by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve talked about Goodreads a little bit here before. It hasn’t been a huge part of my online platform, but after reading a few posts in January about how important Goodreads is becoming for authors, I decided to try to become a little more involved there.
As I’ve mentioned before, Goodreads can be scary for writers. Actually….Goodreads stresses me out. The reviewers are tough and you’ll find the average ratings a bit lower than you’ll see on Amazon (which, actually, probably reflects a more genuine review system and reviews that are more on-the-mark.) Just be prepared and steel yourself.
I’d set up my Goodreads account in 2007 and basically forgot about it once I did. I felt like it was enough to have a presence there….like I have a presence on LinkedIn. So I set up my blog to feed over to Goodreads, I listed all my books over there (which wasn’t particularly intuitive, I didn’t think), then I left it. I didn’t really want to review books, didn’t really want to share what I was reading, and I felt awkward interacting as a reader there because I’m a writer—it’s sort of like crashing a party.
I saw an infographic that Goodreads put out about their 2012 and the amount of growth the site had seen. I’d also heard authors on several of the email loops that I’m on talk about successful giveaways they’d hosted on the site. They boast that 40,000 people enter giveaways on their site daily and that the giveaways increase awareness of our books.
I’d never checked into the giveaways program at Goodreads because I assumed that the process would be time-consuming and require a lot of oversight on my part.
Instead—it’s easy. It took me about three minutes to fill out the form for the giveaway. The longest part of the process was just me remembering what my username and password were.
A note: Goodreads requires that these be physical books, not ebooks. I’m wondering if they’ll change that rule before long.
The next screen looks like this:
Then you save it:
Goodreads randomly selects winners and after your giveaway end date, they send you the winners and their addresses. If you don’t send the books, you’ll end up on some sort of Goodreads blacklist. Authors can’t store the winners’ info for mailing lists, etc.
Goodreads recommends that authors give ten copies away…but I didn’t. I’m keeping it at three and will see how it goes.
They also recommend doing two giveaways of the same title: one several months before the sale date and one that runs for a month when the book launches. I honestly didn’t see the value in that, however. If someone thinks they might win a copy of my book, why would they purchase it? I’ve set my giveaway to last for a week.
The Goodreads giveaway is free, although they (naturally) encourage writers to buy ads to promote the giveaway. I didn’t buy an ad. The only cost is the physical copies of the books (mine were author copies), and the cost of postage (I kept the giveaway restricted to residents of the United States.)
More general information on Goodreads:
The Goodreads author program tutorial is here: http://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to
Agent Rachelle Gardner posted tips for writers in her post How Authors Can Effectively Use Goodreads.
Are you on Goodreads? Do you interact as a reader or writer or both? Have you ever listed a giveaway? How did it go?
Elizabeth – Thanks very much for the Goodreads tutorial. I’ve had an author page there for while and I’m glad I do. For me, it allows me to connect with readers in a different way. I like it too that readers can see the kind of books that I read. It seems to make me more of a real person. And yes, Goodreads does have handy author tools for giveaways and so on.
I’m on Goodreads as both a reader and a writer. I’m currently hosting my second giveaway. This definitely generates a lot of interest in my book and has resulted in over 600 adds of my book to to-read lists – whether than will translate into sales, I’m not sure. The very first giveaway I did, didn’t really improve sales at all. If nothing else, posting a book for giveaway on Goodreads creates awareness and here’s to hoping some readers might remember to buy the book, if they don’t win.
I’m on Goodreads, but haven’t done much with it.
This is good information to know. Thanks for doing all the hard work for writers so we’ll know what’s going on out there. :)
I’m not sure if I am or not. I think I am as a reader but I never go to the site. I’ll have to look into it a bit more now.
Karen
I like Goodreads! I forget to update the books I’m reading, though. I mostly use it to discover books and authors I haven’t read yet!
I’m on Goodreads as a reader only (until I ever publish something). It’s a great way to keep track of what I’ve read. And I’ve been using it enough that I became a ‘librarian’ on there last year. That just means I have the ability to add and edit listings, but it’s come in really handy for my published friends. =o)
I enjoy Goodreads. I’ve picked up a lot of great books because of it.
~ Wendy
I often forget about Goodreads, too. I know giveaways are big on there. And it has to be a print book – no ebooks allowed.
I also ignore my LinkedIn site, too. Too many sites.
I’m like you, Elizabeth: I started a Goodreads account because I was “supposed to” I guess, and have pretty much forgotten about it. I guess if I ever get the time to finally get my book done and out there it’ll be a good resource. THANKS!
And I agree with Ms. Wolfe: too many sites! Every time I read a blog or article for writers it mentions some other site for getting on and building platform. There’s just too much. i work 45+ hours a week and have a family, plus try to semi-maintain two blogs (don’t have enough to say for one)… it seems to me you need a PR staff just to keep up on the internet, much less write!
I don’t always keep up with the books I’m reading or want to read, but I do jump on Goodreads every couple days to check for new reviews or people who’ve marked my book to read. And to make a few new friends.
I’ve had a couple of other blogger mention how easy it was to do a giveaway on GR – and how helpful they found it. One mentioned that the ad there was very worthwhile too – but I don’t know if I’d do that either :)
I visited there once. I’ll go and check it out again. Thanks for the info.
Kathy M.
Suzanne–That’s great! Glad to hear results like that. Awareness/discoverability is a good thing these days.
Laura–I think I’ll have to poke around a little and find some new books to read. :)
Margot–You’re such a good reviewer and read so many mysteries that I can understand why you’ve got a strong presence there.
B.E.–That’s great! And I can see where it would be very useful to know a librarian there. :)
Wendy–I think I may have to lurk there to find some new books to read…
Teresa–Thanks for coming by!
Karen–I had 2 profiles there and couldn’t log into one because I couldn’t remember the password! Finally figured it out. :)
Diane–Yes, just print. But I have a feeling that’s going to change. Too many readers are *wanting* ebooks.
J. D. –I know what you mean. I’m trying to cut back a little, myself. I think my new Goodreads philosophy is that I’ll *at least* keep it updated (I hadn’t been), and I’ll run giveaways when I have releases. We just don’t have time to visit all these sites daily, or even weekly.
Alex–You always keep up with things so well!
Kathy–Check it out and see what you think. It’s probably a great place to go as a reader…just to find new books to read.
I’m “on” Goodreads, in much the same way I’m “on” Twitter: I signed up. But it does seem like a valuable tool, and one I hope to better learn to use if my book ever makes it into print.
I did a giveaway there which was great! Almost 1000 people entered which is fantastic exposure… but about a week later I noticed someone was selling my book independently on Amazon… it was the winner from Goodreads.
You win some, you lose some I guess! haha It was still worth the exposure!
I’ve done several giveaways on Goodreads (have one now for my new mystery coming out at the end of March). I’ve had some good reviews by those who have won my books, and sometimes they’ve said they’ll buy my other novels. That’s a win, IMO.
Plus, I’m also an avid reader (isn’t that why we become writers?) so I don’t feel out of place there at all.
I enjoy Goodreads — I like the author/reader interaction, and I like being part of a community that is based around reading. I think the reason you may find the “average ratings a bit lower” is because Goodreads has its own rating system: a 3-star review is considered a good review on Goodreads, whereas on Amazon, it’s more lukewarm.
Jemi –It’s just me being cheap! But it seems like the giveaway is going just fine even without my buying an ad.
Allie–Ugh. Yes, I can see how that would happen! Of course, I see my stuff pirated quite a bit…but I figure the folks who read pirated books wouldn’t likely have bought my book anyway, so no lost sale there.
Unknown –Definitely a win! Sounds like Goodreads is working out well for you (and congrats on the new mystery!)
I think I worry that I appear disingenuous over there if I hang out with my reader hat on ( I’m completely neurotic, I admit it. :) ) And really, that *would* be why I’d lurk there–to find good books to read. But what if someone thought I was trying to be friendly just because I wanted to sell my own books? Yes, it’s awkward for me, but that’s nothing new…ha! I’m sure others are probably more comfortable in their writer skin than I am. I’m the same way on Facebook….just not sure how to interact, feeling uncomfortable, and wanting to rush away to hang out with my writer friends. :)
Susan–Sounds familiar! That’s exactly what I did (except I’m on Twitter daily.)
Dina–Thanks for clearing that up! I suspected that might be the case. If it’s a site-wide thing, I’ve no problem with it. Yes, I think I usually average a 3 1/2 or so on Goodreads and am usually a 4 on Amazon.
I finally got over there this week and created an account. There’s something about listing the books I’ve read that reminds me (in a good way) of when I was a kid and kept lists of every book I read. (What I wouldn’t give to see those lists today!).
Question – I looked around at GR but didn’t find a way to have my blog feed over there. How did you set that up? Thanks.
Lisa–I was just cleaning out my desk and found my kids’ old reading lists from elementary school…and kept them. Yes, I’m sentamental about it, too!
I set up my blog feed on the author dashboard: http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard . So you have to set up an author profile there to have a blog feed. Here’s a post that explains how to set up the feed (you’ll need to scroll down to nearly halfway down the page): http://www.novelpublicity.com/2011/09/the-complete-and-unabridged-guide-to-goodreads-for-authors-account-set-up-customization-and-widgets-lots-of-widgets/
Hi Elizabeth .. I’m on Goodreads – but with no book .. however based on the info you’ve given us here …I’ll check it out again and see where the benefit is .. ie at least having a blogging presence ..
I’ll keep this post open to spend sometime at sometime soon .. cheers Hilary
I enjoy goodreads so much, I started my own book club. I would say that the site is my favourite of all social networking sites. I focus all my reviews there.
Elizabeth, here’s the psychology behind why someone would still buy your book if you were giving copies away: the HOPE of winning creates a feeling of entitlement and ownership.
Once we feel we own something, it’s very hard to give it up. (Studies say we value something we already own about 2.5 times as much as if it were still on the shelf.)
If they don’t win, they already feel that sense of possession, but don’t possess. That cognitive dissonance can easily nudge them into buying your book to close the gap.
Also, reciprocity will be a powerful influence on those who DO win, nudging them to buy your next book.
In the long game, free is a big win.
Aha and oops. I’m on Goodreads. Almost forgot and you had given me a timely reminder. I forgot I’ve got millions of fans on there. Okay, one Jack Russell dog and a wayward hedgehog.
So many links to remember. I’m sure I have a Linkedin account or whatever it’s called. I think I’m even on Zimbio, whatever that is :)
Goodreads, good idea. Thank you for this posting, Elizabeth.
I’ve resisted Goodreads, viewing it as just “one more thing to do.” But after reading some of the other comments, I have a feeling I’ve been missing out!