How I Came Back to Facebook, and Medium

As you know, many writers left Twitter (okay, X) after the election. Those of us who stayed found ourselves without a literary community. I had already opened an account on Blue Sky, but nothing much was happening there. I started to post, but without any engagement. Same with Threads. Threads felt like a place where people were hyperfocused on the market, on selling and publishing, and not at all on just bulding community.

I left Twitter twice before. The first time, I had 7000–8000 followers. I had friends on Twitter. People in real life recognized me from Twitter. The second time, I had 3000, and I knew fewer people. And now, where to find a literary community?

It’s not on Blue Sky, yet, as hard as I look. Some people like Substack, but I feel weird about sending articles into people’s inboxes, which they would have to read immediately, like a homework assignment, and delete. My own inbox is 96% full. And I have never figured out Instagram. I think you have to take good photos. It’s all about photos. But I want to talk, discuss, ask advice, vent, find out information.

Then I realized that as much as Facebook has changed, my favorite social media, which feels intensely social, like hanging out, is still on Facebook. In the early days, when we had only a handful of friends, Facebook status felt intimate, like a big party. Now I have so many friends whom I have never met, so it feels bizarre to post anything. I never post pictures of my children, and I never share personal details. But Facebook groups are a different matter.

My favorite literary group is Literary Fiction Readers. Here, five thousand readers discuss the literary fiction they have read. I like to gossip here. Imagine just being able to talk about a book, whether you liked it, without offending anyone. I recently finished reading Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend quartet and I can’t stop thinking about it, so I went to my friends in the group and asked if they want to open a messenger chat with spoilers. I feel like I am accepted, among friends, and I can really have a conversation, a huge contrast to the click-baity or self-promotional posts on other platforms.

I also like Literary Fiction Writers (1.7k members) because I can ask questions that would be important to writers of literary fiction specifically. For example, I just asked if The New Yorker has ever published a story from the slush pile. I’ve also spent lots of time on 20booksto50K where writers who make a living from their books discuss their strategy of writing 20 books so that they start earning from name recognition, a reader following, and a backlist. I found out quickly that most writers who make a living from books are genre writers. Still, the advice, the courage, and cheer of the group is really nice. There is also a newbie group where you can ask any questions (the parent group gets mad if you ask basic questions). The really nice thing about these groups is that at first everything seems overwhelming, but then you learn and you just hang out over years understanding more.

I joined the Tiktok for Authors groups, but I never made a dent in Tiktok. Again, I think you have to be a romance writer. And Binders Building Platforms, where I’ve learned so much about placing articles, book publicity, and newsletters, and again, it is a warm, giving community.

But I like Facebook for other reasons to. In each group, I can isolate a different aspect of my life and find friendship and support. It amazes me how much people are willing to give complete strangers on the Internet, how much time they are willing to spend to look up information, to think about my problem, to give me advice, and how much they know. And in my local neighborhood parents group, I can ask about nearby doctors, playgrounds, and other mom advice. In cancer groups, I find community with other survivors. We can talk about common problems and laugh about them. At any given time, I may be addicted to a group, from liver support to gallbladder flush to coffee enema to the neighborhood buy and exchange group.

My favorite group is still my neighborhood book club. We meet in person, once a month, and every time I realize why I socialize. The women in our group ask me about my life, listen attentively, give me advice, and give me life.

Given the confusion of social media, so many options, so many choices, but so little value, it’s nice to get offline and talk to my neighbor or read a book in the tub. Or write that novel.

I also used to have an account on Medium. I published several articles and had thousands of views. Lately, after doing the rounds of Mailchimp, Substack, and MailerLite, I have been thinking about returning to Medium. Here, I can write as many articles as I want, as often as I like, as badly as I do, without fear or judgment. Before the NYT accepts my next pitch, this may be the place to start again.

If you would like to support my writing, check out my novel The Children of This Madness, 7.13 Books. My short-story collection Katy Family will be published by Jacklegpress.org in 2025.

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