Confession: I hadn’t heard about Goodreads, the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world, until I was preparing for a presentation at the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Publishing University last month on how authors can reach online communities of readers.
I hurriedly signed up, promising myself to return to the site after the IBPA conference to beef up my profile. I’m hoping to do that this weekend, and I’m grateful that my friend, Joel Friedlander, passed along a terrific suggestion about something that I had overlooked when I joined the community of more than 7.5 million book lovers.
Friedlander is a book designer, blogger, and author of A Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish. He’s only been on Goodreads for about five months but already has 1,728 friends.
One of the first rules of social media is that the person with the most friends doesn’t necessarily win. Much more important is how you connect with your friends and how much you can help them.
But many of his friends aren’t strangers. They already follow him on Twitter. And I had overlooked the fact that I can import Twitter and Facebook friends into Goodreads.
“You can integrate Twitter, Facebook, Hotmail and Yahoo,” Friedlander said. “When I created my account, it suddenly dawned on me that if I dumped all of my Twitter friends into Goodreads—and Goodreads seems to add them a little at a timet—I could keep adding friends for months.”
That’s exactly what he did.
“I now have quite a few connections and I’m at the point where I’m building my relationships,” he said.
More Tips for Using Goodreads
He offers these other tips for authors on Goodreads:
- Import your blog into your profile. “Every time I publish a blog post, five days a week, that RSS feed is going into Goodreads and my friends are alerted that I have a new post. I get comments on those posts that I don’t get at my blog site.”
- Create digital bookshelves. Your friends can see what you’re reading, and you can promote your own books. “I’ve created shelves filled with books that are published by me and designed by me.”
- Review several books at a time. Keep the reviews short so you have more time to review more books. “Reviews are part of the echo system of Goodreads. If you get on there but never contribute, you aren’t really using the site like you should be.” He writes only positive reviews and never shares negative comments about books he doesn’t like.
- Join the best discussion groups where you can learn and contribute the most. But monitor how many you’ve joined so you aren’t overwhelmed. “The discussions can be very powerful for authors.”
- Check out local groups that are in your own community. “I joined a group from San Raphael, Calif., where I’m from, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Friedlander says another big plus for authors who are members of Goodreads is that it keeps them from falling into the trap of writing for other writers’ blogs and discussing topics such as how their sales are going, or what they think of Kindle Select—topics their fans don’t really care about. Their time would be better spent, he said, using Goodreads to connect with, and write reviews for, the people who are reading their books, and others who love to read.
Great stuff – Goodreads is really a fantastic resource and I’ve been beefing up my profile over the past few months. THe author profile page also allows you to upload videos as well as your blog. I’ve seen that setting up a Giveaway of your book is a really cool way to get the word out and get people interested. You can customize the timing, but I’ve had a Giveaway going for about two weeks and 137 people have signed up. Only one will win, but thats 137 who know of your book and some will buy it on their own when they don’t win.
Norm, tanks for reminding authors about other cool features of the Authors Program. The Giveaway feature is a terrific way to generate buzz for an upcoming book. And even though Goodreads is all about the written word, video is still a big draw. Authors can create short videos discussing their characters, plot line, etc. u
Joan,
Thanks so much for the interview. I’m really enjoying the community on Goodreads, and I think it’s a site self-published authors should check out. After all, we’re readers as well as authors!
Joel, your comment about your blog on Goodreads getting more comments that your regular blog really made me realize how powerful Goodreads can be! You’ve nudged me to get over there and complete my profile and take advantage of all that site has to offer.
Great interview and tips. I especially appreciate Joel’s comment on reviewing books:
“Reviews are part of the echo system of Goodreads. If you get on there but never contribute, you aren’t really using the site like you should be.”
However, this comment gave me pause: “He writes only positive reviews and never shares negative comments about books he doesn’t like.”
I can understand not wanting to trash books, but I don’t feel you do your friends any favors if you don’t report honestly on what you feel about a book. A thoughtful critique isn’t trashing and can help a new author as well as potential readers. This is particularly true of non-fiction, where a book may be highly valuable, but contain a few errors or handle a particular chapter poorly.
London, I’ve read quite a bit on and about Goodreads and I know that Joel’s position on not wanting to write bad reviews isn’t unusual among authors. They just don’t want to trash other authors’ books.
I feel the same way. An author sent me a book to review and it was a great topic, but a boring book. I thought about all the time, money, sweat and blood the author put into that book and decided not to review it. Thanks for your views, London. I’ll bet many Goodreads readers who are not authors will agree with you.
For over ten years I reviewed books for the newspaper the SF Bay Guardian. I came to the same conclusion–that I wouldn’t trash a novel, because no matter how bad it might be, the author put his or her heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into it. What’s the point of putting it down? In terms of non-fiction, however, I did write critical reviews if there was misinformation in it, or if it was poorly researched, or for any reason might steer readers in the wrong direction. The two genres seem very different to me.
You’re right, Marcy. The two genres are VERY different. To me, fiction is purely a matter of taste. Even if you like the topic of a non-fiction book, such as a how-to book, lack of research and errors can sour a reviewer and a reader. Thanks for stopping by.
Unfortunately, I’ve learned not to trust reviews because of this. There’s too many people giving good reviews because they don’t want to give bad reviews. It’s at the point where a 5-star review is meaningless.
What’s the point of Goodreads reviews, then, if only favorable ones show up? Any author capable of producing a publishable book should be able to write an unfavorable review that is written skillfully enough not to trash but to suggest a need for improvement. I do not mean the kind of honesty that is merely an excuse for venting one’s meanness; I mean giving readers something genuine so they can trust the review. And as an author, if all my time, sweat, and agonizing produces a poor product, I need to know that.
One purpose of Goodreads reviews is to recommend books you like to others on the site. Nan, you sound like you’ve got pretty thick skin, unlike some writers.
Authors, do you want to see favorable and not-so-favorable reviews–and everything inbetween–on Goodreads?
The title “Goodreads” itself suggests to me that it is a site to go to get information about just that: good reads. I think it depends upon the degree of criticism put forth about a book, as to whether the negative opinion should be included in a review. For instance saying, “The plot was a bit draggy/confusing until after Chapter 3” is different than saying, “This plot is dull and the characters are lifeless.” The first instance, although probably stinging to the author, may be helpful to both readers and the author, while a statement of the second sort is not at all useful to anyone.
As a debut author, I have not had the displeasure of a negative review (yet!), and I have taken several readers’ conflicting comments in stride (“The short chapters were distracting” and”I loved the short chapters!”). I keep reminding myself that readers’ tastes are varied. On a personal note, I too, would only take the time to post a review of something that I enjoyed – I don’t have the time or the energy to expend on a negative one.
Excellent point, Dianne. Glad to see you’re getting conflicting reviews from readers, actually. One of my mentors once told me that if I never get complaints about any of my products, I’m not selling enough products.
“What’s the point of Goodreads reviews, then, if only favorable ones show up?”
There are plenty of negative reviews on Goodreads, don’t fear for that. However, if your goal is to be “popular” on Goodreads, then it is advisable to avoid posting negative reviews. Some people can become very vicious in response to those who have the nerve not to like the same things they do. It all depends on what you want to get out of the site.
One other aspect to be aware of on Goodreads is that there is a subset of users who are very negative toward what they label “friend collectors”. If you’ve got hundreds of “friends”, they won’t want to be your “friend” on general principle, and some of them resent authors intruding at all in a reader oriented site.
Thanks for the heads-up, DDW. I wasn’t aware of the attitudes among some toward the “friend collectors.”
Thanks for this!
I write book reviews, too, but only review those I like, or like enough. As I’m not paid to review, why waste my time–and my readers’–with a bad book? I just put it aside without a word. No time wasted, no feelings hurt.
It so happens that I just posted a piece on my official webpage on my social networking experience with both Facebook and Goodreads. I bought an ad on Goodreads late last year and experienced a small but surprising bump. You can read the rest of the details on my webpage.
I’m also puzzling on how to link my webpage so it shows up in my Goodreads update feed. I use the update status button, but it seems inadequate . . . and I never see my own updates listed with my friends.
Thanks again!
Thomas, so glad to know you saw a bump in traffic.
I cannot help you with the problem you had at the Goodreads site. I know some authors have found it tough to figure out how to import their blog into their profile page. If you’re on Twitter, tweet the question, or just type it into Google. I’ll bet the anser is online.
Where be the webinar Joe speaks of?
Here you go, bob:
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-tapes/bookreviewsites.htm
Often times, I’ve read some one-star reviews and wondered if we’d read the same book. Same goes for some five-star reviews. Fortunately (for the authors of the one-star reviews), I read the review AFTER I’d read the book … otherwise I wouldn’t have purchased it.
My understanding is that I can’t have an author page until I have a published book. Until that time we have to use a regular member page (which can be converted to an author page once we publish). Is that correct? Does that affect any of the advice given?
Yes, you must already have published a book. If it’s in the process of being published, you can still upload some of your writing for review.
The way I see it, posting soehmting on the web is like standing on the corner and shouting it to the world. You should not be surprised if people roll down their car windows and talk back to you.Interestingly, I had sort of that experience on Twitter. I get Scientific American (in print, surprisingly) and my favorite part is Steve Mirsky’s last page often-humorous Anti-Gravity column. After a particularly funny column, I tweeted soehmting to the effect that his column was worth the price of the subscription by itself, and about 15 minutes later, I got an email that Steve Mirsky was following me. I did not mind at all, in spite of the fact that twitter-speak is kind of stalkerish to begin with (I have 570+ followers!).
Twitter is a powerful tool to connect with journalists, and your comment demonstrates that. Thanks for stopping by.