Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

Goodreads is all about sharing books, including those that you've written. I have no problem with authors making posts to promote their books, but I would like to set up a few guidelines.

1. If you want to promote your book, you must be involved in the community. If you join solely to promote your book and do not enter discussion, you are spamming. As of 9/11/08, if a self-promotion topic is posted and the author does not participate in any discussion, her topic will be deleted. If the author repeatedly posts self-promotion outside of the proper folder (i.e. in unrelated topics), the posts will be deleted. The moderator reserves the right to remove members who post spam comments without warning.

It is simply rude to join just to shill your books and not respect the community's rules by ignoring them OR the community's members by spamming them with book promotion and sockpuppet reviews. This will no longer be tolerated here at Paranormal Romance.

You do not need to send the moderators a message to ask if it's okay to post a self-promotion. Just read the rules, make sure you're following them, and post to the right folder. :)

2. All self-promotion topics MUST be posted in the Self-Promotion folder. This seems obvious, but I have had to move several posts from the wrong folders. All self-promotion topics posted outside of the Self-Promotion folder will be deleted.

There is some question about promoting books in topics where members ask for recommendations. You may post ONCE in each recommendation thread only if your book actually matches the member's request. If you post multiple times about your book in the same thread, your comments will be deleted, and you may be removed from the group.

If you are promoting a book for someone else (a friend, family member, etc), your posts should still go in the Self-Promotion folder.

3. Please create only one topic for each book you are promoting. In other words, if you've already made a post about one particular book, and you'd like to post a review or the like, post that as a reply to your topic. Don't make a new topic. Also, if you're going to bump your topic by adding a new post, bump ONLY for new content. If you post a contentless bump, your topic will be deleted and you may be removed from the group.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to send me a message. Thanks!

Very resonable and I completely agree...but I just wanted to know, what is your policy with having a signature? If, for eaxample I was to post with a link but not say anything about it and merely respond to whatevers being discussed? Would that be ok?

Personally, I am not a fan of signatures. The format for discussions on Goodreads doesn't lend itself well to signatures, and they end up looking spammy. This has been discussed in the Goodreads Feedback group as well, and I'm in the camp that would prefer that signatures not be used.

The Discriminating Fangirl wrote: "Personally, I am not a fan of signatures. The format for discussions on Goodreads doesn't lend itself well to signatures, and they end up looking spammy. This has been discussed in the Goodreads ..."

Fair enough. I actually took a look at that discussion and agree that since you actively have to post it every time it could get irritating,for both the reader and the poster. Thanks. ;)

Just a friendly reminder from your friendly mod! If you are an author and would like to promote your book/blog/contest/what-have-you, PLEASE read these rules!

You must post all self-promotions in the Self-Promotions folder, and you must participate in the group if you'd like to advertise with us. If you join just to post your promos, I will consider them spam and delete the topics. Likewise if a self-promo topic is posted outside of the Self-Promotions folder.

Thanks for posting the rules. I am completely new here and wanted to advertise my website contest, but I see I didn't comply with your policies. I apologize now that I know. This looks like a great group, and I am very interested in participating in the discussions.

Debbie

The Discriminating Fangirl wrote: "GoodReads is all about sharing books, including those that you've written. I have no problem with authors making posts to promote their books, but I would like to set up a few guidelines.

1. If..."

Thanks, Debbie, for checking out the rules. I really appreciate it, and hope you reposted about your contest. :)

You're welcome, Fangirl. I haven't had a chance to repost, but I will do that now to the promotion folder. Thanks for giving me the go ahead, and I hope you will enter the contest.

Debbie

Fangirl, I just posted a book review to my blog. It is about a topic which is being discussed. Is it appropriate to notify the group about this reviw? If so, where would I post the notification? Thank you. Although I've had to lurk, I've enjoyed the discussions.

Hi, Frances. There's a discussion folder called Member Reviews; you can create your own topic there (i.e. "Frances's Reviews") and post about any reviews to your blog there. :)

Pardon me, for posting a notice about THE GALAXY EXPRESS. It's a wonderful site for discussion of Science Fiction Romance. It's a great honor to be asked to guest blog there, and I was excited and wanted to share my honor, and the honor of the other guest bloggers with everyone here. I thought that the readers of that genre would be interested. If my notice did not comply with the rules, I am sorry to have inconvenienced anyone.

I have gotten over a half dozen identical notices of this, just this morning. You may turn off the auto notification now.

Thank you.

Frances Drake

Just joined and read the rules, thanks so much for posting.

Keta Diablo

Just joined and read the rules, I will crawl back into a corner and observe for a while.

TDF Pamela wrote: "GoodReads is all about sharing books, including those that you've written. I have no problem with authors making posts to promote their books, but I would like to set up a few guidelines.

1. If..."

Hi Pamila, I agree with what you are saying. I don't know if you are an author. If you are not, you would be amazed at what we have to go through to display and offerour craft to the public. I have a number of successesn the film writing game and this is my first novel. It took about eight years to finish (off and on). A year of query letters, trying to get someone to notice anyone other than John Grisham, Sue grafton (a personal friend) etc. If they don't know you and if you are not part of the staple good luck finding a publisher or agent. Yes there are a lot of vanity press books available and I'm sure authors end of becoming self marketing executives instead of aurthors. I have never before had to promote any work I have done other than some pitch sessions to hollywood producers and directors. To add to the burden of authors, the distributors want 55% of the retail price which unless you have an extremely high volume the cost is a negative of $2 per book to the author. Correspondently, costco etc discount books below retail and at a loss to gain customers. So for me, I empathize with self published authors using any method they can to promote their book and hope others will read it. But i think it should be disclosed up front. if someone dare read a novel that hasn't been blessed by penguin or random house perhaps a deserving author will find recognition (based on their talent) from the members and break the cycle of having to grovel at the knees of those that dare not take the time to weed out those of us that are merely vane, self indulgent with our ideas, seeking to fulfill a dream of expression for others and I'm sure many novels are just not that good. Damn I was venting! Thanks for the forum. I will be posting my novel on goodreads and anywhere else for the exposure and let the reviews come as they will, the chips fall where they might and by survival of the fittest, deleting ones self serving comments may be fitting as well! It may not sound like I am on your side, but I am and do agree with you.

ps Pamela..sorry for the typos... I usually have a proofreader and editor!

Bill wrote: "Just joined and read the rules, I will crawl back into a corner and observe for a while."

No no no. No cowering! Go boldly in to the night young man!

Hi i am new to the group and look forward to reading all the comments. I hope some day to work with authors and want to know what ppl have to say about the different types of work out there it the paranormal world. I love to read paranormal books and hope to find more books through this group.

Hi I am new to the group. Just started reading Undead and Unwed.
I started Dark Hunter series Sherilyn Kenyon. I don't know the story was a little out there. Not enough romance for me. I also read P.C.Cast Goddess sseries. I really enjoyed it.

i need a new series to read i have read a lot of books and i need some ideas pls help

Read, and accepted!

Hey, just joined the group!!!! Looking forward to finding great paranormal romance stories to read and I also started a blog Literary Wonders were I review paranormal romance, YA and fantasy so come check out my blog!!!

Just FYI, everybody, but ALL self promotion stuff needs to go in the Self Promotion folder, not on this post. Also, remember that we ask that you are a participating member of the community if you're going to promote books/blogs/etc. :)

In the General Discussion folder, there's an introduction post, which is probably a better place to say hello to the group than here. Thanks!

Good to know! Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the rules -- I am wanting to post an announcement about winning an ARC for one of my new books, but am now worried that I haven't participated enough yet. Is there a way I can see all the times I've previously commented in this forum so I can gauge how much I've been involved? Thanks!

Sorry for the delayed reply, M. You can click on your username on one of your posts in the group to see a list of your posts. :)

Hello! I'm new to this group and I read your rules about self promotion and I agree with your rules about how posting your websites before being involved in the group is considered spamming. I do have a question though. If I wanted to post a link to my groups on Goodreads through the self promotion folder, how many posts must I make before I am able to post my groups under the self promotion folder? Or do I just ask for your permission to do so?

Hi, Ronyell! There's no specific number of posts to reach; as long as you're participating in discussions and it doesn't look like you joined just to promote your stuff, you're okay. You can go ahead and post about your groups. Thanks for asking!

TDF Pamela wrote: "Hi, Ronyell! There's no specific number of posts to reach; as long as you're participating in discussions and it doesn't look like you joined just to promote your stuff, you're okay. You can go a..."

You're welcome and thank you so much!!!

Read and Agreed!!

Read and agreed. Joined Good reads and this group because I read so much that I am constantly looking for new authors, series etc to read.

I have literally hundreds of unread books and on average buy 3-5 new books a week. Now with that said I read about 8 books a week, sometimes as many as 10. When I am on vacation all rules are off and I often bring 4-5 books with on camping weekends.

I finally got smart when I started reading paranormal romance and have a spread sheet to keep track of what I have read. I got frustrated with being 5 pages into a new book only to discover that it was merely a cover change of a book I read in the past and equally frustrated with my bad memory when friends asked for book recommendations. So now I keep track and love to share recommendations with others.

So very excited to dig into this site and the Paranormal Romance Group. It may take me a bit to find the time between work, 3 kids and reading to get all set up on this site but I am glad to find it.

Thanks.

Hi Jana,

Having two kids, and also having a great love for a good story, I also have the same problem - little time and a long list of books that I already have read.
So, I also made a list of the books that I already have read, I have a notebook with the author and title and finally not least, the serie which it belongs to.
Have you tried J.R. Ward and Karen Marie Moning, great.

Patricia wrote: "Hi Jana,

Having two kids, and also having a great love for a good story, I also have the same problem - little time and a long list of books that I already have read.
So, I also made a list of th..."

I have read everything Karen Marie Moning has written I think and just recently have slowly acquired the JR Ward series.

My book buying is like clothing, "Hmm nope honey I have had that 10 books for a long time now" but thankfully my husband echoes my love for reading so doesn't complain much.

Unfortunately I haven't had the time to start the series yet, but it is moving quickly to the top of the two read pile.

On the book list, I finally did an excel spread sheet and import it to my android phone so I always have my list with me because I never know when I will pass a garage sale or a used book store.

Hi everyone,

Jana, you won't regret reading J.R. Ward because she's absolutely fantastic and the universe that she creates is addictive.
Unfortenatly, here in Portugal we don't have many publications in paranormal romance in portuguese so I read them on the computer and then I buy the books online.
Here we don't have many garage sales or used bookstores, but I keep track through the web.

Hiya!
I just need to know if I should create my own folder for the giveaway of my book Highland Destiny? Or is there a designated giveaway folder that I missed?

HI, Laura. There's no giveaway folder, so just start a new topic in the Self-Promotions folder. :)

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Hi Lyn. Please re-read the self promotion rules, as they state that all self promos need to go in the proper folder, not here. Thanks.

Jana wrote: "Patricia wrote: "Hi Jana,

Having two kids, and also having a great love for a good story, I also have the same problem - little time and a long list of books that I already have read.
So, I also ..."

Funny! I thought I was being sly by buying amazon gift cards and then purchasing books for my kindle. Then, being the intellectual that I am, I accidentally left the screen where my receipt for said purchase there for God and everyone else to see and ruined my own well-thought out rouse. Guess I deserve it.

Quick question... Does the self-promotions folder apply only to published authors (whether it be self or otherwise) or can we put in a link to our blog or another group where we have our work posted (i.e, the ambitious writers group)?

Well I'm happty to join and see what comes of it! I am an author myself but I love looking into others!

I just read the rules too, sounds fair:)

I just joined and haven't had a moment to read all the rules yet, but I wanted to introduce myself, I'm Jess, and all of your books look fantastic! I hope to get to know a lot of you better, and I hope my book sells a lot of copies bc I'm going to be turning around and buying a lot of your books!

I am an author and I am NOT new to GR, just having trouble understanding how all this works. I get e-mails about loop news and not sure if I can respond via them. I also get emails saying 'so and so' has posted stuff. I think I have to friend them? This is a lovely site, very easy to post my books and books I have read. Will try to roll with the rules, but now I am scared I'll be SHOT. LOL!DRAGON IN THE MIST

LOL, Nancy! I have the same problem too..ie, I am a "newbie" author, but have been a member of goodreads for a while now..and I'm still understanding how it works! So far I'm glad that most of my friends in goodreads found me...but I guess it's time for me to step away of my "shyness" and start making new friends :)

What's the policy on posting about your own books repeatedly (4x in the first page of one thread)? I don't want to be a snot, but this is ridiculous. Thanks for all your time on this awesome group.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

Hi EowynRN. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. That is definitely against the rules, and we've taken care of it.

Thanks Pamela - I didn't mean to be a pot stirrer, but it felt like he was almost attacking the OP...also I had a long night at work and a low B.S. tolerance :) Thanks for being awesome.

TDF Pamela wrote: "Hi EowynRN. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. That is definitely against the rules, and we've taken care of it."

Thank you, Pamela. It was definitely an uncomfortable situation.

I think these are very well laid out, clear, consise and very reasonable :)

I'm both a newbie author and new to GR so I'll get stuck in to (hopefully!) contributing to the community :)