Amazon recently created a new community for authors. The `Meet Our Authors' community is designed to give authors a space to engage with one another and promote their latest and greatest works.

With the advent of the new community, we will no longer allow self promotional posts in other communities. Starting on December 15, 2011, all "shameless self promotion" activity will be limited to the `Meet Our Authors' community. Promotional threads outside of these forums will be removed.

We invite authors and interested readers to come join the discussion at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/forum/meet%20our%20authors

We look forward to seeing you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you very very much.

See, Father Christmas DOES exist after all.

I wonder why they didn't make this sticky?

Does that include plugs for reptile-related blogs? I mean, there may still be a grey area of shamelessly self-promoting posts on threads not originally intended for that purpose.

Will this be the phase on the forum when the kids have suddenly grown up and left, and we have to find something to talk about again?

Thanks - that was exactly what I was calling for months ago.

Offering 2/5 the OP disappears due to 'not adding to the discussion'.

Not so much a matter of having grown up as of their having been given an exclusive bouncy-ball playroom. Sorry, it means They kind of get someplace were they can throw plastik ball's and stuff like that and feel like their Writers and talk about how good they are ad sell stuff.

Merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2012!

Looking at these comments I wonder whether there will be any intelligent discussions left as these seem generally immature and spiteful.
I reiterate the above comment however, Merry Christmas and look forward to the quality of discussions for 2012 with baited breath!

About f***ing time.

Before Amazon launched KDP Select, they consulted some of the top US indie writers. It would have been nice if users of this forum had been able to put their views before changes were made to it.

I feel this is a knee jerk reaction to a vocal but tiny minority who dislike self-publishers.

Lexi Revellian

"I feel this is a knee jerk reaction to a vocal but tiny minority who dislike self-publishers."

I think the opposite is true. Reading the posts (in Fiction and especially the Kindle forums), you would imagine most forum users are authors. But I believe there is a silent majority of readers who are sick and tired of all these plugs. You only have to look at the Yes/No votes on self-promotion threads to see that the majority don't want them.

Shelagh Watkins seems very happy about it - a place where these guys can have their own gang without any nasty readers spoiling the fun. If I was feeling cynical, I'd say that's self-publishing all over.

Lex,
Seriously - don't you think it's better to separate all that mutual affirmation and marketing out from discussions about books from the reader's point of view? And you surely can't think it's okay to let self-publicisers (as opposed to self-publishers) infest every thread, whether readers want them or not? Now, if they want to hear from them, they know where to come.

I'm saddened about the MOA type forum as I truly believe it will harm our choice, width and breadth of work, make it harder to find this site unless in the know, as readers. Then it could harm author's potential for sales by limiting their opportunities for informing us the public about their work and ultimately lower the quality of novels produced as people
will be more reluctant to, write, self publish, get their work edited or proof read. Oh the short sightedness of those who complained and Amazon for listening and pandering to the
sycophants without putting it out for a general vote to all who enjoy or participate in these threads and discussions and basing the decision on this as opposed to a vociferous moaning minority. What's up folk if it annoyed you why didn't you just ignore it but leave it to the others who found some of their reading material and the odd exciting new author from their adds. I feel you have been selfish and short sighted. Time will tell.
I wonder how many will even understand what they've done. :0(

Totally agree, Lexi! The MOA on the US side has been in effect for several months and IMHO isn't serving the indie authors well at all.

Realizing that the customers (readers) are more important than the writers, Amazon could have come up with a better solution.

J. Yasimoto...all that would've been necessary was to hit the ignore button.

gille - uh...I think you meant Lexi...not me?

One of us should think of changing their name...lol. Kidding.

Oops, sorry...I'm doing it again!

Lex, I get confused when I see your posts!

J. Yasimoto, I didn't spam, and nor did most authors. I too found it irritating when a book plug landed smack in the middle of a forum conversation - but that didn't happen all that much, and when it did, the post was usually voted out of sight. I used to chat with a link to my books in case anyone was interested below my name, twelve letters that was easy to ignore.

Lexi Revellian (not Lex)

It may harm authors, conceivably, but I don't believe it will harm readers.

You say 'ignore it', but it's not that simple. It seems to have become impossible to have a discussion on this forum - everything turns into a sales pitch; and you start to suspect peoples' motives, thinking that whatever they post is really to draw attention to themselves and their product.

I haven't complained to anyone, but I think people have voted, both - as JY says - with the buttons, and with their feet by not participating. Don't you think it's a little conceited to insinuate that this is some kind of loss to mankind? I know it's hard for authors to get a hearing, and I do sympathise, but those on here have been abusing a forum which was intended for a different purpose. We don't want it, and the new arrangement has to be an improvement.

That's exactly what I mean - your every post is a plug for yourself. Don't you see how that pollutes discussion? It's like Children in Need, you end up feeling that everything is completely insincere.

And I suppose when Mr. Won't-Give-Up knocks on your door imploring you to change utility supplier, I just ignore him. Or when Mrs. Favourite-Aunt and Miss Apprentice-Brainwash grin at you, clutching The WatchTower, I just ignore them.

They're harmless enough I suppose. But I doesn't stop me wanting to blow their brains out with my (imaginary) double barrelled shotgun. Cold callers are cold callers. And unwelcome.

It will be interesting to see how many authors will continue to "chat" on other forums when there's little inducement to do so.

It is too simplistic to blame the removal of promotional material from the normal forums on a handful of "anti-SP" readers. Most readers, myself included, have a great deal of respect for writers (after all, where would we be without them). However, there has been an ever-growing trend by some (not all) writers to use these forums as advert hoardings, saturating threads with often very uninspiring (and sometimes badly written) plugs. Apart from any irritation this causes readers, I imagine it must be very frustrating for more responsible authors because so much of the material plastered across these threads reinforces prejudices against self-publishing. It is also unfair - spamming and advertising has always been against forum guidelines - and those writers who abuse the system may gain an unmerited sales advantage over fellow writers who treat it with respect.