You may have heard the rumors, but if agents are considering offering you representation, they often Google you, paying particular attention to your social media presence.
So what are agents looking for?
Obviously I can’t speak for all agents, but what I want to see first and foremost is that you are a good internet citizen. High follower counts are great (assuming the followers are legitimate and of a high quality) and may be necessary to help you demonstrate platform if you are writing nonfiction, but they are not my main focus. Here’s what I do want to see:
-You post in a semi-regular manner – if you seem like you get bored and forget about the social media it is harder to make good connections, which can hinder your social media marketing later.
-You interact with people – if you are just broadcasting and never interacting you are not going to make good connections with people and nobody is going to care when your book comes out, assuming they even continue following you that long. Only very famous people can really get away with broadcasting all the time.
-You act in a professional manner – this might be the most important of all. I need to see that you can comport yourself in a professional manner. Joking around with friends is FINE, don’t get me wrong, but generally it should be in a collegiate manner. There are exceptions, and if you’re writing certain sorts of things a raunchier online persona could work, but no matter what you write I don’t want to see you trolling or attacking other people. Reasoned critiques of work I’m fine with, personal attacks on people are not okay.
Mostly I want to see general competence so that I know you will be a good partner in the marketing of your own book. If you have other suggestions of general best practices, leave them in the comments.
