You hear about this book-centric social media network all the time. But how do you get the most out of it? What does it mean that Goodreads just got bought out by Amazon? Those are great questions, and while the answers are not simple, there is much more you can do with Goodreads as an author than just list out the books you're reading.
Using Goodreads
1. Goodreads author page: This is the standard. If you have a book published, make sure you are registered with Goodreads. They give you an "author page" where you can communicate with anyone on Goodreads who reads your book. There are lots of opportunities to promote your book(s), and lots of ways on the page to talk about your work. And in a world where people are always trying to grow an audience and build traffic to their website or blog, Goodreads has millions of readers WHO ARE SELF-PROFESSED BOOK LOVERS who are there literally talking about their favorite books. If they happen to see your title and want to see a little about the author (you), don't you want to make it as easy as possible for them to learn?
2. Free Book Giveaways: On Goodreads, you can set up a free book giveaway. It costs you nothing to set it up, and Goodreads does all of the promotion for you. I did one with my book and got 364 people who registered for a chance to get a free copy of my book. 364! Where else am I going to find 364 people who want to read my book without spending hours and hours chasing them. With Goodreads, you fill in the form, and they send the offer to targeted readers. It's amazing. All I had to do was sign the books and mail them out. The only drawback is that it only works for physical books, no ebooks.
3. Groups: Goodreads is all about groups of people with shared interests reading similar kinds of books. So, the obvious move is to go on there, find the groups talking about the genre you write, and get involved AS A READER. Don't even think about pitching your book right away. Get involved, understand the group dynamics, give them something (like answering questions, etc.) that helps build trust between you and the group, and then see what opportunities are available for word of mouth.
This post (from a smart blogger who knows that it helps to build your platform before you publish that book) does a great job of digging into even more ways to use Goodreads to build your author platform.
What does it mean that Goodreads just got bought by Amazon?
The biggest online book company just purchased the most-used book-centric social network. So, is it a good or a bad thing? Should we expect an explosion in user-awesomeness for those of us who love to buy and talk about books as much as we love to read and write them?
It can and will mean a lot of things. Way more than half of people buy their books from or through Amazon. More people use Goodreads to talk about books than all of the other similar social networks combined.
The Good: How awesome is it that you could potentially buy a book from Amazon, then get invited to a group discussing that book on Goodreads, then get notified of an author appearance on Goodreads a few weeks later. And if I keep track of what books I personally like on Goodreads, there has to be an algorithm out there that can parse the Amazon sales and ratings data to tell me a few suggestions of what books I'd want to buy next. If they do it right, I can see that being an even more layered and nuanced experience than walking around a bookstore or talking to friends about what they're reading...
The Bad: If they do the recommendation integration wrong, however, it could be really ugly and disappointing. For example, if the idea is to get people to buy more books, they will push what's popular, not what's personalized. Or they will put personal things underneath the top reads and bestsellers. And in general, the fact that these two powerhouses are coming together means another layer of same-ness and another mountain to climb for the challengers. This is where more than half of all US readers buy and talk about books. The streamlined experience could rule out a lot of innovative options that may languish in startups on the fringe.
What do you think about this new acquisition?
Image sources: lead is moriza and middle is Alexandre Dulaunoy, both via flickr
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