Is C. S. Lewis Really Following Me on Twitter?

Did you know that C. S. Lewis sends me Direct Messages on Twitter? Imagine! This icon of the Christian faith and author of so many classics (both fiction and nonfiction) is communicating with me on social media … apparently from heaven since he died in 1963. I didn’t realize heaven had Twitter.

The latest message I received from “C. S. Lewis” started with, “First, this is NOT an automated DM…I don’t even know how to do that.” Well, that’s not surprising. Twitter wasn’t invented until 2006, so it wasn’t even around when Mr. Lewis was here. So unless there are techies in heaven teaching all the pre-2006 residents how to use social media, how would he know? (Apparently no one in heaven is teaching the CMOS-appropriate usage for ellipses, either.)

Mr. Lewis goes on to say that this message is an “offer to help.” Wow! With all the people in C. S. Lewis’s fan base, an endorsement from him would surely make my book sales skyrocket.

The message continues by saying, “I am not sure if one of your goals is to use twitter (apparently Mr. Lewis doesn’t realize that “Twitter” is supposed to be capitalized) to promote and sell your book (of course I want to promote my book–although I didn’t realize I could actually SELL my book on Twitter), but if it is, one of the ways I support myself is coaching and growing large twitter accounts for people.”

Okay, hold on. My “internal editor” has a problem with that sentence. He’s saying that if Twitter promotion is one of my goals, he supports himself through coaching. Well, doesn’t he support himself through coaching whether or not Twitter promotion is one of my goals? The C. S. Lewis books I’ve read had better sentence structure than that. Maybe I should send him a copy of my Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors. Anyone know the zip code for heaven?

But aside from that grammatical error … C. S. Lewis has to support himself? In Paradise? And he’s doing it by “growing large twitter accounts for people”? Hm. Doesn’t sound very much like heaven to me. Personally, I’m looking forward to an eternity without Twitter.

Mr. Lewis’s post says that if I have “some interest in growing quickly to 20,000 or more REAL followers,” I should DM him back.

“Real” followers? You mean people like C. S. Lewis?

Oh, and did I mention that I’ve received this notification a few times? And it uses exactly the same words every time. Hm. Not automated, huh? Okay.

There are many valuable things I have learned from C. S. Lewis’s writings. But how to get 20,000 or more “real” Twitter followers isn’t one of them.

Could it be that this is not the C. S. Lewis I’ve gleaned so much from over the years? But the message included a photo of him. In sepia tone, no less. I don’t recall him looking that wide in other photos I’ve seen, but it’s definitely his image.

I also noticed there are no periods after his initials. Yep, I’m definitely going to have to send him a copy of my Proofreading Secrets book.

Or maybe I’ll just unfollow him. Seems almost sacrilegious to unfollow such a great writer and theologian. But something tells me the real C. S. Lewis won’t mind.

Have you received similar Twitter messages? If so, how have you handled them? (If you’ve ever followed up on this great “offer to help,” I’d be very interested in hearing what you found out—especially if this “coaching” actually worked for you!) If you haven’t received such a message, I would love to hear how the real C. S. Lewis and his writings have touched your heart or changed your life in some way.