Happy St Patrick's Day

To all my Irish sisters and brothers (and those who are Irish in their hearts) I want to send out a little Gaelic greeting to your corner of the universe:
Slan's beannachd! (Health and a Blessing)

Sarah

PROMOTION AND MANNERS

Every author has to promote his or her work one way or another. We have to introduce readers to our work and then we pray that they will like what we write. Most writers, especially those with eBooks, find it advantageous to join reader groups on line and chat about their books, post excerpts, covers and blurbs to familiarize readers with their work. There are contests and give-aways to encourage readers to buy our books and interviews to give to familiarize readers with us and our body of work. Most authors are grateful to have a place to introduce their work, show respect to their readers and obey the rules of the group.


What I have found, however, are authors who somehow believe that they don’t need to speak to readers or other authors for that matter. They post their excerpts, blurbs and covers and then they disappear without so much as a howdy-do. So, if a reader has a question about something the author wrote, they will never get an answer. What I really don’t understand is when a reader or another author pays the absentee author a compliment that the author doesn’t respond with even a single thank you. We’re all busy. There is always that next book to write but there is no excuse for rudeness. If an author has time to post an excerpt, surely there is time for a polite response to a compliment.


Some authors don’t even find it necessary to follow the rules of the reader loops on which they post. Why is that? Is it that they feel their books are so superior to others that they are above the rules? This blatant abuse of rules is disrespectful. I would not imagine that readers are unaware of an author’s cavalier attitude toward the rules or their haughty, egomaniacal behavior in ignoring readers and authors who comment on their work.


Reader loops are for the benefit of readers and authors to come together and converse about books. Authors get to show off their books and readers get to find out about their favorite authors and discover new ones. However, when authors display such disregard to the readers that they don’t even want to talk to them, well, where’s the chat in that?