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Goodreads is a social network specifically for authors and readers. It has over 90 million users, and most of them are voracious readers or people who want to read more. You can see why it’s worth the time for authors to set up a Goodreads account.

Why do readers use Goodreads?

Goodreads is popular because it helps solves two problems Amazon creates.

Goodreads and Amazon logos demonstrate the differences between the two for authors.

Solution 1: Goodreads shows you your friends’ book recommendations.

When readers look for their next book, they often ask their reading friends for recommendations, and Goodreads helps facilitate that conversation.

Goodreads shows you your friends’ reviews first. While Amazon is buying social graph data from Facebook so they can delete your friends’ book reviews, Goodreads wants you to read what your friends are reading. 

Solution 2: Goodreads has more useful reviews than Amazon.

While most books ratings on Amazon hover around the four-star mark, the star ratings on Goodreads tend to be more varied and generally lower because it has a different rating system. 

A legend for what the star ratings on Goodreads mean for authors.

A three-star review on Goodreads means a reader liked your book. Readers find these distinctions more helpful than Amazon’s typical four-star ratings.

MYTH: Goodreads is full of trolls.

Due to the overall lower star ratings on Goodreads, some authors believe that Goodreads is full of internet trolls. There are trolls in every corner of the internet, but Goodreads actually has fewer trolls than other social networks. 

Trolls don’t take the time to read and review a book. Even if they did, users wouldn’t see a troll’s review very often because Goodreads prioritizes reviews from the readers’ friends, not trolls.

Who uses Goodreads?

If positive three-star reviews come from real humans, who are they, and what are they like?

A typical Goodreads user 

  • Reads 50+ books per year
  • Enjoys popular and obscure books
  • Is often asked by their friends for book recommendations
  • Needs book recommendations from other voracious readers on Goodreads.
  • Loves to review and discuss books with other readers in real life and in forums on Goodreads.
  • Wants to read more each year.

If you are an author, Goodreads users are your people. If you spend time on Facebook trying to connect with readers, remember that only 30% of the population has ever read an ebook. But on Goodreads, 100% of the users are readers of books, and most of them read ebooks.

So how can you connect with this huge community of readers? Here are six ways you can use your Goodreads author account to promote your books.

7 Tips to Help You Get the Most out of Goodreads

Tip #1: Use Goodreads as a Reader

Cost: Free

The key to using any social media platform is to learn the language and participate in the platform’s culture. The best way to learn Goodreads is to sign up and start exploring. Creating an account is free, and Goodreads will walk you through the setup.

Set a Reading Goal

Since most Goodreads users aspire to read more books, Goodreads lets you set an annual reading goal and then tracks your progress throughout the year as you finish and review books. 

Read in Your Genre

The only way to avoid writing a book that sounds derivative is to know what authors in your genre are writing. When you know what’s available, you can write a book that conforms to the genre’s conventions without accidentally creating a seemingly derivative story.

Review Books You Read

Post reviews on Goodreads for all the books you read. The reviews will count toward your reading goal, and they’ll also be useful to your friends and followers on Goodreads.

While Amazon reviewers typically only review books they loved (five-star) or hated (one-star), Goodreads reviewers tend to leave longer, nuanced reviews for all the books they read.

Review Your All-Time Favorite Books

You can review classics you loved or books that have influenced your writing. These reviews will give your future readers an idea of which books shaped you as a writer and what you’re drawn to as a reader. 

Reviewing your favorite books will help define you as an author and help you connect with readers. 

Tip # 2: Claim Your Author Page

Cost: 1-2 hours setup and up to two days for approval of your Goodreads author account.

Setting up your author page is the first step to connecting with your readers on Goodreads. Think of it as a Facebook Author Page on Goodreads. Creating an author page will give you statistics about your books, and it will give your readers a place to see what you write and read.

Your author page includes your photo, bio, and your published books. When you fill out your author page, include as much information as possible. The more robust your author page is, the more helpful it will be to readers. 

Once Goodreads approve your page, you’ll receive their signature “g” by your name to show that you’re an official Goodreads author.

Join the Goodreads Author program and follow the instructions for setup.

Tip #3: Give Books Away

Cost: 1 hour + books + shipping + $119 for Standard Giveaway or $599 for Premium Giveaway

A book giveaway on Goodreads is the most popular and effective tool for authors on the platform. Giveaways are one of the cheapest ways to get exposure as an author, and they drive positive reviews.

Should I giveaway print or ebooks?

Their powerful giveaway engine allows authors to give away either print copies or ebooks to giveaway entrants. While giving away print books used to work, I currently recommend giving away ebooks rather than print books because of recent fraudulent entries for print books.

Some super-resellers have created thousands of bot accounts to enter print book giveaways just to get a free copy of a book. Then they resell the book on Amazon. 

A print giveaway is also more expensive since it requires you to print and ship the books to winners.

Ebooks, however, don’t require printing or shipping, and Goodreads allows you to give away up to 100 ebooks. 

When the winners receive their free book, they’re happy. That positive feeling creates reciprocity, and they’re much more likely to leave you a review. I’d encourage you to give away as many copies as possible so you can get as many reviews as possible because 

If you run a Premium Giveaway, Goodreads will even send an email on your behalf reminding winners to review your book. You can learn more about the difference between Premium and Standard Giveaways here.

When should I host a Goodreads giveaway?

I recommend hosting your giveaway at least 30 days before your launch. For thirty days, your giveaway will be the only way readers can get an advanced copy of your book. Anyone who enters your giveaway will be connected with you on Goodreads and will receive future notifications from Goodreads about your book’s release.

 Tip #4: Connect Your Blog to Goodreads

Cost: 30 minutes

Blog integration is one of the perks of the Goodreads Author Program. When you connect your blog’s RSS feed to your Goodreads account, Goodreads users will be able to see your new blog post while they’re on the Goodreads website. 

Goodreads will even send a weekly email to all your followers to tell them you have published a new blog post.

Even if you only blog when a new book comes out, all your Goodreads followers will get an email from Goodreads with a link to your blogpost announcing your new book.

Connecting your blog to your Goodreads author page is a great way to increase the number of people who read your blog posts. Once you set it up, it’s done. 

Tip #5: Ask Fans for Reviews on Goodreads

Cost: 1 hour

Goodreads features a book based on the number of reviews it has. The more reviews your book has, the more popular it looks. The more popular it looks, the more people read it. 

Once you have 300 reviews, Goodreads will start promoting your book to readers who will likely enjoy it. 

But how do you get that many reviews? 

You must ask your readers to review. 

Amazon’s terms of service are a little tricky when it comes to asking readers for reviews, and it often removes reviews from people linked to you as friends on Facebook. 

Goodreads’ terms of services are more relaxed for authors. Goodreads wants your friends to review and see your reviews. 

Encourage your friends and launch team members to leave their reviews at Goodreads. 

It’s easy to direct people to Goodreads since they are not selling books. Amazon and Kobo don’t want you to link your book to their competitors to get reviews, but they don’t mind if you link to Goodreads

Tip #6: Connect Goodreads to MyBookTable

Cost: 10-15 minutes per book

The MyBookTable WordPress plugin has a Goodreads button built in. If you already use the plugin, you’re just a few clicks away from having the Goodreads button on your website. 

Users can add your book directly to their Goodreads shelf right from your website. You can also show Goodreads reviews inside MyBookTable. The plugin allows you to have reviews on your website and increases yournumber of reviews on Goodreads.

 

Doing it Right: Jill Williamson

Back in 2008, Jill Williamson started using Goodreads as a reader. At first, she used it as a place to post her book reviews and connect with her friends to find out what they were reading.

Soon, other readers started connecting with her by reading her book reviews. 

When her first book came out, she claimed her author page (see tip #1). That allowed her to host a book giveaway (see tip #4) and connect with more readers. She also integrated her blog into Goodreads (Tip #6) so that her book readers could become her blog subscribers.

Her Blood of Kings Trilogy now has hundreds of positive reviews, and she has built a solid following of readers who are eager to buy her next book. Her growing readership led to a bigger book deal with bigger publishers, and she now has many more books published.

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