Self-promotion vs Spam

Not long ago, I deleted 46 spam comments from the blog.  Yesterday, I deleted 42. Thankfully blogger catches them before they get posted to the comment section but I still have to go in ever so often, check the "spam" comments and either delete them or say they aren't spam. I wonder if whoever, and there has to be a whoever involved somewhere, thinks I'll really buy cheap viagra, valium or any number of whatever drugs they are peddling.

And my email...right now there are almost 1,200 spam items listed. Ranging from cheap viagra and cheap insurance to miracle cures for just about every disease to the pleas for help moving large amounts of money (which I'll get part of if I give them my account info). Again, I wonder, just what are these people thinking.

I've even gotten spam on my cell phone, on Twitter and Facebook. Don't these people have a real job? Don't they have better things to do?

I will say, I have found a use for the spam email. I go through and come up with character names. Usually I'll take a first name from one and a last from another, but it still is an easy way to see how names look.

Here's where I'm going with this...

As an author with several published works and a new novel coming out next month, I have to promote my writing. If people don't know about it, they won't know to buy it. And that's a loss for both of us.

But where does it go from self-promotion to spam? If I send everyone on my email list a short email letting them know I have a new book out, is that spam? Probably not to most on the list but I'm sure one or two might consider it so.

How many times can I post about my book on Facebook or Twitter before it becomes spam and too much? One, two, ten...?

And what about those groups and websites that want you to promote on them? Is one post a week fine but two in the same week spam?

I don't have any answers. Not really, anyway.  What do you think? How do you balance self-promotion to avoid spam?