I’m an independent author and have to use social media to advertise my books. I hate Facebook. I belong to a number of writing and publishing groups and a couple of fan groups. As long as I lurk, I’m fine, but it feels like the moment I say something, I’m in trouble. I get into weird squabbles with people. I get bullied or people are just condescending or dismissive. I’m trying to avoid the groups. They’re often just a time suck anyway.

I’ve been trolled on Twitter, but for the most part, I get along with people there. I’ve never had a problem with Instagram. I write under a pen name and share things about mental health on my blog. I’m pretty open about it. I just think this stuff is really hard to go through by yourself, so I hope maybe I can help people. I figure if I lose readers over it, then I don’t want those people reading my books anyway. So far, no one has been a jerk on my blog.