Even with everything that has been going on at Twitter since Elon Musk took over, it’s still a great platform to connect with readers and to network with fellow authors.
If you want to make sure you use Twitter effectively, here’s a short guide on Twitter for sapphic fiction authors, including helpful resources:
Community hashtags for sapphic fiction
A good way to get more engagement on Twitter is to use community hashtags. Here are a few that are specific to sapphic fiction:
- #promoLGBTQIA – Hosted by @skyekilaen. A thread for LGBTQIA authors to promote their books. Every Saturday, you can reply to the thread with a book you are promoting, then retweet a few tweets in the thread to share other authors’ promos.
- #LGBTQWriMo – Hosted by @AmaraJLynn. Similar to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, LGBTQWriMo is a writing challenge which takes place in April, July, and November. Every day, writers tweet about a given topic. Follow @LGBTQWriMo to participate.
- #LesFicFri – Hosted by @OceanWrites. Every Friday, writers of lesbian & sapphic fiction are invited to share a couple of lines from either their work-in-progress or a previously published lesbian book.
- #QWriters — Hosted by @AmaraJLynn. Hashtag for queer writers sharing their goals and lines from their work.
- #PriWriMo – Hosted by @AmaraJLynn. Similar to #NaNoWriMo and #LGBTQWriMo, but it takes place in June.
Hashtags for LGBTQ+ days of importance
Twitter is also a great place to give a shout-out to all identities in the LGBTQ+ community. Here are the hashtags for LGBTQ+ days of significance, sorted by date:
- Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (Week after February 14): #AroWeek #AromanticSpectrumAwarenessWeek
- International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31): #TransDayOfVisibility and #TransgenderDayOfVisibility
- Lesbian Visibility Day (April 26): #LesbianVisibilityDay
- Lesbian Visibility Week (Week of April 26): #LesbianVisibilityWeek
- International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (May 17): #IDAHOT and #IDAHOTB
- Pansexual/Panromantic Awareness and Visibility Day (May 24): #PansexualPride #PanromanticPride
- International Non-Binary People’s Day (July 14): #NonBinaryPeoplesDay #NonBinaryPride
- Celebrate Bisexuality Day/Bi Visibility Day (September 23): #BiVisibilityDay #CelebrateBisexualityDay
- Bisexual Awareness Week (The week of September 23): #BiWeek #BisexualAwarenessWeek #BiPride
- International Lesbian Day (October 8): #InternationalLesbianDay #LesbianDay
- National Coming Out Day (October 11): #NationalComingOutDay
- Intersex Awareness Day (October 26): #IntersexAwarenessDay #IntersexPride
- Asexual Awareness Week (Last week of October): #AsexualAwarenessWeek #AsexualAwareness #AsexualPride
- Transgender Awareness Week (Second week of November): #TransAwarenessWeek
- Intersex Day of Remembrance (November 8): #IntersexDayOfRemembrance
- Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20): #TransDayOfRemembrance #TDOR
- Pansexual Pride Day (December 8): #PansexualPrideDay #PansexualPride
For more days to celebrate, check out my list of LGBTQ+ holidays.
Connect with fellow sapphic fiction authors
A great way to find fellow authors of sapphic fiction to follow on Twitter is to check out Twitter lists. Several members of the sapphic fiction community have put together lists of authors.
Here are two:
My own list
The Lesbian Review’s list
If the links don’t work on your device, go to my Twitter profile, tap on the three dots in the top-right corner, select “view lists,” and then choose “sapphic fiction authors.”
More Twitter tips for authors
If you are looking for more general tips on how to make the most of Twitter, check out my top 20 Twitter tips over on my blog for writers.