Mattie123 said:
Dear Susan,
I did not realize I was to follow some sort of unwritten protocol in order to answer someone's question on this forum site. If I breached some sort of rule, I apologize. I guess I did jump in without a formal introduction. But, I have been around for a long time, thus I assumed I was well known bordering on boring.
How can you be well known here when you have 3 posts? And two of them are this post, and the original? I must be missing something.
If you've been LURKING, well, that doesn't explain how you could be "well known bordering on boring."
Me, I have 830 posts. That shows I'm an active member of the community. And I don't think it's rude to point out that someone is behaving in a manner that's unacceptable. Comes from moderating a lot of email lists and being a former teacher.
You're just not happy that I called you on the carpet. I am trying to help you not make the same mistake in the future. This is NOT a good marketing strategy. (And by pointing that out in a public place, I hope to help other people learn from it, and not make the same mistake as well.)
I am not doing a "drive by" advertisment for my novel. I met the criteria for the question being asked by Caren.
You're not? Well, since your first post was promo for your book, it sure LOOKED like a drive-by. My apologies if it really wasn't. (I'm still skeptical, you see, since you only have those 3 posts as I write this. 3 posts does not a community member make, and it makes that number 1 post, the promo for your book, look like a drive-by. You DID manage to slip it in under an appropriate heading, so kudos for being that adept and considerate.)
Plugging one's own work is not rude. It might be pushy but rude- never!
Well, I guess we shall have to agree to disagree about that. I do think that there are times that pushing your own work is rude. Drive-by postings is an example of pushy crossing the line into rude. (Still thinking about those 3 posts.) In fact, drive-by ads for books put the author into the same category as spammers, imho. Which makes it not very effective. The target audiences often have a negative reaction (like the one I had to your original post), which is NOT what an author wants to cultivate in a pool of potential readers.
For example, let's say that I joined a forum for teen moms, or for birthmoms, and my first post to them was to tell them about my last book, which featured a pregnant teenager who gave her baby up for adoption. That would be rude, not pushy. Even if someone had a thread talking about novels that mentioned adoption, and I popped in to plug my book but hadn't posted anything else....well, IMHO, that would be rude. It says, "Hey, I don't care about the other stuff you guys are talking about here, I'm just looking for an opportunity to plug my book. I'm using your forum for my own purposes. I don't want to contribute to the community. I'm much too busy for that. I'm just looking for some people to buy my book."
You could have contributed more in your initial post if you had offered OTHER suggestions for women's fiction books, not just your own. Surely if you write the genre, you read it, right? So you must have some other favorites you can toss out for the discussion?
In fact I'll do it once more: "The Perfect Dress" by Mary Jane Cole. ISBN: 1-4208-9015-8 A real fun read plus a real quality read for the intelligent female.
LOL. Interesting marketing approach. Play up to the consumer by labeling them intelligent if they read your book. That's actually a good psychological marketing ploy.
I will soon have book number 2 out, which is why I am not on this or other sites too often. I am busy with my next novel.
That's excellent. One book should be followed by another. However, I still say that if you only come onto web communities to plug your book or defend plugging your book, that does not make you a member of the community.
Lurkers, please learn something from this. If you're out there, and you hope to plug YOUR book in the future, we're all going to want to know about IT more if we know YOU.
If you become a friend from this forum, we're likely to cheer your success all the more than if you just pop up suddenly. So, come on out and play! Lurking is no fun.
Susan G.
