By Amber Schamel
To Goodreads, or not to Goodreads…that seems to be a question. Since it’s one of my all time favorite sites, I thought I’d address this question and give 5 reasons why I think authors should consider joining and interacting on the site.
- Goodreads is especially for book lovers!
To market our books, we first have to find places where readers hang out. Goodreads is a unique social media that was created especially for people who read and love books. So, guess what? Everyone on Goodreads is there because they read. Goodreads helps readers organize their virtual book shelves, track their reading, reviews and progress, set reading goals, and it also helps them find new books. Goodreads is a place readers congregate, therefore somewhere we, as authors, will want to have a presence.
- There’s a LOT of them on there.
As of January 2016, Goodreads had 40 million members and featured 1.3 billion books and 47 million reviews. Guys, this is a platform with 40 million book lovers.
- Not only that, but they’re also smart and talkative book lovers.
Polls and statistics conducted on Goodreads users shows that most of the individuals on there tend to have higher levels of education and talk about the books that they’re reading. The Goodreads interface encourages reviews, and most of the time Goodreads users will at least leave a star rating if not a review of the books they read.
- Readers go to Goodreads with the purpose to review and find new books.
The slogan for Goodreads is “Meet your next favorite book.” Apparently, this has caught on, because a recent poll by Random House showed that 70% of readers use Goodreads to find new books. The whole reason that users go here is to find new books and because they also want to talk to people about the books their reading. It’s the nature of the Goodreads community.
Goodreads has recommendation algorithms similar to Amazon, but it also goes a step further by showing me what my friends are reading and allowing them to send me recommendations.
Goodreads is fun, because it allows me to track my progress as I read a book. When I mark the book as finished, I can add it to my shelves (such as my favorites shelf) and it also invites me to leave a star rating and a review, and also to recommend the book to any friends I think might enjoy it. It’s seriously a bookish fairyland on the internet.
- Goodreads is very author friendly.
AND, probably the best news for us, is that Goodreads is super author friendly. They have a monthly newsletter for authors that discusses the different features of Goodreads, how to reach readers on the site, and discusses the publishing industry. It allows authors to interact with readers in many different ways. You can set up an author profile that lists all your books, your bio, allows readers to ask you questions and connect with you, etc. You can join groups that are genre specific, run giveaways to promote your books, add videos like book trailers or interviews, and there’s even an advertising interface that lets you run pay-per-click ads to get your book in front of more people.
Hopefully by now you’re at least considering your presence on Goodreads, but I will tell you, it isn’t for everybody. If you’re interested in learning more about Goodreads or how to use it and would like to receive a free PDF on “How to determine if Goodreads is a fit for you” sign up for this free Goodreads newsletter. http://eepurl.com/c3ITc9
Amber Schamel writes riveting stories that bring HIStory to life. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior. This combination results in what her readers call “historical fiction at its finest”. Her title, Dawn of Liberty, was awarded the 2017 CSPA Book of the Year award in Historical Fiction. She lives in Colorado and spends half her time volunteering in the Ozarks. Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at www.AmberSchamel.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!
Comments 2
The big problem I have with good reads is that when a reader searches for my name and I get to my author page, so many books come up that I didn’t write. Martha Rogers is the author, but it’s not me, and I haven’t figured out to get them off. I’ve been on it for a number of years and get a lot of “to be read” and very few reviews.
Hello Martha,
Thanks for leaving a comment with your experience!
The Goodreads librarians are super helpful with issues like this. Here’s a link to a thread where you can request to have those books removed from your profile, since you’re not the author.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1012358-delete-a-book-from-my-list
“To be read” is really great, because every time someone adds your book to their ‘want to read’ shelf, it shows up in their friend’s newsfeeds and creates more exposure for your book. Not everyone who reads your book will leave reviews, of course, but I have found that a lot of folks will. Goodreads is a platform, just like Facebook, Twitter or anything else, so it does take work to grow your reviews and readership.