Because the authors/social media thing is going around, I’m in complete agreement that book authors don’t need social media. This is very different for online short stories, though. There is a definite correlation between number of readers & an author’s social media presence. This also then has a strong correlation to award nominations that are determined greatly by the online fandom community. This has been the case for at least a decade.

I realize that we all dislike the new Twitter owner who says stupid things, but I think need to spell this out a bit more for folks as the Uncanny Magazine publisher: the death of Twitter would decimate the science fiction and fantasy short story ecosystem. Twitter is by far the most important tool all of us have to reach the readers of our online magazines. This is where folks discover the online stories. This is also where folks discover the ways to financially support the magazines (Patreon, Subscriptions, Crowdfunding).

So @lynnemthomas and I have fallen down this rabbit hole of amazing Pre-Code Hollywood films that are wonderfully naughty, often quite feminist, extremely popular at the time, and basically unseen from 1935 until this century. Why were they unseen? Because right-wing groups, mostly Catholic and antisemitic, pressured government bodies to censor Hollywood, as they felt these films were destroying the morals of Depression-era America. (The groups often dog whistled that this was part of a plot by Jewish Hollywood execs.)