I don't think it's the platform... I think it's the people. Book Twitter started out pretty awesome and then became really toxic. BookTok--same. I haven't even really ventured onto Book Threads or Book Bluesky for that same reason.
I remember old school Twitter and how much I loved it! Met so many new authors, bought a bunch of books, sold books from convos. Now? Every place I open up I think about posting, then scurry off. Drama everywhere. Haven't checked Bluesky yet. **Sinners is SO good I watched it with my son and we loved it! Also I'm a bit obsessed with the ending of Sirens and creating a blog post about it, lol**
I hope the book community on Bluesky continues to build. Bookish social media community is great when it works, as you say, and Bluesky has a good independent vibe - I’ve made some really rewarding connections there.
I'm definitely having some good conversations on Bluesky - what I find is it's mostly authors and people who work at very small publishers. Not many UK editors on there generally, which is what I miss from twitter - it felt like an all-industry discussion. That said I'm enjoying the chats. Threads is just nonsense most of the time. Also as a UK person, it's very US centric so even the drama isn't recognizable.
Agreed. That's exactly what I've found. It would be great if more editors and agents joined – people seem to have scattered, I'm not sure to where. Perhaps they're only using Instagram now, rather than Instagram and Twitter as was? Or maybe lots are on Substack – but I don't engage much here as I find it hard to navigate/overwhelming/a massive time suck.
I think a lot of people did retreat to insta yeah. Some went to tik tok but not a bulk of them. I think they might just not be doing socials for work any more.
I keep the Threads app and a few others, but I have notifications (including badges) turned off. I don’t market my freelance business via social media, so I don’t need to engage consistently outside of keeping connections that I value. For bookstuff, I talk to my peer group and follow a few blogs and newsletters.
I may not be attentive enough to Threads, as I can almost never figure out what all the whatever is about. I do know that professionalism matters, and that it is often lacking (sorely) in these whatever-exchanges.
Although I pop in almost daily, the discourse seems to have shifted since I entered at the start of the year.
And of late, I've decided to avoid the drama because I found myself wasting time trying to figure out what people were talking about and why they were mad.
Grateful for this! My debut is coming out in 2026 and I feel compelled to join Threads for self-promotional reasons, but every time I open the app I have a low-level panic attack. Not to say there aren't wonderful people having wonderful conversations, but the algo isn't interested in that. Writing books is hard! Publishing books is hard! We don't need to make it harder! Can we all just...support each other? (She said naively.)
It seems to me that writers believe that book reading / readers are a limited resource, hence someone’s ‘unfair’ success is at their expense. This scarcity mindset does not apply to the TV or cinema storytelling industries, where audiences’ time-spending on content seems like an infinite resource.
Scarcity mindsets gets people to fight over crumbs, instead of realising the infinite possibilities of readers for all and every content shaped by words alone.
Almost any subject addressed in social media grows more toxic with time. That's how human beings are. It's much easier to degrade or destroy than it is to build or improve. Nice essay, thanks!
After I stopped looking at Booktok, I hoped that Threads could make a thriving bookish community, but all I see out there is manufactured outrage and drama. For people who love books and writing, it seems to be filled with people complaining about books and writing. It's disheartening.
I saw this coming when I was on Threads. I took a break and then came back very short period of time and regretted my choice. I ended up muting so many writers on there. And early this year, I deleted Threads and Instagram.
There was no keeping my accounts around and deactivating them. I gave both platforms the same treatment I gave Twitter, I nuked my account.
The truth is, I grew very wary of Threads my first week there when I saw shared opinions across a number of female writers stating how they wanted no men writers on the platform. And how wonderful women writers are because they aren't rude readers. But it's certainly okay to be rude to other writers and jump down their backs for saying things they don't like. So I figured Threads was going to turn into the same outrage machine as old-Twitter and I was right. And yet somehow it sounds worse.
I don't have energy for outrage. I don't have time for drama. I don't want to read collective anger every day. I grew very tired of writers complaining about A.I. because of Threads. It was on a two-week cycle when I was there. That sort of committed repetition is mind-numbing. And I hope that sickness of outrages stays on Threads. I don't want it on Bluesky I don't want it here. There is no faster way to get me to search for a new social media home than anger and outrage.
I don't think it's the platform... I think it's the people. Book Twitter started out pretty awesome and then became really toxic. BookTok--same. I haven't even really ventured onto Book Threads or Book Bluesky for that same reason.
I remember old school Twitter and how much I loved it! Met so many new authors, bought a bunch of books, sold books from convos. Now? Every place I open up I think about posting, then scurry off. Drama everywhere. Haven't checked Bluesky yet. **Sinners is SO good I watched it with my son and we loved it! Also I'm a bit obsessed with the ending of Sirens and creating a blog post about it, lol**
I hope the book community on Bluesky continues to build. Bookish social media community is great when it works, as you say, and Bluesky has a good independent vibe - I’ve made some really rewarding connections there.
I'm definitely having some good conversations on Bluesky - what I find is it's mostly authors and people who work at very small publishers. Not many UK editors on there generally, which is what I miss from twitter - it felt like an all-industry discussion. That said I'm enjoying the chats. Threads is just nonsense most of the time. Also as a UK person, it's very US centric so even the drama isn't recognizable.
Agreed. That's exactly what I've found. It would be great if more editors and agents joined – people seem to have scattered, I'm not sure to where. Perhaps they're only using Instagram now, rather than Instagram and Twitter as was? Or maybe lots are on Substack – but I don't engage much here as I find it hard to navigate/overwhelming/a massive time suck.
I think a lot of people did retreat to insta yeah. Some went to tik tok but not a bulk of them. I think they might just not be doing socials for work any more.
I wonder whether that will change.
Here's hoping!
I keep the Threads app and a few others, but I have notifications (including badges) turned off. I don’t market my freelance business via social media, so I don’t need to engage consistently outside of keeping connections that I value. For bookstuff, I talk to my peer group and follow a few blogs and newsletters.
I may not be attentive enough to Threads, as I can almost never figure out what all the whatever is about. I do know that professionalism matters, and that it is often lacking (sorely) in these whatever-exchanges.
Thanks for this.
Although I pop in almost daily, the discourse seems to have shifted since I entered at the start of the year.
And of late, I've decided to avoid the drama because I found myself wasting time trying to figure out what people were talking about and why they were mad.
Grateful for this! My debut is coming out in 2026 and I feel compelled to join Threads for self-promotional reasons, but every time I open the app I have a low-level panic attack. Not to say there aren't wonderful people having wonderful conversations, but the algo isn't interested in that. Writing books is hard! Publishing books is hard! We don't need to make it harder! Can we all just...support each other? (She said naively.)
It’s not worth it. I’ve never gotten a book rec on there, and authors generally don’t get traction! It’s a mess.
Threads is certainly its own little bubble. Sometimes I love it, but the toxicity is impossible to avoid.
Gross.
It seems to me that writers believe that book reading / readers are a limited resource, hence someone’s ‘unfair’ success is at their expense. This scarcity mindset does not apply to the TV or cinema storytelling industries, where audiences’ time-spending on content seems like an infinite resource.
Scarcity mindsets gets people to fight over crumbs, instead of realising the infinite possibilities of readers for all and every content shaped by words alone.
Excellent observation.
Almost any subject addressed in social media grows more toxic with time. That's how human beings are. It's much easier to degrade or destroy than it is to build or improve. Nice essay, thanks!
Thanks for reading!
After I stopped looking at Booktok, I hoped that Threads could make a thriving bookish community, but all I see out there is manufactured outrage and drama. For people who love books and writing, it seems to be filled with people complaining about books and writing. It's disheartening.
I agree, and that is why I don’t go on it as much as I used to. It’s disheartening to people who work in publishing, too.
So on target the info and wry tone. Have you seen the series set in nyc publishing world? Sutton Foster in Younger.
Oh gosh yes. I watched it when it originally aired & have rewatched it twice on Netflix.
Seems on target…except those budgets for high end launches!!
Yep, luckily met a couple really talented cool writers there a year ago and really haven’t been back, I just cross post
I’ve heard of Threads but not Book Threads.
No, thank you.
It’s just Threads but people use the hashtag Book Threads.
I saw this coming when I was on Threads. I took a break and then came back very short period of time and regretted my choice. I ended up muting so many writers on there. And early this year, I deleted Threads and Instagram.
There was no keeping my accounts around and deactivating them. I gave both platforms the same treatment I gave Twitter, I nuked my account.
The truth is, I grew very wary of Threads my first week there when I saw shared opinions across a number of female writers stating how they wanted no men writers on the platform. And how wonderful women writers are because they aren't rude readers. But it's certainly okay to be rude to other writers and jump down their backs for saying things they don't like. So I figured Threads was going to turn into the same outrage machine as old-Twitter and I was right. And yet somehow it sounds worse.
I don't have energy for outrage. I don't have time for drama. I don't want to read collective anger every day. I grew very tired of writers complaining about A.I. because of Threads. It was on a two-week cycle when I was there. That sort of committed repetition is mind-numbing. And I hope that sickness of outrages stays on Threads. I don't want it on Bluesky I don't want it here. There is no faster way to get me to search for a new social media home than anger and outrage.
The AI outrage is going strong, still. It’s just not a healthy place to be.
I never got into threads bc I knew it would be toxic . But on Reddit though I like r/pubtips and r/ suggestmeabook is great