How To Make The Site Work For Me!?!

[Victoria]

How do I make this site work for me as an author? I have been on it a few months and have done all I can see to do, but it is not yielding results. Please, will someone help me?

Thanks a million,
Victoria Broussard

[Lorna]

Just Google "How to use Goodreads" and you'll find lots of suggestions.

[Christine]

This site isn't here to promote authors - its a site for readers. At least that's my understanding. You need to make friends, join groups and participate in discussions, read and honestly review books. Become an active member on this site.

This is a great resource for readers and writers. But it's not a place that will sell your book. If someone advised you to join for that reason - you're probably wasting your time here.

[Patrick]

One suggestion is to run a giveaway for your book. You can choose to offer as many or as few copies as you like. Giveaways are great for getting readers to try your book and to get people adding it to their want to read shelves. They are free to list (though you are responsible for shipping print books to the winners), and they are generally quite effective at getting people adding your book to their shelves.

You can create a giveaway for your book by going here:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/new

[Mellie]

Victoria wrote: "How do I make this site work for me as an author? I have been on it a few months and have done all I can see to do, but it is not yielding results. "

This is a site for readers. To get the best out of Goodreads you need to read books, mark them as read, rate them if you enjoyed them and let the algorithms recommend other books to read. You can join groups that match genres you enjoy. There you can talk about books you like, engage with other readers and ask for recommendations from readers with similar interests. You can follow the reviews of friends and pick up books they have enjoyed that might also be to your tastes.

Or are you another author looking for a quick way to spam readers with BUY MY BOOK?

[Alexandra]

Victoria wrote: "How do I make this site work for me as an author? I have been on it a few months and have done all I can see to do, but it is not yielding results. Please, will someone help me?

Thanks a million,..."

Victoria,

Just to piggy back a bit on what A.W. said, quite often as GR users interact they'll check someone's profile who they find interesting or shares similar interests, and if they see that person is an author they might take a look at your books.

So really, interacting as a reader with other readers can bring notice to you as an author, and your books. And it's one of the best ways, just become part of the community as a reader, talk to people, make some GR friends, join a group that discusses things you find interesting.

If you simply want to market more directly you are fairly limited.

[Rita]

Victoria, you can also take advantage of the offers by other authors to host you on their website. (Mine is www.ritaleechapman.com and you can contact me through the site).

Many authors go to a lot of trouble to provide a good cover of your story and your books. Blog tours are also promoted on Goodreads from time to time.

I think you'll find Goodreads is a wonderful place to interact with readers and other authors and you'll pick up a lot of good tips.

Enjoy!

[V.W.]

GR is one of the few places where an author can socialise directly with readers who are conveniently self sorted by genre and taste. Simply joining the groups and making friends provides a huge opportunity to get your ideas known and hence popularise your books.

Simply treating GR members as people to be bombarded with adverts and promotions is a waste of time. If you feel strongly enough about a topic to write a book about it, fiction or non-fiction, surely you can talk to others about it and infect them with your enthusiasm as well.

[Victoria]

My understanding of the site and my options is greatly enhanced. Thank you all for taking time to reply, I surely appreciate it.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Do shelve your own books and the books you write. On goodreads that's sort of like adding tags and keywords to the books.

You get the book you wrote in a genre on goodreads by at least two members shelving it in a genre (one of the two can be the author). Which feeds into some features, exploring by genre, new release emails, recommendations, etc.

Shelving your own reading is a sort of introduction for readers looking at your author page or considering interacting with you in group activities or sampling your book.

Short of buying ad space on goodreads, pretty much what's available to authors for promotions is what is on your author page, what echoes from any linked blogs, any status updates you post (seen on updates feed by your followers and anyone who has set their feed to see posts from everyone) and permitted group threads. It's can get uninteresting if your posts are always just to promote your book.

The three official help desks are for help requests, bug reports, and suggestions/feedback — never for spam or promotions. Other groups have their own rules (and goodreads staff even if flagged will generally let the group moderstor(s) control what goes on in their groups/bookclubs). Most groups have folders/threads where authors can or cannot promote and rules on whether or not you can nominate your own book for things like book of the month polls.

Expect a consumer boycott (and being kicked out of groups) if you do a social media blitz to drive readers to mass join groups just to spam/nominate/vote your book in groups and on a reader's reading-list/listopia. If you do "succeed" -- expect almost no one to participate in the book of the month discussion or buy the book to participate (and the group to make some new rules before next book discussion) and expect reader's to eventually get your book removed from the listopia spammed.