffic safety. It can remind us of sunshine and, of course, oranges, but also the toxin, Agent Orange.

And, to be fair, we probably also associate it with the forty-fifth/forty-seventh president of the United States. But a part of that has to do with spray-on tanning gone awry.

Sports teams which wear orange include the Syracuse Orangemen and the Baltimore Orioles.

Copper

Closely related copper associates best with pennies or cookware more than anything else. However, we also associate it with bronze (about 90% of bronze consists of copper). And so we may link it to the idea of third place medals.

Sports teams rarely use copper. In fact, the only example I could find was the football team at Arizona State University!

It might be a good idea to choose a color from the red family for your cover or for its accents. And expect some strong associations but also a cover that can really stand out.Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More of Color Theory?

If color theory resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how color can work with covers and more.

Color Explorations

† Color Theory
• Part 2
† Color Theory Part 3
also,
• Part 4

Videos: Color Theory Videos

Want More About Creating, Commissioning, and Deciding on Book Covers?

If my experiences with color resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my articles about getting the very best cover for your book. Because, like it or not, we all use them to judge books.

Book Covers and You, the Writer

† Working with a Cover Artist, Part 1
• Working with a Cover Artist, Part 2
† Covers, Working with Them
• Video on Working with a Cover Artist

Next blog post on book covers

Leave a Comment
Color TheoryCovers, Color Theory, Color Theory Part 2, Color Theory Part 3, Part 4, covers, cover artist, working with a cover artist,

Color Theory

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 17, 2026

A Look at Color Theory

If you are interested in creating your own covers, or if you are a part of selecting your cover in your published work, you are going to need to understand something about color theory.

The Basics

Color theory is the associations and impressions we get when confronted with a certain color or set of colors. Color matters.

A Wheel and Some Hex

Your computer generates colors based on combinations of basic colors. These are written in RGB (red-green-blue) or in hexadecimal. This means that once you know the code, you can replicate any color.

Using RGB or hex is particularly important as you replicate your colors and branding across multiple platforms. What looks like pure fire engine red on my monitor may appear more like brick or tomato to you.

But at least with a uniform color code, I can get it right if I need to copy the red from your page or cover.

Imaging programs such as GIMP and Adobe InDesign both have color picker tools which look like eye droppers. Select the tool, click on the color you want to replicate, and the tool will grab the correct hex or RGB coded color.

How Does Color Make Us Feel?

It is just like a lot of the marketing issues surrounding books and book covers. That is, a lot of this will depend upon the buyer persona or demographic associated with the most sales of your genre.

What if you are, say, a science fiction writer? Then a lot of your readership is probably going to skew male. Although if you write LGBT science fiction, you may find more female readers in the mix.

Either way, how do they feel about colors? Furthermore, if you mainly have an American readership, their associations with colors will differ from if your ideal readers are Canadian or Swedish.

There is no doubt about it.

Color matters.

Want More of Color Theory?

If my rambling about color theory resonates with you, then be sure to check out my other articles about how colors work with covers and more.

Color Theory and Hue Explorations

Here are a bunch of articles about the theory of color! Because there is even more to it than this.
† Part 2
• Color Theory Part 3
† Part 4

Videos: Color Theory Videos

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About Creating, Commissioning, and Deciding on Book Covers?

If my experiences with color resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my articles about getting the best cover for your book.

Because, like it or not, we all use them to judge books..

Book Covers and You, the Writer

† Working with a Cover Artist, Part 1
• Working with a Cover Artist, Part 2
† Covers, Working with Them
• Video on Working with a Cover Artist

Next blog post on covers

Leave a Comment
PitMad on X AKA TwitterPublishing, Published, Positive Reviews, Middling Reviews, Bad Reviews, Teasing, Blurb, Query letter, Elevator pitch, teasers, pitmad, rejection, Easter eggs, Starting, Digital Publishing Game, pocket conflicts, Manuscript Wish List, Reading, Submission Guidelines, Set Dressing, Hairstyles and Costumes, Aroma vs Odor or Stench, Mixing a Score in Words and Music, Disgusting vs Delicious, Hot or Cold, Publishing Stats, Jewish characters, trust your readers,

PitMad on X AKA Twitter

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 15, 2026

The Late, Lamented PitMad on Twitter/X

Oh PitMad, why hast thou forsaken us?

Sadly, I am here to report that PitMad as an event is no more.

So had you ever seen the #PitMad hashtag on X? But, why should you have cared about PitMad?

So, here is a look at what PitMad was. … and a bit on how things are today.

What was #PitMad Back in the Day?

PitMad was a quarterly pitch session on X. So essentially what you would be doing was tweeting about your work. But it was only on specific dates, and agents and publishers were watching.

Oh, and I still call it tweeting. I bet many people do, too.

In addition, it only happened in March, June, September, and December.

It was a great idea! Agents and publishers would essentially scour the Twittersphere, searching for anyone using the hashtag. And, preferably, also using a genre hashtag or two. If an agent liked your pitch, then that was an invitation to query, or at least pitch a bit more.

Your friends could rally around you and offer their support by retweeting your tweets—but liking them was considered to be a faux pas.

When it was still going on, I would dive deep into hashtag and search for people who had not been retweeted much, if at all. And I would retweet them, either with words of encouragement or a comment about how interesting their premise sounded.

And if it were to return, I would do the same. Other writers are not my competition. After all, how many books do you have in your home or on your phone or e-reader?

How many are in the library? Your book most likely will not knock mine out of any of those places. And mine would never do that to yours, either.

Getting Ready With PitMad Hashtags

So you could do yourself a favor, and create your tweets in advance. As in, today.

The idea was to know what to tweet. And you wanted to be able to fit both the #PitMad hashtag into your tweet, but also the hashtag specific to your genre. So, according to Sub It Club and Brenda Drake, the hashtags were as follows:

Main Hashtags for PitMad

† #AC – Action
• #AD – Adventure
† #BIZ – Bizarro Fiction
• #CON – Contemporary
† #CR – Contemporary Romance
• #E – Erotica
† #ER – Erotic Romance
• #ES – Erotica Suspense
† #F – Fantasy
• #FTA = Fairy Tale Retelling
† #GN = Graphic Novel
• #H – Horror
† #HA – Humor
• #HF – Historical Fiction
† #HR – Historical Romance
• #INSP – Inspirational
† #LF – Literary Fiction

• #M – Mystery
† #MA = Mainstream
• #Mem – Memoir
† #MR – Magical Realism
• #NF – Non-fiction
† #P – Paranormal
• #PR – Paranormal Romance
† #R – Romance
• #RS – Romantic Suspense
† #S – Suspense
• #SF – SciFi
† #SFF – Science Fiction & Fantasy
• #SH = Superhero
† #SHRT = Short Story Collection
• #SPF = Speculative Fiction
† #STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
• #T – Thriller
† #TT = Time Travel
• #UF – Urban Fantasy
† #VF = Visionary Fiction
• #W – Westerns
† #WF – Women’s Fiction

Age Categories

So, per the Pitmad site, you had to use an age category. And here they were:

• #A – Adult
† #C – Children’s
• #CB – Chapter Book
† #MG – Middle Grade
• #NA – New Adult
† #PB – Picture Book (this is the youngest age category)
• #YA – Young Adult

Added Hashtags (Optional)

† #DIS = Disability subject matter
• #IMM = Immigrant
† #IRMC = Interracial/Multicultural subject matter
• #LGBT = LGBTQIA+ subject matter
† #MH = Mental Health subject matter
• #ND = Neurodiverse subject matter
† #OWN = Own Voices
• #POC = Author is a Person of Color

Older Hashtags

† #AA – African American (might not be used anymore?)
• #CF – Christian Fiction (might not be used anymore?)

So there did not seem to be particular hashtags for Zombies or Vampires or the like.

What Were The Rules?

Per Ms. Drake and PitchWars (run by the same people), the rules were:

† You could only pitch complete, polished manuscripts. This meant, no works in progress were allowed!
• So, you could not pitch anything already published, no matter how many changes you had made to it.
† You had to keep the feed clear, so you were not supposed to favorite pitches made by your friends. But you could always retweet and even add commentary to the original post with the #PitMad hashtag.
• Also, you were not supposed to tweet agents or publishers unless they tweeted you first.
† Plus you had to be courteous and professional, of course.

• In addition, if you could not be there, you could use a scheduling program like HootSuite to schedule your pitches.
† You could only pitch three times during a dedicated #PitMad day. And the tweets had to differ somehow, even if it was just a difference of a period.
• But if you had more than one MS to pitch, you would get three tweets per MS.
† Finally, if you were invited to submit a manuscript, you had to be sure to put PitMad Request: TITLE in the subject line of your email when sending your request. Plus, of course, you had to follow all other submission guidelines for the requestor.

What was the Schedule?

It was March, June, September, and December. Also, the times were 8 AM – 8 PM, Eastern Time.

For 2021, the dates were:

• March 4
† June 3
• September 2 (hey, that’s my birthday!)
† December 2

Note: all of these were Thursdays.

Pitmad: Always and Forever

X and other social media platforms remain valuable places for independent authors to pitch their works. Currently, with no more official setup, and with certain rules in place, X is not necessarily the most hospitable place for such pitches.

After all, per the 4-1-1 strategy, a standard six posts should be four interesting or educational posts from other people,  one educational post by you, and one promotional post by you.

Given that ratio, even attempting Pitmad now would mean a total of 18 posts per project you are trying to pitch (this is allowing for three separate Pitmad-style postings).

Is it impossible? No. Is this strategy a rule carved in stone? Of course not. But you can see how fast everything could multiply, particularly if you had more than one project to tout. And keep in mind: X has also changed demographically.

Per Sprout Social, the ratio of men to women is about 2:1. Users also post a lot, which can help to bury your pitch.

Pitmad: Takeaways

So, I am keeping the hashtags in this post because they are still useful on X, Bluesky, Facebook, and elsewhere.

Publishers and agents are still there—they are just not running under the auspices of PitMad anymore. And those publishers and agents are on these other social media platforms, too!

All in all, there are still many more agents and publishers out there. Consequently, you need to get their attention! Matching your ideal reader and their demographics to those on a particular platform is probably a better idea than ever before.

So you had better get crackin’!

And Now a Word About X, Today and Beyond

So, it is probably just as well that Pitmad has gone to that great tweet in the sky, for X itself at times teeters on the brink. Of course, that could change tomorrow. But right now, things still look a little grim.

However, while there have been some alternatives (such as Post and Mastodon), they are a bit lacking for one reason or another. Mastodon has a ton of individual servers (a bit like Discord). But these seem to be silos.

How do you find all your friends? Post seems just to be so new and not very big yet.

Bluesky, though, is looking considerably more promising!

So, even if PitMad were to be resurrected, those platforms are not necessarily the best new home for it. Perhaps they will be in time. But right now, despite its clear current problems, X still has its place.

But never count out Bluesky.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About X?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Twitter/X.

While it has a newish name, and has changed considerably, a lot of these tips will still work. And they will often work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter/X
• X/Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism
† Verbal Elements on X
• Visual Elements on X
† Optimizing X
• Metrics and Timing on X
† Offsite Connections from X

Next blog post

Leave a Comment
Optimizing XTwitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Optimizing X

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 10, 2026

Time to Start Optimizing X

Now that you are on it, it is time to start optimizing Twitter AKA X. And please keep in mind: a lot of what I am talking about where will work perfectly well on Bluesky and many other platforms. But Bluesky in particular.

After all, the same people made them both.

Using Lists for Optimizing X

What are lists on X?

You may have noticed people who have a rather different follower to following ratio than you do. What do I mean by that?

For instance, say you follow 100 people. And 1000 people follow you. The ratio of follower to following is 100:1000, or 1:10. This is fantastic.

Celebrities often have ratios that look like this, or even better, where they might be following 100 accounts but there are 100,000 people following them. Or more!

Newbies often end up at the other end of the spectrum, with 1000 people they are following and 100 are following them, for 10:1.  If you want to just read for the most part, this is perfectly fine, except it tends to not mark you as a thought leader.

Celebs and Optimizing X

Now, most people do not sit down and calculate ratios. But they do glance at profiles.

Someone like soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, might be following some 200 people but he is followed by over 100,000,000. Hence people will really notice if he starts following them.

Does he (or any other celebrity, major or minor) have a sparse news feed? Probably not. Because he might be using lists.

Go to the profile of someone you want to follow but, instead of hitting follow, tap or click the more icon (the three dots), and select Add/remove from Lists.

Your lists will show up, and you can add someone to several at a time, or make a new list. You can even decide whether you want your list to be public.

Go to your own profile (e. g. click on your profile rather than your settings) and you will see whose lists you are on.

Why use a list rather than follow? You can still see that person’s tweets in your feed, but your ratio will not change. Furthermore, a public list tells everyone what you are interested in. How about lists for indie authors, agents, or publishers?

You can also follow lists made by other people. Maybe someone will find yours to be definitive and will follow it.

Who to Follow

Well, who should you follow on X?

Sometimes you want to publicly follow someone, rather than add them to a list. So long as you keep these people special, then this is perfectly great. I have tended to keep friends as open follows and anyone more business-related on lists. But you may prefer otherwise.

Follow fellow indie writers (this is a community, after all), or publishers, or agents. Consider who can help you, and who you can help, and follow accordingly.

How to #Hashtag

What is a hashtag, and how do you make one that is not lame?

A hashtag is a means of searching on X. Hashtag something as, say, #amwriting, and click on that, and it leads to a slice of X of everyone who used that hashtag. But beware hashtags do not look good if you use a ton of them.

Do not just indiscriminately hashtag! Also, keep them short.

#ILovePuppiesAndDolphinsAndUnicorns is probably not going to be something used by anyone else, or at least not that frequently. But #ILovePuppies is pretty popular.

Experiment by searching before you hashtag. Beware, your innocent-looking hashtag might already be coopted for an unexpected usage. Just do a search on #NeverForget or #IStayedBecause and you will know what I mean.

Does X Still Matter Enough That You Should Still Want to be Optimizing it?

Hard to say. But only you know your audience or readers. According to Sprout Social, the ratio of male-female X users is something like 2:1. The generation that dominates is Gen Z. So, keep in mind: Gen Z people are born between 1997 and 2012.

Are they the ideal market for your book? It depends. For a generational cohort where a good half or so of them are right around in the wheelhouse where it feels like everyone they know is getting married, having kids, or both, then a book for children could be ideal.

Or maybe books with young main characters out to change the world or destroy it would work better. Hard to say. Just because X is mainly male does not mean they never buy for children.

But some of them might want to continue publicly demonstrating how cool they are. Leaning into that with your marketing might work better.

Takeaways for Optimizing Twitter AKA X

Consider your peers. Who do you love to follow and read? In contrast, who seems like they are not trying too hard? Of course, if you want to start optimizing X, you should copy what the former does, versus the latter.

Want to see more from me, on writing, and the business of being an independent author? Click here to add my site as a preferred source.

Want More About X AKA Twitter?

If my experiences with X resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about X.

While it has changed considerably over time, a lot of these tips will still work. And often they will work with other social media platforms as well.

Almost Everything But the Tweet

• Starting a Twitter Stream
† Demystifying Twitter/X
• Twitter, Social Media and Professionalism

† Conquering X/Twitter (verbal elements)
• Conquering Twitter/X (visual elements)
† Twitter/X (metrics and timing)
• X/Twitter (offsite connections)

And, if you are a fellow writer, you may also want to check out:
† PitMad on Twitter/X

Next blog post

1 Comment

Adventures in Career Changing

My leap into a Social Media and Writing career

Skip to content ↓