I've faced criticism for recommending my own authored book as a recommendation in certain subs. Redditors kept pushing the thought that even to take the name of my book is promotion. Not because I mentioned the book in every comment or every reply; I only did if something felt genuinely related, I mentioned my book as a general recommendation.
That's true and I agree that being a creative person I definitely have a personal attachment, a better understanding of the content than a general book. Yet, I never intended to push my book as an unwanted advertisement waiting to be skipped.
Although, I kept wondering 3 things after the constant criticism:
- Is an author's recommendation for his/her own work not valid (even if the subject is truly related)?
- Is talking about one's own book (in a related discussion) self-obsession or promotion?
- Is promotion (in general) in a decent manner also wrong?
What should I do? Ignore those redditors? Or make myself a person who must not utter anything related to the book?