Delisting a title on Goodreads

[Robert]

When I self published my titles back in March 2019, I thought that creating an author page and listing them here was a no-brainer. Now I'm not so sure. I know my titles are getting some exposure, but the CTR on my Goodreads ad campaigns has been unbelievably poor, and I have no evidence that my presence here is having any positive impact on my book sales. The ad campaigns I'm running on Amazon have been productive, but I'm just spinning my wheels here.

I am also wary of the lax rules for reviewers and the unavailability of customer support. I'm thinking of delisting my titles here and possibly leaving the site altogether. Has anyone gone through the process of delisting a book? Is that even doable? I don't see a link for that on my author dashboard.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

The official word from Goodreads is this: "Deleting published books from our system is against policy. Goodreads is striving to be a complete database of all published works, including works that are out-of-print. We like our members to be able to add their exact edition to their virtual shelves. Just as a library would not remove a record from its catalog, so do we not remove books from our database.

"However, if your book was never published and never will be published, we might be able to remove it. Please contact us."

You could still give it a shot, but don't be surprised if you don't get anywhere.

As for your other concerns, Goodreads has been and always will be more reader friendly than author friendly. Yes, there are groups like ours set up for authors, but the site in general is meant for readers. Goodreads makes no promises that your presence here will show any increase in sales. At the same time, it can't hurt. Few people have had any real success in ad campaigns on Goodreads, as far as I've heard.

Savvy readers understand that the reviews on Goodreads hold little weight. Anyone can pretend they've read a book and offer their two-bit opinion on it. It's easy to create fake accounts and make fake reviews on your own book (It's stupid, but desperate authors do it). It's common to see people get their friends and family to review their books. Serious readers don't need that and tend to avoid reviews on Goodreads for that reason.

Customer support here has always been January molasses speed, at best. I doubt it will ever improve.

[Robert]

Dwayne wrote: "The official word from Goodreads is this: "Deleting published books from our system is against policy. Goodreads is striving to be a complete database of all published works, including works that a..."

Hmm. My ad campaigns aren't actually costing me anything, so I suppose there's no harm in letting them run. It's just discouraging, getting those emails day after day, so many views, so few clicks. I guess sometimes discouragement gets the better of me.

Thanks for the info.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Discouragement, unfortunately, is a huge part of this game for most of us. I just remind myself daily why I'm really doing this. It's not for the money, the reviews, etc. It's because I love to write and there are people who enjoy what I do. That keeps me going.

[Robert]

I never expected to make any money, either. My recent publication is the first thing I've done in 30 years, and it wasn't something I'd even planned. It just sort of happened. I don't know if I'm going to write another book, so of course I just want people to read my existing work and acknowledge it somehow.