The Best Social Media Site for Authors

#goodreads, #reviews #authors

Without a doubt www.goodreads.com is one of the best social media sites for readers and authors to connect on the Internet. The site has over 5.6 million visitors each month and 20 million total readers overall. Unlike most reading and book communities, there are readers than authors. With more than 100,000 authors participating on Goodreads, the ratio is still 1,000 readers per author. You won't find a better site that will give you that kind of access to avid readers. 

Most Goodread readers are addicted to reading. They love to talk about books and share what they've read and are currently reading. This means reviews for authors--and lots of them. Goodreads users create favorite lists by years, topic, genre and quotes using Listopia and readers' actions are published on a newsfeed to their friends and connections. Modern readers are savvy at using social media. They upload book covers and link them to Amazon and auto post reviews to all their other social media accounts.  

Goodreads uses an algorithm similar to Netflix to recommend books to readers who have read and liked specific genres. Books can only be put on the recommendation list after receiving a few hundred ratings. After your book has been out for a while, offer the ebook version at a discount or for free or for a discounted price for a couple of days and those ratings will start rolling in on Goodreads. 

Everyone on Goodreads must first create a free basic reader account. Once you have done this, you can then contact Goodreads and ask to be listed as a Goodreads Author. Using the Author features on Goodreads provides so much more. Upon the Rock Publicist includes Goodreads as part of our social media package because we believe it is imperative to authors who are building their online platform to sell books. 

Create an Author Page

Join the Goodreads Author program to get a dedicated author page and link all your books, connect your blog to auto post on your Goodreads Author page, create giveaways, create reader groups, advertise, publicize upcoming events, post videos, post quotes from your books, list a quiz, and get a widget for your personal blog or website to showcase reviews for your books. Goodreads provides a detailed instruction page that will walk you step by step through the setup process. 

List Your Books on Goodreads Listopia

Search through the Listopia section on Goodreads and find appropriate lists for your book genre. Click the “add books to this list” tab and do a search for your book. You can also add other books to the list. Be sure to vote for your books and ask your friends and readers vote for your books on the lists. Often the difference between 30th and 10th on these lists is only a few votes. 

List Your Printed Books on Giveaway Campaigns

List your print books for a giveaway on Goodreads for a limited time. Be aware that ebooks are not allowed. On average, 825 people enter each Goodreads giveaway and over 40,000 enter book giveaways daily. This will expose your book to a huge number of readers that may otherwise not hear about your book and some of them will go ahead and list your book on their "to read" list. 

Schedule Book Discussions

Goodreads allows you to host discussions about your book. Readers can ask questions and talk with each other about your book, and authors can be as involved as they choose to be. For the steps on how to start a book discussion, visit Goodread’s Featured Books.

Link Your Blog to Goodreads

If you choose to connect your blog to the newsfeed on your Goodreads Author page, Goodreads will email your fans once a week of all your new blog posts. This is a great way to reach other readers that may not have subscribed to your regular newsletter and will remind them about your work and keep your name in front of them. This is part of the Goodreads Author Program.

Ask Readers for Reviews

Since Goodreads features books based on the number of reviews, you will want to get as many reviews as possible. While it's natural to want a higher number of positive reviews than bad reviews, even the bad ones increase your overall number of reviews, which is all the algorithm takes into consideration when promoting your book on the Goodreads system. 

Advertise

Advertising is optional, but has its advantages if you can swing the budget for it. Be sure to target people who read your genre, give high ratings and reviews in your genre, and target the fans of other authors whose books compete with yours. Don't forget the reviewers who have rated your books in the past. Ads cost a minimum of $0.10 per click with a default rate of $0.50 per click, which is more affordable for those with lower budgets.