How Can Goodreads Help Your Book Take-Off?

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GoodreadsGoodreads  is a kind of Facebook for people who love to read books. A free website for book lovers. Imagine it as a large library that you can wander through and see everyone’s bookshelves, their reviews, and their ratings. You can certainly post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, currently reading, and plan to read in the future. There is more offered on their website: join a discussion group, start a book club, contact an author, and even post your own writing. More tips about the benefits of joining Goodreads and how you can use Goodreads to promote your blog.
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How can friends recommend your book?
Or how can you recommend books from your writer friends?
To send out a book recommendation, go to the book’s page and click on the “recommend it” link at the top right side of the page. A new site appears with three possibilities: “friends” “manual” “facebook

  • Under the icon “friends” your Goodread friends are listed and you click next to the name to whom you want to send your book recommendation.
  • Enter under “manual” single email addresses of readers that are not yet on Goodreads.
  • The “facebook” icon lists your FB friends, who are not yet members of Goodread to recommend the book to.

Reviews are essential
Like on Amazon reviews on their site help your book stand out in two ways. The more people review your book, the more visible it will be. Goodreads reviews also appear on sites like Powell’s, Google Books, and the Sony Ebook Store.  From a Goodreads statement: “Books with no written reviews are added, on average, by 7 people, while books with just five written reviews are added by more than 40 people.”

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Let your friends ping to Google+ and FB
On the left lower corner of Goodreads are icons to these two websites to which your friends can send your image, books name and a link for your book – as well as a comment, such as “must read”, “great book” or “you will love it”.

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Add your favorite books
Click on “My Books” in the top navigation menu and add away!  You can add books into read, currently reading, to read categories or edit your bookshelf to add your own categories. Many authors who’s books you recommended will return this favor to you.

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Give away as many copies as possible.
It makes sense to give away a lot of books – if your goal is to get reviews. More than 50% of giveaway winners review the books they win, so the more books you offer, the more reviews you are likely to get. Run your giveaway for two weeks to a month. Goodreads says, “Giveaways less than two weeks run the risk of not getting enough entries, while a four-week giveaway will generate more entries. We recommend even two giveaways: one about three months before publication to build pre-release buzz and reviews, and a second to increase awareness when your book hits stores. Both will result in a lot of people adding your book to their to-read shelves.”

Goodreads will also use the recommendations to help authors and publishers advertise their books to readers who are most likely to be interested in them. Seventeen thousand authors, including James Patterson and Margaret Atwood, use Goodreads.

Infographic 25 Top Reviewers on Goodreads (no links to them, to find out one has to dig into Goodreads website.
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