For anyone not familiar with Amazon, they have two forums. One for readers and one for writers. Each of these forums offer many possible topics, created by the participants themselves, where there will be an opportunity to comment and read what others think. These allow for discussions; and in the case of the author forum, a place for authors to put links and information about their books. Some of those forums go to the many thousands of comments.
Originally there was only one forum and both readers and writers posted there. It appears that some writers abused the privilege of linking to their books on any topic and over and over again to where it reached the level of spam; so last May Amazon created the writer forum and banned writers from posting links or really even talking about their writing or that they do write while in the reader forums (hope that was clear). An author can, and some say they do, post on topics there, but it makes it tricky to be sure they never post they write. IF they do, the readers come down on them like a ton of bricks as they are defensive of maintaining the quality of their threads.
Writers are still adjusting to the change and some feel their sales went down after the change which would indicate reader forums help sell books. I wouldn't know having not come into any of it until December.
The question has been posed by the writers-- how many readers come to the writer forums? Some for sure but obviously not as many as probably visit the reader forums. Does it sell books to post links in the Meet Our Authors forums? I do think the western romance author forum probably helps sell books. It is people writing in a genre that they also read. They say they buy each other's books. I have bought a few from reading there; so it might be so. It is one of the few forums of which I regularly keep track
Before I decided to put books out as eBooks, I figured they'd have to be promoted other places-- in other words away from Amazon. Amazon promotes only their best sellers. How do you become a best seller if you can't get promoted? It has to be outside of Amazon so far as I can tell. Although I guess you can pay for advertising there-- but if it is not in a place where someone is looking for books, how much good would it do? I don't read ads anywhere-- which is one of the reasons I never had them in Rainy Day Thought. I also decided not to try and market my books there for the feeling I'd turn off regular readers who were not romance novel inclined-- hence the creation of this blog eventually.
The MOA Forums have an aspect which I have enjoyed and someone who isn't publishing might also-- a place for writers to discuss their craft. Even though it's supposedly for authors, readers are not only very welcome but appreciated as they comment about what they want from a book, what draws them to buy one, and what is a total turnoff. I can see it being a good place for wantabe writers and have found I enjoy the forum questions that are about writing or marketing from the writer's viewpoint.
Sometimes I post on a question raised there, other times just read what others say. One interesting topic was -- how long did it take you to write your book? I read other answers but didn't post one for myself because I have no idea how long any of mine have taken. They are organic and evolve over a period of time. Once I wrote an 80,000+ word manuscript in a month, but it wasn't finished in a month-- just the rough draft. One of my historical romances was begun when I was probably seventeen or younger. I only really considered it finished this year.
When I have begun something, I might have three or four other things in varying stages. I would have no way to know how long I worked on any of them before I thought-- fini. The same thing was true of my paintings or sculptures. I guess a professional would keep a journal and note the hours?
The forum question got me to thinking about how the writing of the first draft might only take a few months or even less. The editing and finishing it up, that is where it can go into years where the stories sometimes are refined and even changed in important ways as new ideas come about the characters and what is happening to them. I wonder if writers, who have to rush them out to make a deadline, lose some of what their stories could have been with more time to ruminate over them. On the other hand, to never say 'done' won't get you anywhere with a painting or a book.
Through author forums I have learned that most of the indie books on Kindle appear to be fantasy or sci-fi with detective and horror types coming up fast from the inside. There are some non-fiction and short story writers also. Romances seem less common but maybe that's just representative of those who bother to come to the forums. I do not think those who are in Kindle through a big publishing house would come to forums. They are likely doing book signings at locations likely to buy their books.
There is a little bit of the bookstore signing feel to the way forums bring writers together with readers-- and even more probably before the spam issue changed reader forums. Now writers just have to hope readers visit the author forums and sort through what sounds interesting.
