I teach courses and mentor writers out of love. I genuinely like helping writers. But my job isn't teaching. It is writing books. Selling books pays my mortgage. It feeds my kid. It pays my vet bills. Teaching, I do to help others, and maybe earn an extra bit of cash.

If I sell enough books, I will get another contract to write more books. My livelihood depends on sales figures. Not teaching.

So yeah, when I teach, I use my books as examples. I point out that they are for sale. Because that is literally my primary job.

Quite often, I donate my teaching services for free, to help out, to raise money for charity, or to assist with a project I love. Or I step in at the last minute. I'm also damn good at it. The techniques I teach are all used in creating the novels I write.

So yup—I shamelessly mention my own books when I teach. If you don't like it: think of it as a commercial break in incredibly high-quality educational programming. And also think of it as me, trying to keep a career that I love, and also feed my kid. Thank you for your patience.

Also, if you wouldn't walk up to an author in person and tell her to her face that you won't buy her book, please refrain from doing so by @-ing her on Twitter or in the workshop chat while she is trying to work, because it is pretty damn rude.