Edward O' Toole's article "Trolls and Critics" should be mandatory reading for self-published or first-time published novelists who may have a hankering to Spam. If you'd like some good alternatives to getting run off of discussion boards for self-promotion, take a good look at this very informative and useful article.

Review from Daniel E. Blackston, SFReader.com - http://www.sfreader.com/db_ff021606.asp

Recently, due to the upcoming release of my first novel ‘Clavis’ with Crystal Dreams Publishing, I decided to promote both my book and myself on the Net. Being the over-ambitious, incautious person that I am, I decided to plunge straight into the online ‘Writers’ Community’ and plug my wares.

Whoops.

The very first response I received was one which left me reeling. Someone I’d never met in my life, and will most likely never meet, slammed my book, my publisher, my dog… Okay, you say, shrug it off, get on with your life. It’s just one small fish in an enormous oceanic-world sized pond.

But, by saying that, you’d be missing the point. It doesn’t matter WHO this person was, or the true value of their comments; what matters is that they said them and now – and for ad infinitum – they are there, attached to my name, to be viewed on the net.

It’s a case of subliminal association. Someone Googling my name comes up with… I won’t repeat it as once was enough. Instead, for future Googlers, I’m going to try a bit of my own, self-promoting, subliminal association. Here goes:

Edward O’Toole. Excellent!

Edward O’Toole Clavis. Excellent!

Nice in theory but in reality it won’t work. Anyone reading the afore-stated remarks, upon noting the author of this article, will immediately dismiss them.

Then how does one get one’s name, and work – one’s pride and joy – known on the internet without having it shredded by dreaded trolls, spammers and generally self-loathing critics who haven’t, won’t and probably never will read your book, poem, short story, etc? It’s an entirely different issue when a ‘respected’ critic – such as a submissions editor, a licensed literary agent, or multi-national publisher, or me…. – reads your work and says, apologetically, that they don’t think it’s for them but good luck in the future.

To be honest, many new authors don’t get the point. They have their book, they see the internet, and they connect the two by thinking “I know! I’ll sell my book on the Net! Everyone will want to buy it! There’re a billion sites out there just gagging for my novel!”

Wrong.

Going on to forums and message boards and advertising your work in every post is the same as knocking on people’s doors and asking them to buy it, face to face. Having a home-made Microsoft Front Page website, based on a free-server with a title such as http://myfreeserver/lotsoffreeservers/justoneofmillionsofghastlyhomepages/photosofpetkittensbeingcutedirectory

/mybook.freeserver.co.org.com.freeserver.ua, and then posting it as a link and THE PUBLIC FACE of your novel will not encourage a barrage of customers and potential fans. While having a website title such as www.mybook.com most probably will increase the chances of people actually clicking your link and following it up (it looks more professional), that issue is for another article.

What I really want to look at here is avoiding the common pitfall of presenting your work publicly and then having it criticized as being worthless, awful, or un-edited because you’re with a small press, a POD or an E-publisher. Not with a multi-planetary conglomerate? Not had an initial print run in the hundreds, or even just tens, of thousands? You’re obviously not a proper author – just some nobody who’s written an unintelligible and garbled collection of words and hopes to pass them off as a book. Worse still, you’ll be accused of having paid a Vanity Press because no-one else in their right mind would publish you. BTW – this article is not for subsidy or vanity published authors. If you gave up in your quest to be published that easily, you take your own chances in this world. Self-published? A different kettle of fish and you’re still in the game (either just terrifyingly ambitious or nonchalant).

So what do you do?

In all honesty, I’m not a publishing and promotion expert – I’m as new to this game as you are. However, there are a few points I’ve found which might help:

1. It doesn’t matter HOW you got published. Just remember that. Now in this age of ecological awareness, with Global warming looming over us, many planet-friendly authors are converting to electronic publishing in order to reduce the amount of trees being cut down. Many also get E-published because they know that their art will reach a far wider audience than it would ordinarily in hard copy form. And writing is primarily a craft, not a means to riches (except for the tiny few who don’t really need to read this article).
2. If you’re getting published with a small press, don’t look on it as not being published with a Giant – but as a statement of your artistic beliefs. Most small presses – Crystal Dreams especially – act like families. They care about your book; they talk about your plans. They don’t churn your novel out, give it two months or less shelf-space, end its run and go onto the next. No. Because they are SMALL, they’ve had to carefully consider accepting your book – chances are, the owner is having to put up the money personally to have it edited, printed and marketed. I’d say it’s an honour to have that much trust put in oneself; far more so than a larger publisher who could merely write you off as a minor loss in their fiscal budget without batting an eyelid.
3. Don’t SPAM your novel. There’s a difference between people associating your name with spamming your website, and people associating your name with your novel. Okay, attach your website as your ‘signature’ when you post in forums or message boards, but don’t use it as your only input to conversations. Chances are you’ll get banned pretty quickly, especially if it’s disrupting the post’s thread.
4. Build up a collection of online friends – just like in real life. The difference being that on the Net, your new friends could be in Australia, China, Canada and Belgium. And each of them has friends in the real world, each of whom are potential readers of your work. Get known as an intelligent, witty, friendly character – slowly introduce the topic of your novel, based upon the situation present at the time. Don’t force-feed it to people. One big difference between the Net and real-life is that when someone knocks on your door and tries to sell something, they can use physical charm and charisma to override your aversion – if you’re a naturally shy or nervous person, you might end up buying their product just to get rid of them. On the Net, when one clicks a link and sees an author’s homepage which is of no personal interest, one can just ‘click out’.
5. On the subject of homepages, I’ve noticed that many authors present nothing but their book cover and their blurb. Fascinating. Gripping stuff. Holds my attention for about 5 seconds and then I’m off somewhere else. Remember that once you’ve managed to attract someone to your site, you’ve got to keep them there – at least long enough for them to digest enough information that they can remember your name and the title and genre of your book. Don’t expect them to pay on first glance. There probably ARE impulse buyers out there who have a fetish which involves endlessly typing out their credit card number on sites they’ve found by accident, but I wouldn’t bet on many of them finding yours. Look at the bigger product sites for an example – few sites now DON’T have a flash-intro page which redirects you to…and then to…. Before you know it, you’re deep inside their product catalogue and your only hope of escape is to get that magic slice of plastic out of your wallet or purse….

What did I do? I decided to create a forum and community for people like me; a place where authors can come and talk and present their works without fear of being ribboned. A place where I can personally make sure that the trolls and spammers and flamers and sharks and critics are kept at bay. A place where extremely negative and unjustified criticism has no place and will get deleted long before Google has it up on display.

That place is http://aestheteka.forumwise.com/. I hope to see you there