Goodreads Sucks! (And here’s why…)
Maybe it’s me.
I’m not a forum person. I don’t join posts, I don’t respond to posts. I suppose that makes me terrible Goodreader (or whatever they call themselves). I don’t follow authors (should I?), I just “friend” them. I haven’t really done that in months either, and yet my Goodreads friends list continues to grow, like mold in a damp, dark basement.
What I wonder is, to what end?
Why are indie authors still jumping on Goodreads like it’s the train to Candyland? I ask that earnestly. For me, it was because of blog posts from 2012(!) telling me Goodreads is the be-all-end-all of indie author self-promotion. “Start a Goodreads contest for your book to get it on more To-Read shelves!” they said. “Interact with readers and writers alike!” they said. I suppose it’s probably the same for the rest of us, those same blog posts acting as the cheese leading us rats into the endless, frustrating maze that is Goodreads.
I’m pretty much done with it, just a few turns from the EXIT door. This is going to sound like sour grapes, and maybe it is. But if I can stop JUST ONE INDIE AUTHOR from joining Goodreads in the hope of promoting their books to the “millions of readers,” I’ve done my job.
GOODREADS ADS
I was a sucker, and paid for a Goodreads ad. I put the limit at $50, set the per click rate as low as it could go, and crossed my fingers. Weeks later, not a single click. I set the per click rate higher, $2.50 a click (that’s more than I would make in royalties for my book, but you can’t cancel it and get your money back). The “campaign” started in July, and it still hasn’t used up the fifty bucks. That money is in limbo. It may as well be in a ditch in Fargo, Minnesota for all the good it’s doing me.
The total views of my ad are allegedly (there’s no way to know, and I’ve never seen my own ad on Goodreads) 114,137. Total clicks: a measly 20.
Is my ad that awful? Does my book stink that bad?
Maybe it is, and maybe it does. The truth is more likely down to logistics. Everyone and their aunt has a book (my aunt literally has books, though they are sociology texts), and everyone and their aunt has their books on Goodreads (yes, my aunt’s books are there, too).
They’ve likely made a fortune off of unsuspecting idiots like me. At least my aunt was smart enough not to make herself an author profile.
THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY
After a lot of research, I did a Goodreads Giveaway over the summer for a signed copy of Gristle & Bone. 448 people requested my book after a two week contest. Great! I thought. 448 people want to read Gristle & Bone!
Poor, deluded 8-months-ago me. What I didn’t know was that of those 448 people, probably only 8 will ever read it.
The truth is, MOST of the people who enter Goodreads Giveaway contests enter EVERY CONTEST. They don’t care what the book is, or what genre it’s in, they just want to win. Maybe they’ll put it in a shrine devoted to the lost manuscripts of failed indie writers, and maybe, if you’re lucky, they’ll try to hock it on eBay. If you’re luckier still, they’ll read it, and if the gods are smiling upon you, they’ll fire off a quick review.
My contest ended. A girl from Missouri or Wisconsin or somewhere else won. She reads a lot of books. She also has a ton of books on her To-Read shelf. (More on that later.) My lucky winner gave Gristle & Bone 3 stars with no text review. It’s not even guaranteed she actually read the book. With the cost of the book, the shipping and envelope, I’m out about 30 bucks. Add to that the $50 in limbo, and that just plain sucks.
STAR RATINGS
Here’s what they don’t tell you in your creative writing program (God help you if you paid to take one in college): star ratings are to the book industry what hashtag activism is to charity. Star ratings benefit no one. Not the writer, not the reader, not even the company who made the ASCII code for the stars. Literally anyone can have a 5-star book these days. (Just look at mine! Well, okay, it’s 4.6 stars, but who’s counting?)
All it takes to get 5 stars are some nice people willing to read and review your book, whether honestly or not. OR some writer you’ve never talked to who found you on Gooodreads and wants to do a quick “Review Exchange.” These rats will give your book a 5-star rating within moments and claim it is similar to Stephen King or Clive Barker while never having read it. I’ve made the mistake of ACTUALLY READING a few books from authors like this, and giving them honest reviews, only to have their “review” stain my book page for all eternity. OR you can buy one on Fivrr for five bucks.
Obviously, ratings mean very little these days, but at least on Amazon they’ve started to weed out the fakers. Goodreads doesn’t care whether you read it or wiped with it, and your star rating lasts forever. (P.S. I’m not griping because my Goodreads rating is low, just that it means absolute dick.)
You can’t avoid star ratings, but you CAN ignore them. Make your own decisions. That’s what Amazon’s LOOK INSIDE feature is for.
THE TO-READ SHELF
The To-Read shelf is my biggest pet peeve with Goodreads. Gristle & Bone is on the To-Read shelf of about 215 readers. For fun, I decided to look at some of their profiles, and I noticed a disturbing trend.
MOST OF THESE PEOPLE HAVE MORE THAN 1,000 TITLES ON THEIR TO-READ SHELF!
Many of them have MORE THAN 10,000! That’s more books than Superman could read in a lifetime.
So, of these 215 people who supposedly want to read my book, I’d be lucky if 5 ever get around to it, and maybe one out of those five will bestow upon it their blessed star rating. Huzzah.
REMOVING BOOKS
This is one of the first problems an indie author might come across on Goodreads.
You excitedly add your brand new book to the site, create your ad or Goodreads Giveaway, and wait for the To-Reads to rack up.
You realize, a month or so later, you don’t particularly like what your book looks like on Amazon, and change the cover. Or you change distributors. Or you release a new version entirely.
What they don’t tell you is that ugly homemade cover, that poorly edited, hastily released version, those prior incarnations you can’t stand to look at let alone think about will remain on Goodreads FOREVER. You can “merge editions,” but you can never, EVER remove them from Goodreads. I’ve copied and pasted their policy on that verbatim below:
Not even a Goodreads Librarian can remove it for you. What are Goodreads Librarians, you ask? A quick Google search says they’re volunteers “dedicated to improving book data.” This does not include removing prior editions of books, no matter how much you beg, as evidenced from the myriad forum posts on the subject.
For the record, here’s what Gristle & Bone‘s page looks like, with its many incarnations, making those little green buttons at the bottom virtually useless.
OTHER AUTHORS
They will pester you to read their new book, not realizing (as they do not research your profile before sending out mass emails), that you are also a writer in need of reads/reviews. They will badger you for “review exchanges,” which you should avoid like the Twilight Saga. They will spam you in forums.
We all need reads. We all need reviews. You can go about this the nice way, by making contacts and conversing with readers and other authors, or you can do it the amateur way and present yourself as a selfish asshole to the people who are most likely to help you when you need it.
Obviously we all want to sell books, and whether we like to admit it or not, we’re all in direct competition with each other for readers. Despite this (or because of it), the indie author “scene” is a community. You can make friends, or you can make enemies. So use Twitter, use Facebook, hell, use Goodreads if you have to, but please be respectful of other people’s time. I’ve been guilty of violating my own cardinal rule, on occasion, trying to figure out things like Twitter automated DMs and Goodreads events/blog posts. I think I’ve finally found a good middle ground, but even then I sometimes feel like I’m annoying people–“Didn’t he just post about that book yesterday??”
So take it from an accidental asshole: your book is no better or no worse than anyone else’s. Your time is no more or less valuable than anyone else’s. NOBODY LIKES SPAM.
Remember, we’re all in this together. Be nice. Retweet, share, like, recommend, do all of those things you love when they happen to you.
And if this article helped you avoid some mistakes, let me know using the little empty box below.
Until next time: Keep it Creepy.
I’m not a forum person. I don’t join posts, I don’t respond to posts. I suppose that makes me terrible Goodreader (or whatever they call themselves). I don’t follow authors (should I?), I just “friend” them. I haven’t really done that in months either, and yet my Goodreads friends list continues to grow, like mold in a damp, dark basement.
What I wonder is, to what end?
Why are indie authors still jumping on Goodreads like it’s the train to Candyland? I ask that earnestly. For me, it was because of blog posts from 2012(!) telling me Goodreads is the be-all-end-all of indie author self-promotion. “Start a Goodreads contest for your book to get it on more To-Read shelves!” they said. “Interact with readers and writers alike!” they said. I suppose it’s probably the same for the rest of us, those same blog posts acting as the cheese leading us rats into the endless, frustrating maze that is Goodreads.
I’m pretty much done with it, just a few turns from the EXIT door. This is going to sound like sour grapes, and maybe it is. But if I can stop JUST ONE INDIE AUTHOR from joining Goodreads in the hope of promoting their books to the “millions of readers,” I’ve done my job.
GOODREADS ADS
I was a sucker, and paid for a Goodreads ad. I put the limit at $50, set the per click rate as low as it could go, and crossed my fingers. Weeks later, not a single click. I set the per click rate higher, $2.50 a click (that’s more than I would make in royalties for my book, but you can’t cancel it and get your money back). The “campaign” started in July, and it still hasn’t used up the fifty bucks. That money is in limbo. It may as well be in a ditch in Fargo, Minnesota for all the good it’s doing me.
My stats for January, with a whopping 3,750 views and just 2 clicks.
The total views of my ad are allegedly (there’s no way to know, and I’ve never seen my own ad on Goodreads) 114,137. Total clicks: a measly 20.
Is my ad that awful? Does my book stink that bad?
Maybe it is, and maybe it does. The truth is more likely down to logistics. Everyone and their aunt has a book (my aunt literally has books, though they are sociology texts), and everyone and their aunt has their books on Goodreads (yes, my aunt’s books are there, too).
They’ve likely made a fortune off of unsuspecting idiots like me. At least my aunt was smart enough not to make herself an author profile.
THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY
After a lot of research, I did a Goodreads Giveaway over the summer for a signed copy of Gristle & Bone. 448 people requested my book after a two week contest. Great! I thought. 448 people want to read Gristle & Bone!
Poor, deluded 8-months-ago me. What I didn’t know was that of those 448 people, probably only 8 will ever read it.
The truth is, MOST of the people who enter Goodreads Giveaway contests enter EVERY CONTEST. They don’t care what the book is, or what genre it’s in, they just want to win. Maybe they’ll put it in a shrine devoted to the lost manuscripts of failed indie writers, and maybe, if you’re lucky, they’ll try to hock it on eBay. If you’re luckier still, they’ll read it, and if the gods are smiling upon you, they’ll fire off a quick review.
My contest ended. A girl from Missouri or Wisconsin or somewhere else won. She reads a lot of books. She also has a ton of books on her To-Read shelf. (More on that later.) My lucky winner gave Gristle & Bone 3 stars with no text review. It’s not even guaranteed she actually read the book. With the cost of the book, the shipping and envelope, I’m out about 30 bucks. Add to that the $50 in limbo, and that just plain sucks.
STAR RATINGS
Here’s what they don’t tell you in your creative writing program (God help you if you paid to take one in college): star ratings are to the book industry what hashtag activism is to charity. Star ratings benefit no one. Not the writer, not the reader, not even the company who made the ASCII code for the stars. Literally anyone can have a 5-star book these days. (Just look at mine! Well, okay, it’s 4.6 stars, but who’s counting?)
All it takes to get 5 stars are some nice people willing to read and review your book, whether honestly or not. OR some writer you’ve never talked to who found you on Gooodreads and wants to do a quick “Review Exchange.” These rats will give your book a 5-star rating within moments and claim it is similar to Stephen King or Clive Barker while never having read it. I’ve made the mistake of ACTUALLY READING a few books from authors like this, and giving them honest reviews, only to have their “review” stain my book page for all eternity. OR you can buy one on Fivrr for five bucks.
Obviously, ratings mean very little these days, but at least on Amazon they’ve started to weed out the fakers. Goodreads doesn’t care whether you read it or wiped with it, and your star rating lasts forever. (P.S. I’m not griping because my Goodreads rating is low, just that it means absolute dick.)
You can’t avoid star ratings, but you CAN ignore them. Make your own decisions. That’s what Amazon’s LOOK INSIDE feature is for.
THE TO-READ SHELF
The To-Read shelf is my biggest pet peeve with Goodreads. Gristle & Bone is on the To-Read shelf of about 215 readers. For fun, I decided to look at some of their profiles, and I noticed a disturbing trend.
MOST OF THESE PEOPLE HAVE MORE THAN 1,000 TITLES ON THEIR TO-READ SHELF!
Many of them have MORE THAN 10,000! That’s more books than Superman could read in a lifetime.
So, of these 215 people who supposedly want to read my book, I’d be lucky if 5 ever get around to it, and maybe one out of those five will bestow upon it their blessed star rating. Huzzah.
REMOVING BOOKS
This is one of the first problems an indie author might come across on Goodreads.
You excitedly add your brand new book to the site, create your ad or Goodreads Giveaway, and wait for the To-Reads to rack up.
You realize, a month or so later, you don’t particularly like what your book looks like on Amazon, and change the cover. Or you change distributors. Or you release a new version entirely.
What they don’t tell you is that ugly homemade cover, that poorly edited, hastily released version, those prior incarnations you can’t stand to look at let alone think about will remain on Goodreads FOREVER. You can “merge editions,” but you can never, EVER remove them from Goodreads. I’ve copied and pasted their policy on that verbatim below:
Deleting published books from our system is against policy. Goodreads is striving to be a complete database of all published works, including works that are out-of-print. We like our members to be able to add their exact edition to their virtual shelves. Just as a library would not remove a record from its catalog, so do we not remove books from our database.
Not even a Goodreads Librarian can remove it for you. What are Goodreads Librarians, you ask? A quick Google search says they’re volunteers “dedicated to improving book data.” This does not include removing prior editions of books, no matter how much you beg, as evidenced from the myriad forum posts on the subject.
For the record, here’s what Gristle & Bone‘s page looks like, with its many incarnations, making those little green buttons at the bottom virtually useless.
OTHER AUTHORS
They will pester you to read their new book, not realizing (as they do not research your profile before sending out mass emails), that you are also a writer in need of reads/reviews. They will badger you for “review exchanges,” which you should avoid like the Twilight Saga. They will spam you in forums.
We all need reads. We all need reviews. You can go about this the nice way, by making contacts and conversing with readers and other authors, or you can do it the amateur way and present yourself as a selfish asshole to the people who are most likely to help you when you need it.
Obviously we all want to sell books, and whether we like to admit it or not, we’re all in direct competition with each other for readers. Despite this (or because of it), the indie author “scene” is a community. You can make friends, or you can make enemies. So use Twitter, use Facebook, hell, use Goodreads if you have to, but please be respectful of other people’s time. I’ve been guilty of violating my own cardinal rule, on occasion, trying to figure out things like Twitter automated DMs and Goodreads events/blog posts. I think I’ve finally found a good middle ground, but even then I sometimes feel like I’m annoying people–“Didn’t he just post about that book yesterday??”
So take it from an accidental asshole: your book is no better or no worse than anyone else’s. Your time is no more or less valuable than anyone else’s. NOBODY LIKES SPAM.
Remember, we’re all in this together. Be nice. Retweet, share, like, recommend, do all of those things you love when they happen to you.
And if this article helped you avoid some mistakes, let me know using the little empty box below.
Until next time: Keep it Creepy.
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message 1:
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T
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Dec 15, 2015 05:38PM
I only created an account with Goodreds to tell them what a terrible idea the site is. What do I care about some idiots' reviews? We are giving literature stars? What an incredibly superficial idea. Writers would be better off working at the local Quickie-Mart and just writing what they love, and forget about publishing.
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