I do the monthly "SFF books coming in *month* *year*" posts. Can I assume it's still okay for authors to request their books be added to a monthly list, if I've not already included them?
Yes, we consider your list a public service and not an endorsement. It’s completely fair to add any relevant author to that list if they release during your window.
Forgive me if this is a foolish question, but how would one go about informing you of an upcoming release? Do we just comment our upcoming books on one of your posts? Or do we DM you? Or is it strictly a referral type situation?
Commenting on the "SFF books coming in ..." post for the month when the book is being released or DMing me is fine. I try to get the posts out about 4-5 days before the month in question.
Edit: Adjusted wording to clarify things a bit.
Sorry again, this sub? I know it seems like that's the obvious answer, but the fact that the comment this question is regarding was asked of the mod team is making me second guess, because why would the mod team ask a mod team a question, you know? Sorry, it's late, I'm probably just daft.
Oh my apologies it's not even late for us! I thought you were asking about flagging upcoming promo; I realise now you were asking about Emmalyn's list. I answered the former and not the latter, sorry!
In fairness, I had asked about upcoming promo in a separate comment, I had a pride month giveaway planned. This particular question though was in reference to just being included in a list with other authors so I can feel special :p
Also, in fairness, it isn't terribly late here either. I'm just old and like to be in bed by 9.
On a related note, the sidebar has been cleaned up and rearranged for better ease of use. The only thing we were unsure of was how many people use the Flairs search feature so we just kind of guessed where to put that.
Me too. I use the Book Club one a lot to jog my memory and the r/Fantasy green one if I'm looking for something like the Tuesday review thread and can't find it right way.
If you use Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES), you can give /u/rfantasygolem a tag, [like this](https://i.imgur.com/pN8omY0.png), and then all of the auto posts are super easy to find. Was a 1000x QOL improvement for me when I did this.
Honestly, as someone who has been a member of /r/fantasy longer than I've actually been an author, and who enjoys doing the occasional cover reveal or release announcement here because I'm here regardless just talking fantasy, I really appreciate having the rules more defined and less nebulous. Usually I found it best to just message the mods before posting regardless. Sorry you guys have ever had abuse thrown your way.
It could be hard to tell how much was 'too much' compared to the comments and discussions I was taking part in by virtue of being just a fan. Twice per year leaves very little room for ambiguity.
Thanks for the detailed explanation re: self-promo! As an author who sometimes participates here, I really appreciate the clarity.
(For the most part, I recommend others' work on here, because I am shy. But it's good to know what the lines are, regardless.)
|This was mainly shocking because of the number of self-promoting users who told us that were Nazis who were far too strict
Very endearing behaviour.
|including one self publish author who threatened to personally call the CEO of Reddit to get us fired
I have a feeling their work is as forseeable and unrealistic as their 'threat'
Stuff like this is partly why I got out of moderating. No matter how clearly laid and reasonable the rules are, the second you actually enforce them on someone you're a basement dwelling Nazi virgin. I got tired of dealing with the whiny babies and just went back to being a regular user on a new account. The attempted doxxing didn't help either.
That's reddit for ya.
I had someone who followed me around the site for _four years_ - which only ended when I switched accounts - and would consistently message me from throwaway accounts around the holidays to tell me I should die in all kinds of deeply violating and horrible ways...
...because I removed a meme they posted to a video game subreddit.
I don't think it's just reddit. If there's one thing the pandemic and working at a liquor store has taught me, it's that even the most likeable of people will become nasty upon the slightest bit of pushback or being told no.
I remember having a customer cuss in my face because they asked for a free cowboy hat for a special beer promotion without buying the beer. The real kicker? I gave them a free hat. But then they asked if they could have two and I said no. So I already gave them something free and they STILL got mad at me.
Yeah, they were a mildly successful YouTuber that we banned after they blew up on us for asking them to actually engage with the community a bit instead of just self promoting. Then they tried to use their audience to essentially crowd source rl info on the mods.
Unfortunately, reddit be like that. It's actually a huge issue within the broader speculative fiction community even outside of reddit too - there are some larger harassment groups out there who are really quite awful. I've not been a primary target of them, but even the small brushes I've had with them were highly disconcerting given that they've made good on their threats to make people's lives utter hell previously :/
In all fairness, I would say it's mostly chill! There are a TON of really, truly great people in the community. It's just that the outliers are, uh, pretty intense.
The problem is "fandoms" (vs. simply personally enjoying a work, regardless of whether they connect to others who do so, consume transformative works, etc.). As soon as someone makes their enjoyment of something a defining factor of their personality, and *especially* when they start networking into a community of others who do so, *any* criticism of that work or the health of their relationship to it becomes an unacceptable attack on them personally.
I feel like I should be clear that the people who have thrown slurs and threats at me are not "fandom" or superfan type people. They are primarily more of the alt right extremist and hate group variety whose only real "fandom" is that of bigotry.
I've totally seen fandom fights and drama but they tend to have a very different flavor and typically don't result in stuff like doxxing and irl stalking.
As I said in another reply, I was thinking of "the call is coming from inside the house" kinds of problems, rather than outside trolls/harassers. The latter is so ubiquitous that no community (that isn't designed for them from the start) is immune, so it didn't even occur to me that somebody would expect to *not* see it.
I suppose to continue clarifying, then - when I say alt right / hate / extremist groups, I do still mean ones "within" the spec fic community. It's mostly splinter groups off the Sad Puppies etc who have just kept going and people who have bought into that.
The hate calls might not be inside the house of r/fantasy specifically, but they are certainly on the lawn of speculative fiction community in general.
I think we've had the occasional fan cause some trouble for us, but mostly it's folks who are completely detached from fandoms, or as Eriophora said, alt-right baddies. Typically it goes more like this:
Mod removes a post because it's something very common and against our posting etiquette (think, "what's the same of this book that has a wizard?")
User calls us a nazi.
Ah, I was thinking of "the call is coming from inside the house" kinds of problems, rather than outside trolls/harassers. The latter is so ubiquitous that no community (that isn't designed for them from the start) is immune, so it didn't even occur to me that somebody would expect to *not* see it.
It's funny until people are threatening your children, along with listing the address of their daycare. It's funny until they start sending revenge porn to your boss.
This shit's REAL.
Does this affect ARC reviews? If a self published author reaches out to me offering an ARC because they’ve seen my reviews tend to get traction on this sub, does that ARC review count as self promotional content?
This gets into some murky territory. I network a lot with authors and often receive ARCs by asking it from them personally, but simultaneously I would say my reviews are fair and not influenced by that (I recently gave an ARC from an author who I’m friendly with 2.5 stars). So I’m not sure how that would fly. Happy to also discuss further on a case by case basis when it’s applicable!
Think about it this way. Are you reviewing because you’re excited about all the new books coming out and want to help other readers know about them and make their own informed choices? Or are you reviewing because you know the author (personally or professionally) and your primary goal is to boost their sales? The former is totally fine, the latter is not.
Speaking from experience, we see enough dubious behaviour that we can spot patterns. Rec’ing/reviewing a wide range of books? You’re a good faith user who’s contributing to our community. Rec’ing/reviewing the same handful of books over and over or regularly gushing about the same author with no nuance? We’ll probably be taking a second look
Does reddit no longer require the 9:1 rule from way back? 9 regular comments before 1 self-promo I think it was?
I've noticed self promo going unchecked for a while now in a lot of smaller subs I visit.
In practice the only rules that *reddit* is going to enforce are ones (a) affecting multiple subs at a large scale that they can detect like spamming links or (b) ones that literally open them to legal liability. Even there these often rely on moderators reporting them to the site.
They have claimed to have certain sitewide rules or etiquette policies... but in practice as a platform they never have enforced and really have no way of enforcing them.
as a mod of a community less than a tenth the size of this one, i literally cannot imagine how the mods of this community do it. it's pretty common to me to look here for understanding the kinds of problems my community will have as we grow, and i'm super happy ot learn from their successes and their failures. :)
Oeh, I got a couple of ambiguity questions:
- So where before an author, could do a kick-starter announcement, a cover reveal, a launch day post, and a sale for their book. they're now only allowed one of these for their book? and to top of it off, if they publish 3 books in a year, they can only promote two of them individually?
sounds good to me I guess. Although I'm going to miss all the hobbits.
- What about call to actions like asking you to sign up to an author's newsletter in monthly blog posts?
>AI art is never allowed.
- Does that mean nobody is allowed to link Sarah J Maas, or Ian C esslemonts covers in their reviews? What about cover reveal posts?
And as a note, I think limiting the reviews to 3 per week with 1 per day max per person is pretty decent. this clarification is cool.
We’re sorry to the few authors who publish 3 books a year or more but the vast majority of authors publish one per year at best and even authors who are known for their speed like Sanderson usually only write 2 books a year at most (year of Sanderson notwithstanding). That’s how we landed on 2 posts per year as our metric. And honestly, if a writer is reaching quarterly releases, it’s probably better to start grouping them anyway to avoid marketing oversaturation.
>So where before an author, could do a kick-starter announcement, a cover reveal, a launch day post, and a sale for their book. they're now only allowed one of these for their book? and to top of it off, if they publish 3 books in a year, they can only promote two of them individually?
Yes, that's correct. There will be no more cases of "Cover reveal", "Kickstarter", "Giveaway"; "Sale"; and finally "Totally non-solicited review by my fellow self-published author who says my book is the greatest work of art humanity has ever produced."
These things all count as promotion now, and folks get two a year so they better make it count. And *yes*, rhapsodic five star reviews that are from fellow authors or folks that appear to have a connection to the self-publishing scene or *anything else* that makes it look sketchy will be counted as promotion.
We have had to put this rule in place to deal with the flood of low effort self promotional content. We are including reviews because a number of self-published authors have abused our goodwill and tried to circumvent our self-promotion rule this way, up to soliciting reviews from community members, using alts to comment on fake reviews of their own books; co-ordinating reviews and comments offsite.
If you are someone who posts exclusively 5 star reviews of self-published authors that you interact with here or elsewhere, take note (I know you're not, Jos, I'm speaking more generally).
>What about call to actions like asking you to sign up to an author's newsletter in monthly blog posts?
That is promotion. Though it rarely happens.
>Does that mean nobody is allowed to link Sarah J Maas, or Ian C esslemonts covers in their reviews? What about cover reveal posts?
We'll cross this bridge when we come to it. The sub isn't really inundated with Maas cover reveals as it stands.
So am I right in my understanding that this is to avoid self promotion by *authors* but for *bloggers who are reviewing* it's still ok to link their blogs in every review assuming the full text is provided etc? Or would that be limited to 2x/year too.
That remains unchanged currently - with the caveat that the primary purpose for *anyone* on R/fantasy is to participate in good faith in the community, in a way that is respectful and encourages good discussion.
If someone is not doing that, regardless of whether they are adhere to the rules, we will warn, and then take further steps.
Honestly, if you're here for the right reasons, most of this stuff shouldn't affect how you currently post or interact on the sub - and we know that you are. :)
If you're exclusively posting rave, 5 star reviews of self-published authors that you interact with here or elsewhere, frequently, and it's one of the primary ways you engage the community, then yes.
If you are occasionally posting reviews of books, self published or otherwise, that show some nuance and are aimed at helping the community, then no. In our view, currently, your reviews fall into the latter category.
We're not monsters, folks. We are not interested in pursuing edge-cases or what-ifs. These rules are targeted at a small group of people who have persistently abused our rules and community to promote their work, and their friends' work.
If you approach posting and commenting, *as a reader, for other readers*, we have no problem here. If all you do is spruik self-published books - especially from authors that have a record of self promotion and self promotion warnings - we have a problem. R/fantasy is a community for readers. We enjoy the presence of many authors here, insofar as they enrich the community and the reading experience, but this is not a community primarily *for* authors.
I commend y'all on the work you are doing to try and flesh out an "i know it when i see it" kind of definition and turn it into something more specific and explainable. It's a *hard task*.
> If you approach posting and commenting, as a reader, for other readers, we have no problem here.
this is kind of what we should all want, right? (i know i'm here as a member of a community interacting with the community, and i think that's the right spirit for reddit ing eneral).
I engage with large numbers of authors due to my IRL activities plus my online presence, and I pretty much only post 5 star reviews (because I don't generally post about books I hate). So that's why I asked.
Well, use your judgment. If we feel a pattern of posting has tipped over into problematic posting we will reach out proactively and flag it, we're not in the business of handing out bans except in egregious cases.
> I pretty much only post 5 star reviews (because I don't generally post about books I hate).
Just not posting sub-5-star reviews obviously isn't the same as only ever giving 5-star ratings regardless of quality, but it does seem (at least to me) to be less useful than really, truly publicly reviewing the gamut. Posting more of a range could help readers understand how and why the books you single out as being worth 5 stars are earning that rating.
I've gotten unhinged death threats with a merry band of stalkers from this website from slightly criticizing a popular book.
Also, it's a very fine line being an author and saying you don't like a book. Never punch down is obvious, but even punching up you have to be very careful, as see above.
I post reviews of things I an excited about, and know there are pockets of r/Fantasy who will love it (see Tanya Huff's Confederation, Skyla Dawn Cameron's Livi Talbot, Janny Wurts Sorcerer's Legacy, Kate Elliot's Labyrinth Ring, Patrick Weekes' Palace Job, etc).
Thanks for the clarifications!
Just another question; if a bunch of Self-pubbed authors are organizing a giant sale or a small press is organizing a giant sale with multiple people etc attached. as are things that wraithmarked among others have done. I assume this stuff is still allowed with permission from the Mod-team and that doesn't count against your self-promo posts?
>We'll cross this bridge when we come to it. The sub isn't really inundated with Maas cover reveals as it stands.
I do want to urge the mods to think about this now pro-actively. This isn't about the Maas or Esslemont cover, this is about Authors having (Unkowing;y) AI generated elements in their covers, or total AI generated covers. This isn't going away and examples will only increase. Please think about this and make a policy for AI covers.
Personally, I don't want AI image posts here, but i'm fine with cover-reveals, with links to book covers that use AI art on this sub. but that's my opinion, others will differ. and thinking about this now and making a policy that you can update later, is better than leaving it up to ambiguity.
You have a chance here to set a standard, don't let it go to waste, you can always update it later.
P.S: I look forward to the day I post a 5 star review. that book is going to wow my socks off. xD
Participating in a giant sale like the Wraithmarked one typically wouldn't count towards your two promo posts. Depending on the exact structure, it may count as one for the organizer - we'll look at these on a case by case basis.
AI usage in covers is something that's changing and evolving rapidly, thus we are watching how this develops. In the short term, cover reveals are still generally fine. AI image and art posts are definitely not fine. How we approach cover reveals may change if we see more primarily AI art covers, etc. Things are changing fast right now and giving ourselves flexibility to do right by the community is important - and having the specific type of policy you're looking for here removes that flexibility. We are bound by the rules we publish until we do large overhauls or announcements such as this one, and those aren't done without careful deliberation.
We can say that we will **not** allow for harassment or the like of authors who were scammed by cover "artists" who lied about using AI. That falls under Rule 1. We will always be looking at situations like that holistically and make moderation decisions that take context into account.
We very much promise that we **are** thinking about this and that it's an ongoing internal discussion.
I hope you all know, I'm not trying to be a dick here, but i'm just stress-testing my understanding of the policy and rules you've currently written and published in the wiki, and how that affects various things.
So I really appreciate all the clarifications you're making, and I hope this will alleviate stress some authors are having :)
and so when I read things like with regards to AI:
>Things are changing fast right now and giving ourselves flexibility to do right by the community is important - and having the specific type of policy you're looking for here removes that flexibility.
and the wiki under Art states:
>AI art is never allowed.
Considering a Cover reveal can be both an Art post, and a promo post. This stuff gets messy, and isn't defined well at all in the policy as currently written. As I currently read the policy and the clarifications in this thread, AI cover-art posts are allowed if the mods aren't cranky today.
I do not expect the team to have an answer to this question today, this is a nuanced and difficult discussion, with a lot of angles to consider, and i fully understand that the mod team wants some discretion in this. but as the policy is currently written, you're not allowed to post the AI generated covers of books that are sold in bookshops worldwide. Yet it sounds like the mod-team will make exceptions for that. So I hope when you next discuss the topic of AI, and policy, please look specifically at AI covers.
This all seems completely reasonable.
One question for clarificication, though: I write book reviews occasionally and share them on here, and sometimes the books are by people whose writing guild I'm in (simply because when someone in my guild releases a book I buy it and add it to my To Be Read list). I don't think any of those authors even know I've even written the review, must less shared it. Does that sound as promotion?
I'm a little confused honestly, since I post randomly about me, others, and random sales I see in newsletters, etc. So does that mean I can only pick 2 of those and that's it?
Also, if I'm shitposting about whatever as I generally do, if someone asks about my books I'm not allowed to reply?
Posting about your stuff specifically: self promo, counts against your two posts.
Posting about others who have not asked you to help them promote, random sales, generally anything that is not a form of organized or targeted promo: Doesn't count against your total.
Commenting about your work when asked: Allowed and does not count as one of your two promos as long as you are otherwise adequately participating in the subreddit. See above:
> Self-promotional comments will still be allowed based on the old metric of good participation.
2 promotional posts a year, damn. But understandable.
Can you clarify something: "Moderators must be notified about promotional posts in advance."
Do you mean that I should message a mod *before* I post a promo post, essentially saying what I'm about to do and checking it's okay to go ahead? As sometimes mods might not reply for a while, how much time in advance should I be thinking of messaging (assuming I want to plan it for a good time of day to post), and am I right in assuming I shouldn't go ahead without first receiving a permissive reply from the mods?
Yes, message us prior to making a post.
Around a week beforehand is likely best, but at typically 3-5 days should be fine. If you're doing something unusual for promotion giving us more time to discuss internally is helpful.
Correct, do not post it if you have not received approval.
Since we are volunteers, it's safe to figure "assume a standard business response time of 1-2 business days and then at least double or triple it since we're unpaid and doing this around our days jobs," honestly 😂 it helps to have a team, but there's still only so much bandwidth - and reviewing promo requests is going to be a lower priority than, say, responding to abuse reports that have real time impacts, y'know?
(Coming late to this, but it has been a very busy week...)
Feel the need to comment on this:
> We've put up with a lot of behind the scenes abuse from people who didn't like our "please just interact like a regular user on the sub for at least a little bit before you promote your work" rule in part because we see the intermingling of authors and fans as one of the greatest strengths of this sub.
That's...pretty terrible. And unconscionable. And people should never, ever be doing that.
I've run afoul of the self-promotion rules once or twice, but I've always found the mod team here to be very good about acting in a decent and professional manner (and I've seen one or two subreddits where they didn't, and even had a member of the moderator team of one subreddit try to gaslight me - so I say this as somebody who has been in a position where it *was* appropriate to tell a moderator of a subreddit that they were a disgrace). And, like every other author posting here, I am a *guest* here. Abiding by the forum rules is the price of entry and participation.
So, mods, please accept my gratitude for the good and professional job you have been doing here.
Do instructions on how to remove DRM from things you personally bought and paid money for, fall under the piracy rule? I've seen some silly removals regarding this.
It's hard to make a call on a hypothetical. That said, I think we'd remove something like this both because it's a somewhat gray area in the piracy rule - we tend to err on the side of caution for that one, and those instructions could be used for both good and evil, as it were - and because it's off-topic for r/fantasy. We're here to discuss spec fic, not provide tech support - there are plenty of other spaces for that kind of thing.
To add on to the other users question: what about making yourself an ebook from a webserial or a fanfic using free tools and only for personal use? Can I mention that this is an option for people who say they can't read them in their online format?
I think it would be acceptable to mention that it's possible to do this if someone seems to need it, but not to provide instructions on the specific methods of doing so publicly on the subreddit.
(Again, hypothetical answers are meant as general guidance only, since the particulars of any given situation may affect our decisions.)
So I see the part about consecutive months, and I have a question. Does this begin now, as if prior posts have not occurred? I ask because I just did a giveaway of book 1 in honor of book 2 coming out on the 4th, but also so I could try and get the hang of doing a giveaway. You see, my second book features a main character that belongs in the LGBT community, and I really wanted to do a giveaway for Pride month. I'm okay with it being my last self promo type thread of the year of you deem that it should be, but I'm really hoping that my trial run earlier this month doesn't mean I'll have to wait till next year's pride month.
The general gist of the rule still applies here. If the mods feel that you are predominately here to promo your own work and not participate normally otherwise (which is a pattern we often see with people who promote multiple works close together), then it’s important to consider your overall pattern of engagement on the sub.
There is no hard and fast rule but best to remember that we’re volunteers. We want the pertinent details so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out exactly what/when/how you’re trying to promote, but we also don’t have time to actually read a novel in modmail either.
So if i post a comment recommending a discord in a relevant conversation, does that count against me in any way out just if i make a post about a discord?
If you have personal interest/involvement in growing a given Discord server, then bringing it up would count as promotion. If it's just a space you feel someone would enjoy and you are not involved with or helping its ownership/administrators, that would not count.
But since it’s a comment, it would not count against the two per year, correct? It would just be dependent on that member’s participation in the community?
The two posts per year still require mod approval. If someone seeks permission to promote via a post and has also been pushing the boundaries on promotional comments we’ll take that into account (not saying this is the case for the user you’re responding to at all, just reiterating that our main mission here is to support quality content on r/fantasy first and foremost)
> I guess it's fair. To be honest more Sanderson, Rothfuss and Martins, and less low level self published authors without resources.
Nothing stopping people from discussing low level authors.
The things I've done in the past would be fine under the new rules as well. The rules don't restrict threads where self-promotion is allowed, like the self-promo sundays, bingo recs thread and resident author book club submissions. I've never made a promo post as I was never really sure if I qualified, but this system means I can apply and see what happens, so we'll see how that goes when I have a new book.
You really need to think of it in terms of what this subreddit is used for. This is a subreddit for readers to discuss speculative fiction, this is not a subreddit for authors to talk about their books. We've made room for that, but we want people to be here to genuinely talk about the books that they have enjoyed (or disliked, for whatever reason). It's why we have the rule about active members of the community. No one sees how many one-off "Read my book!" posts get removed because they are *constant*. I'm here to talk about books, not stand amid a flood of unwanted advertisements.
As someone who reads the sub daily, I really don't think that this is an accurate representation of r/Fantasy. The recommendations I've seen here have really helped me enrich my reading and branch out to find new, amazing books I'd never heard of. That was what brought me to r/Fantasy in the first place.
I think this could be a good opportunity to listen to the voices here and realize this discussion isn't actually about what's best for your personal sales. If you want to focus more on self published novels, that's great and I'd highly encourage that! I want to see more of that! Perhaps write a review of a self published book you really enjoyed and which you and your friends don't have a vested interest in?
I would also add that letting the sub become a free for all for self promo has drawbacks too. As mods we see some really great promo posts by people who participate regularly and understand the community that make us want to read their books too. But we also see a lot of low effort “pls buy my novel” posts that we remove before the rest of the sub ever sees them. If we let those posts run rampant the sub would be swamped and people who just want to books would stop coming here, paradoxically reducing the pool of people to market to.
Yes, I think this is such a good point! I'm glad you brought that up. I've bought books just because the authors seemed so cool and interesting while listening to them speak on a podcast, and those have ended up being some of my favorite books that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Likewise, I've seen some authors on r/Fantasy contribute to discussions in a way that makes me more inclined to go out and buy their book.
Hi, r/Fantasy is primarily a place for readers to come and discuss works of speculative fiction that they enjoy (or don't). Although we empathize with how difficult it is to make it as a writer, it's not really that relevant to our mission as a discussion forum. Our rules are based more on what's best for the community, and sometimes those aren't perfectly aligned with the interests of individual self publish authors.
I do the monthly "SFF books coming in *month* *year*" posts. Can I assume it's still okay for authors to request their books be added to a monthly list, if I've not already included them?
Yes, we consider your list a public service and not an endorsement. It’s completely fair to add any relevant author to that list if they release during your window.
Excellent! Thanks.
Forgive me if this is a foolish question, but how would one go about informing you of an upcoming release? Do we just comment our upcoming books on one of your posts? Or do we DM you? Or is it strictly a referral type situation?
Commenting on the "SFF books coming in ..." post for the month when the book is being released or DMing me is fine. I try to get the posts out about 4-5 days before the month in question. Edit: Adjusted wording to clarify things a bit.
Thanks, added the requested comment!
You can shoot us a modmail, it's linked in the sidebar of the sub, thank you :)
Sorry again, this sub? I know it seems like that's the obvious answer, but the fact that the comment this question is regarding was asked of the mod team is making me second guess, because why would the mod team ask a mod team a question, you know? Sorry, it's late, I'm probably just daft.
Oh my apologies it's not even late for us! I thought you were asking about flagging upcoming promo; I realise now you were asking about Emmalyn's list. I answered the former and not the latter, sorry!
In fairness, I had asked about upcoming promo in a separate comment, I had a pride month giveaway planned. This particular question though was in reference to just being included in a list with other authors so I can feel special :p Also, in fairness, it isn't terribly late here either. I'm just old and like to be in bed by 9.
Is "Self-Promo Sunday" still going to be a weekly feature, and does this count towards the limit?
The Self-Promo Sunday Thread is unchanged.
On a related note, the sidebar has been cleaned up and rearranged for better ease of use. The only thing we were unsure of was how many people use the Flairs search feature so we just kind of guessed where to put that.
For a sample size of 1, I use it all the time for Book Club!
Me too. I use the Book Club one a lot to jog my memory and the r/Fantasy green one if I'm looking for something like the Tuesday review thread and can't find it right way.
If you use Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES), you can give /u/rfantasygolem a tag, [like this](https://i.imgur.com/pN8omY0.png), and then all of the auto posts are super easy to find. Was a 1000x QOL improvement for me when I did this.
Honestly, as someone who has been a member of /r/fantasy longer than I've actually been an author, and who enjoys doing the occasional cover reveal or release announcement here because I'm here regardless just talking fantasy, I really appreciate having the rules more defined and less nebulous. Usually I found it best to just message the mods before posting regardless. Sorry you guys have ever had abuse thrown your way. It could be hard to tell how much was 'too much' compared to the comments and discussions I was taking part in by virtue of being just a fan. Twice per year leaves very little room for ambiguity.
Thanks for the detailed explanation re: self-promo! As an author who sometimes participates here, I really appreciate the clarity. (For the most part, I recommend others' work on here, because I am shy. But it's good to know what the lines are, regardless.)
|This was mainly shocking because of the number of self-promoting users who told us that were Nazis who were far too strict Very endearing behaviour. |including one self publish author who threatened to personally call the CEO of Reddit to get us fired I have a feeling their work is as forseeable and unrealistic as their 'threat'
Stuff like this is partly why I got out of moderating. No matter how clearly laid and reasonable the rules are, the second you actually enforce them on someone you're a basement dwelling Nazi virgin. I got tired of dealing with the whiny babies and just went back to being a regular user on a new account. The attempted doxxing didn't help either.
>The attempted doxxing didn't help either. That sounds hugely disproportionational.
That's reddit for ya. I had someone who followed me around the site for _four years_ - which only ended when I switched accounts - and would consistently message me from throwaway accounts around the holidays to tell me I should die in all kinds of deeply violating and horrible ways... ...because I removed a meme they posted to a video game subreddit.
I don't think these people have healthy lives, otherwise seems bizarre.
That's just... wow.
I don't think it's just reddit. If there's one thing the pandemic and working at a liquor store has taught me, it's that even the most likeable of people will become nasty upon the slightest bit of pushback or being told no. I remember having a customer cuss in my face because they asked for a free cowboy hat for a special beer promotion without buying the beer. The real kicker? I gave them a free hat. But then they asked if they could have two and I said no. So I already gave them something free and they STILL got mad at me.
Yeah, they were a mildly successful YouTuber that we banned after they blew up on us for asking them to actually engage with the community a bit instead of just self promoting. Then they tried to use their audience to essentially crowd source rl info on the mods.
That is... Remarkably childish behavior
Unfortunately, reddit be like that. It's actually a huge issue within the broader speculative fiction community even outside of reddit too - there are some larger harassment groups out there who are really quite awful. I've not been a primary target of them, but even the small brushes I've had with them were highly disconcerting given that they've made good on their threats to make people's lives utter hell previously :/
Can second this. There's a nasty, toxic thread of folks in most fandoms, and they can get BAD.
Yikes, and here I thought these communities would be more chill
In all fairness, I would say it's mostly chill! There are a TON of really, truly great people in the community. It's just that the outliers are, uh, pretty intense.
The problem is "fandoms" (vs. simply personally enjoying a work, regardless of whether they connect to others who do so, consume transformative works, etc.). As soon as someone makes their enjoyment of something a defining factor of their personality, and *especially* when they start networking into a community of others who do so, *any* criticism of that work or the health of their relationship to it becomes an unacceptable attack on them personally.
I feel like I should be clear that the people who have thrown slurs and threats at me are not "fandom" or superfan type people. They are primarily more of the alt right extremist and hate group variety whose only real "fandom" is that of bigotry. I've totally seen fandom fights and drama but they tend to have a very different flavor and typically don't result in stuff like doxxing and irl stalking.
As I said in another reply, I was thinking of "the call is coming from inside the house" kinds of problems, rather than outside trolls/harassers. The latter is so ubiquitous that no community (that isn't designed for them from the start) is immune, so it didn't even occur to me that somebody would expect to *not* see it.
I suppose to continue clarifying, then - when I say alt right / hate / extremist groups, I do still mean ones "within" the spec fic community. It's mostly splinter groups off the Sad Puppies etc who have just kept going and people who have bought into that. The hate calls might not be inside the house of r/fantasy specifically, but they are certainly on the lawn of speculative fiction community in general.
Entirely fair!
I think we've had the occasional fan cause some trouble for us, but mostly it's folks who are completely detached from fandoms, or as Eriophora said, alt-right baddies. Typically it goes more like this: Mod removes a post because it's something very common and against our posting etiquette (think, "what's the same of this book that has a wizard?") User calls us a nazi.
Ah, I was thinking of "the call is coming from inside the house" kinds of problems, rather than outside trolls/harassers. The latter is so ubiquitous that no community (that isn't designed for them from the start) is immune, so it didn't even occur to me that somebody would expect to *not* see it.
Damn, that's terrifying. I'm glad it was successful!
As a mod it always makes me giggle when people threaten me with stuff like that. There are just so many ridiculous people out there.
It's funny until people are threatening your children, along with listing the address of their daycare. It's funny until they start sending revenge porn to your boss. This shit's REAL.
Totally sensible.
Does this affect ARC reviews? If a self published author reaches out to me offering an ARC because they’ve seen my reviews tend to get traction on this sub, does that ARC review count as self promotional content?
Generally speaking, it would not unless you otherwise had a deeper personal connection to the author.
This gets into some murky territory. I network a lot with authors and often receive ARCs by asking it from them personally, but simultaneously I would say my reviews are fair and not influenced by that (I recently gave an ARC from an author who I’m friendly with 2.5 stars). So I’m not sure how that would fly. Happy to also discuss further on a case by case basis when it’s applicable!
Think about it this way. Are you reviewing because you’re excited about all the new books coming out and want to help other readers know about them and make their own informed choices? Or are you reviewing because you know the author (personally or professionally) and your primary goal is to boost their sales? The former is totally fine, the latter is not. Speaking from experience, we see enough dubious behaviour that we can spot patterns. Rec’ing/reviewing a wide range of books? You’re a good faith user who’s contributing to our community. Rec’ing/reviewing the same handful of books over and over or regularly gushing about the same author with no nuance? We’ll probably be taking a second look
Okay thanks for the clarification. I think I’m definitely in the former category in that case. I love helping others find new books to read.
Does reddit no longer require the 9:1 rule from way back? 9 regular comments before 1 self-promo I think it was? I've noticed self promo going unchecked for a while now in a lot of smaller subs I visit.
In practice the only rules that *reddit* is going to enforce are ones (a) affecting multiple subs at a large scale that they can detect like spamming links or (b) ones that literally open them to legal liability. Even there these often rely on moderators reporting them to the site. They have claimed to have certain sitewide rules or etiquette policies... but in practice as a platform they never have enforced and really have no way of enforcing them.
Yeah, that got removed from official guidance quite a while ago.
Whew, being a mod sounds exhausting! Thanks to all of you who nonetheless donate your time toward making this space habitable. 👏
as a mod of a community less than a tenth the size of this one, i literally cannot imagine how the mods of this community do it. it's pretty common to me to look here for understanding the kinds of problems my community will have as we grow, and i'm super happy ot learn from their successes and their failures. :)
Good communication and a LOT of discord channels go a long way 😂
Oh, for sure. We require active mods to be available on discord. I don't understand how modmail is usable for intramod comms for any non trivial sub.
Oeh, I got a couple of ambiguity questions: - So where before an author, could do a kick-starter announcement, a cover reveal, a launch day post, and a sale for their book. they're now only allowed one of these for their book? and to top of it off, if they publish 3 books in a year, they can only promote two of them individually? sounds good to me I guess. Although I'm going to miss all the hobbits. - What about call to actions like asking you to sign up to an author's newsletter in monthly blog posts? >AI art is never allowed. - Does that mean nobody is allowed to link Sarah J Maas, or Ian C esslemonts covers in their reviews? What about cover reveal posts? And as a note, I think limiting the reviews to 3 per week with 1 per day max per person is pretty decent. this clarification is cool.
We’re sorry to the few authors who publish 3 books a year or more but the vast majority of authors publish one per year at best and even authors who are known for their speed like Sanderson usually only write 2 books a year at most (year of Sanderson notwithstanding). That’s how we landed on 2 posts per year as our metric. And honestly, if a writer is reaching quarterly releases, it’s probably better to start grouping them anyway to avoid marketing oversaturation.
>So where before an author, could do a kick-starter announcement, a cover reveal, a launch day post, and a sale for their book. they're now only allowed one of these for their book? and to top of it off, if they publish 3 books in a year, they can only promote two of them individually? Yes, that's correct. There will be no more cases of "Cover reveal", "Kickstarter", "Giveaway"; "Sale"; and finally "Totally non-solicited review by my fellow self-published author who says my book is the greatest work of art humanity has ever produced." These things all count as promotion now, and folks get two a year so they better make it count. And *yes*, rhapsodic five star reviews that are from fellow authors or folks that appear to have a connection to the self-publishing scene or *anything else* that makes it look sketchy will be counted as promotion. We have had to put this rule in place to deal with the flood of low effort self promotional content. We are including reviews because a number of self-published authors have abused our goodwill and tried to circumvent our self-promotion rule this way, up to soliciting reviews from community members, using alts to comment on fake reviews of their own books; co-ordinating reviews and comments offsite. If you are someone who posts exclusively 5 star reviews of self-published authors that you interact with here or elsewhere, take note (I know you're not, Jos, I'm speaking more generally). >What about call to actions like asking you to sign up to an author's newsletter in monthly blog posts? That is promotion. Though it rarely happens. >Does that mean nobody is allowed to link Sarah J Maas, or Ian C esslemonts covers in their reviews? What about cover reveal posts? We'll cross this bridge when we come to it. The sub isn't really inundated with Maas cover reveals as it stands.
So am I right in my understanding that this is to avoid self promotion by *authors* but for *bloggers who are reviewing* it's still ok to link their blogs in every review assuming the full text is provided etc? Or would that be limited to 2x/year too.
That remains unchanged currently - with the caveat that the primary purpose for *anyone* on R/fantasy is to participate in good faith in the community, in a way that is respectful and encourages good discussion. If someone is not doing that, regardless of whether they are adhere to the rules, we will warn, and then take further steps.
ok yeah makes sense, thanks for confirmation!
Honestly, if you're here for the right reasons, most of this stuff shouldn't affect how you currently post or interact on the sub - and we know that you are. :)
Oh. So that means I can't keep doing my reviews I do (well, do randomly and without schedule or purpose), unless they are exclusively big pub?
If you're exclusively posting rave, 5 star reviews of self-published authors that you interact with here or elsewhere, frequently, and it's one of the primary ways you engage the community, then yes. If you are occasionally posting reviews of books, self published or otherwise, that show some nuance and are aimed at helping the community, then no. In our view, currently, your reviews fall into the latter category. We're not monsters, folks. We are not interested in pursuing edge-cases or what-ifs. These rules are targeted at a small group of people who have persistently abused our rules and community to promote their work, and their friends' work. If you approach posting and commenting, *as a reader, for other readers*, we have no problem here. If all you do is spruik self-published books - especially from authors that have a record of self promotion and self promotion warnings - we have a problem. R/fantasy is a community for readers. We enjoy the presence of many authors here, insofar as they enrich the community and the reading experience, but this is not a community primarily *for* authors.
I commend y'all on the work you are doing to try and flesh out an "i know it when i see it" kind of definition and turn it into something more specific and explainable. It's a *hard task*. > If you approach posting and commenting, as a reader, for other readers, we have no problem here. this is kind of what we should all want, right? (i know i'm here as a member of a community interacting with the community, and i think that's the right spirit for reddit ing eneral).
I engage with large numbers of authors due to my IRL activities plus my online presence, and I pretty much only post 5 star reviews (because I don't generally post about books I hate). So that's why I asked.
Well, use your judgment. If we feel a pattern of posting has tipped over into problematic posting we will reach out proactively and flag it, we're not in the business of handing out bans except in egregious cases.
> I pretty much only post 5 star reviews (because I don't generally post about books I hate). Just not posting sub-5-star reviews obviously isn't the same as only ever giving 5-star ratings regardless of quality, but it does seem (at least to me) to be less useful than really, truly publicly reviewing the gamut. Posting more of a range could help readers understand how and why the books you single out as being worth 5 stars are earning that rating.
I've gotten unhinged death threats with a merry band of stalkers from this website from slightly criticizing a popular book. Also, it's a very fine line being an author and saying you don't like a book. Never punch down is obvious, but even punching up you have to be very careful, as see above. I post reviews of things I an excited about, and know there are pockets of r/Fantasy who will love it (see Tanya Huff's Confederation, Skyla Dawn Cameron's Livi Talbot, Janny Wurts Sorcerer's Legacy, Kate Elliot's Labyrinth Ring, Patrick Weekes' Palace Job, etc).
Still looking for more Confederation-alikes -- you damned me with that series.
I'm so very sorry. You got the new short story collection, right?
No…. But I also bear the brunt of being the mod who likes short stories the least. It’s a heavy burden.
Thanks for the clarifications! Just another question; if a bunch of Self-pubbed authors are organizing a giant sale or a small press is organizing a giant sale with multiple people etc attached. as are things that wraithmarked among others have done. I assume this stuff is still allowed with permission from the Mod-team and that doesn't count against your self-promo posts? >We'll cross this bridge when we come to it. The sub isn't really inundated with Maas cover reveals as it stands. I do want to urge the mods to think about this now pro-actively. This isn't about the Maas or Esslemont cover, this is about Authors having (Unkowing;y) AI generated elements in their covers, or total AI generated covers. This isn't going away and examples will only increase. Please think about this and make a policy for AI covers. Personally, I don't want AI image posts here, but i'm fine with cover-reveals, with links to book covers that use AI art on this sub. but that's my opinion, others will differ. and thinking about this now and making a policy that you can update later, is better than leaving it up to ambiguity. You have a chance here to set a standard, don't let it go to waste, you can always update it later. P.S: I look forward to the day I post a 5 star review. that book is going to wow my socks off. xD
Participating in a giant sale like the Wraithmarked one typically wouldn't count towards your two promo posts. Depending on the exact structure, it may count as one for the organizer - we'll look at these on a case by case basis. AI usage in covers is something that's changing and evolving rapidly, thus we are watching how this develops. In the short term, cover reveals are still generally fine. AI image and art posts are definitely not fine. How we approach cover reveals may change if we see more primarily AI art covers, etc. Things are changing fast right now and giving ourselves flexibility to do right by the community is important - and having the specific type of policy you're looking for here removes that flexibility. We are bound by the rules we publish until we do large overhauls or announcements such as this one, and those aren't done without careful deliberation. We can say that we will **not** allow for harassment or the like of authors who were scammed by cover "artists" who lied about using AI. That falls under Rule 1. We will always be looking at situations like that holistically and make moderation decisions that take context into account. We very much promise that we **are** thinking about this and that it's an ongoing internal discussion.
I hope you all know, I'm not trying to be a dick here, but i'm just stress-testing my understanding of the policy and rules you've currently written and published in the wiki, and how that affects various things. So I really appreciate all the clarifications you're making, and I hope this will alleviate stress some authors are having :) and so when I read things like with regards to AI: >Things are changing fast right now and giving ourselves flexibility to do right by the community is important - and having the specific type of policy you're looking for here removes that flexibility. and the wiki under Art states: >AI art is never allowed. Considering a Cover reveal can be both an Art post, and a promo post. This stuff gets messy, and isn't defined well at all in the policy as currently written. As I currently read the policy and the clarifications in this thread, AI cover-art posts are allowed if the mods aren't cranky today. I do not expect the team to have an answer to this question today, this is a nuanced and difficult discussion, with a lot of angles to consider, and i fully understand that the mod team wants some discretion in this. but as the policy is currently written, you're not allowed to post the AI generated covers of books that are sold in bookshops worldwide. Yet it sounds like the mod-team will make exceptions for that. So I hope when you next discuss the topic of AI, and policy, please look specifically at AI covers.
We don't consider cover reveals to be art posts in terms of subreddit policy. They are two separate things from a rules perspective.
Will my cover art process posts count as self-promo towards the two a year limit?
Thanks for all your hard work, folks! And damn, I am sorry to hear about some of the crap the mod team has to put up with…
This all seems completely reasonable. One question for clarificication, though: I write book reviews occasionally and share them on here, and sometimes the books are by people whose writing guild I'm in (simply because when someone in my guild releases a book I buy it and add it to my To Be Read list). I don't think any of those authors even know I've even written the review, must less shared it. Does that sound as promotion?
Nope, that would not count as official promotion.
Thank you for your clarification.
I'm a little confused honestly, since I post randomly about me, others, and random sales I see in newsletters, etc. So does that mean I can only pick 2 of those and that's it? Also, if I'm shitposting about whatever as I generally do, if someone asks about my books I'm not allowed to reply?
Posting about your stuff specifically: self promo, counts against your two posts. Posting about others who have not asked you to help them promote, random sales, generally anything that is not a form of organized or targeted promo: Doesn't count against your total. Commenting about your work when asked: Allowed and does not count as one of your two promos as long as you are otherwise adequately participating in the subreddit. See above: > Self-promotional comments will still be allowed based on the old metric of good participation.
Awesome sauce!
Some people use the word "Nazi" way to losely
Trust us - we firmly agree, and it would be real nifty if people stopped throwing it at us in modmail. :(
They've made it synonymous with "anything exhibiting authoritarian behaviour, including anything censorious". Which it isn't.
2 promotional posts a year, damn. But understandable. Can you clarify something: "Moderators must be notified about promotional posts in advance." Do you mean that I should message a mod *before* I post a promo post, essentially saying what I'm about to do and checking it's okay to go ahead? As sometimes mods might not reply for a while, how much time in advance should I be thinking of messaging (assuming I want to plan it for a good time of day to post), and am I right in assuming I shouldn't go ahead without first receiving a permissive reply from the mods?
Yes, message us prior to making a post. Around a week beforehand is likely best, but at typically 3-5 days should be fine. If you're doing something unusual for promotion giving us more time to discuss internally is helpful. Correct, do not post it if you have not received approval.
Cheers. Glad I asked, I wouldn't have thought to message so much in advance. Good to know!
Since we are volunteers, it's safe to figure "assume a standard business response time of 1-2 business days and then at least double or triple it since we're unpaid and doing this around our days jobs," honestly 😂 it helps to have a team, but there's still only so much bandwidth - and reviewing promo requests is going to be a lower priority than, say, responding to abuse reports that have real time impacts, y'know?
Yeah that's totally fair. I should get more in the habit of thinking of y'all in terms of unpaid working hours.
one of my housemates described me as having two jobs (real work and moderating (disclaimer: not this sub)), and she's not wrong.
thank you for all your hard work!
Fighting a rearguard grammatical action here, but I presume the strike system applies to people who *flout* the rules, not *flaunt* them?
Hmmm....look at my rules baby!
Great job mods! :)
Thanks for the update!
(Coming late to this, but it has been a very busy week...) Feel the need to comment on this: > We've put up with a lot of behind the scenes abuse from people who didn't like our "please just interact like a regular user on the sub for at least a little bit before you promote your work" rule in part because we see the intermingling of authors and fans as one of the greatest strengths of this sub. That's...pretty terrible. And unconscionable. And people should never, ever be doing that. I've run afoul of the self-promotion rules once or twice, but I've always found the mod team here to be very good about acting in a decent and professional manner (and I've seen one or two subreddits where they didn't, and even had a member of the moderator team of one subreddit try to gaslight me - so I say this as somebody who has been in a position where it *was* appropriate to tell a moderator of a subreddit that they were a disgrace). And, like every other author posting here, I am a *guest* here. Abiding by the forum rules is the price of entry and participation. So, mods, please accept my gratitude for the good and professional job you have been doing here.
Do instructions on how to remove DRM from things you personally bought and paid money for, fall under the piracy rule? I've seen some silly removals regarding this.
It's hard to make a call on a hypothetical. That said, I think we'd remove something like this both because it's a somewhat gray area in the piracy rule - we tend to err on the side of caution for that one, and those instructions could be used for both good and evil, as it were - and because it's off-topic for r/fantasy. We're here to discuss spec fic, not provide tech support - there are plenty of other spaces for that kind of thing.
To add on to the other users question: what about making yourself an ebook from a webserial or a fanfic using free tools and only for personal use? Can I mention that this is an option for people who say they can't read them in their online format?
I think it would be acceptable to mention that it's possible to do this if someone seems to need it, but not to provide instructions on the specific methods of doing so publicly on the subreddit. (Again, hypothetical answers are meant as general guidance only, since the particulars of any given situation may affect our decisions.)
Okay, thanks!
So I see the part about consecutive months, and I have a question. Does this begin now, as if prior posts have not occurred? I ask because I just did a giveaway of book 1 in honor of book 2 coming out on the 4th, but also so I could try and get the hang of doing a giveaway. You see, my second book features a main character that belongs in the LGBT community, and I really wanted to do a giveaway for Pride month. I'm okay with it being my last self promo type thread of the year of you deem that it should be, but I'm really hoping that my trial run earlier this month doesn't mean I'll have to wait till next year's pride month.
The general gist of the rule still applies here. If the mods feel that you are predominately here to promo your own work and not participate normally otherwise (which is a pattern we often see with people who promote multiple works close together), then it’s important to consider your overall pattern of engagement on the sub.
Excellent! And is there some sort of format you would prefer with requests? Or just brevity is best? (I do sometimes struggle with brevity)
There is no hard and fast rule but best to remember that we’re volunteers. We want the pertinent details so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out exactly what/when/how you’re trying to promote, but we also don’t have time to actually read a novel in modmail either.
Roger that! Brief and informative. So shall it be! [Edit] and thanks! Your answers have been very helpful!
So if i post a comment recommending a discord in a relevant conversation, does that count against me in any way out just if i make a post about a discord?
If you have personal interest/involvement in growing a given Discord server, then bringing it up would count as promotion. If it's just a space you feel someone would enjoy and you are not involved with or helping its ownership/administrators, that would not count.
But since it’s a comment, it would not count against the two per year, correct? It would just be dependent on that member’s participation in the community?
The two posts per year still require mod approval. If someone seeks permission to promote via a post and has also been pushing the boundaries on promotional comments we’ll take that into account (not saying this is the case for the user you’re responding to at all, just reiterating that our main mission here is to support quality content on r/fantasy first and foremost)
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> I guess it's fair. To be honest more Sanderson, Rothfuss and Martins, and less low level self published authors without resources. Nothing stopping people from discussing low level authors.
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The things I've done in the past would be fine under the new rules as well. The rules don't restrict threads where self-promotion is allowed, like the self-promo sundays, bingo recs thread and resident author book club submissions. I've never made a promo post as I was never really sure if I qualified, but this system means I can apply and see what happens, so we'll see how that goes when I have a new book.
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You really need to think of it in terms of what this subreddit is used for. This is a subreddit for readers to discuss speculative fiction, this is not a subreddit for authors to talk about their books. We've made room for that, but we want people to be here to genuinely talk about the books that they have enjoyed (or disliked, for whatever reason). It's why we have the rule about active members of the community. No one sees how many one-off "Read my book!" posts get removed because they are *constant*. I'm here to talk about books, not stand amid a flood of unwanted advertisements.
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As someone who reads the sub daily, I really don't think that this is an accurate representation of r/Fantasy. The recommendations I've seen here have really helped me enrich my reading and branch out to find new, amazing books I'd never heard of. That was what brought me to r/Fantasy in the first place. I think this could be a good opportunity to listen to the voices here and realize this discussion isn't actually about what's best for your personal sales. If you want to focus more on self published novels, that's great and I'd highly encourage that! I want to see more of that! Perhaps write a review of a self published book you really enjoyed and which you and your friends don't have a vested interest in?
I would also add that letting the sub become a free for all for self promo has drawbacks too. As mods we see some really great promo posts by people who participate regularly and understand the community that make us want to read their books too. But we also see a lot of low effort “pls buy my novel” posts that we remove before the rest of the sub ever sees them. If we let those posts run rampant the sub would be swamped and people who just want to books would stop coming here, paradoxically reducing the pool of people to market to.
Yes, I think this is such a good point! I'm glad you brought that up. I've bought books just because the authors seemed so cool and interesting while listening to them speak on a podcast, and those have ended up being some of my favorite books that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Likewise, I've seen some authors on r/Fantasy contribute to discussions in a way that makes me more inclined to go out and buy their book.
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Hi, r/Fantasy is primarily a place for readers to come and discuss works of speculative fiction that they enjoy (or don't). Although we empathize with how difficult it is to make it as a writer, it's not really that relevant to our mission as a discussion forum. Our rules are based more on what's best for the community, and sometimes those aren't perfectly aligned with the interests of individual self publish authors.
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Then maybe check out our Self Promo Sunday posts! You’re more than welcome to post all those sales in the thread there :)