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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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