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Make it easier to see Member's books

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
Hi,

I'm also a member of kindleboards and used to use their sig files to flash up book cover images. However I pulled them all down about a year ago. The reason was that kindleboards (like I assume this forum) has a lot of traffic - not all of whom are members, and some of whom are anti certain authors. One of the things I found was that whenever I posted something that someone disagreed with I ended up getting objectionable reviews on some of my books the following day. And reading through the threads on KB I was far from the only author to have that happen. (I assume that those doing this were lurkers not members.)

To me the single thread idea makes sense more so than having images in sigs which people can just click and go to your book the instant they read something in one of your posts that they disagree with. And really the idea of putting cover images in your sig line strikes me more as a marketing tool than anything else. One of the things I like about MS is that it's more a place for writers to hang out and chew the fat, pubbed and unpubbed, rather than a place like KB where its more about marketing / selling.

Cheers, Greg.

Greg,

While I get your decision due to understandable fears, many other people, myself included, have made a different choice. I'd love to be able to make that choice here as well.

Thanks.

Brian
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
Please note that I removed all of the links from the images in this thread. The links all contained Amazon affiliate codes for kboards. If a site has too many affiliate codes, Google actively punishes it by lowering its search rankings. I'm surprised that kboards hasn't been penalized in some way for this.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
And really the idea of putting cover images in your sig line strikes me more as a marketing tool than anything else. One of the things I like about MS is that it's more a place for writers to hang out and chew the fat, pubbed and unpubbed, rather than a place like KB where its more about marketing / selling.

This captures my own feelings on the matter.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I'm really grateful for this conversation because it really crystallized the situation for me.

The great thing about the internet is that, no matter what you're passionate about, you can find others who feel the same way. When I first discovered Mythic Scribes, I was passionate about becoming a better writer, and there were enough people here who were talented and felt strongly about the craft that I really got a lot out of the experience.

I think I still have a long way to go to be as good as I want to be as a writer. However, at the moment, I'm really passionate about learning to be a better independent publisher.

From the top down, this site is all about being a place to hang out and chew the fat. It absolutely is not a site focused on helping writers advance from whatever Point A they're at to whatever Point B that they want to get to.

Unfortunately, I have no interest is hanging out and chewing the fat. I'm passionate about getting from Point A to Point B.

Instead of swimming against the current trying to make this site into something it isn't and doesn't want to become, I really think that it just makes a heck of a lot more sense for me to spend my time at places that better suit my needs.

I appreciate the heck out of all the I've learned here, and anyone from this site can contact me anytime for anything. For now, though, I think it best if I step away for a while to focus on other stuff.

Thanks and best of luck to you all.

Brian
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
BWFoster, that seems to me like a disservice to the many, many conversations that have been held here trying to help you become a better self-published writer. I can appreciate that you want more than to "chew the fat," but I think you're reading way too much from one comment.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Thinking a little bit, I want to see if I can expand a little on Black Dragon's comment, and he can tell me if I'm off base.

But Mythic Scribes is not a place where an author should come just to help sell books. We are a community of fantasy writers, and that community is our strength. That tighter community is what separates us from a place like Kboards, or most other places on the internet. People here get to know each other and build up respect for one another, despite and because of our differences, including our different places in the path to publishing.

I think the big concern with including images in our signatures is that it risks making our posts more about advertising than about building up that community. What we don't want is to see authors come to Mythic Scribes and post here in an effort to spam their signatures. That would be bad for the community, our "competitive advantage," the thing that makes us different.

It's a leap to go from there to assuming that we don't want to build each other up.

But I've heard Black Dragon talk about this before - the goal is to be a place for writers to collaborate. We have come together on challenges, brainstormed solid stories, recruited one another for anthologies, talked about our work, pushed each other further, and shared data and insights on the publishing industry. We put together an article team which publishes weekly and, I feel, has demonstrated tremendous insights into the writing process, motivation, mythology and warfare, and more.

I look forward to the next thought-provoking discussion, challenge, and collaboration, not simply to make small talk, but because they push me to organize my own thoughts and to test them in a community with others.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
@Devor

I think that's exactly right. We're focused on all aspects of writing and publishing. The craft, traditional publishing if you want to go that route, self-publishing, etc. I think the discussions in the forum bear that out. We have also had discussions focusing on marketing. So all of the aspects of writing and publishing that are important in terms of learning the craft and business are focus areas for the site. We're not a site focused on being a vehicle for advertising your works, however. Nor should we be, in my view. There are plenty of such sites. This is a place for writers, aspiring and established, to work together, discuss the craft and business of writing, and build one another up. That's the core of the community and what makes it so good. We don't want those aspects of the site to be overwhelmed by members trying to sell their books to one another. Which is why if we're going to have any section to focus on member works I think it should be a thread or area dedicated to that, where the information is easy for someone to find when they click the thread but not rampant in all of the posts on the site.
 
Hi Brian,

I'm sorry you found my comment about chewing the fat not to your taste. I've found many of the threads here on MS absolutely rivetting - even the ones I sometimes oppose strongly - and I think chewing the fat is absolutely vital for all writers at whatever stage we're at to do if we want to improve our craft. And it has been useful in terms of the publishing side of things too - with you yourself giving me the details of a great cover artist.

But I agree with Steerpike's comments. There is something really good about a writer's site that is not focussed almost completely on the commercial side of the venture.

However, I understand where you're at as an author, and my thought would be that there's actually no need to leave one site to join another. A few years ago when I joined kindleboards I did think it was the bee's knees as far as the other side went, and I did gain a lot of useful advice / ideas about marketing etc. However in time I began to realise that it wasn't where I was as an author, and moreover that a lot of the advice there was very select - only useful to one writer in one place with one book. This is a very fickle business and what works for one will not work for everyone. KB seems to me to be more a "ra ra" cheer team focussed on selling more than on writing. Having said that I still go there perhaps a couple of times a week, and sometimes comment etc. It's just that since I've realised that my passion is elsewhere I prefer places like this. Equally, I've found some success as an author simply by ignoring that entire side of the industry and just writing more books.

If selling is your game - and it's important to me too - I would say start running through Facebook where there are multiple pages looking at promotion of books, more where you can advertise etc and run promotions. Also Amazon itself has some boards - though I haven't been on them in years. The other thing that I've found useful is blogs of authors. You may have to do some googling - but some like Konrath are well known and highly entertaining (if a little rude!). Equally if you've sold enough to qualify the SFWA has its own boards which outsiders can't see and it may put you in touch with useful industry contacts. For me I haven't bothered joining since even though they have admitted indies to the membership I still think it's more focussed on the trade publishing side of things, and I have little interest these days in going that road. You may also find the science fiction fantasy chronicles useful as while they too are focused a lot on the writing side of things, they do have publishing pages.

I wish you well wherever your journey goes and look forwards to seeing you here as well from time to time.

Cheers, Greg.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
BWFoster78 said:
From the top down, this site is all about being a place to hang out and chew the fat. It absolutely is not a site focused on helping writers advance from whatever Point A they're at to whatever Point B that they want to get to.

That's not a fair comment. A lot of people have put a great deal of time and effort into making this a place where writers do help one another to advance. Our focus and approach is different from other writing sites, but that was always part of the plan. You've been around here long enough to recognize this.

There are a lot of great writing sites out there, including kboards. Those sites excel at what they do. I always wanted Mythic Scribes to be different, as the world doesn't need a kboards clone. One of the things that differentiates us from some of the larger writing sites is that we are focused more on helping each other, as opposed to marketing books to one another. A lot of writers waste their energy trying to market their books to other writers, and that can change the tone of a forum. That approach may be fine for other forums, but it's not want I want from Mythic Scribes.
 
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