It is entirely possible to do something because you are helping another person. It’s completely acceptable to take action out of a desire to see someone you like succeed at something they like to do.
Earlier today, author Mike Duran posted a very good write-up on the things that readers can do to help authors and books they enjoy. His 10 Things You Can Do To Promote Authors You Like includes a very helpful list, with some stuff I had never even thought of doing.
The problem with liking and boosting authors comes from the authors’ desire to motivate fans and turn them into “street teams”(*)
(*I think this is the single stupidest term for authors to use in the history of writing. It makes me want to burn writers in effigy when they talk about their work as though it needs a pack of vigilante superheroes to boost it. I want to never again read a book by any author who talks about “street teams”. I want to make those authors eat burnt pencils.)
Authors took the idea of this grassroots marketing strategy from rock bands, and are so in love with the hipster cred of the whole thing they don’t seem to understand just how much the pervasive Street Team strategy is undermining the power of Word Of Mouth in the literary community.
Books sell via Word of Mouth. They get read via Word of Mouth. A book is such a personal experience and such an investment of time that most people aren’t going to trust their own instincts as much as they will the word of a fellow who has gone before them into that unknown country. So when the Word Of Mouth is bought and paid for, it makes it less honourable. In fact, I’d argue that paid-for testimony can no longer be trusted as pure word of mouth.
I know they say you have to spend money to make money. For years authors in the Romance genre have held giveaways (Erica Spindler and Susan Wiggs both come to mind), but those were never in direct exchange for promotional consideration. You got a fridge magnet because you enjoyed their books and it was a fun trinket. Susan Wiggs sent me a signed copy of Just Breathe and a tin of tea because I won a random drawing for commenting on her site. There was never any expectation of my then going to the library and harrassing librarians to shelve copies of Wiggs’ books. (That’s just one of the duties of a Street Team.)
I don’t trust paid book reviews. Ever.
Authors, just build relationships with your readers and trust that they will act of their own accord. People like what they like, and their genuine enthusiasm is infectious. Hold on to your $25 Visa Giftcards and let things happen naturally.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
I agree.
Promotion can cross a line and morph into a greasy shill. I don’t ever want to resort to hype and gimmicks. But he’s right in that it’s a burden that’s been shifted increasingly onto the author’s shoulders. They have to get the word out themselves, often without serious connections, training, or budget. Many artists are uncomfortable with self-promotion and never learn how to do it right.
I also respect a straight-up “hey, help me out?” more than a “gee whiz! win a gift card for reading my awesome book.”
There’s the old business adage that if you screw up the customer will tell ten people. If you do good, they’ll tell three. Maybe. So at some point, promotion is raising awareness, reminding folks to spread the word. Like it or not, the marketing/numbers game is a real obstacle course that has to be navigated.
Perhaps that line is different for everyone? I’ve grown more comfortable with it in the last two years, but I know I need to learn more.
What’s so bad about marketing? I mean having a side of your professional life that SELLS YOU? We got Bach, Shakespeare, Dylan, New York Symphony, Glenn Gould, and anyone who’s ever had a manager, publisher and publicist. For the record I don’t have any of those things including financial prosperity connected to my art.
Maybe I’m missing your main point, which MIGHT be aesthetic. An aesthetic transgression is something that makes you gag even though there’s nothing technically wrong. It’s the thing where the presenter/artist is transparent about you being an object, a ” fan and consumer.” We always know that we are, but it seems like bad faith to make it all so explicit. Imagine going on a first date with your romantic crush and he/she ends the evening with a customer approval survey: Did you partner meet you expectations 12345 circle one…etc. Yes we want to know those things, but don’t turn your fans into objects, they are more like friends and family.
Well, the problem is that they are your reader, not your marketers, nor your free source of feedback. There’s only so much you can ask of them before it becomes intrusive, and some of the metrics Mike mentions can seem intrusive to many. Most of his list is good in that it can be done quickly and with little effort, but even asking people to write reviews or recommend the book can be tough.
Your reader isn’t your marketer except by word of mouth. Maybe a small amount of motivated fans will push your book, but you have to be careful you don’t view them as a “street team”-as an unpaid force of marketing rather than people who like your book enough to buy it.
Writers handling this and other self-promotion methods badly led to the current state of reader distrust, where five star reviews are suspect, many book forums and groups ban authors from mentioning their works, and things like recommendation engines and forums are seen to have little value.
I should have made a clearer transition. I have no problem with MIKE’s list. I thought MIKE’s list was helpful.
My issue is with, as DMD says, authors expecting their readers to be marketers–paid or unpaid.
Just because someone passed a few pleasant hours in the company of your prose doesn’t mean that it is in any way appropriate for you (the author) to enlist them.
In many cases the suggestions some authors put forth for their “street team” are highly unethical.
–placing fake Special Orders for the author’s works under a false name with the expectation that the store will shelve the unclaimed merch.
–moving the author’s books to prime space in the store like the New Arrivals table or the Best Sellers rack. These spots are actually paid for by authors and publishers (new arrivals) or earned (best sellers). To put an author’s books there is stealing. It will also get you banned from the store if you’re caught.
[…] Another blogpost, this one from Just Another Pretty Farce, entitled “On Being a Whore,”: https://mycropht.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/on-being-a-whore/ […]