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New Forum Possibility for Authors

I like the idea of having a thread for authorised members to advertise and discuss their work. That would eliminate the risk of having a member come in, promote their book, and then never come back again.
 
How would you define an 'authorised member' though? Nearly every author who has posted here has advertised their own book as their first post. How would you propose it worked?
 
I dunno about this idea. Out of principle I like it since we shouldn't have to tell authors that they can talk about any book but their own on here. That's not really cool. If on the other hand we can tell them that they should go to this particular sub-forum if they want to talk about their own books, thus we haven't sent them away and perhaps they might remain as active members.

On the other hand, how many of them are actually interested in being members and taking part like the rest of us? We don't really know since most go away after being told they can't talk about their own book.

I'd say give it a chance, get that (sub-)forum up and running, and we'll see what happens. If we end up with a forum where no topic gets more than the initial advertisement post and no talk afterwards, the experiment failed and it can be deleted without disturbing anyone's peace of mind.

I know I've done such a thing on a forum I Administrate. Start up an experiment and set an amount of time for which it'll run, and after that evaluate how it went. Last time I did it the experiment was utterly failed and was promptly replaced with a new experiment. No decision about change that is made is irrevocable, so I say just go ahead and see if it might not work.
 
Ice said:
How would you define an 'authorised member' though? Nearly every author who has posted here has advertised their own book as their first post. How would you propose it worked?
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Most of them dont acknowledge that they are the author though. They just read this amazing book by a unknown author (even though no copies have been sold from lulu) and wanted to tell the world about this new literary genius.
 
Zolipara said:
They just read this amazing book by a unknown author (even though no copies have been sold from lulu) and wanted to tell the world about this new literary genius.
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No copies sold from Lulu but there's always that three thumbs up rating. And they always can't wait for more stuff from this author. :rolleyes:
 
Ice said:
How would you define an 'authorised member' though? Nearly every author who has posted here has advertised their own book as their first post. How would you propose it worked?
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So let's say a "Shameless Plugs" thread is created. This thread could only be altered by the mods. An author may PM a mod and send a brief description of their book to be posted on a thread. Any other spam on the forum related to self promotion would be moved to this thread. By making mods only be able to post on this thread would stop discussion occurring in the thread. Posts would remain on the thread for 1 month. If anyone was interested in the book then they could PM the author for more information. If there is enough interest, the author can PM the mods for permission to set up ONE thread discussing their book. The fact is that it's unlikely some one-post, lulu.com author is going to generate any discussion about their book. More established members (eg: Moto and Sirmyk) may, as we have already seen.

The only thing is, that this sounds like a lot of extra work for the mods. :eek:
 
Idea. :confused:

What if The Book Forum setup an entry process to determine if books are worthy of discussion here? Something in the form of the author of said book sending a copy to one (or each) of the moderators for evaluation... then the moderators, after reading (or simply thumbing through a few pages), could discuss this book in their little online meetings to determine whether or not the book submitted is a piece of art, or a piece of lulu-doodoo?

Maybe a third option in the "Writing and Publishing" area could be created for such member-contributed work. That way hands wouldn't be slapped every time an author slips and mentions his work.

Just some thoughts.
 
That's too harsh too sirmyk....I'm looking for a very author friendly environment. A place where any author can post a simple thread "Here's my book...please pm me if you have any questions or interest in discussing..."

Anybody who pops in to promote and leave is easy to detect and their posts and IP addresses can be deleted....

But somebody who wants to stick around and be active should not be pounced on just because they've written a book and mention it in a book forum.
 
Ice said:
How would you define an 'authorised member' though? Nearly every author who has posted here has advertised their own book as their first post. How would you propose it worked?
Click to expand...
What I meant by authorised was that they have previously PMed a mod and recieved permission to post about their book.

I really like Kook's idea, but I suppose that is really up to the mods on account of the truckload of extra work it brings about.
 
In the past email to Darren works way better than pm....in the past....we'll see about the present.
 
OK. Just read through this.

Moto: I didn't get an email from you for some reason - maybe it got lost somewhere.

Sirmyk: Sarcasm and little digs at me won't get you anywhere. I read all the emails and PMs people send to me, but I do have a day job as well as keeping this site online. I try to accomodate all requests, but I'll never please everyone all of the time.


TBF is a place for books, and that naturally means authors. We have famous and not-so-famous authors who either lurk or are members here. We've got publishers (both large and small) who drop by from time to time.

We already have a Writers' Showcase Forum where any writer can post extracts of their work for review and discussion. There's also a Writers' Block forum where people can discuss anything related to writing and publishing etc.

Anyone can place links to their sites in their signatures, but having a "self-promotion" forum is not something I'm keen on. It will become a spam zone. If you're an author and want some people to review your work, then post in the writers' showcase. If you want to send your book to people, post an extract, and let people know you're looking to send your work to some reviewers.

A good example is Moto's own thread here. By asking for something, you should get more back in return. Spam posts get deleted and ignored and only tarnish the spammer's reputation as a credible author.

We've even got some guidelines for the writers' showcase which were written by a former moderator a couple of years ago.

As Stewart and others have said, the "Hey, I've just read this great book by Mr Unknown. It's gonna change your life! buy it now!" posts are so transparent and obvious, but we still get people trying it on.

If you just want to promote your book here, then the only free method we have is to place a link in your signature. If you want anything more than that, then you'll have to pay the advertising rates. As I've said many times before, this site costs money to keep online. It sits on a dedicated server which runs 24/7/365. It costs over $2500 per year to keep this site online!

Thank you.
 
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