You probably know that Amazon bought GoodReads at the end of March. A week before that, I had the pleasure to meet Patrick Brown, Director of Community at GoodReads, when he came to lunch at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto. Brown spoke about the GoodReads Author Program and offered some great tips for authors on GoodReads.
1. GoodReads has a free Author Program
You can use it to post videos and interviews, write a blog, host giveaways, and create a quiz about your book.
2. The best way to promote your book on GoodReads is to host a giveaway.
Brown recommends giving away as a many books as you can because the more books you offer, the more reviews you’re likely to get.
3. You can learn how to build your author platform on GoodReads by watching this slideshow.
4. When readers are looking for new books to read, they're turning to GoodReads.
The New York Times reported in February that GoodReads was "exploding in popularity and rivaling Amazon.com as a platform for promoting new books.” Guess that's why Amazon bought it!
6. Although you can't yet buy books directly from GoodReads, you can click on links that will take you to all the popular online bookstores.
6. GoodReads users doubled in 2012 from 6 million to 12 million.
With 15 million current members, GoodReads expects to see rapid, exponential growth in 2013 as well.
7. Half of GoodReads users fall in the 13-30 age range.
GoodReads has a strong user base of members over 50 as well. (Editor’s note: Forty-year-olds are too busy raising kids to read.)
8. A large percentage of authors on GoodReads are self-published.
9.GoodReads book reviews show up not only on GoodReads, but also on the Sony, Google, Kobo, Powell’s, and USA Today websites.
10.Longer reviews by active GoodReads users are given more weight than reviews like "Great book!" by users who have no GoodRead friends and rarely review books.
What about you? Do you use GoodReads? Are you a member of the Author Program? How have you used it to promote your book(s)?
Thank you so much for this information. I am a member of Goodreads, but now I need to become more active as an author.
Karen
I hope you're right, Tasha.
I think Amazon will be smart in how they handle Goodreads. It's a great place for them to data mine. I'm sure syncing things with a kindle, kindle app, and Amazon wishlist are all likely. I suspect we will see more ads although that trend started months ago. If they do too much with GR they will lose too many readers and authors and since they bought it to have access to reading data I don't think they will do anything to drive people away. Of course it will be 6-18 months before we know how things will really fall out.
Wendy - That's great news that you heard Patrick Brown speak. I guess the big question is: How will GoodReads be affected by the Amazon buyout?
Mary - Congrats on your first GoodReads giveaway! Thank for letting us know about it, and I'm glad this post was helpful.
I just heard Patrick Brown speak at the Muse and the Marketplace Conference 2013 here in Boston. He was fantastic--very generous and approachable--and truly willing to help de-mistify Goodreads.
Hi Meghan, I enjoyed this post. I am a member of goodreads and just hosted a giveaway. So far it seems to be going well. http:/
Sally - Did Khaled Hosseini answer your question? Does GoodReads draw all the submitted questions from an electronic hat to submit to the author? I love when authors are accessible.
Tasha - I love the design of GoodReads, but haven't set up an author account myself. It's a great platform for book recommendations, which reminds me that I really want to read The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson.
Jennifer - You're welcome!
Olga - I know, we were all disappointed by Amazon's purchase. I hope it doesn't change much aside from the ads.
GoodReads is a fantastic source for readers and writers alike. For instance I was asked if I wanted to submit an interview question to Khaled Hosseini because I had given his books 5 stars. Naturally, I did so, wondering if he cried when he wrote and then read his exquisite passages about friendship and loyalty.
I love GR although I've yet to publish a book. But I have no doubt that when I do the friends I've made from participating in groups in within my genre. Great tips above. I've already had help setting up an author account so friends/readers/authors are following me and my blog is linked in. It's a lot of fun once you get used to the interface.
Thank you for the great tips Meghan! I just recently joined GoodReads, so I haven't had a chance to do much with it yet, but I've heard great things!
Thanks for the post about GoodReads, Meghan. I'm a member of GoodReads and I love the site: its reviews, its great database of books (which doesn't slide into lingerie or appliances, as Amazon does), and its social atmosphere. I can say that many GoodReads members were not very happy about the sale to Amazon. It's already started cluttering the site with unrelated ads.
I haven't yet avail myself with the site's promotional capabilities, but I will. Soon. What else you can expect from a procrastinator like me?