Not sure what to do to market your book? Join Goodreads. What is it, you ask?
“Goodreads
is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations,” according to
their site. “Our mission is to help readers discover books they love and get
more out of reading. Goodreads launched in January 2007.”
What can you do on their site? They say:
·
“See what books your friends are
reading.
·
“Track the books you’re reading,
have read, and want to read.
·
“Check out your personalized book
recommendations. Our recommendation engine analyzes 20 billion data points to
give suggestions tailored to your literary tastes.
·
“Find out if a book is a good fit
for you from our community’s reviews.”
Below are some best-practices to implement on
Goodreads:
·
When you begin on
Goodreads as a “user” you get a user profile. You then can upgrade to an author
profile. You can add a blog, video, and useful content. Learn more by going
to www.goodreads.com/author/program
· Join
a bunch of targeted and relevant groups. Participate.
Be on the lookout for
when a group has book giveaway or freebie days, and use it as an opportune time
to announce your Goodreads giveaway.
Plenty of groups have a “bookshelf” – seek
out the moderator of each group to explore if they will put your book on their
shelf.
You can also participate in polls and roundtable discussions, but that
can be time-consuming with less of a pay-off.
Check these groups out:
www.goodreads.com/group/show/26399-book-giveaways
www.goodreads.com/group/show/26989-goodreads-authors-readers
·
Giveaways
can definitely help with discoverability and drive awareness of your book
within the Goodreads community. For books on Amazon KDP, authors can give
away up to 100 kindles Do it! Your goal is to get readers and reviews.
·
Create
events for anything that you want to promote.
·
Post frequently –
every other day.
·
Create
a network of followers by reaching out with a thoughtful message.
·
Stay
in touch with the top users in your groups and connect in a way where you can
offer them a book for review and to be engaged.
·
Network
with the people who selected your book for a give-away – see goodreads.com/giveaway.
·
There
are a lot of sharing of lists and authors writing book reviews. I don’t know
that I would recommend all of that, but it is there if you want it. Making Goodreads quizzes is another thing an
author can do but I don’t recommend spending much time on this. Same with doing
polls, trivia,
·
Look
at other authors in your genre and see what they are doing. What can you model
or
who of their connections
and followers can you steer towards your page?
·
Lastly,
do an author Q and A. On your author page,
there is a section where readers can ask you questions. Answer them. These
answers get posted to the Goodreads pages of your fans and friends.
Additionally, consider creating a “Featured Author Group.” This can enable
you to have your answer to questions to be posted to both the “Authors” and
“Groups” sections of Goodreads.
Need PR Help?
Brian
Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over 3.9 million page
views, can be reached at [email protected] He is available to help authors promote their story,
sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in
successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your
advocate, teacher, and motivator!
About Brian
Feinblum
Brian Feinblum should be
followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is
copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now
resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue
dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The
Writer and IBPA’s The Independent. This
award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts
over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by
BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018
as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by
www.WinningWriters.com as a “best resource.” For the past three decades,
including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book
publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses,
Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres,
right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark
Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay,
Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan
RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He
hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and
has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence
College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association,
Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and
Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have
been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY
Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington
Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, &
Co-Op Association Handbook. It was featured
in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.