Writers are encouraged by publishers and literary agents to have a social media account (usually one of the mainstream sites). This isn’t just a casual thing. Your social media tells a lot about you, and it helps the publisher or agent assess your writing, personality, and even views on various issues. Some people excel at this. Others fail and harm their chances of being published.
Recently, I saw a post by a young author who had received another rejection (she didn’t say if it was from a publisher or agent or how many rejections she had received previously). The post was poorly written, badly punctuated, and showed a very good reason why she had been rejected, assuming that her manuscript contained the same numerous errors. Regardless of the condition of the manuscript, though, any publisher or agent going to her social media account and seeing that post (and others on her account that were just as bad) would be very hesitant about taking a chance on her.
Let’s face it. Publishers take a risk every time they sign an author. So do literary agents. They’re about to spend their time and possibly money on bringing that author’s work to the public. Having to spend more time and money cleaning up a messy manuscript is not something most of them will accept.
As for personality, if you are constantly negative and disparaging in your posts, especially toward others on that social media site, or if all you do is repost items from others, this will reflect badly on you. You might also want your posts, the accounts you follow, and the things you repost to be in line with the genre in which you write as well as in line with your personality. I like chocolate, classic movies, and other things, and I try to follow accounts that are about these things. I also like classic literature such as Jane Austen and Victor Hugo, great intellectual authors/philosophers like Ayn Rand, and books that celebrate the human spirit, so I follow accounts that are related. Any publishers or agents seeing this will assume such things are in my writing. And they would be correct. Make sure your social media is similarly reflective of you.
As for your views on issues, take care. If they are in line with what you are writing (which they should be, in my opinion), you will attract the interest of the right publisher or agent for you. That’s a good thing. If those views are not in line with your writing, you will possibly chase away a publisher or agent who would otherwise be interested or you will attract the wrong kind of publisher or agent (in which case, you will both be wasting your time).
By the way, all of the above applies to those of you who self-publish and want to market to an audience who will like your book (and therefore leave glowing reviews on various sites).
The bottom line here is to take care when posting to social media. The world is watching.
Hope you found this helpful and have been inspired to start and/or continue writing!
Please check out my WIPs. And thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: I get no compensation for links in this post or on my site to other sites and/or products.
A.C. Cargill, Author 
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