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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 1,451-1,500 of 2,216 (2216 new)
Amanda wrote: "Point is, Amazon does not own 40% of LibraryThing."Ah, I didn't say they did. I said Amazon owns AbeBooks.
Just wanted to point it out for people if they didn't realize there is a connection between Amazon and LibraryThing. Doesn't make much sense to jump ship from here over to there if you really want nothing to do with Amazon.
I'm a lifetime member at LT and I was over there years before I was here. I've got no issue with LT, though I'll admit I don't ever go over there anymore.
I'm really surprised at the amount of bellyaching here. It hasn't even happened yet. We don't know for sure how it will affect GR.We have been enjoying GR as a free site but now we are going to complain and accuse the founders of money-grabbing?
Kimberley wrote: "I'm really surprised at the amount of bellyaching here. It hasn't even happened yet. We don't know for sure how it will affect GR.We have been enjoying GR as a free site but now we are going to..."
It's not "money-grabbing" but rather their choice of bedfellows.
Jay F wrote: "Kimberley wrote: "I'm really surprised at the amount of bellyaching here. It hasn't even happened yet. We don't know for sure how it will affect GR.We have been enjoying GR as a free site but n..."
I've seen a lot of posts with $$$$$$$ and people complaining about how the founders are part of "the elite" now and have betrayed "us." It's really quite something.
GR is a free site. Free. Yet people are complaining as if they had been paying customers and are entitled to something.
The Holy Terror wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Not sure Wikipedia is the best source for information."I knew someone would say that! Which is why I linked to the press release which is where the Wikipedia info was sourced."
All the Press Release says is that they bought a 40% share some years ago. Nothing says none of its share was sold, nor is there anything to say that that share was not diluted by the new investor, CIG. All that is known for sure is that Tim Spaulding owns an absolute majority, and he has publicly stated that he will not allow Amazon to get control of his company.
I hope you don't auto link Amazon and GoodRead materials. My kids use my Amazon account and I buy lots of different from different places for my Good Reads book list that I don't necessarily listed under my Amazon kit so I hope to mix the two will be optional. Also, my Kindle is just a back up because I won it. I use a nook mainly so that is also a consideration.
Kimberley wrote: "We have been enjoying GR as a free site but now we are going to complain and accuse the founders of money-grabbing?"The Chandlers are now enjoying being multi-millionaires after enjoying free time and labour provided by librarians, reviewers, etc, many of whom-- myself included-- would not have done any such work had we known it would someday just be handed over to something like (but especially) amazon.
It is a legitimate complaint, and I wish I didn't have to keep repeating it for people who keep thinking this is all about Kindles and Nooks.
LibraryThing is offering a way out for those who want to leave GoodReads; they are offering a free one year subscription (not limited to 200 books). Here is a link to their blog entry on the subject: Free accounts through Sunday
Gabby wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Dee wrote: "Amazon can't sell australian literature if the publishers won't let it - I loved Bryce Courtenay's work before he died - when I emailed him from the US about his books ever..."Of course. I'm just surprised that an Aussie would use it.
And (forgive me if you are a real person, a genuine GoodReads member) I am expecting that there are people being paid to contribute to these forums to defuse criticism, and that these people wouldn't necessarily be who they say they are. So you see, 'mom' looked like an indication that a real Aussie wasn't responding to me.
Lisa wrote: "Gabby wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Dee wrote: "Amazon can't sell australian literature if the publishers won't let it - I loved Bryce Courtenay's work before he died - when I emailed him from the US about ..."I agree that, to reduce criticism, they are getting amazon employees/supporters to comment on here. But i also know, that I'm an Aussie, and sometimes I accidentally write mom in stead of mum and don't think it's a big enough error to change.
Gabby wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Gabby wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Dee wrote: "Amazon can't sell australian literature if the publishers won't let it - I loved Bryce Courtenay's work before he died - when I emailed him from ..."Like I said, I'm sorry. I hope you understand!
Kimberley wrote: "GR is a free site. Free. Yet people are complaining as if they had been paying customers and are entitled to something."I believe the people who helped make this site worth tens of millions of dollars ARE entitled to whatever information many of us have been seeking regarding the impact of this sale. I believe we were entitled to be informed of this coming development as well so that we could make choices about whether or not we wanted to continue to contribute our time/labour in the meanwhile. I do believe we helped Goodreads through a crisis during the GR/amazon split last year, and now I wonder what for.
So many more people have kept this site alive and made it what it is than you can apparently fathom.
Brixton wrote: "Kimberley wrote: "We have been enjoying GR as a free site but now we are going to complain and accuse the founders of money-grabbing?"The Chandlers are now enjoying being multi-millionaires after..."
Agreed. Are the Chandlers going to reimburse the librarians for their hours of work or the reviewers for their intellectual property that they have just sold? After all,they are now multimillionaires off the sweat of others' brows.
This site was never free; users just did not have to pay cash for use. Users have been a captive audience for ads (which were paid for, some on pay per view, I bet); their reviews were sold to other sites. Librarians paid with their hours of work.
Or have you forgotten about this, Kimberley?
Lisa wrote: "Gabby wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Gabby wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Dee wrote: "Amazon can't sell australian literature if the publishers won't let it - I loved Bryce Courtenay's work before he died - when I ema..."That's totally okay! I'm too defensive for my own good :)
Otis can't assure anything now. He's been paid and if history is any guide, either Good reads gets shut down or it will be changed to be an Amazon integration product.Export your data now ( if you can) if you care about it and find a new place.
Janosch wrote: "Dear Otis,
please ensure that we will be able to rate the books HOW WE Like it.
Please make sure we still will be able to rate a book one star.
I fear that with amazon readers will be forced to ..."
Did you think they started the company to NOT make company? Do you work for free?Debi wrote: "Sorry to hear the news. I guess money talks. Sad ..."
I doubt the fee they would have ad to charge to make up fr the amount Amazon paid wouldn't have been any where close to what you or any one else would support.E.W. wrote: "Too bad the members were not clued on s decision. I would have paid a fee to keep this site independent. Now all I can do is wait and see."
Lisa wrote: "Dee wrote: "Amazon can't sell australian literature if the publishers won't let it - I loved Bryce Courtenay's work before he died - when I emailed him from the US about his books ever being availa..."Yes I did - however my mom is from the US so I used both growing up and living in the US for 13 years now I say mom exclusively
So are Amazon stopping Shelfari, if so good riddance as it's not a patch on GR
I take it this caters for Amazon across the world (especially UK) not just the US
Steve wrote: "Did you think they started the company to NOT make company? Do you work for free?This, exactly. I love that everyone here saying they would not sellout if given this opportunity will never have to actually stand by that claim.
Brixton wrote: "Kimberley wrote: "We have been enjoying GR as a free site but now we are going to complain and accuse the founders of money-grabbing?"The Chandlers are now enjoying being multi-millionaires after..."
Unless those providing the free time and labor were promised certain terms that are now being reneged on, there's not really much they can do. We also don't really know how much Amazon is paying, do we?
I'll admit there are valid concerns and Amazon is a behemoth, but maybe it's still a little early to be panicking to the tune of 33+ pages of mostly complaining.
I get paid for my professional work. But I have maintained and written for my personal website for seventeen years now, ad-free and without charge.If money is all that matters to you, we have nothing to talk about.
Definitely mixed emotions, worried about independence and Amazon accessing our data. There is both good and bad anticipation issues...
Steve wrote: "Did you think they started the company to NOT make company? Do you work for free?"Well I don't know about anyone else still paying attention to these comments, but I DID INDEED work for free-- to build GOODREADS-- or so I WAS TOLD, and by Otis Chandler himself, usually. Yesterday we found out we were actually working to build a product for the Chandlers to sell to amazon.
I'm noticing the pro-GRamazon folks do not seem to grasp the concept of informed consent.
You have sold out to a greedy monopolizing company, good luck! Amazon does not care about readers, authors, publishers or booksellers, the bottom line is always money.
Peter wrote: "Brixton wrote: "Kimberley wrote: "We have been enjoying GR as a free site but now we are going to complain and accuse the founders of money-grabbing?"The Chandlers are now enjoying being multi-mi..."
I assume they did this of their own free will in the hopes of helping fellow readers, not just the owners of Goodreads, and not out of some illusion that the founders were somehow promising that something like this would never happen. If I put a review or do other work on a site and no one is offering to pay me, I don't assume that I am owed something months later when that site is sold, changes hands, etc.
That's galling, to have had the link to this thread removed from the Goodreads.com homepage. To what end? To back up the original owners' callow and disingenuous assertions that everything will be as it was, tomorrow?
Also, though I have no way to prove this, I am not an employee of Amazon or in any way associated with them. I have a Kindle, but I guess that's bad enough.
Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.
Bugmenot wrote: "anobii appears to be... 65% owned by SainsburyYourNextRead states on its "about" page that one of its primary goals is to connect you to Amazon.
Amazon has infected a LOT of sites.
Keep lookin..."
You are right: I had unchecked the agreement to share reviews with partners, and it's been turned back on. I have now of course unchecked it again. What's the betting they remove this checkbox option?
Kimberley wrote: "Also, though I have no way to prove this, I am not an employee of Amazon or in any way associated with them. I have a Kindle, but I guess that's bad enough."*chuckle* I have a horrible feeling that for as long as we all stay here, now we are all associated with them even though we don't want to be! O woe!
Brixton wrote: "Steve wrote: "Did you think they started the company to NOT make company? Do you work for free?"Well I don't know about anyone else still paying attention to these comments, but I DID INDEED wor..."
That's a thought provoking observation, Brixton. I hadn't really thought of that. I've lost count of the number of people I've invited to join me on Goodreads.
Kimberley wrote: "If I put a review or do other work on a site and no one is offering to pay me, I don't assume that I am owed something months later when that site is sold, changes hands, etc."Clearly you do not understand how Goodreads was built and sustained. Please investigate on your own what some of the top librarians actually do in a single week (if you've got time to argue legitimacy of concerns with INVESTED PARTIES, ie, librarians, I assume you have time to find the links yourself). Put yourself in others' shoes before calling people's legitimate sense of betrayal and/or valid concerns just "bellyaching".
Links to blog posts RARELY stay on the homepage longer than 12 hours
$150,000,000?!?! Holy crap! No wonder you sold out!
I am sadden at this.... I love this site as it had a homey feeling... and now it will be part of Amazon....I fear the advertisement will pop up on all the pages and take the home owned feeling.. I can't see that it will offer anything new and wonderful as goodreads is perfect as it is.... do you realize how many members are deleting their accounts? I wish we as members had known about this before it happened to offer our thoughts and needs.. I will sit back a while and see what happens but I feel it will change what made good reads so special.
E.W. wrote: "Too bad the members were not clued on this decision. I would have paid a fee to keep this site independent. Now all I can do is wait and see."I would have paid a fe to keep it independent too
Shawn wrote: "$150,000,000?!?! Holy crap! No wonder you sold out!"You're kidding?!?! Sheesh! I would have sold out too, and then started another site! But there's probably something in the sale that wouldn't have allowed them to do that.
Business Week is speculating a sale price close to $1 billion.http://www.businessweek.com/articles/...
Do NOT like this news at all, and came here specifically after seeing the media report to say so!HATE the way Amazon is treating authors - they're no longer even allowed to review books in whatever Amazon determines is "their" genres - which for some authors, means almost ALL of them!
On top of that, everything that WAS good that Amazon buys, they promptly CLOSE.
Even when they promise not to. Said they wouldn't kill Reflexive. They did.
I like Amazon for many things - I do NOT like it buying GoodReads.
This is not a positive for readers OR authors.
The only people to benefit will be those selling out - and Amazon, as they gain another way to advertise - until they either kill it or tick enough people off that they leave and Amazon shutters it as a ghost site.
I also would have happily paid a fee. I am so sad. I love this site but I hate Amazon SO much. I can't think of any company in the world I hate more. It devastates me what they have done to real bookstores and books - I adore bookstores and printed books and I hate their push to have e-books replace paper and kill all the physical stores. :(
And a couple more thoughts: Sellouts - enjoy the money.
The rest of you - it's moving day.
Check LibraryThing out. It's always free up to 200 books, and they're giving out free year-long subs til Sunday.
http://www.librarything.com/blogs/lib...
I like the idea of Operation Good-Shel. I've been making invites for Goodbye Goodreads and inviting goodreaders I know.
http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/8...
http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/8...
Shawna wrote: "And a couple more thoughts: Sellouts - enjoy the money.
The rest of you - it's moving day.
Check LibraryThing out. It's always free up to 200 books, and they're giving out free year-long subs ti..."
Only to new and very recent signups, though. Unfortunately for me.
It's also frustrating that the community of GoodReads will be shattered and spread to the winds. Those who leave - I'm tempted to say, those with integrity - will doubtless end up all over the map, at all sorts of small sites. They'll never get the chance to come together the way they were here...and if they did, no doubt Amazon would buy that site up as well.
We are, all of us, at the mercy of Big Money. And Big Money has no mercy. Only profit.
In response to the less-than-unique "Do you work for free?" remark I hear during similar offline discussions:Peter wrote: "I get paid for my professional work. But I have maintained and written for my personal website for seventeen years now, ad-free and without charge.
If money is all that matters to you, we have nothing to talk about."
Exactly! And therein lies the fundamental divide between the people posting in this thread.
Last year when GR sent an email out boasting how popular the site had become over the past year, how much membership had jumped, my nerves kicked in. I knew then that it was only a matter of time before the owners sold. Not a surprise but sad nonetheless. It's why nowadays I'm slow to join any site with even moderate popularity. I was a member of LibraryThing years ago but abandoned it for GR. But now I don't know if I have it in me to look for another place online. And that's what "they" are counting on. Sigh.
By the way, to jump to Otis' March 28 5:48 PM EST response in this thread go to http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
I'm worried that Amazon will steal all the stories that we have written, posted, and started.a friend of mine told me about this, and she is worried too.
Are our stories safe?
i trust Goodreads, but not Amazon!
I am very sad to hear that Goodreads, a site I have loved, has partnered with Amazon. I will be deleting my Goodreads account and hopefully find a suitable replacement. Or, I will just go back to utlizing paper and pen.
Elizabeth wrote: "I'm worried that Amazon will steal all the stories that we have written, posted, and started.a friend of mine told me about this, and she is worried too.
Are our stories safe?
i trust Goodreads, ..."
I'm worried about that too, since I have some writing samples on GR.
"It means the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts."