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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 1,501-1,550 of 2,216 (2216 new)
Rose wrote: "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..."
ya, do you think Amazon would steal our pieces?
I'm literally freaking out here! i don't know what to do!
The news of this new "family" dismayed me so much that I did delete my account. But I felt I should come back for a moment to share a thought--though it's probably been covered somewhere in this monster of a topic somewhere!I find it VERY telling that this "Exciting News!" has been removed from the front page, AND that the people who are so very "Excited!" about it are virtually nowhere to be seen amongst the discussion (34 pages of concerns, and one post that addresses only the ones that they feel like addressing....very little on facebook as well).
If you are truly so excited and truly believe this is such a good thing, then GET OUT HERE AND DEFEND IT.
I'm still hoping this is part of some elaborate early April Fools joke, but I fear that this is yet another one of those cases where once the money was on the table all principles were tossed out the window with great force.
(now I go to re-delete my account...someday I will learn to do things in the proper order)
Kate wrote: "I have hopefully exported my GR Library to Library Thing but I am already feeling sad.I would almost rather pay a fee to keep it independent. I would prefer to be in Non-Corporate Non-dataming e..."
Same feeling here. LT just doesn't have the same "feel" and I do like the statistics & challenges here, but not the idea of my reading habits being used for marketing.
Elizabeth wrote: "Rose wrote: "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 st..."
Elizabeth, I'm actually a part of other writing communities like DeviantArt and Wattpad, so it may be that if something goes wrong with Amazon's ownership of this site, I may just divert to those. For now though, I'm going to wait and see what happens. It may not affect anything, but I'll admit, I'm concerned.
Time will only tellI hope nothing bad happens
I love 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..."Goodreads actually DOES have a section of every users profile where they can get paid for their writing. How would Amazon handle that?
Well this is exactly why I left Shelfari, I suppose I will see what happens, hopefully we wont have to delete all our reviews to keep them ours, or I wont have to buy a kinle to stay connected here(never going to happen).While I can understand a personal motivation especially in the current economy it is sad to see one more strike against independent bookstores and independent thinking.
Since I read Kindle in conjunction with Audible or with text-to-speech reading along with me, I'd like to be able to review separately somehow. I think the narrator needs their own review page. And I'd like to let the Kindle people, and the author know how the voice interprets their book.
Rose wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Rose wrote: "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 worrie..."
What are thous sites like? Are they anything like goodreads?
I have been pondering this for a while, after my initial pit of the stomach sickness, wondering how we can foster our independent connections and all the things we loved about this site.I'm a used book dealer and I used to connect through Abebooks, especially chosen for many reasons..I got out shortly after Amazon took over, because I saw what I loved was being gutted.
I'm torn. What I think we need to do is make our connections on the ground. Face to face, in our communities. Foster the reading circles, the discussion groups, the real time exchange of ideas with people we bump into. Support the independent bookstores around us (should we be so fortunate).
Online..I don't know. Blogs? But how do we find each other. I'm going to miss a lot here. But I don't think I can continue, not with Amazon, not with the...I don't know, quantification of our love of books.
I have had a reply of sorts to my emails to Goodreads. I posted one of them in comment #1066. I had written a follow-up email saying I had found Otis' thread post (on page 15 of these comments) and so asking them to kindly disregard the bits about them not responding on-site to members' concerns. I made it clear that I still wanted specific responses to the questions I raised, but this is the reply I received:
"Hi Vivienne,
Thanks for your email. To answer your question, we have no plans to change our reviews policy at all.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, Goodreads will be able to share information as appropriate. Goodreads’ privacy policy remains the same.
http://www.goodreads.com/about/privacy
If you have further questions, let us know.
Best,
Kara"
I have replied in part with this:
"Questions regarding independence, protection of our privacy and Amazon's policies on what kind of reviews can be posted and by whom are being widely asked and specific answers would be welcomed. I know that Goodreads' privacy policy is very similar to that of Amazon's, but people have quite different feelings about you, an independent company who does not have a history of predatory practices, having those rights over their input and Amazon, with a long history of data-mining, predatory behaviour, tax dodging etc, having those same rights."
I will say they are working overtime responding individually to emails, which is impressive despite their replies being fairly ineffectual. I just wish they could avoided this situation and maintained their independence. As many have suggested in this thread, most of us members would gladly have helped fund them if it could have avoided this outcome.
"Hi Vivienne,
Thanks for your email. To answer your question, we have no plans to change our reviews policy at all.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, Goodreads will be able to share information as appropriate. Goodreads’ privacy policy remains the same.
http://www.goodreads.com/about/privacy
If you have further questions, let us know.
Best,
Kara"
I have replied in part with this:
"Questions regarding independence, protection of our privacy and Amazon's policies on what kind of reviews can be posted and by whom are being widely asked and specific answers would be welcomed. I know that Goodreads' privacy policy is very similar to that of Amazon's, but people have quite different feelings about you, an independent company who does not have a history of predatory practices, having those rights over their input and Amazon, with a long history of data-mining, predatory behaviour, tax dodging etc, having those same rights."
I will say they are working overtime responding individually to emails, which is impressive despite their replies being fairly ineffectual. I just wish they could avoided this situation and maintained their independence. As many have suggested in this thread, most of us members would gladly have helped fund them if it could have avoided this outcome.
Well, as so many have said, it was good while it lasted. And as others have said, not ever ereader is a Kindle. So we NOOK/Sony/Kobo owners are getting slapped twice. What I figure will happen all too soon is that my Goodreads "want to read" items will become data for Amazon to use so that they will spam me periodically about buying books those books. How sad.
I've signed up for a LibraryThing account today. Through Sunday, March 31 they are offering free unlimited accounts for those of us who wish to try something different in the wake of the Amazon/GR partnership. I don't know....I'll probably keep my GR account open for awhile and see how this all goes, but I'm very uneasy about the situation. I really, really love GR and hope that Amazon doesn't take over and change the basic principles and concepts that GR originally held. I wish we, as users, would have been consulted. I would definitely have paid a yearly fee to keep GR independent.
Peter wrote: ""I will not give in because I oppose it — I do - not my pride, not my spleen, nor any of my appetites, but I do – I!"
Clearly nothing we say here matters. This is not a new experience for almost an..."
Well said.
Clearly nothing we say here matters. This is not a new experience for almost an..."
Well said.
I love good reads from a children author, hope it remains a great site as before. William sawyers.(Bill)
Good luck keeping your integrity Goodreads staff. And if you do, Amazon will probably replace you in no time even though you claim to remain "independent". I wonder if my account will be deleted for this statement...
Sherri wrote: "I've signed up for a LibraryThing account today. Through Sunday, March 31 they are offering free unlimited accounts for those of us who wish to try something different in the wake of the Amazon/GR..."
Agree on all counts. I've just opened a LibraryThing account as well, and am waiting for my books to be imported.
Agree on all counts. I've just opened a LibraryThing account as well, and am waiting for my books to be imported.
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."
Can't fathom any rational reason for your enthusiasm then. You say readers have been using Goodreads as a
"Free site". Just for writing their HTML they made all the content writers write everything for FREE. They got everything from their content writers without paying them a wage and you blame the readers instead of these corporate sellouts? You are definitely linked to these sellouts somehow. And that's the better possibility out of what I imagine you to be.
Can't fathom any rational reason for your enthusiasm then. You say readers have been using Goodreads as a
"Free site". Just for writing their HTML they made all the content writers write everything for FREE. They got everything from their content writers without paying them a wage and you blame the readers instead of these corporate sellouts? You are definitely linked to these sellouts somehow. And that's the better possibility out of what I imagine you to be.
Ondřej wrote: "Sync reading progress from Kindle to my goodreads account."Yes, Auto sync reading progress in your bookshelf, but include the option to manually publish reading progress to feeds so that the former doesn't clutter friends feeds.
Opened my LIBRARYTHING account. They are giving free one year accounts till this Sunday. Also check out these websites that other members have suggested:
Anobii
BookCrossing
BookGlutton
BookLamp.org
BookLikes
BookRabbit
Bookwormr
GreenMetropolis
Reader2
Readernaut
YourNextRead
Whichbook
Anobii
BookCrossing
BookGlutton
BookLamp.org
BookLikes
BookRabbit
Bookwormr
GreenMetropolis
Reader2
Readernaut
YourNextRead
Whichbook
Don't judge the change too quickly; let's wait and see.
Dean wrote: "Don't judge the change too quickly; let's wait and see."That's where I am with this, I like it to much here to jump ship before anything happens, if anything happens.
karla is leaving wrote: "I've seen people mentioning thereadingroom.com"
Unfortunately a social reading site without many members isn't very social.
From my mornings research it seems like the #2 behind Goodreads is LibraryThing, and despite claims of 40% amazon ownership being bandied about amazon's ownership of LibraryThing is definitely less than 40% and non-controlling.
That being said I'll export my data from Goodreads just in case that feature "disappears" and then sit on the fence and see where things head.
Past performance is no guarantee of future outcomes, but amazon's history of corporate purchases is none to rosy.
Trish wrote: "Dean wrote: "Don't judge the change too quickly; let's wait and see."
That's where I am with this, I like it to much here to jump ship before anything happens, if anything happens."
Amazon bosses are going to force this goodreads team of intellectuals to fudge ratings to sell more fifty shades of grey. They are going to turn this beautiful website into a billboard to sell their own books. Why else do you think they are buying it? It's the end of goodreads as we know it.
That's where I am with this, I like it to much here to jump ship before anything happens, if anything happens."
Amazon bosses are going to force this goodreads team of intellectuals to fudge ratings to sell more fifty shades of grey. They are going to turn this beautiful website into a billboard to sell their own books. Why else do you think they are buying it? It's the end of goodreads as we know it.
I am a new kindle e book author....Hey Little Boys can Glam-Up, Too! By Patrice Colamesta And illustrator Leo Silva...
What does Glam-up to you?
Brixton wrote: "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."C..."
I don't have any way of knowing who on here is a librarian or what any poster has or has not contributed to this site. All I know is I see a lot of complaining and predicting before anything has actually even happened. Also a lot of complaining about Nooks and B&N and money.
Eclair wrote: "I'm skeptically pessimistic."
Pessimism come with a certain degree if doubt. I am 100% sure of Amazon's intentions and their ability to destroy this website. The founders have sacrificed their child for payment.
Pessimism come with a certain degree if doubt. I am 100% sure of Amazon's intentions and their ability to destroy this website. The founders have sacrificed their child for payment.
Feliks wrote: ""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..."..."Then don't write there or, if GR decides to force us to put reviews on both sites, don't write any more reviews/take off the reviews you do have already.
Sumeer wrote: "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."Can't fathom any ra..."
That simply isn't true. I just have a Kindle. Just because you don't like my opinion is no reason to accuse me of lying. Wow. Homey little site.
The simple fact that you chose one merchant over another while many of your readers purchase from several booksellers, speaks volumes to me. I agree with others. I would have gladly paid a fee for you to stay truly independent.
Sumeer wrote: "Trish wrote: "Dean wrote: "Don't judge the change too quickly; let's wait and see."That's where I am with this, I like it to much here to jump ship before anything happens, if anything happens."
..."
Than kill your account & walk away like a bandwagoner. Nothing has happened yet....but you're so sure...
Amy wrote: "What about us Nookies?"+1
While I do have a library over at Amazon, it's mostly free books. My main reader is my nook.
I love Amazon, and I love Goodreads. I hope one good thing does NOT ruin the other.
Okay, I have read the press release. It doesn't tell me anything I wanted to know. It's your web site, you put the work into it and I think you've been made an offer you couldn't refuse. However, I think you owe it to your users, who have provided the content, to send this announcement out by email, with a bit more information than you have given us. If you really think this is a wonderful thing, explain exactly how it will work and perhaps why you made the decision, *without* the press release language. You might be able to calm and reassure people who WANT to stay with GR. Clearly people are panicking and seeing all sorts of scenarios that might never happen. I only belong to the site that has taken you over because that was the app they gave our students on their iPads and I needed to teach them how to get the most out of it. I am all too well aware that they can and do remove books from your Kindle if they decide that's what they need to do. I don't like it. Even if they only use this site to get information about reading patterns I will feel used. And they won't stop there; it's a business. They will want value for the money they have paid you. See? Even I can see negative implications. Reassure me! Reassure all of us, by email. Tell us how it will work. Then this discussion can come to a stop.
To be honest I'm not happy with this decision.If you need money I would have been happy to pay a yearly fee like many other members.
Amazon owns Shelfari and now the buy a second book community? Do they really need both?
This is definitely a good day for Otis and Elizabeth but it is a bad day for people who love books.
I like to read digital books but on a reader which is independent from Amazon.
There is no clear statement what will happen with all the data from the user including their profiles.
The vision of the one book seller, one book community, one digital reader gives me the creeps.
Shall I stay or shall I go? That is the sad question I have to answer fro myself in the next weeks after five good years with GOODREADS.
´
I consider both organizations useful. The quality and future usefulness of Goodreads will depend on many factors, but I lack the insight at present to predict the outcome of its purchase by Amazon. For now, congratulations on creating a useful reader service and on successfully benefiting from your hard work.
I just hope that goodreads will stay independent. I don't really shop for my books on Amazon (I have a Nook), but I still loved goodread's independence and freedom it gave its users.I hope that goodreads does not become Kindle-Centric. Congratulations though.
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..."
I joined but am skeptical. It is not easy to use and claims you can import your books from gr...does not work. :(
1) I post on Goodreads and read reviews on Goodreads because it's NOT Amazon.2) Happy for you that all your hard work has been rewarded.
I enjoy using my Kindle App, but, like many others, have stayed away from a strict Kindle because I wanted access to many other sources of e-books. One of the things I've loved about Goodreads is that I can keep my reviews, lists and groups here, without having to fight with some proprietary entity over ownership--the same reason I no longer use itunes! I only hope this does not change too much.
That's really unfortunate. Amazon is a prime reason small local businesses, and bookstores especially are going out of business.
I won't be staying with Goodreads if this is true. Which is too bad because I really liked it.
I won't be staying with Goodreads if this is true. Which is too bad because I really liked it.
Peter wrote: "Vivl wrote: "Very interesting analysis of changes that seem to have already have been made to our beloved site: http://ebookfriendly.com/2013/03/29/a..."I noticed that too - Ama..."
Thanks for pointing this out. I have now removed Amazon, added Kobo, Smashwords and Allromanceebooks to the list and made sure they were up at the top. :)
Elizabeth wrote: "Nook already has the capability to share your current status and to rate and review books to facebook or twitter. I'm sure Goodreads could have found a way to work with all e-reader providers to tap into these kinds of features that already exist without being bought by a company that segregates its ebooks more than any other. One of the best things about Goodreads is that it was equal across all platforms. From the sound of this announcement, you will now be shifting your focus to the Kindle and excluding a large portion of readers who use .epub readers; the Nook being only one among many."Exactly. And as Gutenberg pointed out, it's really really difficult to read DRM-free books on the Kindle Fire. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenbe... Such a shame.
Lisa wrote: "We want to read about our own people and places just the way Americans do. But Amazon devours and obliterates our small profile on its site, it stocks hardly any of our books produced locally and it certainly doesn't promote them. It acts as if The Rest of the World doesn't exist, especially in the editions it sells. "Wow, that's horrible. Thank you for the non-US perspective on Amazon.
The Holy Terror wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Actually, it's not 40%. Tim has stated before that the number is smaller, but he's legally bound from disclosing the actual amount. Don't know where people are getting the 40% from, ..."Oh, hey, if it's WIKIPEDIA....why trust that over the founder of the site? Wiki knoweth all!
That press release is six years old. Post from today on LT says:
At the same time, it's well known that Amazon has an indirect but real stake in LibraryThing—they bought Abebooks, who were our first minority partner. People keep reporting that Amazon has 40%. That's simply not true—it fails to take account of our second funder, Bowker. (I remain the majority; I can't say how the rest divides up.) But this certainly muddies the message. For what it's worth, I want LibraryThing to make more money, and therefore my, Bowker and Amazon's stake to be worth more and more, but with Amazon now holding 100% ownership of BOTH our competitors (Goodreads and Shelfari), we can hardly do so without emphasizing what sets us apart.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/152033
You people saying "Amazon owns LibraryThing TOO" reminds me of the idiots who said there was no difference between Gore and Bush.
I'm sorry that you sold your souls. This isn't going to be good for the publishing business, and it bodes even worse for my beloved independent bookstores. I will seek other avenues for tracking and sharing my reading.
Tammy wrote: "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 ye..."
I just imported all of my books this evening from GR to LibraryThing. A little bit of tweaking, though, but otherwise all seems to be good.
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 ye..."
I just imported all of my books this evening from GR to LibraryThing. A little bit of tweaking, though, but otherwise all seems to be good.
Brixton wrote: "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."Right on.
Anne: You said it well, my opinion. Great job and thanks for your post.