THE Group for Authors! discussion
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Why aren't blog post viewing numbers shown?
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@Harry Hm, you're right. I hope this is a temporary hiccup or glitch, not intentional. It's definitely useful to know the numbers. And as far as I recall the numbers were showing up this morning.
Oh yea, mine are gone too. That's a pity, I was using that to judge what type of posts were most popular. My blog is only a few weeks old and I'm still getting a feel for it. Adam
Adam wrote: "Oh yea, mine are gone too. That's a pity, I was using that to judge what type of posts were most popular. My blog is only a few weeks old and I'm still getting a feel for it. Adam"
I've been using my GR Blog for years and I still rely on the views to let me know what's working for the readers. I'm super annoyed that the 'views' stat has disappeared.
I am really worried about the missing numbers on my blog posts - they've been gone 2 days now. I rely on the numbers to know that people are engaging - there's no other way to know if anyone is paying attention otherwise since so few people ever leave a review for a book - I might wait weeks for a review of a book, but when I see 3 people are reading my blog every day I know that I'm not just a lonely voice crying into the wilderness! There doesn't seem any point in having a blog if you can't tell if anyone is reading it. If the stats don't reappear then I'll have to move my blog onto some other forum.
Hi all, Goodreads will unfortunately no longer be supporting the view count on author blogs – I'm sorry about this! We’ve recently changed the way we handle author blogs, and as part of this our product team found it necessary to review which features our members interact with the most. This will help us to ensure that we're dedicating resources to the right areas going forward. We understand how important it is to measure your engagement with your readers and we’d recommend taking a look at the likes and comments that you receive on your blog to keep track of this.Please feel free to offer your feedback as we'll be passing it on to our engineering team.
Many thanks for the update Shaun.I'm pretty sure I speak on behalf of all GR authors when I say this a massive hindrance and not welcome at all.
(After changing the giveaway program, it seems as though GR are making it more and more difficult for authors to use GR as a platform to help us get noticed. I would have thought readers would also benefit from seeing view counts too.)
Fellow authors - consider a word press blog -- the most junior level is super cheap. In the future, ALL my posts will give a 1st few sentences on GR and the body on the WP site. WP reports not only views, but referrers, so we can see how many views came from goodreads. WP will also auto post to Twitter.
Hmm, yeah, an unwelcome development. Oh, well.
That is not a satisfactory answer, Shaun, extremely condescending and not welcome at all. Several of my blogs have received 150 views but rarely receive more than a single comment or like. I would have no idea how many people were reading it without the stats. I feed the blog into my Amazon Author page and this in turn means that all sorts of random strangers click on them and get directed to my Goodreads page. I get reads via twitter and FB - all directed to Goodreads where they get to know me as an author and get to see all the Goodreads reviews of my books (rather than just the Amazon reviews). I am very disappointed that the only function that I've ever found Goodreads useful for is being taken away from me. And a complete pain if I have to set up yet another online ghetto to manage. You are letting all the authors down by taking this function away. And I agree with the author who said that readers also need to know how many people have read the blog, otherwise they have no idea what they are engaging with.
Shaun wrote: "Hi all, Goodreads will unfortunately no longer be supporting the view count on author blogs – I'm sorry about this! We’ve recently changed the way we handle author blogs, and as part of this our pr..."Hi Shaun, I have a little feedback: While my own blog is very new, so not the best sample to judge by, I follow the blogs of some very well known authors so I can say that even in their blogs few people comment or like but I'm sure they get many views.
I think the view count is more important than the comment count and possibly more important than the like count as well.
Adam
FWIW, for me the view count is most important, and the only way one can tell if anyone at all has viewed it. The numbers are so low anyway they're always disappointing. But the "like" or "comment" counts are beyond disappointing. I might as well just wander off into the woods and forget blogging...
Likes and comments only tell me so much, views told a little more about how many people actually read my blog. They are very few, as I’m literarily unknown as a writer, but it is still important to me to know if someone is reading my blog here. So I’ll just say, I’m not happy with this change.
Yup, view count is much more important for authors than the number of likes and comments.Can't see any reason for why the view count should be removed. Such a little thing that makes a big difference to authors to see how many people are engaging.
I add my name to the above complaints. I rely on seeing how many people view my blog posts.
I agree - I am gutted that my existing count has been erased - so even if they're restored - unless the existing count is also restored - it will look as though not a soul has read our blogs for a year - which will make us look extremely pathetic when a new reader goes to look. Most of my readers (I think) are not goodreads members so can't 'like' them. And GR members are quite likely leery of either liking or leaving a comment publicly on mine as they are about sensitive issues such as mental health or childhood abuse.
As a first-time, self-published author, I have found the entire world of advertising and promoting books is skewed to favor the reader, not the author. With my background in advertising and promotion, I found these platforms' biases very surprising. The reaction from readers to my book has been very rewarding, but the experience has been extremely disappointing from the perspective of how authors are treated. Perhaps all these "experts" who populate these sites should take a moment to realize that there would be no "Goodreads" or any other book club without authors. This decision by Goodreads is just another slap in the face. I am taking my book off the market for additional editing so I was going to delete my profile on Goodreads anyway. I'm not sure I will be back.
I hadn't taken too much notice of the bias against authors as I felt that at least Goodreads didn't screw us for money as most places now just see authors as a cash-cow that goes on giving - but there are a lot of readers who have marked my books as 'want to read' and I know that most of them never will get around to it, as they have hundreds marked as that, but I quite often do free promotions on the ebooks in the series, and figured that surely GR would have a simple way to let all the profiles who have marked a particular book as 'want to read' that it was going to be available free from Amazon on a certain date? And I was very surprised when I contacted Goodreads to find out how I could send an alert, to find that there was no mechanism for this, and apparently zero interest in working out how to put one in place... And that would be a hugely helpful thing to do for authors who are trying to establish themselves.
I agree about the view count. Majority who do view never comment or like - on majority of blogs on GR or any other blogs. But, when you know your blog is being read at least, you keep blogging with the idea your book(s) could sell to those reading them. Why would the count be taken off? Makes no sense. At all. Stupid idea.
My first ever blog on GR got about 13 views, then they stayed at about 25 for the first 8 months, and nearly 2 years in they have built up to between 60-120 for each one. I wait till the numbers stop climbing (usually 1-2 months) and then I do another one. I use it to attract people to look at my author profile and assume that if they decide they like my writing and the topics I tackle, they might one day try my books. Each new blog gets to a higher reader counter in a quicker time which lets me know that people must be looking out for them and coming back to check if I've got another there and maybe passing them on to friends (I only have 18 'followers' and 49 friends so it's not just them accounting for it). Lower reader numbers let me know that either my title and first couple of sentences aren't catchy enough, or the topic isn't as widely interesting. Reader numbers have taught me how to write better. And taught me how to plunge straight into the topic at peak drama. If I had never known that anyone was reading it, I would have stopped after the first one. Even the idea that 13 people had bothered to stop and read my words was quite exciting and watching the numbers climbing was perfect teaching and motivating feedback. The most comments ever left were two. Some of the highest 'read count' blogs have had no comments or likes at all.
Ah yes, but there's the rub. These sites have nothing without us. No new authors to offer their readers, no fresh material, just readers. And, readers of what? They can rehash old material, or just offer bestselling authors, but no new voices. And, how do we know they even have the readership they claim? We have no proof. And, I am not just talking about GR. Any site on which you advertise puts out follower and reader numbers which authors are just supposed to accept as God's truth. It's a process totally skewed in favor of the reader. Writers would still write whether anyone read it or not. But, without writers, readers cease to exist. But, as Zsofi says, GR clearly doesn't care and isn't listening.
So, here's some data for you. Since I am unpublishing my book for further editing and formatting, I decided to run my end numbers. Here are the results. Since Sept. 2018, I have had 4701 downloads of my first novel on the Amazon platform. I had 199 books added on GR, or 4.23% of my total downloads. I got 62 ratings and reviews on GR, or 1.32% of my total downloads. So, the only verifiable advantage to GR was the 62 people who gave me a rating or review, and, most likely, actually read my book. But that too is an assumption. I will not spend any more on advertising on GR, as that was the worst ROI of any site I tried. Since I ran my book for free as often as possible, my total royalties were $360.81. I invested $1952.50 in publishing and promotion, leading to a net loss of $1592.69. Since money was never the point with my writing, I'm OK with that, especially since it was a write-off. The point here being, don't buy into the sales pitch that you can quit your day job and write all the time. And, now that you can't even tell who is reading your GR blog, I question the advantage of GR at all. I have learned a lot this first time out and will be far more targeted in any future endeavors. Those may or may not include GR.
I just got another review. It was 1 star from someone named Seayla. Since her review is private, I don't know what all she said. But, from the part I could read, her objection was to my posts on my blog and in this discussion. Seayla just proves my point. There is no way to verify that she has actually read my book. She didn't comment on it at all, that I could see. She apparently just disagrees with my comments here. What exactly does that have to do with my book? Seayla is just another reason that what happens on GR is, sometimes, unverifiable and counts for nothing.
I doubt GR are actually listening to any of our comments here, but I was wondering if GR could at least implement: showing blog view counts on our author dashboards.For me, it's more important to know how many people have viewed my blog than for the view counts to be a popularity contest indicator. So even if GR don't want to show the count publicly (which I still don't understand why they've changed this), at least we'd know how many people are viewing.
I agree with Harry 100%. And I am shocked that Julie is (for no apparent reason that I can fathom) getting revenge reviews for speaking her mind in a forum... It's all very messed up.
Yep, me too Dom. Looks to me like someone would actually have to read your book to review it. Sure would make me doubt anything else that Sealya has to say. However, most of my reviews have been very reassuring or, at least, constructively critical. So, I'm writing Sealya's phony one off as just that, phony.
It's a pity the view count has gone away yes. What is the difference.I can say whole heartedly that all I have gotten was abuse from moderators about what you cannot do on the site.
Many different threads. I have posted many different promo type stuff from free book giveaways and all kinds of kindle deals etc etc to be told. This is not the place for that.
I paid for good reads sponsored advertising and didn't receive a single download.
I post my blog here as it is for the readers and I like to provoke a thought or two.
I cannot see where the platform is showcasing and is just dependent on each individual author bringing more of their ineediate friends to the site so in turn you really become an unpaid affiliate really.
I like some of the back and forth chats though between people I would have never met only for our initial connection on Goodreads.
As a Goodreads author and a new author of the month featured author. I am happy with Goodreads.
I do wish the view count was made available again though this is for sure.
No read back no edit. How ever the buttons let it come out is how it is..
This site is a love-vacuum. It requires free contributions by the author and does nothing to give back. Goodreads is a clearinghouse for authors to give them free book. So do what I did. stop using GR. I am on book #2. My second book is selling a couple of copies a day now but Goodreads did nothing to help that. I write a free column on my website about mind control. This ties directly to my book. I also speak out provocatively on Twitter and built up a following. I have 5k subscribes now. Last year I had 50. I am selling myself more than I am selling books. I will never give a free copy out to a stranger for the promise of a review. The reviews you get will suck and Goodreads does NOTHING to fix that.
Get involved on Social Media. I even have my column linked on Amazon underneath each of my books. Luckily, my subject matter is interesting enough for radio interviews and live streams. Those help me the most.
Good luck everybody! I still have lots to learn, but it won't be from goodreads.com. This place hurts authors by cheapening our work.
Julie,usually when I click on an author's name their GR page comes up. Not so with your name. Perhaps they've retaliated? Ugh.
Adding my voice to the ones disappointed that view count is no longer available on my author blog. This helped me know which topics were most useful to my readers. Please bring this feature back to Author Blogs.
Why aren't we as authors ever asked what we want?
@Pamela LOL, srsly; nobody asked...? I started blogging here because it interfaces so well with GR features, like inserting book/author links and covers so easily, showing up well on author page, etc. But now they just removed the only way an author could measure usefulness and impact of a blog posting on the site...
Dear Goodreads,Add my name to those disappointed that view counts of author blogs are no longer tallied, and to those who like Harry's suggestion that the counts be moved to the author dashboard as an alternative.
Please tell the engineers that for many authors, the view counts are a big return on what must be a very small investment of data.
Likewise, a modest concession here would earn GR a big return in goodwill,
JP3
Shaun wrote: "Hi all, Goodreads will unfortunately no longer be supporting the view count on author blogs – I'm sorry about this! We’ve recently changed the way we handle author blogs, and as part of this our pr..."Hi Shaun - I agree with the other authors. Please bring back our reader counts!! It's a great way to measure.
Group members, especially authors, should be aware that Goodreads changed group sponsorship several months ago and Goodreads staff no longer run this group nor as far as I can see do they participate any more. They also dissolved the Goodreads Feedback group. Seems to have been an official withdrawal from interaction between staff and GR members (JMO.)
Mod
I'm going to echo what so many have already said by saying the feature showing the viewer count for our posts should be reinstated. It is a useful tool for beginning authors.
Robert wrote: "I'm going to echo what so many have already said by saying the feature showing the viewer count for our posts should be reinstated. It is a useful tool for beginning authors."There is no point posting that here. This group can do nothing about site functionality. Staff no longer monitor this group.
I've just noticed authors' blog posts are no longer showing how many views they have had.
Is this a new permanent fixture? If so, I'd like to convey my disappointment, as it's very helpful for authors to know how many views blogs have had.
Any reason for this change? Or is it just a glitch that'll be fixed?
Cheers,
Harry.