Goodreads en-US Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:40:09 -0700 60 Goodreads 144 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo_144.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/159.The_20_most_followed_people_on_Goodreads Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:40:09 -0700 <![CDATA[The 20 most followed people on Goodreads]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/159.The_20_most_followed_people_on_Goodreads follow other members. I was curious today who the most followed people were, and decided to share it in a blog post. As you might have guessed - the top 20 are almost all authors.

Top 20 Most Followed People on Goodreads



Neil Gaiman
1958 followers

Sarah Dessen
448 followers

Jennifer Weiner
428 followers

Tamora Pierce
385 followers

Paulo Coelho
359 followers

Kelley Armstrong
262 followers

Laurie Anderson
258 followers

Melissa Marr
197 followers

Jennifer Crusie
175 followers

Richard Dawkins
172 followers

Lisa See
168 followers

Felicia Day
167 followers

Maureen Johnson
150 followers

Patrick Rothfuss
141 followers

Maria V. Snyder
136 followers

John Scalzi
132 followers

Wil Wheaton
128 followers

Tess Gerritsen
113 followers

Sarah Allen
106 followers

Katie Macalister
99 followers



posted by Otis on July, 02 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/158.Goodreads_is_hiring_software_engineers_ Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:25:21 -0700 <![CDATA[Goodreads is hiring software engineers!]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/158.Goodreads_is_hiring_software_engineers_ about us.

We're looking for programmers who want to learn how to build a top-tier social network, love to build cool stuff and work hard, can communicate well, and have a personality that fits in with ours.

Our development philosophy is to work individually or in pairs, building everything from front-end to back-end. We divide up work on a project to project basis, and you'd be responsible for making sure your features have a clear user-interface, scale for millions of users, and have legible and easy to maintain code. You should be comfortable with those skills or dying to learn them!

Required skills

* Proficient programming with MVC frameworks. Ruby on Rails is preferred, but we'll take PHP, Python or Java.
* Knowledge of SQL (MySQL preferred).
* Experience with HTML, Javascript, and CSS.
* Comfort using the Linux operating system (shell scripting, cronjobs, installing software, etc).


We prefer people that are passionate about:

* Reading books!
* Building social networks and building great product.
* A/B testing and optimizing user experience
* Building large scale websites (MySQL, Memcached, Sharding, etc)
* Thinking creatively and engaging and listening to users.
* Experience building your own website or startup is a plus - we like entrepreneurs.


Open positions

* Facebook/MySpace app developer. You will be in charge of working on the Goodreads Books app on Facebook, MySpace, and other platforms. You should love Facebook, and either know or be willing to learn a lot about making things viral.
* Senior software engineer. You will be in charge of helping to develop new products and features and scale existing ones. You should be comfortable discussing: Memcached, MySql optimization, Database sharding, Lucene, Facebook, Opensocial, xml/json/rest, nginx/haproxy/mongrel, and more.


Interested candidates should submit a code sample as well as a resume. Also, answering our design challenge will ensure your resume will be read.

If you're interested, please send your resume to contact@goodreads.com. We have offices in both Santa Monica and San Francisco and prefer local candidates.


posted by Otis on June, 30 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/157.John_Hodgman_Tests_President_Obama_s_Nerd_Cred Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:52:06 -0700 <![CDATA[John Hodgman Tests President Obama's Nerd Cred]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/157.John_Hodgman_Tests_President_Obama_s_Nerd_Cred John Hodgman delivered a fairly awesome speech calling into question President Barack Obama's nerd credentials, touching on Conan the Barbarian, The Lord of the Rings, and, of course, Dune. Sadly, I could only confidently answer one part of his three-part Dune question (thumper!), but I guess that still makes me nerdier than the pres. Sweet.



Via JesseDill@twitter

posted by Ken-ichi on June, 20 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/156.June_Newsletter_ Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:35:33 -0700 <![CDATA[June Newsletter! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/156.June_Newsletter_ June Newsletter we spoke with authors Lisa See and China Miéville, two fantastic writers with distinct cultural perspectives.

Whenever we interview an author, I have to admit that I’m always the most curious about their response to the question, “Any unusual writing habits?”

It seems like such a mundane thing to ask, but somehow their answers always surprise and inspire. Over the past two years we’ve seen a variety of techniques: Elmore Leonard writes by hand on lined paper; Jodi Picoult writes while her children are at school; Dan Simmons wakes up as late as he can because” that’s one of the few, great benefits of being a writer.”

On the logistics side, we had two major features debut this month. "Following", which allows members of Goodreads to “follow” a member rather than “friend” them, makes it possible to keep track of even more book recommendations from people we respect, admire, or simply find intriguing.

In order to improve our ability to find new books, we also revamped the book search page, parceling out genres and creating our own take on the New York Times Bestseller list. Goodreads members can search by year, month, and even look into the future to see which books are generating the most buzz.

We also got “In Bed” with Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, and Dave Cullen and Janelle Brown are hosting author chats. There are also tons of book recommendations this month in Movers & Shakers.

And don’t forget to check out the monthly poetry contest partnered with the group iPoetry!. You can read this this month's winning poem here.

Happy Reading!
Elizabeth

P.S. What’s next? A huge new feature that I have been bugging the tech guys about for nearly six months! You’ll have to wait and see, but I promise you’ll like it.

Read the JUNE NEWSLETTER


posted by Elizabeth on June, 16 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/155.Site_Issues Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:08:15 -0700 <![CDATA[Site Issues]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/155.Site_Issues instructions on flushing your dns).

Apparently making a small change to our DNS records on godaddy creates havoc, we're probably going to be moving to a more reliable solution soon.

posted by MICHAEL on June, 16 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/154.Bibliotech_show Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:16:27 -0700 <![CDATA[Bibliotech show]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/154.Bibliotech_show Biblio Tech Show, hosted by my friend, fellow internet entrepreneur, and author Mark Jeffrey. We had some good discussion about the Kindle, Scribd, ebooks, and other interesting stuff. Check it out!



posted by Otis on June, 12 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/153.Follow_your_favorite_reviewers_and_authors Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:45:19 -0700 <![CDATA[Follow your favorite reviewers and authors]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/153.Follow_your_favorite_reviewers_and_authors
In the style of Twitter, members of the site can now follow the updates of people they admire without having to form a typical "friendship." When you follow another Goodreads member, you can see the books they add and their reviews, but as a follower, there is no pressure to reciprocate.

This new way of connecting on Goodreads will encourage many more book reviews to be published and consumed. Here are some of the ways members will benefit from this feature:

  • Independent bookstores and book reviewers to gain the following they deserve
  • Micro-celebrities in the book world don't have to be swamped with friend requests and can also build a large following
  • Authors can also now build a following for their book reviews
  • Members can now follow their favorite authors without having to friend them


Following is designed to make Goodreads more useful to people who use it. Here is how it works:

  • Reviews and status updates from people you follow now appear on your homepage.
  • You can now filter your homepage by friends, top friends, or people you follow
  • When you view a book you will see a new section of reviews from people you follow
  • You can disallow anyone from following you in your my account
  • Anyone you block will not be able to follow you


Partial credit for inspiring this feature must be given to Tim O'Reilly for his blog post Goodreads vs Twitter: The Benefits of Asymmetric Following. O’Reilly made the astute point that relationships in the real world are usually not symmetric, and that "Asymmetric follow is why I use Twitter regularly and Facebook much less often". We’re predicting that pretty soon following will be a hallmark of all social networks – the benefits are clear. Indeed, Yelp already supports it, and Facebook is trying to hack it in with their Facebook Pages.

So now the question is: who should you follow? Here are some interesting folks. Post more in the comments!

Authors:

Neil Gaiman
Stephanie Meyer
Sarah Dessen
Paulo Coelho
Jennifer Weiner
Meg Cabot

Indie Bookstores:

Vromans (Pasadena, CA)
Tattered Cover Bookstore (Denver, CO)
Modern Times Bookstore (San Francisco, CA)
Lemuria Bookstore (Jackson, MS)
Staff Fig Garden Bookstore (Fresno, CA)
Powells Bookstore (Portland, OR)
Orinda Bookstore (Oakland, CA)

We even have a few celebrities:

Felicia Day
Wil Wheaton

Here are some techies I was eager to follow:

Kevin Rose
Veronica Belmont
Catarina Fake
Tim O'Reilly
Jason Calacanis
Evan Williams


Here is what a profile page looks like now - you can friend or follow someone at your leisure:



Here is what the new homepage filters look like:




To discuss the new feature click here.

posted by Otis on June, 23 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/152.Why_the_publishing_industry_is_afraid_of_the_fall_of_the_newspaper_industry Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:03:36 -0700 <![CDATA[Why the publishing industry is afraid of the fall of the newspaper industry]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/152.Why_the_publishing_industry_is_afraid_of_the_fall_of_the_newspaper_industry
I had the opportunity to read an interesting article about the status of the book industry titled The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes. It was full of interesting points, and I recommend reading it. Here are some excerpts I found particularly interesting:

"A key element in the dissemination of books, independent of publishers and booksellers but essential to both, is the press. The simultaneous collapse of the business model for newspapers and magazines is a gruesome fact of life, and we book people keenly feel the pain of a sister print-on-paper industry, to put it mildly. ... Book news and criticism were fundamental to the old model of book publishing and to the education of writers; Internet coverage of books, much of it witty and interesting, does not begin to compensate for their loss."

This is a theme I keep hearing over and over again at book conferences. And for good reason: the process of building up buzz about a book pre-launch is critical to it's success, and with the demise of newspaper book reviews and other media outlets, it's no longer easy.

But authors don't despair - there are still plenty of ways to get there - it will just take some more work on your part. You have to have market yourself. Here are some tips, based on talking to authors who are having success:

  • Join as a Goodreads Author and reach out to the community here (don't take my word for it: read this and this)
  • Create a Facebook page and a MySpace profile and reach out to communities there. Collect as many friends as you can that are interested in your work or your genre.
  • Create a Twitter account and start following anyone who talks about your novel or genre. Engage these people!
  • Create a blog and post interesting things about your work and genre.
  • And here is the key: anytime you post anything on any of those service, post a link to it on ALL the other services. Respond to any comments, tweets, etc that you get. Engage, engage, engage!


"Publishers used to presume that money earned on successful titles would help pay the bills incurred in producing and marketing books that sold less well... carrying the "frontlist" of new titles and goodly portions of the "backlist," books from years earlier."

This is the way any hits driven business works - the hits pay for the misses. If the hits no longer pay as much, then you can't afford to produce as many misses. Yet the number of books published each year is *growing* - how can that be? Going back to my points above - more authors are self-publishing and marketing themselves. Once a self-published author reaches a certain level of success, then the big publishing houses will publish them - and that's how it works now.

By the way: did you know that 50% of a publishers revenue is from the backlist?

"Of the roughly $10 a publisher took in on a $20 book, say, 10 to 15 percent of the cover price was allocated to the author, leaving only the remaining $7.50 or so to cover the fixed, make-ready costs"

This illustrates how the supply chain is broken - there are too many people and costs involved. Note that with an ebook there are no fixed costs and no distribution costs. So why do publishers insist on selling books at the same prices? Did you know that Amazon is taking a LOSS on Kindle ebooks by selling at their $9.99 price point?

"many bestsellers were now going in the opposite direction. More and more derivative pseudobooks were spun off from the Internet or TV, booklike objects created by the teams working for, say, famous generals in televised wars, cooks, telly dons, ballplayers, reality-show contestants, famous pets. These flashy items dominate shelf space, ad budgets and public attention... they are choking off the life-support systems for vital literature."

I have to agree with this one. It's a side-effect of a hits-driven business that is foundering. It's clear a better model is needed - we're taking suggestions here.

"the entire world of American retail business is veering toward obsolescence. Must books now find their way in cyberspace?"

Yes!
(I'm now in love with the word obsolescence)

"But these Internet people don't care. For billionaires like Brin, accessing the giant river of infinite book "content" onto which they can glue paid advertising is simply a giant new way to make more money, and they are single-minded about that."

It is clear that somebody needs to care about literature beyond how to monetize it. After all, if nobody is fostering the creation of good content then we all lose. But it seems to me that Google cares quite a bit, and is the way *forward* - not backward. They offer publishers quite a lot: free traffic to their books in a DRM safe way, and now even revenue from ebook sales. Why would you say no to that?



posted by Otis on June, 08 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/151.Goodreads_Puts_Its_Own_Spin_on_The_New_York_Times_Bestseller_List_ Thu, 28 May 2009 08:28:44 -0700 <![CDATA[Goodreads Puts Its Own Spin on The New York Times Bestseller List! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/151.Goodreads_Puts_Its_Own_Spin_on_The_New_York_Times_Bestseller_List_
Goodreads members can search by year, month, and even look into the future to see which books are generating the most buzz.

Want to know which books published in 1929 are currently the most popular? A Farewell to Arms, The Sound and the Fury, and All Quiet on the Western Front are still perennial favorites.

What about 2009? The most popular books published in February were Fool: A Novel, by Christopher Moore, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and Evermore by Alyson Noel.

And even more useful, what do people want to read next? This September, there are three books that are more popular than Dan Brown’s upcoming The Lost Symbol: Two young-adult novels from the Hunger Games series and the Books of Bayern Series, and the romance novel An Echo in the Bone.

Goodreads compiles these lists by tracking the number of people who have added each book to their shelves, either as Read, To-Read, or Currently Reading.


To view this new feature please go to:

New Releases By Date!




posted by Elizabeth on May, 28 ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/150.Goodreads_Indonesia_organizes_bookswap_makes_Jakarta_Post Mon, 18 May 2009 00:07:47 -0700 <![CDATA[Goodreads Indonesia organizes bookswap, makes Jakarta Post]]> http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/150.Goodreads_Indonesia_organizes_bookswap_makes_Jakarta_Post Goodreads Indonesia group just let us know about a very cool sounding bookswap it organized in Jakarta this weekend. The Jakarta Post wrote a piece about the event titled Book fans benefit from book swapping.

We are just tickled pink to see members around the globe using Goodreads to organize and do great things. Congratulations to the Goodreads Indonesia group! And thanks much to Amang for sending the below clip:



posted by Otis on May, 18 ]]>