What's wrong with Goodreads?

[Iain]

I just had a look at books that are similar to The Zima Confession. According to Goodreads it's a book for kids about diversity and love.

Incredible.

Is there a way of getting Goodreads to get my book into some semblance of the correct category?

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

I believe what you're looking it is a list of books that were bought by people who have bought your book and not an accurate "this book is like this book" thingy. All it really means is some people who bought your book also bought a kids book about diversity. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Some readers like to read a variety of books.

[Xanxa]

My books often get lumped in with paranormal vampire romances and YA stuff. That's only because I write urban fantasy in a modern day setting. I don't mind though, because the more books that get associated with mine, the more visibility it gives my books.

Diversity is a popular topic at the moment and even if your book doesn't come into that category, like I said, being associated with it should help more people to see your book and perhaps give it a try. Just because they're into diversity, doesn't mean that they ONLY read those kinds of books.

[E.M.]

Dwayne wrote: "I believe what you're looking it is a list of books that were bought by people who have bought your book and not an accurate "this book is like this book" thingy. All it really means is some people..."

Yes, exactly this. It sort of uses a Netflix-style algorithm. If someone who read and rated your book also read and rated a book about diversity, they'll see them as having a common readership. "If you liked this book, you might like that book". The more ratings you get from users, the more the algorithm should zero in on similar books.

[Iain]

I'm not too convinced that this will be good marketing for my book. It has very little in common with the books it's been connected to. Perhaps the algorithm will sort itself out over time - but if my sales are badly affected by this the algorithm may never balance out.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Are you paying for this? I'm not. Goodreads doesn't exist to help you sell your books. They're out to help people find books to read, yes, but they're not concerned with helping out specific authors.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

I dug a bit further and found that what's going on here is they're grouping our books with books that have been reviewed by the same people. In other words, I found at least two reviews on the book about diversity and love written by people who also reviewed your book. I guess if this is still bothering you, you could ask people not to review your books anymore.