Poll

I think something to consider would be setting guidelines. I would love to hear an author's opinion on books and always like finding new books that I would enjoy. But I don't want people coming on here being pushy about their work either. Maybe if they are going with the discussion on their work and agree to offer constructive comments about other works, not putting other authors down or anything like that.

I would also add that the member list shouldn't be used to spam members messages about the book, since as members, we haven't consented to this type of contact.

I appreciate these comments. I still want to hear what others have to say, but my personal feeling is this:

Use the group community to make connections with people. Talk about other things. Take a genuine interest in people and they will naturally want to support you. I've met some really great authors that way, and now I want to help spread the word about their work!! But that way people don't feel like you just want to sell them something. And it's not as annoying coming from someone else.

There are some authors who have made NO direct contact with people, have NO books on their shelves, and post the same ad in every group on GR. That is, IMO, abuse of this site. (You know who you are.)

Thanks for all the constructive feedback. We want to make this group as open and friendly to everyone. We certainly don't want to be anti-author. But we also know how intrusive some self-promoters can be.

But this group sort of belongs to all the members, so we want to be sure to take into account everyone's thoughts.

Is there a separated folder for Promotions? I'd have to check -- if not then why not consider that as an option and simply move author promos if they place them in other folders? Then the members can peruse or ignore, ask questions or discuss and none of it will interrupt another discussion thread.

So my vote would need another option -- yes, if they keep the promos in the provided folder.

Dottie, we do have the author's corner folder, but many authors ignore it and post in the general folder. It's a pain to move the threads, especially when we HAVE a place for it, and it's stated in the rules, and many of these authors don't really care about where they're posting because they post in EVERY group.

Okay -- those who ignore simply get deleted -- you gave them rules, you have the folder, the overall site has some sort of general rules of opersation -- we are all about reading here -- they DON'T read, they break the rules of the group -- they suffer the consequences. I can't see any big decision to be made. If they are truly interested in doing what's needed to engage others to interest in their books, they will figure it out. Authors are people and members but so are we in the groups people and members -- courtesy seems so little a thing to aspire to these days.

Amen Dottie. I would think that if you were truly serious about getting your work out to the world, the main goal wouldn't be to annoy people so badly that they start warning others to block you!