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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 1,001-1,050 of 2,216 (2216 new)
Dual thoughts: happy for you Otis that you made a good deal. For me, I'm not so sure. Will my reviews be GR reviews and not be shared on Amazon? How will it go with the millions of books that are obscure, not published in one of the major languages? Promises that GR will stay the same now a HUGE company with commercial interests only has bought the site? I have big foubts what these promises are worth. I won't stay here if the site changes and I'm already thinking about disconnecting GR from my accounts on FB and Twitter. I don't trust companies very much and I don't want any information disclosed through back doors.
I am sorry to hear this, I liked goodreads because it wasn't affiliated with one of the big dataminers. And now you happily go to bed with the worst thing that happened to local book stores...
I'll be gone. Good bye and thanks for all the fish!
I'll be gone. Good bye and thanks for all the fish!
If you needed (or even just wanted) money so badly, couldn't you have just asked us all nicely for support? I'm poor, but I would have gladly contributed to a resource I use so frequently and a community I really enjoy. I'm a longtime Kindle owner, so I'm not exactly stricken with Amazonophobia, but I relished the independence of this site. You have basically rewarded each of the librarians and other users who volunteered their time to help Goodreads (particularly during the recent Amazon-related data mess) with a smile and an unexpected bucket of ice water to the face.You want feature recommendations? Fine. I want to be able to opt out of any and all data-sharing with Amazon. I don't want Amazon to profile me using the books on my shelves, my friends' shelved books, the books I look up on Goodreads, the reviews I post, the reviews I read, and/or the reviewers I follow. Keep it simple or offer us options with varying levels of data sharing, but give us true control over what is shared with Amazon - and don't just make it some pathetic opt-out consigned to fine print oblivion.
"Exciting"? I moved my stuff from Shelfari to here to get rid of Amazon and find myself out of the frying pan and into the fire!
GR brand fatally compromised. Shame :( Terrible news
I'm sorry. Did I hear that right? Amazon likes books and writers? Please, Amazon HATES writers and books. All they're interested in is money and monopoly. And now we're handing them all our information, and the credibility of our reviews goes down the drain. Great.
This is great news! I have been looking for a tighter integration of Kindle and Goodreads and i am glad it will now happen. Some of the features i would be interested are:1. Update 'Currently reading' shelf if the reader crosses 5 pages on a Kindle ebook
2. Auto/Manually update progress on Goodreads
3. Integration of Goodreads reviews on Kindle ebook store
Congratulations! I'm very excited to see where GR could go with more money, and more staff! Fixing bugs in the notifications and improve the feed so you can actually see the people you interact with (like facebook) should be the number one priority xD As a Kindle reader, I'm also excited to get them more integrated!
As an author (originally self but later traditional) I credit both goodreads and Amazon for being instrumental in turning my dreams into a full-time profession. Both organizations are top-notch and at the top of their respective games. I'm excited by the potential synergy between the two and also hope that goodreads will remain as awesome as it has been in the past. Yes, there is some cause for trepidation because of the whole "Amazon will devour all." But for now I'm seeing this as a positive development time will tell, but I'm keeping an open mind.
I too, truly hoped this was a despicable April Fools joke. I like using Amazon... but, I also like Amazons competitors just as well. Good Reads was the perfect NEUTRAL ground for listing, sharing, reviewing and discussing books from many different sources. Now, it will become biased and geared toward Amazon. I mean gee, who's the daddy and financial backer? Amazon. Not good news at all.
Oh well, I hope that only includes webspace hosting like they do for Nanowrimo. To be quite honest, while I like using Amazon since it's my main source for English books here in Austria (I think that British bookshop in Vienna hasn't reopened yet - what are they doing?) some of the things they do still don't feel right. Then again, it's a business. I'm on Goodreads for fun though.
Well said, Cathy. I'll do the same. Cathy wrote: "So another good site succumbs to the lure of the big name...I hope the original purpose of Goodreads won't be lost. If it is, I'll return to pencil/paper to record my reading."
What date precisely is this takeover happening? Do we at that point get a set of terms & conditions to look over so that we can delete our account at that point if we decide they are unacceptable? People's concerns about privacy are legitimate and it may be old-fashioned, but I happen to think if I'm going to be doing advertising for a site then the very least they can do is to pay me. Since I'm not on Amazon's payroll then what they are doing is, at the very least, cheeky if not downright reprehensible. Legal it may be. Moral it isn't.
This is incredibly disheartening. The joy of this site is that it's away from the prying eyes and big brotherness of companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook. I'm sure the founders of this great idea are enjoying rolling in the green. But let's not kid ourselves that this is about anything other than greed resulting in ideological sell-out. Thank you, Not.
I love Amazon/Kindle and I absolutely love GR. I hope high and low that Goodreads will remain as fun as it is and won't die a slow death. And I second Angela's (message 44) post too.
I won't be a part of the corporate bloodsucker, aka Amazon. The early years of Goodreads were nice while they lasted. I'm out of here..
"See above - we value readers of all platforms, and consider that something important to the heart of what Goodreads is, and don't plan to change it."Then why did you sell to Amazon? Seriously guys, Amazon wants our data so, as someone mentioned above, I would like to be able to opt out of data sharing between my Goodreads and amazon account.
This is the point where Amazon moves in and eases you guys out. I've seen it happen a lot of times, in my own experience, working for a company that was as acquisitive as Amazon (but a lot more benign) in the UK. The first thing they do, once they've mined its members for all the information they can get, is fire the old board. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Cheers
MTM
If you can't even police your own reviews properly, Amazon, what right do you have to buy out another review website? I complained when my own books were carpet-bombed (and yes I have the evidence that the reviews were paid for by one individual with a grudge) you did nothing because your ineffective "terms of service was not compromised". Apparently patent lies about a publication you are purporting to promote are perfectly ok. And what percentage of the reviews on your site are "shills"?
This makes me leave goodreads.
Amazon uses various business pracitces which I do not agree with and will not support.
They pay their taxes in countries where taxes are especially low, thereby gaining unfair advantages over local book-stores. Working conditions in their warehouses are horrible. Lastly, I do not wish for my reading habits to be revealed to such a monopolizing company. I prefer to live in a world with a diverse book market, thank you very much.
Amazon uses various business pracitces which I do not agree with and will not support.
They pay their taxes in countries where taxes are especially low, thereby gaining unfair advantages over local book-stores. Working conditions in their warehouses are horrible. Lastly, I do not wish for my reading habits to be revealed to such a monopolizing company. I prefer to live in a world with a diverse book market, thank you very much.
There was a reason I moved from Shelfari to Goodreads: independence. It seems like every good thing on the internet will be sooner or later bought by a rich company to take advantage of the user base. And ironically the news about the takeover tend to be presented as "exciting" news. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, sorry.
I would love a Goodreads app on my Kindle)) And I hope my Goodreads account will not be stalked by Amazon ads..
Jacquie wrote: "for me, I would like to be able to post one review and have it go to both sites"That would be nice ;)
LOOK HERE, OTIS, THE MAJORITY OF US ARE NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS! So why are you doing it? Oh, yeah, money You will find this is a horrible decision to make. Soon your 16 million members will be less than a 1 million. And i'm guessing the majority of those 1 million will be people who work or highly support amazon. Oh, and you.
> I have to say that this (Amazon's share) has not ruined LibraryThing at all (from my point of view as a user), so we can be optimistic about Goodreads too?
I'm very confident that Goodreads is going to get a lot better. Think about Google buying Youtube, or eBay buying Paypal - I think it's going to be the same kind of thing here.
Given how YouTube is groaning with adverts now, to the level where I find it a very poor experience, I'd not necessarily think that a site to hold up as a positive example!
I'm not thrilled about this, either. I'm really, really, really, really, really worried that this is going to change Goodreads from a community of book lovers who respect each other to a commercial type of site with nasty reviewers like Amazon is. You both love this site and it's been obvious in how involved you are and how much you listen to us. I'm upset that a gigantic megacorp now controls this place that is my safe haven away from Facebook.I'm also worried that we're going to be forced into Kindle support which only allows their proprietary format. I worry that books that aren't on Kindle won't even be allowed in the catalog. Or ones that aren't sold on Amazon. I don't use a Kindle specifically because of the proprietary format. I love my Nook and if this site makes it more difficult to use because I don't have a Kindle, I'll be devastated. I'll also be very upset if the iPhone/iPad app goes away. I access Goodreads there every day. (Yeah, I hate the proprietary stuff there, but at least you can read ePubs AND Kindle books on an iPad.)
Sorry to say that, but you were bought by another company and since you do not own GR anymore, how can you say that it is still your business decisions? You are just another employee right now. You can stop thinking about your baby, they can take it away from you anytime they want. I am very concerned about my privacy right now, and I start to regret the work I put into saving books and adding additional data for the international books here.
Redangel333 wrote: "Sorry to say that, but you were bought by another company and since you do not own GR anymore, how can you say that it is still your business decisions? You are just another employee right now. You..."
I fully agree!
I fully agree!
Shelfari (owned by Amazon) kinda sucks and hasn't improved despite being acquired by Amazon a long time ago. If anything it's gotten even worse. Not sure how I feel about Amazon suddenly having control over Goodreads after the shenanigans they pulled last year regarding the use of book data.
what about the iBook people ! or the nooks or the xyz !Though its a very good news.
Feature request: A better and neat UI. For example take this comment box. 1st its in the bottom of the page ! Second, wheres the social integration ! It would be really cool to have facebook comments. I would certainly like to flaunt my comments of intellect on facebook !
Amazon already owns Shelfari, and after they bought it, almost all activity stopped there. I'm very afraid that this will happen with Goodreads :-(
Good for you guys. I am happy for you. Just don't let the service die. Amazon aquired Shelfari (your competition) a while ago and they haven't moved at all since then.
I'm super excited for you guys :)) You have created something wonderful, and I hope it continues that way :)) I'm crossing my fingers Amazon will have a hands off approach, and let the site flourish like IMDB has after it got incorporated in the Amazon family.
Tonina wrote: "If you needed (or even just wanted) money so badly, couldn't you have just asked us all nicely for support? I'm poor, but I would have gladly contributed to a resource I use so frequently and a com..."
Very well said.
Very well said.
Oh, this is very, very bad news. Amazon requires proof of purchase for anyone to post reviews. I’ve posted lots of reviews or stars of past reads that I never purchased on Amazon, including classics and older releases that I bought before Amazon even existed.Once Amazon gets their teeth sunk into restricting what and how reviewers compose their lists and rank their books or libraries, we’re all cooked. Reflections and reviews of older books will sink.
Only new releases that make money for Amazon through fresh sales will get backstage support. They've already started making their peace with the Big 6 publishers and having built the Kindle on the back of indie freebies, started sending out memos to authors who complain of slow reports that its time to go exclusive with Amazon and drop other sales distribution channels.
The wonderful thing about Goodreads was that it was independent. It was a vibrant community that had its share of trolls, but at least it was independent of Amazon’s algorithms. It offered a completely different spread of data.
Now, let me get this straight—Amazon owns ALL THREE reader’s platforms, Shelfari, Library Thing, Goodreads, plus their own reviewing sections??
They neglected Library Thing, which I also love for its long and thoughtful reviews, and particularly value for its Library Thing Early Reviewer scheme and it seems that they just killed Shelfari with equal neglect. Are they trying to improve Goodreads or kill it off, too?
How could any update of a clunky interface compensate for the complete monopoly Amazon has just wrested from the marketplace over discoverability?
At what point now does Amazon strangle out reviews and comments on books not purchased via Amazon? At what point do they start to skew the ratings and recommendations towards the books they themselves publish and sell through their own publishing arm? At what point do they push KDP Select books to the disadvantage of classics sold for free, or away indie authors who publish via their rivals, iBookstore, Sony, Kobo, etc or via Smashwords?
At what point does someone else try yet again to set up a reading platform that works, is user-friendly and is independent of Amazon?
I think when I read that Amazon has acquired Smashwords, I’ll just go drink my lethal dose of henbane and lie down in submission.
Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.I'm changing to http://www.anobii.com
Like a rat on a sinking ship?
What is still important to me is if I delete my account will amazon still get a copy when the takeover happens.
How can I delete all the content I put here before Amazon owns it?
Dinah wrote: "Now, let me get this straight—Amazon owns ALL THREE reader’s platforms, Shelfari, Library Thing, Goodreads,..."Not exactly. Amazon owns through ABEbooks a minority, non-controlling stake in LibraryThing.
http://business.time.com/2012/07/16/w...http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releas...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2012...
Make sure you all check out these sites, they will reveal the history of Amazon past alliences and what will happen to Goodreads.
Thought to warn you all, but fingers crossed that Amazon doesn't betray Goodreads.
I am also sad to hear the news. I LOVE GoodReads as it was independent, all about the readers, not big mainstream company writing the reviews so I trusted them more. I like Amazon but for different reasons. I have a Kindle but only bought it when we could borrow from the library and not some big marketing ploy where we had to buy their books.
I have always regarded GR reviews as the honest reflection of the reader's feelings. Not always so on amazon where commercial interests sometimes prevail, although to be fair many amazon reviews are also thoughtful and honest. Did you develop a business model for integrating these two types of reviews? I am thinking that the lack, so far, of an owner's response to this flood of negative reaction means you did not think this through. That would be a big loss to all of us who have come to regard GR as something special.
I use amazon as well as GR, have great respect for amazon's business strengths, and see no reason why the two cannot co-exist, if there's a well thought out plan. So what's your plan? How will this work?
I think you better answer before it's too late.
Totally disappointed to hear this news. Scared to see what will become of Goodreads now. Or if I will even participate any longer on this sight =(
FUCK. Good for you guys but I guess I am packing off to LibraryThing.
Lewis wrote: "I have always regarded GR reviews as the honest reflection of the reader's feelings. Not always so on amazon where commercial interests sometimes prevail, although to be fair many amazon reviews ar..."I also think you should check out the previous sites they have worked with and then decide whether Amazon is as good as you think. Because accordign to me, I found sites that Amazon has worked with and the site didn't last for very long.
Which is now they have decided to "work" with goodreads because Goodreads has over 16 million users which gives the Goodreads team lots of money for the hard work they put in to create this site and now Goodreads isn't going to last long with Amazon with them. Goodreads should've stood up and said NO.
:( It's truly a devasting shame to see Goodreads to go. *Sobs*.
Delighted to know this! As an author of seven mass-market paperbacks previously released by Penquin/Pearson,I will soon be reprinted by Amazon and released on Kindle. Wonderful!
Ooooh, this is a bit special! Good on you guys! Does that mean that you are going into partnership with goodreads and incorperating GR into Kindle and Amazin etc.?
Nope.http://business.time.com/2012/07/16/w...
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releas...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2012...
Make sure you all check out these sites, they will reveal the history of Amazon past alliences and what will happen to Goodreads.
Thought to warn you all, but fingers crossed that Amazon doesn't betray Goodreads.
Not sure what is bothering everyone. As I rarely post to amazon reviews. Reading all the mostly negative things. My request is that the ability to add unlimited shelves does not go away. Simple , but so are my desires in life. Thanks
However the WAR between Amazon, Apple and Google continues.
Now we on GRs will be even more limited with edition switches and purchases. Already the huge preference shown on GRs towards Amazon and Kindle has been very difficult.
Plus the recent pricing by country on Amazon at higher prices makes them remain my second or third choice.
Where does this move leave the readers who have made the choice to have choices and read eBooks on various apps and use kindle as only ONE OPTION?
Where does our privacy go?
Not happy.