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Exciting News About Goodreads: We're Joining the Amazon Family!
When Elizabeth and I started Goodreads from my living room seven years ago, we set out to create a better way for people to find and share books they love. It's been a wild ride seeing how the company has grown and watching as more than 16 million readers from across the globe have joined Goodreads and connected over a passion for books.
Today I'm really happy to announce a new milestone for Goodreads: We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.
I'm excited about this for three reasons:
1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members.
2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.
3. Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture.
It's important to be clear that Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away. Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site—the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors—and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it's incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.
For all of you Kindle readers, there's obviously an extra bonus in this announcement. You've asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences. Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities.
Our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world. Now Goodreads can help make that happen in an even bigger and more meaningful way thanks to joining the Amazon family. (And if you want to be part of this, please check out our Jobs page for open positions. We've got a lot of hires to make!)
This is an emotional day for me. Goodreads is more than a company to me – it's something that Elizabeth and I created because we wanted it to exist. Since then it has grown a lot and become a place we love working at, full of incredibly smart and passionate people who also believe in our mission. I feel a little like a college graduate – happy to come to this milestone, nostalgic for the past amazing seven years, and incredibly, incredibly, excited for the future.
Otis
P.S. For the more official version of the announcement, here's the press release that went out today.
P.P.S. Please let us know – what integration with Kindle would you love to see the most?
Today I'm really happy to announce a new milestone for Goodreads: We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.
I'm excited about this for three reasons:
1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members.
2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.
3. Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture.
It's important to be clear that Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away. Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site—the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors—and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it's incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.
For all of you Kindle readers, there's obviously an extra bonus in this announcement. You've asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences. Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities.
Our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world. Now Goodreads can help make that happen in an even bigger and more meaningful way thanks to joining the Amazon family. (And if you want to be part of this, please check out our Jobs page for open positions. We've got a lot of hires to make!)
This is an emotional day for me. Goodreads is more than a company to me – it's something that Elizabeth and I created because we wanted it to exist. Since then it has grown a lot and become a place we love working at, full of incredibly smart and passionate people who also believe in our mission. I feel a little like a college graduate – happy to come to this milestone, nostalgic for the past amazing seven years, and incredibly, incredibly, excited for the future.
Otis
P.S. For the more official version of the announcement, here's the press release that went out today.
P.P.S. Please let us know – what integration with Kindle would you love to see the most?
Comments Showing 801-850 of 2,216 (2216 new)
Wench wrote: "Scott wrote: "Hopefully all the naysayers who say they're going to close their account do-it will only improved Goodreads without you.Stamping your feet and holding your breath over progress is a..."
Truly! Just because it's change, doesn't mean it's progress!
When I login to goodreads, I use my facebook login. I do not want Amazon to have access to this info. How do I prevent the cross pollination of information?If I have to, I'll delete my current goodreads acount and start a new one unassociated with facebook.
Beth wrote: "I have a suggestion: let me download all my info and books and reviews with one click so I can take it elsewhere."Yes, I agree with you about exporting data. I am interested in hearing where you plan to go. (No, seriously, I am -- I'm not being snarky. I am giving Goodreads one week to respond to all the negative feedback in this thread, and if their post doesn't satisfy me, I am out of here even if I have to go back to paper.)
Jason wrote: "For those of you distressed by this news, consider that Amazon also owns IMDB (Internet Movie Database), which has remained a separate, thriving brand and site. It seems likely that A..."imdb also requires review/approval of all submitted content, which is something people here are rightly very concerned will occur on GR's now that amazon owns Goodreads's soul.
Lewis wrote: "My reaction was positive, but the negative feedback is overwhelming. What are you going to do in response to what I imagine was an unexpected response?"It's not unexpected, they just don't care. They've had massive pushback before and just totally ignored it. As long as they can use us for marketing purposes, they're happy.
Amy wrote: "What about us Nookies?"I was thinking the same thing too.
What does this mean to those of us who use, and prefer, Nook instead of Kindle? Will the Goodread app no longer work on there?
katie wrote: "are there any alternative sites like goodreads out there? but ones who haven't sold their souls to the devil / amazon?"There's LibraryThing, but the social network there is a lot quieter, and they don't have the "feed." The book data _is_ a lot better.
Anne wrote: "I'm an amazon customer and certainly don't hate the company and I am happy that people who took the initiative to put goodreads together are being rewarded financially. That said, this news strike..."Completely agree. I don't trust Amazon reviews as I do GR. Plus there's the censorship issue. Amazon is way too controlling about their posting reviews to the point of dictatorship. Don't even get me started about their marketing tactics.
Moira wrote: "katie wrote: "are there any alternative sites like goodreads out there? but ones who haven't sold their souls to the devil / amazon?"There's LibraryThing, but the social network there is a lot qu..."
LT is 40% owned by Amazon though, so make of that what you will. =/
Jacquie wrote: "for me, I would like to be able to post one review and have it go to both sites"Seconded.
Will you be changing anything on GR or will everything stay the same?
Dylan wrote: "anieva wrote: "Did Goodreads really think most of its users would like this new development?"Do you think they care? For some people, it's just about dollar signs. That's what Amazon is all abo..."
I think you meant, they COULDN'T care less.
"They could care less" was one of many George "Dubya" malapropisms that the world can do without. I'm sorry for correcting your English.
Jess wrote: "Goodbye community, hello corporation! If I wanted to review books so amazon could sell them, I'd review on amazon."EXACTLY.
Patrick wrote: "We don't expect to make changes to our review policy. Our reviews are obviously a strength of our site, and we don't plan to change how we handle them."So can you EXPLICITLY answer some of the concerns here? Will we still own our reviews? Will they be automatically cross-posted to Amazon, or vice versa? Will Amazon be able to delete reviews with no notice? A blanket "we don't plan to change anything" is not cutting it here.
I got out of the amazon book review game years ago. I really have no interest in going back. Amazon dropped well formed communities in discussion groups and banished us to lost link obscurity, not bothering to foster a sharing and interested community. I hate to see that same company hold sway here where they can again kill communities for the sake of profit and profit-driven discussions.I have loved GR for years now. It's been a home and haven. And now Amazon has lumbered in. Good while it lasted, eh? Now it'll all be shoved around as someone's project to try and make money. I'm going to need a new home.
I am very disappointed as well. As Wendy many messages above said: "Too bad. Another good independent thing bites the dust. Happy for you and the money you'll make off the cool thing you started; sad for me, and sad for the internet, which will soon be owned by Amazon and Facebook, along with our souls. Not sure I'll continue with Goodreads. I think that will depend on how stalked I feel by Amazon." I was equally dismayed with the buyout of Audible--this is not the kind of Monopoly 'game' I like.
While I congratulate you, I am truly sorry to hear this - hopefully the book club groups with friends will stay. I have been an Amazon customer for years - I prefer this way of finding "Goodreads". It would have been great if we had been polled to see if we would have paid for it, but I understand that the option to go with Amazon would take away a tremendous amount of work for you.Best to you and yours.
I don't want Amazon to know all of my Goodreads info. I buy from them all of the time, but I don't like being stalked. The enhancement to Goodreads I would like, rather than the Kindle thing (which I own/use),is a way to rate audio books - the narrators are really important in those and need to be rated (favorite narrators are like favorite authors)
Congrats!I love Amazon and plan to buy a kindle in a few months.It will be wonderful to be able to get my favorite site on it. :) I love your site and have met many wonderful people and found many wonderful books because of it.
Nothing and I mean nothing good in modern day America ever comes from being swallowed by a major corporation. A sad day for Goodread members.
Very disappointed by this news...worried that our site will be gobbled up by Amazon, and we will lose our independence as a community of readers.
Add this to the pile of stuff making this week utterly crappy for me. :( *channels the old woman from The Princess Bride* Boo! Boo!! Boo!!
Jacquie wrote: "for me, I would like to be able to post one review and have it go to both sites"Ditto!
I'm going to wait and see what happens, it's not worth doing anything dramatic until we all know more:)
Not so happy about this...My family doesn't normally choose to do business with Amazon (we have our reasons). Everyone in our house owns some variety of the Nook. I love my Nook Color and am in no way interested in hearing about how wonderful the Kindle is. There is more than one option out there for e-reading, and if this site becomes all about Amazon/Kindle, I guess I will have to quit using it.
I am very upset about this. It amazes me to think that Goodreads went to such great lengths to separate its systems from Amazon only to come to this sad end. I have loved the Goodreads community since I joined in 2008, but I must say I am seriously considering deleting my profile after this. I don't want my data to be mined and I prefer to support independent businesses.
MissSusie wrote: "I am so confused by this... didn't you have a huge break-up with Amazon not long ago the whole No Amazon Covers or Content now all that work was for naught? I don't shop at Amazon and stay as far a..."My thoughts exactly! I love my Nook!
Researched how to export my books from Goodreads, and then to remove all of my books from Goodreads, just in case things go bad now with Amazon at the helm. Good news, it's pretty easy and takes only a few minutes. Bad news...I will miss all my GR friends and seeing what they are reading hugely if I leave GR. Really hoping Amazon keeps their paws off GR's independence.
Dadland wrote: "This news is disgusting. In a few days, I'll delete my account. I'm not going to let Amazon pimp me out and I don't get paid. Amazon is talking over every damn thing!"Why are you jumping to conclusions when we know very little yet?
Linette wrote: "Researched how to export my books from Goodreads, and then to remove all of my books from Goodreads, just in case things go bad now with Amazon at the helm. Good news, it's pretty easy and takes on..."I did that too. I just wish we could export our groups and friends too. I seriously hope the worst case scenario doesn't happen but I fear that it probably will. A corporation has one goal to grow and prosper and I just don't want to lose the community aspect of GR.
I would like a link from books on amazon to their page on Goodreads.
Simon wrote: "Is there a way for me to delete my account and its data as I am not interested in Amazon having it?Look forward to finding a new INDEPENDENT reader community."
If you find a good one, let me know please.
Amanda wrote: "A lot of these questions about integration and what is actually changing are answered in this interview:http://paidcontent.org/2013/03/28/fir......"
OC: “I think, short-term, the thing we’re most excited about is actually bringing the book into Goodreads and enabling people to just
start reading right there from the Kindle Cloud Reader. We’ve never had a good book preview feature.”
Well, wow.
This is even better:
RG: ”We’ve used [Shelfari] to generate quite a bit of incremental data about books. It’s powered features we’ve launched over time, such as book extras and X-Ray. But, of course, Goodreads has been much more of a social connection site and a larger social network. So when it comes to the graph we’ll use to connect people on Kindle, Goodreads will power that.”
They want to turn Goodreads into a Kindle-selling machine and they're going to mine all the social data. Christ.
Just had another thought. Those of us with private boards here--will they remain private? We MUST know this before any change takes place.
Karen wrote: "I hate the thought that this corporate giant now owns all the data that I've put into Goodreads for myself, and probably will use it for their own purposes. "Yeah, exactly. And as other people have been pointing out, Amazon is now going to use our work to profit off selling Kindle books to....us. We do the work, they get the money.
This is a little sad, I just hope they don't make it all about selling stuff to us. I think that even if they try not to make major changes, Goodreads is going to lose that "community" feel. We'll see.PS. I guess the "get a copy" button will only link to Amazon?
Marjorie wrote: "FEATURE REQUEST FOR AUTHORS (1 of 2)When a user shelves a book on Goodreads as "Wants to Read" please do two things:
1) add it to their Amazon Wish List automatically"
You really don't know how GoodReads works. When I add a book to my "want to read" shelf it means I HAVE it, and want to read it. I have a separate wishlist.
oh here we go....more big fish swallowing little fish....no more little fish....
My bio on Goodreads since I signed up has been "Amazon REALLY sucks!" Somewhat sad to have to say good buy to Goodreads.
I love goodreads and I love my kindle. However, I am not too happy with this news. I am afraid that the independent community feel to this website will get lost. I don't want to have my goodreads and amazon accounts merged. I only write reviews on goodreads and just use amazon as a to-buy list more or less or to read reviews. I would hate to have my accounts merged or updated automatically without my permission or control. I would probably stop using goodreads in that case or even amazon.
I love goodreads the way it is and I hope there aren't any drastic changes and if there is some integration between amazon and goodreads that it's not too drastic and lets people choose the settings.
I love goodreads the way it is and I hope there aren't any drastic changes and if there is some integration between amazon and goodreads that it's not too drastic and lets people choose the settings.
I left shelfari for the same reason. Besides, I'm not a Kindle user. I have a nook, though.
Seems too Walmart- like for my taste. Independence lost. So sad to see GR knuckle under.
I am SO sad about this. I avoid Amazon as much as possible and feel like I'll have to leave Goodreads if any kind of integration happens. Really disappointed.
Like many others, I'm very very sad. Amazon swallowed up then closed Bibliofind years ago, the place I'd go to buy used books. Their descriptions were to die for; one doesn't see that anywhere, anymore.And to those touting IMDB... It HAS changed. One can no longer get all the info you used to.. Instead, you must pay to get access to IMDBpro. Will we have to pay in order to keep our own bookshelves, over a certain number of books?
And the question of book review copyright/ownership is VERY important, as is account info. I don't have an Amazon acct, don't want one, don't intend to have one.
It's a good thing I'm keeping separate track of my reviews and books on a laptop. Unfortunately, that has hooks to Amazon also.. Guess what it does? All the info I inputted can get changed at any time if AMAZON doesn't agree with it. In fact, many of my books have been deleted because that edition doesn't show on Amazon. (half my books are pre-ISBN) My library is over 7000 books.
"Crushing" is a good description of the feeling I'm experiencing.
Ummm...I'm not sure this is good news. Amazon has censored/not published people reviews that are unfavorable to the book/author. This concerns me...
I know that Amazon has a policy where Indie authors are not allowed to review other Indie authors of the same genre. Therefore I am copying all my reviews and putting them on my blog.
Abe wrote: "Abe I think this is great news. Goodreads and Amazon are an excellent fit for each other. ... I'm not really sure what all the naysayers are worried about. ... And sure, the Goodreads data is super valuable to Amazon--but so what. Now they'll just be able to do a better job of showing you what you actually might want to purchase. ... This isn't a bad thing people. Why y'all hate'in? "Because some of us are old enough to remember what privacy was like, and prefer not to have all of our eggs in one basket. It makes it far too easy for one person to take and break all our eggs.
I had nothing but good things to say about GoodReads. No longer. Hundreds of reviews I've written, and now I'll need to move or delete them.
I'm a Nook o..."
^^^ This!
My reply isn't to Jon, though I'm happy for her to read this, but to Otis and Elizabeth and everyone else -> you all must know that Jon (and others like her on this site) is one of the biggest reasons I find Goodreads so incredible - I follow her reviews and they have led me to some of the most amazing moments I've experienced in life (and steered me away from some of the most boring), with me and the book I'm reading, because of what she's written in her reviews (I trust them, though not always do I agree 100%, I still trust what she says).
I've already expressed (earlier in this thread and another on this site) my utter disappointment and dismay at this news (while quietly feeling thankful it isn't Google), but what it boils down to is this: if people like Jon leave, there is no earthly reason for me to stay - she epitomises the essence of this wonderful, wonderful site.
I've said this before to many, many people - the answer to your question, "what's the next book I should read" is always, "Goodreads.com can tell you that." After this news, I will not be able to respond in the same way, and I've already started searching for other independent sites devoted to one thing: the book lover.