|
I agree with a subforum specifically for book promotions, it's a very good idea.
Let me say first that I love the interaction with writers here in MR, the exchange of ideas, the helpful comments. I have volunteered twice for beta reading (and done some more without being asked) and gladly help any way I can. I write reviews whenever I can. I love knowing the people who write the books I read.
Some writers, like nomesque, are first of all fellow members of MR, and then authors in my mind. So if nomesque goes to a random thread, say in the lounge, and says something about her book, it's like me going to the same thread and talking about my day. No problem at all, on the contrary, it's very welcome.
But there are members that are brand new, and seem to have no idea what MR is about, except that there are readers in it. So they start promoting their books without taking part in any other forum activities. That of course would not be so bad if there was a specific place to do that. We are interested in books, even it their writers are not regular members, obviously.
What I find annoying are sneaky threads, like the "do readers frequent these forums" one, to name one example. Starting an innocent conversation only to sneak in a promotion. It's obvious such people don't really respect their readers, they only want to sell. A reader is generally a fairly intelligent person that can make his/her own choices. I can judge for myself if your book is worth reading. If you try to sell it so hard, and sneakily to boot, I'll never even look at its cover, because I feel you are trying to con me. Sorry.
And a note about signatures: Signatures are helpful. They are the easiest thing to look up when you are trying to find a link or remember a book title. Dreams for example has an extremely helpful signature with lots of useful links. I like writers having signatures with their books. Sometimes you realise that this person actually wrote that book! (for example in the case of nomesque, I had read Dead(ish) before I met her here). Sometimes you can click on the book just because you are curious what that person could have been writing about, to get a better understanding of that person. And so on. It's not exactly advertising. Covers on a signature on the other hand feel more like advertising to me. But if they are small enough I don't really mind, I guess.
My 2 cents.
|