The Word Cloud

Readers can be a skittish bunch, bolting for cover at the first distant rumble of the author promo wagon.

I don’t blame them. Nothing spoils a good conversation like a salesman with a megaphone.

What usually happens is this. Readers find a nice site where they can congregate and have good conversations about books. A writer discovers the site and thinks he has struck gold.

Word of this rich seam of “customers” spreads like wildfire, and writers descend on mass hauling wagonloads of blurbs, excerpts, taglines, hyperlinks, ALL CAPS, and, yes, megaphones.

If the website has good moderators, they will nip this in the bud, and corral the writers into a little pen where they can all shout at each other, and not bother the readers.

Sometimes writers bitch and moan about this, but it’s not like they are banned from the rest of the site, they’re just not allowed to bring the megaphone with them. Sounds fair to me.

Besides, have you seen the sites without these rules? Not too many great conversations about books going on because the readers have bolted.

Some sites, like Kindle Boards, have the balance just right. They have a sub-forum for writers to talk shop. And they have a separate section for promo threads. That way readers who want to talk about books aren’t interrupted by salesmen or authors discussing promo strategies, and the writers discussing business aren’t being sold to either.

Writers can venture out to the larger site and engage readers, but promo is strictly banned, and even an oblique reference to your books can be frowned upon. Writers may display their wares in their signature, but that’s it. Again, seems fair to me.

All of the above is a somewhat convoluted introduction to a promo tip. However, the warnings are necessary, as the site in question – LibraryThing – is populated by readers who are (rightly) fiercely protective of their space.

They don’t take kindly to writers who barge in and start promoting. They will be dispensed with quickly, as I have seen first-hand. As I have said before, the golden rule of social networking is: Don’t Be A D*ck.

LibraryThing is full of great conversations about books with groups talking about every little sub-genre, every aspect of books and reading, and lots of other stuff too. It’s a site for readers. Writers are more than welcome, but only if they remember that.

In short, don’t promote your book. In fact, don’t even mention your book unless directly asked about it. You aren’t even allowed a text signature mentioning your books or your blog. You must enter with your “reader” hat on.

As such, it’s a great place to talk about books.

But there are promo opportunities too. They have a section of the site called Member Giveaways - which are an informal way for members to give away copies of books to other members.

Using this, I gave away 300 copies of my book, which has garnered me a ton of reviews.

   To see how, and for a chance to get your hands on an advance copy of my new book, read the rest of today's blog post:

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/promo-tip-librarything-giveaways/