When NOT to Promote: Why I Quit Every Writer’s Forum But One
By.
I admit it. Today is a rant.
Long ago I excitedly joined every writer’s forum I found. And then joined every discussion group within them bearing titles I need to learn more about. To no avail.
Not One Post Relevant to the Group’s Title
I joined discussion groups in these forums across the net with names like “Publishing & Marketing Opportunities on the Amazon Kindle Platform.” (or wherever: there’s one of these in every forum I joined) and still I can find no posts about these marketing opportunities, only more ads for the members’ books. If there are relevant posts they are buried immediately under the daily self-promotion.
Why would any author post a synopsis of their book on any forum discussion group? And this is the case at dozens of writer’s forums and their discussion groups I joined.
Speaking up is no Help
Within a handful of my groups I tried to politely point this out, and so did many other members, but was completely ignored by the self-promoting members and the forum and group administrators. Not once did the group moderator speak up. See me run, not walk, away. More and more authors are starting to run not walk away from these dozens of sites that are nothing but publicity bulletin boards for its members.
My Poor Overrun Inbox
And beyond this, my overrun inbox alone forced me to quit writer’s forums. Some days I would get up to 20 emails the same person posted in every group they could find, and that’s just at one forum. Many times this same person’s posts from multiple other forums arrived in the same quantity per forum. And sometimes this went on for several days.
Why would anyone think I want to know about their upcoming poetry interview or book release when I belong to a group called “Writing Better Fiction” or “Self Publishing?” Yes, I’d be interested if that interview or book release taught me about those topics, which they never did. From my involvement in these forums I’ve watched most sincere writers are leaving in droves.
Where Not to Promote
- Not at any writer’s forum group
- Not at any writer’s forum group
- This includes professional groups such as LinkedIn
- And especially not at any writer’s forum group
A writer’s discussion group is not the place to advertise or even announce your book (unless it teaches about the topic) or any other writing project you’re up to. The discussion group’s sole purpose is to learn and to share our knowledge with each other about authorship in only the particular aspects of the group’s title. It’s a place where we should be able to escape self-promotion to relax among peers and learn more about our craft.
Finally a Few Places of Respite
I finally found a writer’s forum where I get exactly that. But only one so far. Dare I name it? Honestly, I’m not an employee of Book Marketing: The Authors Marketing Powerhouse. It is honestly the only forum I’ve found where people stick to the subject.
But today I was horrified to see a carryover (a member of one of the groups I ran from) posting their (gasp) book synopsis in one of my favorite group discussions there. I checked; they had also posted the exact copy in the other forums I used to participate in.
When I join a writer’s forum I don’t want to see a post that is nothing but a submission letter to reviewers/interviewers/publishers/agents. Forum members are none of these things (unless that’s the name of the discussion group). I don’t want to read a synopsis of your book. I want to learn about whatever is the title of the discussion group I joined.
It’s grievous that these people have ruined so many forums for so many authors.
Don’t Despair
But don’t despair. Many of us have found exactly what these writers’ forums falsely promised in oasis-like places such as the aforementioned Book Marketing: The Authors Marketing Powerhouse, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn Groups and GoodReads to name a few of my favorites. These are places where the moderators will step in and put a stop to promotional pimping.
That’s not to say no one talks about what they’re working on. But it is to say it’s only mentioned in direct reference to the discussion topic. In fact I’ve found a few companies, editors etc. through these groups that I still work with and recommend, not to mention authors I’ve joined forces with for various projects.
(Sigh of relief.) I love the satisfaction of sharing some of my articles that I know will help other members learn about what it is they joined to learn. I love commenting on their questions and reading their articles where I learn what it is I joined to learn.
Is abandoning these other forums so overrun with self-promotion the only solution?
Should we give up on them and just find new ones, or start our own?
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That’s what I was forced to do. What do YOU think?
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Facebook comments:
I hear ya, Bonnie. I doubt any of then sell books, they just anger other writers.
I spend the most of my time at several LinkedIn and Goodread groups. Even if the moderators at LinkedIn don’t take action against irrelevant comments the other writers will. I’ve seen them chased off pretty quickly, and not just spammers, but cruel or obstinate commenters. I have a lot of respect for these sites and the ones mentioned in my post. I’ve learned so much there and met so many writers who I’ve ended up working with in some aspect.
Kai,
I think you are right. I think that a lot of writers have given up on the forums because of the spam and that if you can build a forum where there is no spamming and get the word out, you will have a great community.
I do not participate in any writer’s communities at this time except for the ones you and Valerie run and the TAW forum. I know that moderating a forum like that is a full-time job, but unmoderated forums are awful these days. (I’ve been online since Prodigy and it’s always been an issue, but never this crazy.)
Do people actually sell books by posting those ads? Do they expect to?
I have a Facebook page for Indie Authors to discuss writing and we finally had to start deleting unwanted promo from people doing drive-bys. Since I had ‘friended’ some of them I could sit and watch as they went from FB page to FB page posting the exact same thing on each. That wasn’t what the site was for, it was for writers to increase their skills, and readers to meet new writers. I caught a lot of flack for it from the spammers, but it was worth it.
I help Valerie with said communities, and it’s been a bit of a rough road to hoe. Some people are just more interested in advertising than making connections, and I think that’s where the power of forums lie.
I look at forums as never ending networking conferences – you don’t pitch to everyone you meet, but it’s perfectly ok to take a question and answer it. Unfortunately, a lot of the people that I’ve worked with on other forums only care about looking like they’re top dog, and people like me and Valerie, whose experience and knowledge should be prized, generally get shouted down. It’s a pity really, but I guess everyone sees ‘indie’ and thinks ‘same level as everyone else’.
Great post
Hi Valerie & Kai,
I just subscribed to your renewed site. So sorry about the server malfunction. What a blow!
I wrote a post about that too. The spammers call it censorship. I’m against true censorship in every way, but stopping people from ruining your personal site is the same as requiring they wear proper clothing to your personally owned restaurant.
Our blogs are like our living rooms. Behave or be asked to leave. I report all spammers on my blogs. I used to just delete them, but they are so pushy I’ve resorted to reporting each one.
IAC is one of those projects that I lead (though I don’t doubt Val will be involved at some point – we’re all over the place together most of the time
And yeah, as an avid blogger, I’ve found that there’s several dozen types of spammers that crop up. I love Akismet though, it takes care of a lot of my problems
Kai
Kai, thankx for letting me know more about your group. I look forward to learning more. Do you have an RSS feed yet? Let me know when you do. I prefer that to email subscriptions.
I poke my head in at the writers’ sections of Kindleboards and Mobile Reads forum now and then, but I’m not much for forums in general, as they’re a big time sink. I believe there are more efficient ways to get one’s information, so I’d consider forums a social outlet more than anything.
I learned the same thing the hard way. As a promoter of authors and my own work I have to choose carefully where I spend my promo/learning time. I’ve learned the most, received the most important and reliable contacts and had more people say they heard of me through: LinkedIn, GoodReads and my own and other Yahoo Groups. Thankx for your input Lindsay.