Freebee seekers taking liberties

I'm not alone then, and I'm not surprised. Perhaps I should look into partnering with one or two people (reviewers/editors). When someone pushes things I could at least earn an affiliate commission. Its amazes me what people think one is qualified to do once your name gets out there. I'm an author, not an editor. And anyone who looked at my post history here would know I'm certainly not qualified to offer advice about building websites!

Well, the lady is a go getter... what´s wrong with that?

I have a small community and many who jump in automatically wants to be my new best friend, not because I am so great, but because of what I represent.

In some cases, we do become really good friends. In some others, don´t. But I always try to solve their urgent problems, we build a huge set of information and there is always a place where I can send them to read or watch videos.

What I would recommend you is to work over the inner conflict here. New writers do need someone to read their novels and give advice. They need someone to check their plans. There are only some hours in the day and you can´t do it all by yourself and make a living. So you have an interesting conundrum.

How about creating the means for them to solve their problem? for example, create a peer pool where authors or readers are willing to be the first reader of novels (by category helps), and people can connect with each other to make it happen.

You can do this open or closed, and choose the people among those who contact you who are trustworthy ("Ok, I read your novel, but you have to read the novel of another new writer" And to the next one, you say you don´t have time, but you can send it over to someone who is willing to read and give advice).

And don´t forget to learn from them. What you are learning from the interaction with this lady can be a wonderful new book to offer to the community.

Just my 0.02 cents...

Sandra

I do. I reply to everyone who contacts me, and offer my advice whenever I can. My rant was about those who seem to come back time after time, and really seem to assume you have little else to do but mentor them for free. The crux of my point is whenever I interact with people, particularly if its regarding something which may be beneficial to me, the fact that I am imposing on their time is always at the forefront of my mind. It just disappoints me a significant minority of visitors to my site don't think the same way.

Taking a little time to help people has produced great rewards for me.

In my life as a whole and not just in IM, it seems the more I give away, the more I get in return.

People in general are loyal even if they don't realize it. They will remember the person that went over and above for them.

That being said, you still have to set boundaries.

I would take the opportunity they provide to earn some money. "I will be happy to read your book. The current rate for this type of work is $x, I will be happy to do it for 20% less then the going rate."

Or something like that.