I finally, finally got around to seeing what Ravelry is all about. I have been a member for over a year, but have never really had the time to sit down and figure it all out. There are a million sock groups there, and I went looking around alot of them. Many are about one specific sock book, so I clicked here and there, and there was information about the book, a picture of it, where you can buy it, posts announcing where the author will be teaching, book signing, etc. To me, it was a form of advertising, but also in the same token, informational. And I took no offense.
So......I decided, based on what I had seen, to post a few messages at various sock groups announcing the arrival of my new book. Apparently, I worded one of them in such a way that a few members thought I was trying to self-promote my new book. All of us self-promote in some way, but for me, I assumed that people are interested when a new book comes out, and I meant my post to be merely informational.
Whenever the topic of my books come up, 9 times out of 10 someone will ask me about them. I don't think they are doing it to be merely polite; I think they geniunely want to know about them. I know that I am always interested in a new knitting book, and I seek out descriptions of it, where to buy it, etc.
All of this has gotten me quite stressed out. Those of you that have had me as a teacher know that I am just a pushover for kids and animals, and I really don't have a mean or bad bone in my body. I sometimes think that email, computer posts, etc can be so misunderstood, because you don't have the person's facial expressions to help you figure out what they really mean. People often just misinterpret the real meaning, over-analyze it, or read into it far too much.
I will try to post while on the road, but unless there is free wi-fi, I am much too cheap to pay, so will post when I get home.
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