Thinking of posting your poem on your Facebook page? Are you serializing your short stories on your blog? Reposting an already published essay on your official author website?

Wait!

Before you post anything else, you must follow some basic rules (and avoid certain pitfalls) in order to avoid getting yourself into hot water down the line.

Most of us who aspire to be career writers are active promoters (or at least, we’re thinking about promoting). Even if you’re not in the “giving book signings” phase, you may be in the “attracting an agent” phase.

It’s only natural that we want people to notice our writing. Adults aren’t much different than children when we’re proud of our work (“Hey Mom! Look at me!”). Lucky for us, social networks like Twitter and Facebook can be a great way to help people get to know our writing.

But here’s the thing: There’s a right way and a wrong way to promote your writing on interactive websites (like social networks, forums, and blogs). And we’ve seen writers do some pretty embarrassing and desperate things to get attention.

Not all writers are annoying. But those who are make the rest of us look bad.

So here are eleven things you should never-ever-in-a-million-years do when you’re promoting your writing online.