IWSG #11: An Observation About YA Authors

It's that time again for sharing with the Insecure Writer's Support Group.
What is that you may ask, well their mission statement is this:

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

The first Wednesday of each month, we blog about our fears, insecurities, or even an accomplishment we had. 
I wasn't sure what to write about this month. My fears and insecurities haven't changed and luckily for me I've not gained any new ones. So I sat and pondered while scrolling through Twitter and it came to me.

As part of my goals for 2017 I wanted to get better at using social media. I wanted to make real connections with people through online interactions. I have an Instagram that I rarely use, and an author Facebook page I use even less. Honestly FB makes it hard to interact with the author page so for groups and things I use my personal account. But I digress. One account I have started to use more as been Twitter. 

I write adult, contemporary romance but I follow a variety of authors on Twitter. I've noticed though in my interactions, that the YA authors have really seemed to have figured things out. They seem to be a tight network group. Of the various authors I follow, it's the YA ones that are on my feed most often. They are a supportive bunch tweeting, retweeting, liking, commenting on posts by others. Of the hashtag games that I participate in, they are all led by a YA author with the exception of one. Now of course they are very welcoming to authors of all genres, but it got me thinking. What do YA authors know that others (or just me) don't about the networking thing?

Maybe it just happens to be that I've not followed the right set of romance authors and there may be some out there that are just as active with the whole social media thing. Even with my limited interactions on Instagram, I've found that it's YA authors that have the 'challenges' monthly and know the ins and outs of the game. It's kind of amazing. It's like they all have the book of how-to with social media and it's working. And I know that the biggest secret to social media is being genuine in your interactions, but it seems like they have something extra. Or I could just be weird which has been the case before. 

My exposure is limited, and there could be just as active authors in other genres that I've not come across yet. If anyone knows where I should look, feel free to direct me in the comments. Either way, my social media experiment, at least where Twitter is concerned, is going well. I'm attempting to reach out more and talk to people when their tweets are something I can relate to. Doing some of the hashtag games has helped me think about my current characters differently which is always a good thing. I'm thankful for the well organized YA authors who put them together. 

Have a wonderful month and thanks for stopping by.

~Meka