How Authors Can Promote Their Work on Goodreads

How authors can promote their books and build a tribe on the World’s Largest Site for Readers

Goodreads by the Numbers: members 9,560,000 monthly visitors 21,000,000 books shelved350,000,000

photo by o5comEvery second... 2 books are discovered on Goodreads

5,750,000 books marked as to-read each monthbooks in the Chicago Public Library’s collection

Goodreads’ mission isDiscoveryHelp people find books they love and share them with friends.

Serendipitous discovery by seeing what friends are reading and browsing their shelves

Goodreads RecommendationsIf you liked these books, thousands of other readers liked these similar books…

How do you get readers to discover your book?

Goodreads Author ProgramA free tool designed to help authors reachtheir target audience–passionate readers.

45,000 Goodreads Authors bestsellers Nicholas Sparks, Paulo Coelho, Margaret Atwood, Kathryn Stockett, and John IrvingMichelle Moran Donna Woolfolk Cross Charles Todd Tasha Alexander

145,000 Titles shelved “historical-fiction”

Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in thelife of your book.1. Help new readers discover your book2. Help readers decide3. Spread beyond Goodreads

Build your platform Add a high-quality author photo and a bioAuthor profiles with a profile photo attract more than 9 times as many ratings as author profiles without images.Shelve some books! Add an “influences” shelf If you don’t want to review new books, consider writing brief essays inthe review space for some of the books that have meant the most to you.Add a Goodreads “g” or widget to your website

Housing Works Add your events and invite friends Bookcourt

Advance giveaways generate pre-release buzz35,000 people entergiveaways each dayGoodreads has helpedauthors & publishers give awaymore than 200,000 booksThe average giveaway gets 850 entries

Tips for a Successful Giveaway Start early Run your giveaway at least a month pre-publication. Many authors and publishers see results with a giveaway 3 months before the on-sale date. Run your giveaway for a month A month is the perfect amount of time to let plenty of people enter. Offer as many books as you can We recommend offering at least 10 books. Roughly 60% of giveaway winners review the books they win. The more books you can offer, the more reviews you’re likely to get.Bonus Tip: Use the Goodreads giveawaywidget on your blog, Facebook page, orwebsite to encourage your fans to enter

30 24 Books Added Stats forBooks Added 18 Beautiful Ruins 12 6 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Books Added Stats for Beautiful Ruins 300 240 Books Added 180 120 60 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July

Anatomy of a Bestseller May 21: Berkley buys Bared, touting “2,500 reviews” on Goodreads as a major reason, hits NY Times Bestseller list Apr 23: Became top related book for Fifty Shades of Grey 100People who added book to their shelves 80 Mar 12: Giveaway Began 60 40 to-read 20 reviews 0 Feb Mar Apr May

Use text ads to drivereaders to a giveaway

Self-serve advertising reaches just the right readers. • Target fans of a genre or of similar authors • Add a call to action like “Add to my shelf!” • Giveaways with ads attract 56% more entries than giveaways without ads

Talk to your fans The best place to meet Goodreads members is in groups. Join groups that interest you. Many groups host author chats & discussions. Don’t find the perfect group? Start your own!There are currently morethan 20,000 book clubson Goodreads.

A panel discussion allows new readers to meet you.

Start a discussion group focused on your books.

Measure your successTrack how many people add your book and mark it ‘to-read’

Once you’ve hooked a reader, they will come back for more. Known author 96% Friend (ofﬂine) Goodreads friendsGoodreads recommendations Bookstore Amazon Library Goodreads browsing 96% of people say they often read authors they already know Newspapers Authors website Radio Facebook TV Publisher website Twitter * results of a survey we ran in February, more than 3,000 people responded

Patrick BrownCommunity Manager &Author Program Managerpbrown@goodreads.comtwitter.com/goodreads

http://historicalnovelsociety.org	176
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How Authors Can Promote Their Work on Goodreads

by Goodreads on Jul 16, 2012

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