For any of you on the fence about about getting a Twitter account, I can heartily say this: jump off and do it.

In this age of “media is the message” and the fact that any aspiring writer / artist / creative type is going to need to do their own self promoting, I can attest to the ease and facility of Twitter.

I honestly don’t know what my problem was.

Here’s what I like about it:

Speed: it’s amazingly fast and it links to everything — if you have a Facebook fan page, it will go there.

Ease: it takes about three minutes at the most to set up.

Quick: the 140-characters-or-less edict was first an insult to my vast intellect and wittiness. Now I find I’m all about it.  My new philosophy in life: “You’ve got <140.”

Quick #2: you’re on, you’re off. There’s no dickering around online… it’s an app. Of course you can overdo it, but it’s not likely.

Silence: There are no stats to check or “likes” to hope for. It’s great for the ego because it all just goes >foosh!< away. It’s very liberating.  (And if there is a way to find out if someone likes what you post — DO NOT TELL ME.)

My cousin and I were tweeting this morning about how it reminds us of Facebook’s “early” (for those of us not at Harvard when Zuck first rolled it out – I graduated way earlier than he did … and not from Harvard) days of simplicity, speed and elegance. I’m embarrassed to say (well, not really, but sometimes I am) that I’ve been on Facebook since 2008 and I do miss the cleaner interface. (Remember those buttons?  I can’t remember the Facebook term…  we could share with friends or put on our virtual cork boards of what we liked?)

I also have a Facebook fan page and lately my outreach stats have been zzzzzngnng.  It’s summer so I know that’s a factor.  They hovering around the 1,300 people reached mark on my best days.  I opened a Twitter account and linked it up to my fan page and WOOOOAH… it’s up to 8,300+ people reached. (I’m no boob: that’s less than 1/1000th of the people on Facebook, so I get that.)

Look, I’m working pretty hard (with success) on not giving a crap about these popularity numbers anyway because who knows how many fans of GM were 13 year olds (or younger) who loved Camaros and Corvettes…? What about the 11,000+ fans of the clay head from Lionel Richie’s head from the Hello video?? I am simply not going to sweat those numbers anymore. Numbers don’t matter, substance does.  I have always believed this, but I was swept into a weird and needy corner into believing it mattered and so, I’m … done.  For a great post on this “like” situation: http://douglaskleeman.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/the-limitations-of-like/

But I am a realist: when I market the book I’ve written and all the rest, publicity will matter and that’s the hard truth: publishers won’t sell a book that doesn’t have a market, so I might wanna get cracking and sorta get over being shy about it.

I believe now that my book does have a market and as one awesome commenter wrote on my “Fear: Eff It” post, the wonderful Toni Morrison said (paraphrasing) that she wrote her book because she hadn’t read it yet.

As always in life: our futures and our success and failures lie in our own hands.  I am looking back now at my previous hand-wringing experience as “so last year” already. It’s nice to have that perspective.

Ok, that was slightly more than 140 characters.  You can follow me on Twitter @mollyfieldtweet …

Thank you.