posted
So I just found out about this site yesterday, although apparently it's been purchased by Amazon and linked to their book selection. Because of that my book was already on the site (one of them, although my 2 others under my other pen name are nowhere to be found. Maybe because they didn't do as well?), and you can create your own author page that's linked through Amazon. It's also connected to Facebook through an app.
I haven't had a chance to really explore Goodreads yet, but it seems like potentially it can be a powerful promotional tool for self-published authors. I'm eager to explore it further and I've already got my author page up.
On that note, does anyone else have more experience with Goodreads, especially as an author on there? I'd like to know what I can do to promote my book and get it in front of as many eyes as possible, and Goodreads seems like a good possibility for that (they claim tens of millions of views a month).
posted
Ah, but how are you going to drive traffic to your Goodreads page? I have friends who have a Goodreads page, but they also have a pretty hefty social media footprint. One who is a self-published author has over 20,000 facebook followers.
Posts: 1459 | Registered: Dec 2010
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posted
I suppose you can make a start by being active in the community, joining discussions, rating and reviewing books you've read, etc.
Whether the outcome is worth the investment is another question entirely. It seems like I'm finding every step of the way that I get disappointing outcomes from my investments, but anything non-zero is something I guess.
Posts: 620 | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
Goodreads is yet another promotional site that initially had a noteworthy following. Now, like any similar site, it has been overwhelmed by sheer quantity and as likely any given review item as mediocre as its subject. That Amazon now owns it is problematic further.
The writing caliber, the packaging, is the one and only metric that matters, such that a product promotes itself through word of mouth.
I aided an acquaintance to realize a dream career, owning a thriving and hugely profitable business. When a decision about advertising came up, I suggested that purchased advertising should only be for worthy causes--charities, non-profits, fiesta events, for examples. Advertising sales people pushed hard though, and from day one, before opening the doors. I suggested if they were that interested, why not wait and see if they would pay you to advertise them. The wait was comparatively brief, about on schedule for when the business plan called for advertising anyway. Now the business earns a tidy sum from advertising venues purchasing advertising from the business. Go figure. And--sinister, hearty guffaws--stick it back on them.
Writing is like that: a product should sell itself and be a leader magnet for related marketing.
Posts: 6037 | Registered: Jun 2008
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posted
I'm with you in principle, extrinsic, but in practice (in business other than writing) I've seen good advertising work too well, too often, to discount it for it's own sake.
Advertising gets them in the door (or to open the cover). Execution of a good product or service (or story) keeps them there.
Posts: 683 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Advertising's prime marketing function is to notify consumers a product is available. Among the myriad products at Goodreads, among a plentitude of online advertising is an overwhelming and questionably sorted quantity. What, one in so many tens of thousands that might appeal to any given reader?
Marketing has four corners: packaging--physical product container as well as product contents--promotion, which is appeals to consumers; publicity, which is social networking appeals; and advertising, which is notice of product availability. Focus on one to the exclusion or short-shrift of the others is a marketing-plan failure.
None of the above succeeds in the first place without provision for a consumer need. Prose is not per se a consumer need. Therefore, another or several appeals for consumers are essential for marketing success. Decorum, the rhetorical principle, describes those appeals: suit the words to the subject matter, each to the other, and to the occasion, and to the audience. Succeed in decorum, succeed in generating the one marketing strategy that matters for literary culture: word of mouth; succeed in publication.
Posts: 6037 | Registered: Jun 2008
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I have a few active friends over there, I'm behind on my reviews and frankly Amazon buying it cooled me a little.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
One thing to consider is volume. On a website millions of eyes are touching every day, any chance to put your work in front of those eyes could result in snagging the attention of at least a few. The more links you can provide to your work, the more places it's visible at, the better it's going to do.
And timing is another thing. A hundred purchases over a year pales in comparison to a hundred purchases in a day, even if you make those purchases free that day. One will keep your book's Amazon ranking low and you won't be linked or suggested as often, while the other will put you up at the top of the rankings and make people more likely to buy it since they've seen that other people are buying it too. The internet really makes for snowball effects these days, so if you can get a solid start at any point your momentum can build nicely.
That's why so many authors advise that you take advantage of the KDP's free book promotion as quickly as you can after you publish your book, and promote the heck out of it while it's free. That will cement it in the search lists and increase its ranking so it comes up closer to the front on a search, not to mention giving it a high overall ranking for that time period which will make people more likely to give it a chance.
I guess you could compare your promoting work to a broadside salvo. If you do a hundred things to draw attention to your book over the course of a few months, you'll get a trickle. If you do all those things at the same time while you have a promotion up, you can make it a flood.
Posts: 620 | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
It's often called a book bomb where a bunch of people decide to buy a book all on the same day. Things like there are why self-pubbers tend to work together and form communities. Actually most all authors tend to do this. It's just safer in numbers.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
On the subject of book bombs, shameless plug .
My newest YA novel, Withered Sea, Book 2 of The Protectorate series, is going to be up on a free book promotion from Wed the 10th to Sun the 14th on Amazon if you want to check it out. Free book, and if you enjoy it I hope you'll review and recommend it .
I don't know the protocol for links on the writer's forum, so if this shouldn't be here you can delete it, but the link to Withered Sea on Amazon is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NFFP3G8Posts: 620 | Registered: Mar 2009
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