Five Goodreads Do's and Don'ts
So earlier this morning I got linked to a blog post series for authors on how to use Goodreads that quickly devolved into some 100% Bad Advice, namely that you should PM all the readers in the groups you're a member of with a sloppily disguised form message telling them about your books (but saying you're not going to pressure them into buying them or anything, so that makes it all okay, right? WRONG!!!)
Anyway, I thought I'd add my own two cents into the discussion by giving you some guidelines about how I personally, as an author and a reader, use Goodreads: both the things I encourage, and the things that I avoid at all costs. Oh and just by the by, I've written this list hoping you already know the basics like "don't 5 star your own books" and "don't argue with reviewers" and all that.
Five Don'ts:
1. Don't spam people with event invites.
Just because someone has trusted you/liked you enough to add you as a friend doesn't mean they want invitations for your release days, every blog post on your fourteen stop tour, your cover reveals, your live facebook chats. . . Honestly, I don't like this function at all. I almost never say "yes" to invites, and sending me one is pretty much a guarantee that I'll defriend you immediately. The only exception I can see if if you know I live in, say, Atlanta, and you're doing a book signing there next week and you're a big name author whose books I actually read and love. I also give leeway to publishers who use the invite feature in the same way as using a newsletter. One message a week, AFTER I've signed up for the publisher group knowing that weekly invites/emails would be a part and parcel. Use invites the same way you'd use an email list: have them be "opt-in." On that note, don't use the PM system to spam people, either. In my entire time as a Goodreads user, I've PMed people out of the blue exactly twice. Every other message I've sent has been in response to something they've messaged me first.
2. Don't recommend books if you have ulterior motives.
Goodreads has a neat recommendation feature that allows you to recommend books to users, either out of the blue, or based on requests from them. By all means, use this! If you know so-and-so loves the hell out of love triangles and you just read "Shivaree" by Cara McKenna (one my faves), then do send them a recommendation. If someone else is requesting recommendations for stories with fire fighters and they read M/M, then yeah, let them know about "Hot Head" by Damon Suede. But don't recommend books indiscriminately (here, person who reads literary fiction, try this ten book high fantasy series!), and definitely don't recommend your own (or your author buddys') books. Share books you love, not books you just love to see people buying.
3. Don't friend people willy-nilly.
This ain't facebook, and nothing looks more disingenuous than an author (or blogger, etc.) with two thousand friends and four books. Yikes! Coming up hot in second place is someone with a bunch of books, but all of them are generic classics, with no sign of thought or individual personality. Or someone adding me as a friend when I write (and read) M/M and they're exclusively a fan of paranormal YA. Only add people as friends 1. if you've actually interacted (MEANINGFULLY), 2. if you actually have reading habits in common. If you're an author, I'd even extend that to don't friend people unless they've reached out to you in some way first. If they add you first, if they follow you on twitter, if you've spent thread after thread joking with them and trading commentary on your shared reading tastes, etc. Sometimes a person might even be a huge fan of your books, giving you piles of five star reviews, and still not want to be your Goodreads friend. Just because someone likes their books doesn't mean they want to like YOU. Books are a product, you are a person. Don't push it. And especially don't friend people after they've already ignored or rejected your request. Friending them over and over again won't endear you to anyone.
4. Don't be "subtle".
Every Goodreads and social media behaviour list warns you against drive-by spamming people with BUY MY BOOK, but many then go on to suggest "join groups related to your book, join conversations, and then SUBTLY insert references to your book." I'm sorry, but do these authors and social media experts think people are idiots? I want you to think back to the last big budget movie you saw with visible advertising. Oh, the characters JUST HAPPEN to be drinking Coke every scene. Oh, they JUST HAPPEN to drive BMWs. I don't know about you, but it didn't take me long to catch on to the fact that if you see a brand name in a movie, it's because somebody somewhere has paid for that visibility.
Advertising is more than just full on commercials and sales pitches, and people key onto that. If you're joining a thread on alpha heroes only to say "Yes, I love alpha heroes too, that's why I wrote one in my hit series THIS AUTHOR IS A BUTT published by JESUS CHRIST JUST STOP press", well, guess what, Goodreads users know exactly what you're doing and they don't like it. Not after one sentence of joining the discussion. Not after three. Not even after ten. If you're only commenting on a thread to somehow work a namedrop for your book in there, just stop. Don't. Write a funny blog post or post a cute picture on your twitter instead. Personally, after a year of being on Goodreads, I've entirely stopped using groups to advertise my work, even in the threads/subforums set aside for that purpose, because I just don't think it works. Posting outside of those spaces annoys people, and posting within them is pointless because who goes to a forum just to be advertised at? When it comes to the readers groups on Goodreads, my philosophy is simple: Join groups for books you like to read. Discuss books you like to read. If you really, really can't participate as a reader and not as an author, stay out of readers' groups entirely.
5. Don't get sneaky with separate accounts.
I have two Goodreads accounts. I have my author account, and my real name account. My author account is for the books I read in my genre, for interacting with people as my author persona . . . basically, it's my Romancelandia self. I don't use it just to advertise, but I do use it specifically to talk about romance and be a part of this genre. My real name account I've had since college, and use to document my (non romance) bookshelves and keep track of things I read in school, etc. They have two completely separate purposes for me. I don't use my second account to:
Pretend to be a "reader" and recommend or rate my own books.Participate (especially to sockpuppet) in places I know authors aren't welcome, such as review comments for their books.Spy on people in author-free spaces.Add friends solely for the purpose of eventually advertising my books to them as a "third party".Making a fake or second account to benefit your author-self while not explicitly presenting as your author self is underhanded, dishonest, and can get you banned if you're particularly stupid about it. Don't do it. If ever you find yourself thinking, "Man if people didn't know it was me [author], I could..." close your computer, walk away, and rethink your life choices. Sockpuppeting is bad form. Period.
Five Do's
1. Actually read
Goodreads is a space for discussing books. Keep a catalogue of your library. Use it as a "to-buy" list of new releases or backlist titles you're excited to read. Review books you've read, with star ratings or not, in your own genre or not. Everyone has their policy on how authors should approach the review system and ultimately what you do is down to your personal ethics. But there should be some evidence on your book page that you actually . . . read books. Because Goodreads is a social network for readers. If you use it like one, you're a million times more likely to enjoy your time there, make friends, and maybe even find people willing to give your books a try.
2. Interact with your fans . . . if they approach you first.
On a lot of my releases, I use the "start a discussion topic about this book" feature on the book page to start a "Chat with the author(s)" thread. Readers sometimes comment on this thread asking if the book is going to have sequels, what I thought of a certain scene, how did I research, etc. etc. All the questions you think while reading a book, now they have a space to ask me. OR NOT. The key here is that they come to me. I don't hop into forum discussions of my books, I don't comment on reviews . . . you get the drift. Make yourself available to readers, but don't force yourself on them.
3. Talk about books
No, not your books, dummy. Everyone else's. Follow peoples' reviews. Comment on them, either to just say "Great analysis!" or "Can't wait to pick this up" or "That's interesting what you thought of [Character], I thought he was more..." Let people know when their reviews have encouraged you to pick up a book or avoid one. Join groups in genres you like to read and hop into the discussions there. Weigh in on your hated tropes, your favourite characters, your underrated genre classics, etc. Be a genuine member of the community, not someone counting down "participation points" until they reach the magical marker where their plugs suddenly stop being irritating.
4. Keep your author page updated
Readers do use author pages to know about you. Keep your bio professional and up to date. Link to your website and social media accounts. Make sure your books are listed correctly in Goodreads' system, including any relevant series info. Goodreads allows you to sync up your author page with your off-site blog, which is a great feature. Not many people follow this blog, but I have lots of friends, followers, and fans on Goodreads who now have a new avenue to read my posts. Let people subscribe to you or find you of their own volition, and make sure you have useful content that makes it worth their while.
5. Stay out of drama
Back when I was in student teaching, my supervisor once told me (on the subject of getting into arguments with teenagers) "Don't wrestle with a pig in mud." Even if you're Totally Just, sometimes you end up coming out just as fucking dirty as the person you're fighting with. As an author, people are watching everything you do, and sometimes the best thing is just to disengage. Internet fights have a way of escalating and getting ugly, the things you type online are forever, and sometimes in the heat of the moment you do things that outside of that moment make you look like a total unreasonable ass. Remember, you're a professional.
Now this isn't to say never ever get involved in an argument. If I said that, I'd be a hypocrite, because God knows I'm the first one to weigh in on the "eww vaginas" chestnut in M/M. The thing is, I get involved in those arguments knowing FULL WELL that somebody somewhere is going to see my participation and think less of me, or (god forbid!) decide not to buy my books anymore. For me, standing up for women is worth that risk. Every author needs to weigh that same risk/reward. Is making a stand on this issue worth losing readers over? If yes, carry on. If no, bow out of the conversation. Just remember that whatever you say does get attached to you, like a resume of sorts. Make sure your online author resume reflects you in a way you can be proud of.
So that's it! My personal guidelines for using Goodreads as an author. Any other Goodreads users want to weigh in on their likes and dislikes? Their instablock-worthy offences? You know where to comment!
Anyway, I thought I'd add my own two cents into the discussion by giving you some guidelines about how I personally, as an author and a reader, use Goodreads: both the things I encourage, and the things that I avoid at all costs. Oh and just by the by, I've written this list hoping you already know the basics like "don't 5 star your own books" and "don't argue with reviewers" and all that.
Five Don'ts:
1. Don't spam people with event invites.
Just because someone has trusted you/liked you enough to add you as a friend doesn't mean they want invitations for your release days, every blog post on your fourteen stop tour, your cover reveals, your live facebook chats. . . Honestly, I don't like this function at all. I almost never say "yes" to invites, and sending me one is pretty much a guarantee that I'll defriend you immediately. The only exception I can see if if you know I live in, say, Atlanta, and you're doing a book signing there next week and you're a big name author whose books I actually read and love. I also give leeway to publishers who use the invite feature in the same way as using a newsletter. One message a week, AFTER I've signed up for the publisher group knowing that weekly invites/emails would be a part and parcel. Use invites the same way you'd use an email list: have them be "opt-in." On that note, don't use the PM system to spam people, either. In my entire time as a Goodreads user, I've PMed people out of the blue exactly twice. Every other message I've sent has been in response to something they've messaged me first.
2. Don't recommend books if you have ulterior motives.
Goodreads has a neat recommendation feature that allows you to recommend books to users, either out of the blue, or based on requests from them. By all means, use this! If you know so-and-so loves the hell out of love triangles and you just read "Shivaree" by Cara McKenna (one my faves), then do send them a recommendation. If someone else is requesting recommendations for stories with fire fighters and they read M/M, then yeah, let them know about "Hot Head" by Damon Suede. But don't recommend books indiscriminately (here, person who reads literary fiction, try this ten book high fantasy series!), and definitely don't recommend your own (or your author buddys') books. Share books you love, not books you just love to see people buying.
3. Don't friend people willy-nilly.
This ain't facebook, and nothing looks more disingenuous than an author (or blogger, etc.) with two thousand friends and four books. Yikes! Coming up hot in second place is someone with a bunch of books, but all of them are generic classics, with no sign of thought or individual personality. Or someone adding me as a friend when I write (and read) M/M and they're exclusively a fan of paranormal YA. Only add people as friends 1. if you've actually interacted (MEANINGFULLY), 2. if you actually have reading habits in common. If you're an author, I'd even extend that to don't friend people unless they've reached out to you in some way first. If they add you first, if they follow you on twitter, if you've spent thread after thread joking with them and trading commentary on your shared reading tastes, etc. Sometimes a person might even be a huge fan of your books, giving you piles of five star reviews, and still not want to be your Goodreads friend. Just because someone likes their books doesn't mean they want to like YOU. Books are a product, you are a person. Don't push it. And especially don't friend people after they've already ignored or rejected your request. Friending them over and over again won't endear you to anyone.
4. Don't be "subtle".
Every Goodreads and social media behaviour list warns you against drive-by spamming people with BUY MY BOOK, but many then go on to suggest "join groups related to your book, join conversations, and then SUBTLY insert references to your book." I'm sorry, but do these authors and social media experts think people are idiots? I want you to think back to the last big budget movie you saw with visible advertising. Oh, the characters JUST HAPPEN to be drinking Coke every scene. Oh, they JUST HAPPEN to drive BMWs. I don't know about you, but it didn't take me long to catch on to the fact that if you see a brand name in a movie, it's because somebody somewhere has paid for that visibility.
Advertising is more than just full on commercials and sales pitches, and people key onto that. If you're joining a thread on alpha heroes only to say "Yes, I love alpha heroes too, that's why I wrote one in my hit series THIS AUTHOR IS A BUTT published by JESUS CHRIST JUST STOP press", well, guess what, Goodreads users know exactly what you're doing and they don't like it. Not after one sentence of joining the discussion. Not after three. Not even after ten. If you're only commenting on a thread to somehow work a namedrop for your book in there, just stop. Don't. Write a funny blog post or post a cute picture on your twitter instead. Personally, after a year of being on Goodreads, I've entirely stopped using groups to advertise my work, even in the threads/subforums set aside for that purpose, because I just don't think it works. Posting outside of those spaces annoys people, and posting within them is pointless because who goes to a forum just to be advertised at? When it comes to the readers groups on Goodreads, my philosophy is simple: Join groups for books you like to read. Discuss books you like to read. If you really, really can't participate as a reader and not as an author, stay out of readers' groups entirely.
5. Don't get sneaky with separate accounts.
I have two Goodreads accounts. I have my author account, and my real name account. My author account is for the books I read in my genre, for interacting with people as my author persona . . . basically, it's my Romancelandia self. I don't use it just to advertise, but I do use it specifically to talk about romance and be a part of this genre. My real name account I've had since college, and use to document my (non romance) bookshelves and keep track of things I read in school, etc. They have two completely separate purposes for me. I don't use my second account to:
Pretend to be a "reader" and recommend or rate my own books.Participate (especially to sockpuppet) in places I know authors aren't welcome, such as review comments for their books.Spy on people in author-free spaces.Add friends solely for the purpose of eventually advertising my books to them as a "third party".Making a fake or second account to benefit your author-self while not explicitly presenting as your author self is underhanded, dishonest, and can get you banned if you're particularly stupid about it. Don't do it. If ever you find yourself thinking, "Man if people didn't know it was me [author], I could..." close your computer, walk away, and rethink your life choices. Sockpuppeting is bad form. Period.
Five Do's
1. Actually read
Goodreads is a space for discussing books. Keep a catalogue of your library. Use it as a "to-buy" list of new releases or backlist titles you're excited to read. Review books you've read, with star ratings or not, in your own genre or not. Everyone has their policy on how authors should approach the review system and ultimately what you do is down to your personal ethics. But there should be some evidence on your book page that you actually . . . read books. Because Goodreads is a social network for readers. If you use it like one, you're a million times more likely to enjoy your time there, make friends, and maybe even find people willing to give your books a try.
2. Interact with your fans . . . if they approach you first.
On a lot of my releases, I use the "start a discussion topic about this book" feature on the book page to start a "Chat with the author(s)" thread. Readers sometimes comment on this thread asking if the book is going to have sequels, what I thought of a certain scene, how did I research, etc. etc. All the questions you think while reading a book, now they have a space to ask me. OR NOT. The key here is that they come to me. I don't hop into forum discussions of my books, I don't comment on reviews . . . you get the drift. Make yourself available to readers, but don't force yourself on them.
3. Talk about books
No, not your books, dummy. Everyone else's. Follow peoples' reviews. Comment on them, either to just say "Great analysis!" or "Can't wait to pick this up" or "That's interesting what you thought of [Character], I thought he was more..." Let people know when their reviews have encouraged you to pick up a book or avoid one. Join groups in genres you like to read and hop into the discussions there. Weigh in on your hated tropes, your favourite characters, your underrated genre classics, etc. Be a genuine member of the community, not someone counting down "participation points" until they reach the magical marker where their plugs suddenly stop being irritating.
4. Keep your author page updated
Readers do use author pages to know about you. Keep your bio professional and up to date. Link to your website and social media accounts. Make sure your books are listed correctly in Goodreads' system, including any relevant series info. Goodreads allows you to sync up your author page with your off-site blog, which is a great feature. Not many people follow this blog, but I have lots of friends, followers, and fans on Goodreads who now have a new avenue to read my posts. Let people subscribe to you or find you of their own volition, and make sure you have useful content that makes it worth their while.
5. Stay out of drama
Back when I was in student teaching, my supervisor once told me (on the subject of getting into arguments with teenagers) "Don't wrestle with a pig in mud." Even if you're Totally Just, sometimes you end up coming out just as fucking dirty as the person you're fighting with. As an author, people are watching everything you do, and sometimes the best thing is just to disengage. Internet fights have a way of escalating and getting ugly, the things you type online are forever, and sometimes in the heat of the moment you do things that outside of that moment make you look like a total unreasonable ass. Remember, you're a professional.
Now this isn't to say never ever get involved in an argument. If I said that, I'd be a hypocrite, because God knows I'm the first one to weigh in on the "eww vaginas" chestnut in M/M. The thing is, I get involved in those arguments knowing FULL WELL that somebody somewhere is going to see my participation and think less of me, or (god forbid!) decide not to buy my books anymore. For me, standing up for women is worth that risk. Every author needs to weigh that same risk/reward. Is making a stand on this issue worth losing readers over? If yes, carry on. If no, bow out of the conversation. Just remember that whatever you say does get attached to you, like a resume of sorts. Make sure your online author resume reflects you in a way you can be proud of.
So that's it! My personal guidelines for using Goodreads as an author. Any other Goodreads users want to weigh in on their likes and dislikes? Their instablock-worthy offences? You know where to comment!
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Yes Werner, good point. I think having one dedicated place could be useful if fans know that's where to find you! I guess a better way to say it would be when it comes to time expended versus eyeballs on your work, I don't know if the cost/benefits play out in a favourable enough way to spend that time versus using other social media.
This is great Heidi. There should be an equivalent etiquette list on the reader side too.
Thanks everybody! Glad you enjoyed the read. And Elizabetta, I think it might be a little assholish for an author to write such a post, but maybe a fellow reader? Hehe
*sound of enthusiastic hand-clapping*
I don't know how many degrees of separation were crossed to lead me to this, but what a great article. THIS just made me a fan without having read anything else by you...yet. (A point I intend to alter very soon.)
Great post, Heidi, and lots of sage advice!Even on my author profile page, I try to write posts that are not just exclusively about my books and writing, but also about thoughts from a reader's point of view because, not only am I an author, but I'm also an insatiable reader. For instance, my latest blog is about how I feel about insta-love and love triangles in YA books.
In the groups I belong to, I try to participate in as many of the readers' discussions as I can (and have an interest in) and confine my self-promotion to those threads specifically set up for it.
I've been on Goodreads since October 2010 and have learned many valuable lessons on how to conduct myself as an author and reader. And, hopefully, I have avoided many of the pitfalls outlined in your post. The last thing I want to do is alienate readers by acting inappropriately.
Thanks for keeping us on the straight and narrow, Heidi! :D
Recently, as a reader I've been feeling like a marketing target on goodreads.As a goodreads librarian helping with the database, I've been feeling like a few bad apple authors seriously consider this another product page just like at amazon and other retail sites to do with as they please (including trying to get rid of older editions and bookcovers that goodreads members may have shelved various ways and basically vandalizing database in an effort to force it to match their other retail websites' product pages). If published, it belongs in the database and members can shelve even if author does not like that a member still has that edition on their shelf and whether or not still available for sale.
One possibly odd way I find new reads is from reviewing an authors shelves, ratings and reviews. Best authors = avid readers; favorite books in common mean a good chance they write what I like to read.
Two big pet peeves recently:
(1) Authors who friend me then immediately pm with spam. My pm is open to anyone so there was no reason to friend in order to spam (obviously they did not check to see). No biggie, I just flag as spam and unfriend. I tend to accept friend requests and later unfriend if there's a problem or there's never any books or discussion shared. Honestly, hasn't been a big volume issue but the day goodreads becomes another inbox to cleanout is the day I leave.
(2) Authors (and sockpuppets) who flood my recommendations with books in genres I am obviously not remotely interested if you look at my shelves even briefly. Really angers me when recommended something completely off topic for the handful of recommendation requests I did make. That's getting bad enough I seldom bother looking at recommendations. And I do not think I would ever enjoy reading something by an author too stupid to bother reading the request or checking my books to see if I was a good target.
Goodreads snuck something in recently after combining fan/following feature on author pages. An email option signup buried.Seriously, the more opt-out (vs. opt-in) or promotion friendly this site gets, the more members will export books to a data file and leave.
Readers might want to check thru their fanned/followed authors to see what current settings are.
(Not a big problem for me as I gave goodreads a restricted email address and only approved sender addresses get thru but quite a few newer bits did hit the spam/junk/refuse folder so I tracked it down.)
I so agree with you on both points Debbie. Many authors need to change the way they use GR. I'm a social media coach and I've blogged about how to approach GR as an author. No where do I suggest authors use GR to publicize their books just keep their profiles up-to-date as people will check your profile out.
I hate feeling like a marketing tool. I don't mind doing promo pieces for an author I've read and loved but I prefer to be the one reaching out when it's someone new to me. The most annoying thing to me personally is when an author doesn't bother to read my blog profile and sends me their book attached to an email. It's usually a book that is nowhere near what I'm interested in reading and they try to talk to me into it. Those unsolicited attachments always freak me out and get deleted.
I have another one. Don't constantly denigrate Goodreads on your other social media, e.g., Facebook, but keep a Goodreads author page. I know that some authors view Goodreads as a necessary evil, but your readers who have "liked" your Facebook page might find it a little insulting to be told that readers' reviews on Goodreads are stupid, even though you use Goodreads to promote your book.
Alby Krebs wrote: "I have another one. Don't constantly denigrate Goodreads on your other social media, e.g., Facebook, but keep a Goodreads author page. I know that some authors view Goodreads as a necessary evil, b..."So true Alby, some authors don´t realize is the same people that follows them here and on FB, so their rants are out of place.
Another pet peeve - annoying authors: stop sending me a friend invite when I've ignored you twice. Another one I friended and unfriended and finally blocked b/c they were so annoying. One of these people was a popular Mira author. Just for that, I will definitely not read your books, ever.
I don't mind a pm saying, "hey, my new book is coming out." Just leave it at that.
Ha! Well this should make me feel better right? Nope, not really. It's so hard to find books that really peak my interest so I ask around, but rarely do I hear back. There's reader's groups? Anyway, based on this post, it sounds like there's this world of people chattering away on here, but with me? Not so much. Granted I read more in the sciences and I'm also a humanist, like Vonnegut, so I guess that puts me in a minority as not only a reader, but as a writer as well.
There are a couple of Readers & Writers groups where you offer your books in exchange for a review. I belonged to a couple but I had to bail because I couldn't keep up and needed to read my own.
Kim wrote: "There are a couple of Readers & Writers groups where you offer your books in exchange for a review. I belonged to a couple but I had to bail because I couldn't keep up and needed to read my own."Hi Kim
Plenty of people are trying to use Goodreads like that - and that is one of the reasons Goodreads is now getting so large and complicated it is quite easy to get lost and be unable to find the thread one wants . . . .
Could you give me a pointer to those groups please? I am not saying I will use them, but I would like to look around.
Thanks
On my profile I have a number of groups I've joined. Some have read for review options. Others have sections for authors to mention their own works. I'm finding that just participating in groups based around my genre has people checking out my profile, following me on FB, Twitter, and my blog. I don't have a book out yet so not many have added my book to my TBR but I do get asked about the series in PM.
I simply participate as a reader, when they decide to friend me they see I'm also an author. Search for books you enjoy in your genre and see if any groups have had discussions on them and join. Search the groups for key terms related to what you write and you may find other groups. I'm not sure how many groups there are related to non-fiction but for fiction there are tons of groups and it is easy to get overwhelmed.
All I ask is don't spam me, the reader. I read reviews, keep up with favorite authors, and love it when an author reviews someone else's book. I learn a lot that way. I hope someone does a reader etiquette, my pet peeve, reviews that give away an entire story. Stop already!
Great blog! Spot on. I'm a big believer in passive marketing. Write the book, leave it to the readers, and get on with writing again. Hate spam. Sick of rude writers. Thanks for writing this post. :)
Loren wrote: "Ha! Well this should make me feel better right? Nope, not really. It's so hard to find books that really peak my interest so I ask around, but rarely do I hear back. There's reader's groups? Anyway..."I think you have to join groups that match your interests. Not much real discussion seems to take place on reader pages or even book pages.
I agree with much of what was said in the initial do's and don'ts.Let's have a little acceptance and acknowledgement for the writers too though, please. I know what it's like to be the only one championing my own work. If I don't talk about it, no one will know it exists. I'm not spending money on advertising, only my time.
After the huge initial investment of time and work and in many cases, money to publish a book, with no guarantee of any monetary return, it is hard to figure out where to turn as an author.
like I said I agree with your etiquette guidelines, and I follow them as well, having reached the same conclusions as you have, that referencing your own work doesn't do much for sales and I really don't want to annoy anyone.
There are other, much more enjoyable and meaningful ways to interact on GR and that's what I'm into now, but at first when I didn't really know what the place was all about, I just went into groups and talked about my book. Maybe a lot of the ones who spam and do that kind of stuff are new authors or new to GR? Not sure.
Thanks for your thoughts, and for considering mine.
Really good post. As a fledgling author...it's hard to balance that desire to broadcast yourself, for fear of failure, while not wanting to annoy anyone...it's also terrifying to think you'd write a book, convinced in your own worth...and then have no one read it. It's a careful dichotomy that needs to be balanced, I guess.
You have a point about threads and folders specially designated for authors to showcase their books; but I think those do attract some views from members who are interested in a particular type of book and want to see what group members are writing. Then too, those are good venues for communicating information about new printings of your books, special sales, etc. (less invasive than inviting people to "events!"), and for keeping interested friends posted about your work.