Copycat

 

A lot of people have no imagination and just copy what someone else does. It takes thinking and creativity to be original. I’d rather be an original than a fake. Even if this means that I may fail a lot before I succeed.

I have noticed lately that some people look at the photos on my blog, and then go and post similar photos. My posts are all original. I don’t go around looking to see what others do and then copy them. And if I do this, I make it a point to be obvious about it and say I got this idea from someone on the internet, twitter, Facebook or something to that effect.

Even my books are original. And I know that gets me into trouble oftentimes because reviewers don’t know where to place me. When I enter contests, there is often no specific category where my book could be placed. Even my first book is not just a “romance book.” But I don’t care. I don’t want to fit in. Fitting in is boring. As Gloria Gaynor says: "I am what I am, I am my own special creation." And I like to keep it that way. How sad it is for those who just copy.

I mean, it’s okay to research and see what others are doing to get ideas and to make your creativity flow, but to copy exactly what someone does is not cool. Anyway, that’s my rant for today. I’m just tired and am going to reduce my activity on social media and focus on my book.  

Twitter Faux Pas

Photographer: Tina Phillips

When you RT your friends, please don’t cut off the person who originated the info. It’s not good twitter etiquette and the person you cut off will not forget it. A few days ago, I RTd a tweep on some great photography he had researched. A friend of mine RTd me, cut off his name and just used my name. Then others who knew him ended up RTing the photographs, giving me credit for it. And although I really do appreciate the fact that they went out of their way and RTd me, I was embarrassed at the same time. Because had it not been for the originator, I would have never had that link to begin it.

A few days after that, I had spend time researching some info on the book industry. When I posted it, a magazine RTd my info and I thanked them. Then as I was going through a list of my tweeps to see if they had interesting info for me to RT, I noticed a tweep who had cut off my name and kept the magazine’s name. This was really irritating since I was the one who had researched the story.

So, why did the above two tweeple had committed a faux pas? Perhaps because they wanted to make sure that their tweets had enough room in case someone wanted to RT them. In such cases, one has 3 choices. One, if the tweet takes up too much space, then don’t RT it or abbreviate it. Two, as painful as it may be, it’s always better to keep the name of the originator of the story and get rid of your friend’s name. Three, you may choose to tweet it twice once with name of your friend and once with the name of the originator. I realize this is a lot of work but in the long run, you’ll see that it’s worth it as it adds credibility to your tweets, your name and your business. And by the way, I am guilty of doing the same thing in past and had to learn not to do this because it was not the appropriate thing to do. Cheers and happy tweeting.