G'day Jon,
Welcome to MR.
We've got what many perceive to be a problem at MR at the moment. We're getting a lot of drive-by book-plugging, by just-joined authors who go into what they deem a relevant sub-forum (or just the first one they see) and just plug their book as their first post and then they rack off, never to be seen again (or only to plug their book in a new thread or bump their old one). In some sections, it's starting to swamp the desired purpose of the section.
So, at the moment, a lot of are a little (IMO justly) sensitive to and annoyed by it.
In the backroom, us Moderators are working on, and near, a solution we hope will fix this for our members (readers and authors alike). I should say, this solution is almost
entirely based on ideas generated by our members (again, readers and authors alike). Hopefully this solution will not only help authors find the right place to plug their book(s), and that that place will be useful to readers looking for new stuff to read, but all in all that we get a solution that helps maintain the community (of readers and authors alike).
I hope you can become part of our community, and I very much encourage you to do so. Another good place to introduce yourself (tell us a bit about yourself, not just your authorship - it's where people can meet
you 
) is the
Introduce Yourself subforum.
So, don't be put off. Our defensiveness has good cause, but get past our defences (easy...just become "one of us"
) and you'll find us all quite welcoming and helpful and friendly (readers and authors alike).
Cheers,
Marc
(with Moderator hat on, but kind of slouched, casually, like he's not really wearing it, but it looks pretty jaunty nevertheless
)