For the launch of the latest novel I paid for some advertising. And one of the advertisers happens to list the books it promotes next to other popular books and make kind comments about the book being promoted. Well, I shared one of those posts on my Facebook page and then a friend saw it and shared it with a quote from the kind comments they made.
Now, they made those comments. That’s legitimately what they said. And they do have the book in their possession, so it’s quite possibly legitimately what they believe. But at the same time I happen to know that the whole reason for that comment and the whole post was to promote my book (and possible another book or two).
Of course, to someone like my friend who doesn’t know about what’s happening behind the scenes it looks like some third-party chose my book alongside a number of other far more popular and established books.
There’s a part of me that wants to jump in on the comments and make a deprecating comment about the whole thing explaining it to my friend. And there’s a part of me that just wants to let it go because who knows who might see that post from my friend and give the book a shot and help it get off its feet. (Which was the whole point of paying for the advertising in the first place, right?)
I tell ya. I wish I could just write what I like to write and have magical fairies come along and sell it for me and then I just collect the money and pay my bills so I can keep writing.
M.H. Lee 
The way I look at it, eventually our writing is going to take on a life of its own beyond our control. And that includes how it gets promoted, who gets a hold of it, and how they discuss it and tell others about it. Publicity is good, especially if it is good publicity.
The best we can do, in my opinion, is try to influence the direction our books go once they are ‘out’. Make sure no one does anything reprehensible to tarnish it. Beyond that, I’d say let it grow organically and see where this posting/advertisement goes 🙂 Just my two cents.
I write a book with a sombre theme; a reader downloads it because they loved the sample; halfway through they still love it and intend to tell everyone; three-quarters of the way through their partner is hit by a falling reindeer and killed; they pick up something cheerful and, even after they are over the initial grief, unconsciously avoid finishing my book; if someone specifically mentions my book, they reply that they never finished it.
Authors can’t create the good reviews that didn’t come because the reindeer didn’t fly, or explain the context of people not finishing. So perhaps we shouldn’t feel so bad when someone else does get the sleigh off the ground.
Sorry I never replied to this one. I’ve been a bad blogger lately. Good point. I just need to think about flying reindeer more often…Haha.