Almost every Sunday afternoon from 12PM to 3PM PT, I’m tweeting about writing and ebook publishing with the #writechat hash tag. Last week, after a spirited discussion about a variety of issues, @domynoe tweeted that she gave me a “+K” about writing on Klout. That left me stumped. I’ve heard about Klout before but I didn’t have a Facebook account for the same reason that Facebook went public: I couldn’t figure out the privacy settings.
After I mentioned this tweet out aloud, my roommate informed me that I needed a Klout account first. I searched for the website and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn’t need a Facebook account at all. I could sign in with my Twitter account. That was good enough for me. Low and behold, my Klout score was 44 out of 100.
My roommate was upset that I had a higher Klout score than him. He muttered darkly about me being a Republican and all the far right-wing conspiracies I’m involved with as being the main reasons for why I have a higher Klout score.
Whatever, man.
I’m a moderate conservative in California, which is an endangered species in this very blue state, who supports President Barack Obama. Besides, most Californian Republicans stayed home from the GOP convention in Tampa, Florida, as a hurricane is real weather that is scarier than a swarm of earthquakes.
About 75% of my Klout score is writing. Not surprising since that’s biggest soapbox that I stand on week in and week out. The other subjects that I have influenced on are all offshoots related to writing. Except for the odd assortment at the very bottom, which are the topics from my personal blog.
What good is Klout to a writer? I’m not sure. Again, I had frequently heard about Klout but never got involved with it until now. May be more useful for me as a blogger on what non-writing areas I need focus my influence—or, lack thereof. Beyond that, I’ll let you know in a future blog post when I find out more myself.
Hi C. D.
I’ve never heard of Klout either so now I must check it out. I found you through a partial re post of your post on short story e-book sales a friend posted on Facebook, so that is humorous as well since you stated your not on Facebook. As you may guess, I am also a writer and self pubbed but…there are a lot of indie’s who don’t know what they are doing. I’ve been at this for over twenty years and a member of a writers group. Still, getting the attention of readers has been a struggle.
Nancy
Thank you for your comments. Writing is learning experience. Not only in the craft of writing, but taking advantage of new opportunities.
Hello again.
I read your post on e-book covers. Why don’t you take pictures and use a computer program to make a book cover. Even smart phones can take quality pictures. Then you won’t be out money.
I also enjoyed a little clarification on what you consider to be short stories. I already write a twice monthly flash fiction story for Romantic Friday Writers (a blog) and many have commented they would like to learn more about my characters. Thanks for the idea, everything else I write is either small, (children’s stories) or 50,000 or 130,000 words.
Nancy
I take really bad pictures with a camera, even if my thumb wasn’t in the way. It’s easier for me to buy stock photos and manipulate them in Photoshop to create the cover art for the ebook.
As for short stories, my word count is all over the place. Although 500 words seems to be the sweet spot for writing flash stories and blog posts.