We value each other's work
We've been having a debate about self-promotion on our Alliance of Independent Authors' member-only Facebook group. And one of our members, Richard Bunning, came up with a great idea to get around this perennial problem for self-publishers and the forums they hang out on.
Like most great ideas, it's simple. Naturally, as writers, we want to share news of our books and other writings but blatant self-promotion is really ineffective marketing. Most people ignore it, it puts others right off.
So here's how we're going to work it from now on on our various forums (Facebook, LinkedIn and Google groups: encourage our members to promote each other's work, rather than their own.
If you have a new book or a blog post of interest, instead of tooting your own horn, reach out to another member with a private message and ask them to read and share your work.
[You can use the contact button on their profile on the ALLi website: (press the ‘Search' button without entering any search terms to see full list of profiled members: http://And you return the favour for them/another.
This takes more commitment than just posting the latest link to your own stuff but has the advantage of actually working. It brings you to each other's readers.
And it makes you search out likeminded authors, thus opening avenues for further cross promotion, e.g. at the back of each other's books, running joint ventures and events, author collectives, etc.
Interested in the idea of mutual promo, but can’t contact Richard through our site.