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First, off-topic: Steve, you have an awesome website. I don't say that often or lightly.
I don't think the problem is so much abusers as confusers.
As SoS said, when someone is looking for the right place to post a notice that they have a new book available, especially if they're not a MR regular, they see a whole list of possible places to put it. It's news, certainly. It's of general interest. They're selling it cheap. They're writers. So right there, you have four possible boards it could be posted on, and not really any clear guidance as to which one of those is the right place. It's not that (most) authors are not using the forums in a proper way -- they are -- it's that there's no real designated place for book promotions, the way there are for the various devices, formats, software, etc., so they tend to show up in multiple different forums, to the benefit of no one and the detriment of everyone, including the authors themselves, because they may be posting notices of their books in places people looking for books might not find them.
On the other hand, if there was a "Promote your ebook" section, authors with new books to promote would know exactly where to go to post that notice. Likewise, the people who want something to read would be able to jump in there and see what's new, what looks interesting, and get some weekend reading without having to dig through posts about scam websites or sales on reading devices they already have.
Right now, we have four separate boards on which book ads are appearing, with the majority of them split between two of those boards. It would harm no one, and benefit everyone, to establish another board specifically for those postings.
Obviously nothing will prevent abuse, but a book promotion section would prevent confusion, which is the source of the overwhelming majority of misplaced book ads here. Isn't less confusion a good thing?
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