Goodreads Bookswap-Good or Bad for Authors?

I'm really getting into Goodreads lately.  Is it just a phase? Something shiny and new to catch my attention?  Or is it like Facebook, destined to become part of my home-office world?

That's a question for tomorrow.  But for now, I'm exploring all Goodreads has to offer. Today, I gave the BookSwap option a try.  I posted a book that I had just read ( a new book hot off the press)  as available for swapping.  It was snatched up immediately.  Within minutes, I printed off the label, stuck the book in a sturdy envelope and walked it out to my mailbox.  Easy-peasy.

I'm not really that comfortable with having to declare that I'll mail the swap immediately, though.   I live out in the boonies.  If  I'm out of book-sized packing material, I probably won't make a trip to town solely to purchase shipping materials.  But today, everything lined up.

As a reader, I know this Bookswap thing can be beneficial.  But I'm also a big library user and I have easy access to a great library system, so if Bookswap proves to be too much trouble, then no biggie.

As a writer, I have some ambivalence about sending out a new release book.  Did I prevent a possible sale? Or did I encourage future sales by introducing the reader to an author theyotherwise would have never read?

I have to–have to!–let books go.  Otherwise, I would have no floorspace in my home. I have often donated my books to my local library but I've seen a lot of my donations on the library's give-away table.  Is it better to give the book to someone who really wants it rather than the library at-large?

As a reader, what do you think?  As a writer, do you have a different opinion?

(Oh! You can find me on Goodreads here: www.goodreads.com/connie_cox )

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