How to Get the Most Out of Goodreads in Five Minutes a Day

Goodreads is the world's largest site for book discovery, and savvy authors know to claim their author profile, run a giveaway, and enable Ask the Author. But a Goodreads author profile is not complete unless you share your favorite books.

To get the most out of your time on Goodreads, you must be able to speak the same language as the millions of members on Goodreads: talk about books! Goodreads was built around the concept of discovering the next good book by browsing your friends’ bookshelves. Imagine how special it is for readers to browse the shelves of their favorite authors!

As part of Romance Week, Nalini Singh took the time to delight her fans by adding some of her favorite romance books to her shelf, and adding a few lines to her review:

Her fans responded not just by liking and commenting on her review, but by adding the book to their own shelves:
There are many ways to indicate your personal love for reading, and it all starts by adding books to your shelf.

Adding books takes a few minutes. You don’t need to write a full review or give the book a star rating; simply adding the book to your ‘Want to Read’ shelf to show readers what you’re interested in.

Adding books generates a newsfeed update to your followers. This is a quick and easy way to keep yourself top of mind with your followers on Goodreads.

Adding books gives you credibility. Every author started as a reader. Give new readers a better understanding of where you came from by sharing what you enjoy.

Adding books gives you conversation material. When readers comment on a book review you wrote, it’s absolutely ok to respond. Remember though: everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Adding books is an ongoing activity. New books are constantly being published, so show you’re up with the times (you must have read Girl on the Train by now, haven’t you?). It’s a great activity to do when you’re in between books.

Here are some more examples of bookshelves we like:

Sonali Dev, author of A Bollywood Affair
What we like on her shelf: An eclectic mix of romance and literature, this author helps readers discover similar books to hers.

Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City
What we like on his shelf: A custom shelf of 18 “all-time-favorites” helps readers identify a good book recommendation they can pass along to fans of The Devil in the White City

Amber Smith, author of The Way I Used to Be
What we like on her shelf: As a writer who also earned a BFA in Painting, Amber’s list of books shelved under “art books” must be legit.

Take the next five minutes to find and shelve the books that made you fall in love with reading. Share the link to your shelf with us in the comments below!

Next: Five Tips for Running a Giveaway on Goodreads

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