Patrick Brown, Director, Author Marketing at Goodreads gave a talk on Goodreads. Good stuff!
First, some info about Goodreads:
- 18 million members. Doubled in size in 2012.
- Acquired by Amazon in march. Still working things out.
- What isn’t changing. Goodreads is for all readers, no matter how you read.
- Working on new features. Discovery, discussion, and author program.
- 250 books added to the to read shelves every minute.
And now for some tips for authors using the Goodreads Author profile (here’s a link to my Goodreads author profile):
Build your platform.
- Metadata – make sure the book record is complete!
- 75,000 authors. I’m one of those. That’s actually a pretty small number compared to the number of member accounts
Get people talking about your book.
Your goal is to get reviews, especially early in the life of your book.
- Reviews help new readers discover your book:
- They help readers decide to read your book.
- Goodreads work harder for you. Reviews are shared via Facebook and twitter
Giveaways help kick start book discovery. They help with this…
- Who knew? Â You can actually do book giveaways via Goodreads.
- They encourage people to add it to their to read shelves
- They receive an email on the publication date
Some tips for giveaways:
- Start early. 3-5 months before publication
- Give it time. Run giveaway at least one month
- Offer more books. More books = more reviews. Not everyone reviews the book
- Do it again. Run multiple reviews for each title
Mobilize your existing fan base.
- Talk about the giveaway in other places – twitter, etc.
Building anticipation and awareness.
- A cover reveal – dole out information on the content over the months… To build buzz.
Bring it all together.
If you have a new book coming out, do these things on Goodreads:
- 5 months before publication – first giveaway.
- Second giveaway – ends at publication. Looking for awareness this time. Lots of people add the book on publication day.
- Personal selection email – a paid advertising thing.
- Sent to fans of the author’s backlist.
- Then a sponsored poll – another ad unit. You vote.
- Then a homepage roadblock – another ad unit. A hey, this book is out now ad. On the publication date. A awareness unit
- Exclusive interviews. God reads interviews some people. top authors, popular stuff. Goes in their newsletters.
Trends and takeaways.
- Social context. People add the book after they see their friends add it
- Goodreads effort pays off. People will add the book to their lists…
- The rise of mobile. Enormous mobile growth. 1/5th of goodreads users use the mobile app.
5 habits of highly successful publishers on goodreads
- Start early
- Involve your authors
- Pay attention to your stats
- Use content to build anticipation
- Keep the momentum up
Goodreads.com/author/how_to – helpful stuff for authors on using goodreads
pic by Jurgen Appelo