A week ago I noted that I had reached 70,000 Twitter followers, that number having increased by 10,000 over the previous ten months.
Today I can note that in the last week that number has gone up to 77,000 followers, which I admit seems quite extraordinary.
Two threads have been primarily responsible for this. The first was on the national debt, published last Tuesday, and that on the nurses' pay dispute, published on Saturday.
The one on the national debt has now reached 1.6 million people, with 129,000 interactions, 9,500 likes and 5,800 retweets.
That on nurses' pay is not as impressive, in comparison, but still reached 306,000 people, with 26,000 interactions.
They follow in a pattern of writing long threads that I only developed last year, and which I have not seen others using, although I am sure they do. The threads are of up to 3,000 words, and so more than 80 tweets long. I am astonished that this does not seem to put people on Twitter off, and most do not use Threadreader.
The current list of threads looks something like this (all have been posted here, where they tend to not be as popular).
The history and significance of QE in the UK
QE and funding the Green New Deal
Macroeconomics, money and post-Brexit recovery
Why we don't need to repay the national debt
Why we need tax increases now - and matching tax cuts
The nurses' pay dispute and what we value in society
This, which was not a Twitter thread, I would also add to the list:
How to use local and hypothecated bond issues to fund the recovery
I note this to raise a question. I have been asked by a number of people if they might turn the threads into PDFs so that they might share them more easily. That has persuaded me to think about this. I did so at Christmas, but have simply not had time to do much about this since, and in the meantime the number of threads has grown.
In principle these threads could be a book, but I am not sure that they flow as such. They are, instead, more like a collection around a theme. I could create that collection in Word, but I suspect it could be done better than I have the time or ability to do. There is no intention to formally publish and sell this, but instead to make it available as a download for those who want to read about the issues I touch on. But that needs help with design.
As I do for videos, I have a budget for this, made available out of donations. But before I look elsewhere is there anyone here with the requisite skills who might like to discuss this?
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
I’d be happy to help on the creation of PDFs front (I do a lot of that in the course of my work). The key to good PDFs is the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principal, and as per a good talk, précis what you are going to say at the beginning, saying it and summarising at the end and don’t go overboard with fancy designs as finding things easily always trumps overly pretty designs. I think with your threads it’ll be vital to give emphasis to the most important points early on, particularly if it’s a long one. You can probably add the list with useful heading under the Publications tab on your website. But I’m sure you know all that.
Not sure if that’s any help.
Julian
I was thinking more about an e- book
Is that something you have experience with?
I used to work for a publisher where we made eBooks – However it was seven years ago now. But producing an eBook is fairly straight forward depending on format. You’ll also need to decide what type, if any, of Digital Rights Management you want, Kindle, Adobe Apple and/or MTMO.
Julian
I admit I have already begun one discussion
Thanks for your interest…and I may still get back to you
Richard
Used threader/threadreader on one of your posts last week. Was able to copy&paste entire block of text in one lump into Word, where it can be paragraphed & formatted, then exported as PDF.
Your 3,000 words, for example, I imagined you writing it in full first, then posting to Twitter in 280 character paragraphs.
Publishing-wise, this doesn’t need a start-to-finish storyline. In fiction, collections of unrelated short stories can work…as long as each component is good enough. Same with your material, I’d wager.
Anyway, keep on keeping on. I’ve wondered for yonks how QE works, ans now I know a little bit, with thanks to you. Best wishes.
Thanks
I’d be happy to help – all articles/posts can be copied and pasted into word or equivalent and then turned into a PDF relatively simply, though care may be needed on making sure the charts are clear.
Then all you need is somewhere to store them….
It’s a book I am really aiming for Peter….
Definitely should be a book of collected thoughts and collected tweets.
I don’t think anyone but Twitter is committed to the idea of a limited text tweets. When they’re from someone with something important to say it’s important to see the whole text!
If my dad were still alive(just passed) I would buy him a book of your tweets because he would never be on Twitter but would be fascinated with your pieces
Thanks
I agree with Phil. A collection of short, punchy articles is very often more effective than a long and structured book.
Paul Krugman’s book “Arguing with Zombies” works well and is a collection of articles he had published over a number of years in the New York Times and organised into theme based sections. I don’t agree with Krugman’s economics but the format of this book works well as a means of communicating his key messages. It is much easier to absorb stuff when delivered in smaller packages. Your tweets and blogs sure do pack a punch 🙂
I think a book may work – but the plan is a download…lead time on books would leave this well out of date
Calibre e-book software can convert to / from various source formats (docx, odt, pdf etc) into e-book formats including ePub, mobi and others
An excellent idea and I look forward to the results.
I think you may well have a great idea with this ebook concept. A series of short, powerful essays (?) with appropriate live links, that can easily be modified or replaced as required, could be a very useful and constantly relevant guide for “dummies” – of all ages, persuasions & employment
Thanks
We must not lose sight of just how pivotal your discussion on the true nature of the national debt is. The retention of “debt” in the title is the entire basis of the narrative concerning repayment and therefore why there is no magic money tree and therefore why we must tighten our belts. Your analysis threatens to permanently remove justification for austerity and place the role of the state centre stage. The campaign of the FT to redirect public discussion to inflation and Andrew Bailey screaming from the rooftops the same message for the Bank of England/government is the start of a sustained campaign to regain control of the debate and return to business as usual. You are dismantling the fundamental lies used throughout the Western economic and financial establishment and the widespread attention to your narrative is based on that realisation that we have all been duped, however incomplete that understanding may yet be. You do not use ideological polemic in your articles, but you ARE challenging accepted ideology by brutal logic, which is far more threatening. I do not anticipate you will be troubled any time soon by the offer of a senior position within the state apparatus.
I strongly suspect your conclusion is correct
https://www.wikihow.com/Publish-eBooks
One of their suggestions is to contact your “local” university English/Media dept and hire a student editor. If no one on here comes forward it may be another option.
I have found an option that I hope will work and meets my criteria of being from a regular reader who needs and would like the work
This isn’t for posting, and not about e-publishing but more about getting your work seen. Are you in contact with Peter Jukes, executive editor of Byline Times, on Twitter? He’s v active, and seems to have fingers in many pies. And his interview with Jolyon Maugham was spot on.
We have met but have not made the connection
Id second Gaby’s suggestion. Byline Times seems a good fit with your style and content Richard
I should talk to Peter
An obvious idea is to construct a Tony Buzan style mind map and hyperlink headings/boxes to text on the website.
That might work as a training/educative tool but is your goal to commodify and sell?
If that is the case you probably need to hire an agent.
Ask M. Piketty he seems to know how to do it.
Or drop in to see Mr Google at Kings Cross station .
I have an agent
But books take far too long
And mind maps work for some but alienate most….
Sounds like you may need a new agent or another chat.
An editorial assistant should be able to knock up your existing copy in book form in no time.
As for mind maps, most people were sold them as a mnemonic but they are not yet being used as a communicator using hyperlinks.
Try to draw one for yourself and then ask someone else to do the linking.
You may surprise us all by how useful it could be.
Might I mail you?
Of course
[…] this week I asked if anyone who reads this blog might be willing to help me with the creation of an ebook that would feature some of my recent Twitter threads since they had appeared to have resonated with […]