Using the Kindle Notes Feature on Goodreads as an Author

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

At some point last fall, I realized I was getting emails from Goodreads about authors’ notes on books that I’d read (and noted on my Goodreads account).  I clicked over from all the emails…partly because I was interested to read what they’d written about their stories, and partly because I wanted to learn more about the Goodreads feature.

This may be a feature that’s totally evident to most writers, but it wasn’t to me because I just don’t use the Kindle notes feature. I do make marginalia in paperbacks and hardcovers I own, but I’ve never gotten into the habit of either reading or writing notes in the Kindle format, even though that’s primarily how I’m reading books these days.

So this post is for those of you who’re like me: not realizing you might be missing out on a fairly easy promo opportunity.  Seeing these authors’ notes reminded me that these authors had written books I’d enjoyed…and that they might have something new out.  And I was actually about to release two books, and figured it might also remind my readers that I might have something new.  Since I didn’t find the process particularly intuitive (I rarely find Goodreads or Facebook intuitive), I’ll share it here.

Here’s what the emails to me looked like:

You can see Mary Beth Keane’s notes at this link (I liked looking at an example. I also took a look at Colleen Hoover’s.)

You might be a lot better at doing things on your phone than I am, but I went through this process solely on my laptop.

First, I opened up my last Myrtle book and skimmed through until I found a part I thought I’d comment on.  I highlighted (by dragging my cursor) the sentences and a box popped up, giving me the option to make a note.

Which I did.  :)

My Goodreads and my Amazon accounts are synched (and if yours aren’t, they’ll prompt you to do so). I added marked my book as “currently reading” and then a link appeared underneath the book to “view your notes and highlights.”

One feature that would be helpful for those of you who do use your notes and highlights on Kindle is the ability to choose what you wanted to share and what you didn’t.  The default is “off.”

When I opened up the page the next day, I already had a nice message from a reader.  :)

It’s easy to make this process go especially quickly if you know what you might make notes of.  Is there a regular setting in your series that’s based on a place you grew up visiting?  Is there a particular character based on a family member? If so, you can just do a search of the Kindle book and go right to that spot.

For more information on notes, see this page on Goodreads.

Do you make notes in your Kindle books? Have you ever used the notes feature on Kindle/Goodreads as an author?

Photo on Visual hunt