How People Discover Books Online

What is Goodreads?
Goodreads is the largest site for readers and
book recommendations in the world.
A community of 7 million readers who
recommend books, write reviews, compare
what they are reading, keep track of what
they’ve read, form book clubs, and much more.

Our Mission
To help people find and share
books they love.

Deep Reading Data
120 million
110 million
250 million books shelved,
90 million
growing at 14 million a month
60 million
30 million
0
2008 2009 2010 2011

What is a “book shelved”?

Books Discovered - aka the To-Read Shelf
63,000,000
books marked as to-read
As many books as the combined collections of
the Library of Congress, NYPL, and the Boston Public Library
photo by Serithian photo by andy in nyc photo by cerebros1

photo by ShutterRunner
5,750,000
books marked as to-read in January 2012
books in the Chicago Public Library’s collection

photo by o5com
In January 2012...
Every second... 2 books were discovered
on Goodreads

My Reading Queue

They read books, too
1,220,269 books finished
453,529 books started
(in January 2012)
A book is finished every 2 seconds

Top To-Read Books in January
The Girl with the
The Hunger Games Dragon Tattoo Divergent The Help The Fault in our Stars Steve Jobs
Extremely Loud &
The Night Circus 11/22/63 Bossypants Incredibly Close Cinder Water for Elephants

The Long Tail
16,000
16,000
Top 40 books: 5%
12,000
Added to to-read
14,000
12,000 8,000
Added to to-read
10,000
4,000
8,000
0
10 20 30 40
6,000
391,031 unique titles
4,000
Top 5,000 books: 56% (99.9% not shown)
2,000
0
1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5000

What we really want to know
How did those people find those books?

19% During Registration
The average engaged reader adds
over 30 books to their to-read
shelf during registration.

Registration flow is focused on popular books
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

19% from search
People hear about a book, search
for, and add it to to-read.

Hey, you have to read
Ready Player One!
Conversation, email, tweet, FB post, IM, blog post, pin, check-in, comment...

Search has the long tail
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Search 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Registration 0.1
Flow
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

13% from recommendations
Launched in September, our
recommendation engine plumbs 20 billion
data points to deliver personalized
recommendations to each reader.

If you liked these books, thousands of other readers
liked these similar books…

Goodreads Recommendations designed to hit
mid-list sweet spot
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Goodreads 0.1
Recommendations
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Registration 0.1
Flow
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

9% from friend updates
The average engaged Goodreads
member has 19 friends.

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

Friends also alert you to a wide variety of books
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Friend Updates 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Search 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

8% from authors’ or series pages
76% of authors have written
more than one book

Goodreads has great author profiles

Books from authors you know are well distributed
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Authors 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Search 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

7% from lists
Goodreads has over 11,000
member created lists with over
5,000,000 votes.

People Love Lists

Lists are great for finding popular
and mid-list books
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Listopia 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Registration 0.1
Flow
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

6% from mobile apps
Over 800,000 app installs
(iPhone, iPad, Android)

When you hear about a book on the go...
UIWindow
768 x 1024

Mobile is well distributed
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Mobile 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Search 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

2% from giveaways*
In January 2012, we ran 1,065
giveaways and shipped 8,035
copies. 839,145 people entered.
* Actual discovery from giveaways is not well tracked

Giveaways are our single best free way to
build buzz pre-launch

Giveaways are all about new titles
0.35
0.3
0.25
Books added to to-read
0.2
Giveaways 0.15
0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Registration 0.1
Flow
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

People discover books in diverse ways
Giveaways
2%
Other
7%
Mobile Search
6% 19%
Lists
7%
Author & Series
8% Registration
19%
Genre
Browsing
9%
Friend Recommendation
Updates Engine
9% 13%

Search was our top method of discovery, and
those users had heard of the book elsewhere.
How did those people find
those books?

Do you often find books from the following sources?
Known author 96%
Friend (offline) 79%
Goodreads friends 64%
Goodreads recommendations 60%
Bookstore 59%
Amazon 54%
Library 54%
Goodreads browsing 43%
Newspapers 40%
Author's website 26%
Radio 15%
Facebook 14%
TV 9%
Publisher website 8%
Twitter 6%
Survey of 3,248 people

Once you get a reader to discover an
author you’re golden.
Known author 96%
Friend (offline)
Goodreads friends
Goodreads recommendations
Bookstore
Amazon
Library
Goodreads browsing 96% of people say they often read
authors they already know
Newspapers
Author's website
Radio
Facebook
TV
Publisher website
Twitter

Friends are a powerful way to
discover books
Known author
Friend (offline) 79%
Goodreads friends 64%
Goodreads recommendations
Bookstore
Amazon
Library
Goodreads browsing
Newspapers
Author's website
Radio
Facebook 79% often discover books from friends offline
64% from friend updates on Goodreads
TV
Publisher website
Twitter

Twitter and Facebook are not great
sources of discovery
Known author
Friend (offline)
Goodreads friends
Goodreads recommendations
Bookstore
Amazon
Library
Goodreads browsing
Newspapers
Author's website
Radio
Facebook 14% Good for engaging with your
TV
Publisher website
favorite authors, but not great for
Twitter 6% finding new books

Something fun: Measuring Media Promotion
When a book is mentioned in the media
it often gets a “pop” on Goodreads

Media Spikes
46 100
40
Morning Edition 2/6 80
Users who added book
Users who added book
30
60 Fresh Air 2/1
20
40
10 20
0 0
2012-01-07 2012-01-14 2012-01-21 2012-01-28 2012-02-04 2012-02-11 1/7 1/14 1/21 1/28 2/4
80 80
Book Review 1/15
60 60
Users who added book
Morning Edition 2/7 Users who added book
40 40
20 20
0 0
2012-01-07 2012-01-14 2012-01-21 2012-01-28 2012-02-04 2012-02-11 12/7 12/30 1/13 1/27 2/10

Appeared January 4 On The Daily Show
55
50
Added by searching for book
40
Users who added book
30
Added from friend updates
20
10
0
10-Jan 17-Jan 24-Jan 31-Jan

Avid readers discover books
differently from casual readers
From Friends From Goodreads Recommendations
1
0.8
0.8 26%
14% 0.6
0.6
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0 0
Avid Casual Avid Casual
Friends are important, but Avid readers discover books more often from
not enough for avid readers. Goodreads Recommendations than casual readers.
Avid = 49+ books per year Casual = 12 or fewer books per year

Fantasy, Science Fiction, and YA Readers
From Known Authors From Goodreads Lists & Genres
0.5 0.5 38%
41%
0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0 0
Fantasy Other Fantasy Other
Fantasy, SciFi, and YA readers And they’re more likely to
are more likely to read more discover books by browsing
from an author they know. genres and lists online.

Romance Readers
From Goodreads Recommendations From Goodreads Lists & Genres
0.8 0.6
+40% +51%
0.5
0.6
0.4
0.4 0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
0 0
Romance Other Romance Other
Romance readers are especially fond And they’re more likely to discover
of Goodreads Recommendations. books by browsing genres and lists.

What does “discovery” mean anyway?
Discovery means all the touchpoints in
the mind of the consumer it takes to
get them to decide to purchase and
read a book.

Marketing Adage
It takes about 6-12 touchpoints in
the mind of the consumer
to get to a purchase.
The stronger the touchpoint, the fewer you need.

photo by anja_johnson
“ Between us and our readership, there’s a brick wall
and we have little hammers, and if we keep hitting
”
the wall eventually we’ll punch through it.
- Marketing Manager at a large publishing house, quoted in Merchants of Culture by John Thompson

Discovery happens in lots of ways
- there is no magic bullet
But there are a few things to keep in mind.

Long Tail Books
Word-of-mouth is most effective for long tail books.
Focus on your core readers.
Goodreads giveaways can drive a lot of initial awareness
among the right readers.

Mid-List Books
Market to existing fans as much as possible.
Focus on marketing to readers of your comparable titles.
They will put your book on the right lists and ensure the
recommendation algorithm picks it up.
Friends are crucial.

Bestsellers
Maximize your consumer touchpoints around launch.
Be ready to capitalize on any media hits.
Convert broadcast mentions into word-of-mouth buzz.
Goodreads amplifies the effect of a traditional media mention
and sustains attention for the book.

Otis Y Chandler, CEO
otis@goodreads.com
goodreads.com/otis
twitter.com/otown