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Hello! I am totally new to all of this and I was trying to add my book to the Listopia list for people to review. I'm not sure if I did that right or not.
I added it to the comment section below the listopia feed with a link to the book and a description. Is this correct?
I really don't want to break any rules and self promote my book everywhere. I do believe that with time and interaction good books will find their way to the top of lists.
Thank you and I look forward to learning about goodreads!
Regards,
Stephanie
As noted in msg 1 of this thread, authors are no longer permitted to add their own books to listopia, adding a link in the comments section of the list is not adding the books to listopia and in my personal opinion not recommended.
If you want to add a book to a listopia (an author can add any that is not their own work), you do so at the top of the list, at the tab next to "all votes." Adding it in the comments section below won't add any book to a listopia.
Any comments you make about your book anywhere on this site may be removed as unsolicited commercial content (aka spam)--unless posting about your book from your author page or on group discussions (of groups that permit or encourage author promotions or events/giveaways/groups that you made for the purpose of discussing your books) -- sometimes only after flagged to support's attention.Think of goodreads like Facebook or other social media. You have a page you can post from and members can interact, share/like, or follow you there. Try to post about your book on other Facebook member pages or message them or their groups ... can be flagged as spam there also.
Authors can participate here just like any other reader; but they are considered commercial interests when it's about the book they wrote where almost everything outside their author page is considered spam. Goodreads does let groups decide a lot of that for themselves (including limiting to only certain threads or having entire groups set up specifically for authors or to connect authors and readers -- if unclear, ask the group moderator or lurk to see how author posts are handled). You can review your own book here (goodreads complies with U.S. law for you by marking that review as from the author, aka disclosed the material connection).
This is for anyone, especially other authors, who participates in Goodreads. I just went through all My Books and reshelved them according to official Goodreads genres [https://www.goodreads.com/genres/list]. This was particularly important for books I've written so potential readers can find them. For example, I added France and Medieval to the novels set there and then, and changed the not-so-popular Judaica to Jewish and Judaism. I also spelled out Historical Fiction to replace hist-fict.Now I have a favor to ask from anyone who has shelved any of my books, or any other author's, as Read, Currently Reading, or To-Be-Read. Could you please add the genres above to your shelf to describe them? Apparently Goodreads will not list any books under a particular genre unless at least two people shelve them as such, and a quick check of those who reviewed my novels showed that the majority didn’t assign them to any genre. Other authors may want to alert readers to do this for their books, and I salute those, apparently few, readers who do shelve their books according to genre. Thanks.
Wow Maggie, that is amazing. Thanks for sharing the link. :-))
Maggie wrote: "This is for anyone, especially other authors, who participates in Goodreads. I just went through all My Books and reshelved them according to official Goodreads genres [https://www.goodreads.com/ge..."Can you please explain what "shelving the books" means. How does one do that?
The shelves that GR proves for all members are "read," "currently reading," and "want to read." It's easy to add other shelf names, though, and it is the shelf names that are used to generate genre categories.You can hit the "add shelf" button on the "my books" page, or hit "add shelf" if you hit the arrow under any book's avatar. (Where if you haven't shelved it, it reads "want to read.")
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "The shelves that GR proves for all members are "read," "currently reading," and "want to read." It's easy to add other shelf names, though, and it is the shelf names that are used to generate genre..."Thanks Susanna. What type of "keywords" do you, or can you add that would help readers find you book? Does this work like Amazon keywords? Or more like a long tail -- Like "books you may want to read after 50 Shades of Grey" or "Best books about surviving narcissistic abuse? Or just use key words like "abusive relationship" or just single word like "psychological" or "erotic" ?
Use normal genre names that people would typically use when searching for a book of your genre.
Faith wrote: "Use normal genre names that people would typically use when searching for a book of your genre."ok, that makes sense. do you think *psychogical* is too broad? Or *psychological fiction* -- what are some tags you have used?
I don't tag books. You could take a look at some books similar to yours and see how members have shelved them.
It's best to use the "official" Goodreads list of genres if you want people to find your book when they search that genre. Here's the link - https://www.goodreads.com/genres/list
That "official" list is just a list of shelf names that users have used to shelve their books. There are no official genres on GR
Paula wrote: "That "official" list is just a list of shelf names that users have used to shelve their books. There are no official genres on GR"I disagree.
There is an official list of genre names for goodreads. The 3-page one Maggie linked to (where at bottom you can click to instead see all shelves, a multi-hundred page list).
The genre also is programmed for which shelf names indicate that genre (so if for example one reader shelves your book as "SF," another as "sci-if" and another as "science fiction" ... puts it in science fiction genre although all might display on your book page). Initially that genre determination was editable by librarians I believe (not now that it's "established" -- I might be wrong about that because long time since I did librarian work here).
"Explore by genre" will also find additional shelf names, particulalry if popular. The official genres will include a definition. Other phrases that will pop up when searching on that page will just be popular shelf names not necessarily feeding to official genres. Which has nothing to do with how/where goodreads uses genres, just with the "Explore..." displays.
"Explore genre" is not the only reason to want book to have genre.
Genre shows on the book page in case not clear from description, cover, reviews, etc. For example, might show a reader if your werewolf book is horror, paranormal romance, chick lit, urban fantasy, nonfiction research ...
The top genres readers can click as ones they want the goodreads generated recommendations. Readers can subscribe to an email about that genre's books and new releases, can click on genres (and shelves) to explore books other readers shelved that way, can select from when editing the book's meta data (an option when reviewing that used to impact recommendations but may now be stray coding), qualify your book for some group / bookclub activities (one group's team shelf challenge in its hayday generated more than 500 reviews a week and was only restricted to shelf/genre name and not how published) ...
All sounds wonderful and like a great promotional tool -- except that the more popular (more "shelved") books will still dominate the displays and features with a little activity book staying way down the list possibly past where most readers will page to. Of course, if not on the displays, of you have no chance to be seen on those screens, recommendations or emailings.
Goodreads doesn't mind authors shelving the books they wrote in appropriate genre and shelves (or organizing those and their personal reading however they like on their own bookshelves). One person's opinion and their book cataloging preferences.
Asking or getting others to also jump in could be an issue. The listopias got so gamed and misused by authors not caring if their book actually fit the criteria set by listopia Crestor that author's can no longer add/vote books to,those. It's basically against TOS to do anything to game the system (like turning shelving into those tag drives that drove Amazon crazy in their site) or making commercial use (like hiring promoters or using street gangs to bulk tag things). It won't likely be as effective if readers stop exploring genres and getting mailings about them because got spammed/tag-drived.
Contacting readers about your book can be flagged as spam (aka unasked commercial contact). If you know a reviewer well enough to ask them without risking being reported for spam, that may be a relationship that needs to be disclosed in their review (just giving them a review copy doesn't equal a relationship to be disclosed -- although free review copy needs disclosing; I'd suggest noting when giving review copies that your book is genre xyz ...)
Can an author's publisher add/vote the book onto a listopia for them? Is it okay for the publisher to go through and make sure all the books they publish get added to listopias?
They used to be able to, but it is no longer allowed.
P.D. wrote: "They used to be able to, but it is no longer allowed."Do you have a link to where staff said publishers were no longer allowed to add/vote books they publish to listopias?
If you try to put a book of your own on a listopia list, you'll get an error telling you you're not allowed to vote on your own work.
P.D. wrote: "If you try to put a book of your own on a listopia list, you'll get an error telling you you're not allowed to vote on your own work."LOL, you mean the book's author.
I was asking about publishers with accounts on goodreads.
There was a thread not long ago, but I don't remember which group it was on, so I can't point you in the right direction. It doesn't make sense that the publisher and the author would have different rules about what they are allowed to post to listopia. They don't want people to post books they have an interest in.
P.D. wrote: "...It doesn't make sense that the publisher and the author would have different rules about what they are allowed to post to listopia. They don't want people to post books they have an interest in..."I completely agree but most of the threads tend to end with a staff "you can always contact us about a specific instance" or get derailed.
So I was hoping maybe a clarification on this thread about authors no longer being allowed to put/vote their books on listopias would be a good place to ask if that also applied to publishers.
We’ve made a change to Listopia functionality today. After careful consideration, we have decided to remove an author’s ability to add or vote for his or her own books on Listopia. An important distinction: This will apply only to an author’s own books. Authors will still be able to create lists and vote for any other books they feel strongly about as a reader, and we welcome that kind of community participation.
There are a few reasons for this change. First, Listopia is not intended to be a promotional tool. We’ve also found that, no matter how good the author’s intention, readers see authors adding their own books or voting for them as self-promotional, an attempt to game Listopia, or even spam.
We understand it’s exciting to see your books pop up on great lists, and we’d encourage you to let it happen naturally over time. If you’d like to generate more attention for an upcoming release or an older book, we’d suggest the following tactics:
- Posting on your author blog
- Posting status updates for your followers
- Running a giveaway (you are welcome to do more than one giveaway per book)
- Placing a targeted self-serve ad
Need more ideas? The Publishing and Promoting folder is a great place to discuss! And as always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support [at] goodreads [dot] com with any questions.