Goodreads | Self-Publishing Review

Goodreads Offering Free eBook Giveaways

A year and a half after its first announcement, Goodreads has finally revealed its Kindle giveaway program open to all authors, starting in January 2018. From the Goodreads blog:

Today, we’re announcing our new U.S. giveaways program, with two packages offering new high-impact features to drive increased book discovery and reader reviews. The new program is designed to deliver additional marketing benefits that authors and publishers have been asking for, including more ways to reach the author’s readers, and automatically adding the book to the Want-to-Read lists of anyone entering the giveaway. And for the first time, Kindle Direct

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SPR2017-12-04T12:28:22+02:00December 4th, 2017|Categories: News|Tags: Amazon, Goodreads|

Goodreads Giveaways Now Include Kindle Books

Good news on the marketing front. One of the limitations of the Goodreads Giveaway program is that it was only available for print books. Given that a growing number of authors are e-only – or at least start as an ebook before moving on to print – this offers a new way to reach Goodreads’ huge pool of readers. Via Goodreads:

Last year, Goodreads helped authors and publishers give away more than 300,000 print books in our popular Giveaways program! Thanks to this success, authors and publishers have been clamoring for the option to run ebook giveaways with Goodreads.

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Henry Baum2016-05-05T07:08:53+02:00May 5th, 2016|Categories: News|Tags: Goodreads|

10 Alternatives to Goodreads

This post is an addendum to Author Directory Sites: The Complete List. If you’re just looking for library/catalog sites, here you go. There’s no reason to stop at Goodreads, even if it is the biggest and most used.

Well, let me amend that. There are so many hours in the day, so if you want to concentrate your efforts on a library site, it makes sense to stick with Goodreads. If you’ve got time to spare, putting some time and energy into these sites can only help. And if all you want to do is create a profile […]

Lysa Grant2014-07-15T13:33:15+02:00July 14th, 2014|Categories: Resources|Tags: Goodreads|

With Goodreads, Amazon Fills Out an Advice Portfolio

Further comment on the Amazon – Goodreads marriage is emerging. This interesting take from Harvard Business Review by Paul Nunes and Josh Bellin discusses the holy grail for book marketing: Unique consumer comment.

Amazon.com announced last week that it would purchase Goodreads, a social network for bookworms. As the “world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations,” Goodreads can help make Amazon the definitive place to go for book-related information. But does Amazon really need that help? The company is already the biggest provider of book advice, with its top-secret personalized recommendation algorithms, trusted user reviews, and inside-the-cover previews.

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Cate Baum2014-01-30T18:07:38+02:00April 2nd, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Amazon, Goodreads|

What Amazon’s Acquistion Of Goodreads Means For Self-Publishers

So what does the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads actually mean for us self-publishers? Most of us relish Goodreads, and actively star each other’s work, as Goodreads proves to be a more successful platform for honest consumer review than Amazon in some ways – less glitchy than the strange process used by Amazon’s over-zealous non-bookish reviewers in that it tends to attract real bookworms with literary brains.

With 16 million members, it’s no wonder Amazon was grappling for control. So will Amazon complete its domination of everything book?

My worry would be that Goodreads up to now, has […]

Cate Baum2013-11-04T18:21:52+02:00March 30th, 2013|Categories: Lead Story|Tags: Amazon, Goodreads|

Amazon Buys Goodreads

This puts Amazon in an even stronger position to control which books get read and which ones languish. We’ll have to wait and see if Amazon starts deleting bookstore links, thus reducing options for both readers and authors. In any case, the 500 pound gorilla that is Amazon just got considerably bigger.

Amazon.com announced on Thursday that it would acquire Goodreads, a social networking site for readers and book recommendations. With 16 million members and 23 million book reviews on the site, Goodreads is hub for avid readers and one of the leading sites where publishers promote

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Avery Hurt2013-03-28T15:05:47+02:00March 28th, 2013|Categories: News|Tags: Amazon, Goodreads|

Why One-Star Reviews Matter

The most trusted form of criticism for consumers on the internet is now the consumer review. Hailed as SEO gold by Google, these reviews are popping up all over the joint due to rich snippets, which I will explain in my next post in more detail.

In fact, 63% of consumers now buy products not based on the review, but on the rating. Which is scary news for us self-publishers.

However, I am thinking Amazon, Google, Goodreads, Kindleboards and all the rest of them need to be reviewing their reviewers. With one-star reviews being added to books due to […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:28:57+02:00February 13th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Amazon, Book Promotion, Book Reviews, Goodreads|

Did that Bad Review Come with a Side of Ulterior Motives?

I recently discovered that my book was victim to an act of sabotage through bad reviews and wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post. Here it is:

How much can you trust book reviews on the web? Turns out, very little.

My journey in self-publishing started at the end of this past October. I had a young adult book, no prospective agents and a life-long dream to fulfill, so I decided to go it my own. In the first three weeks, I sold a meager 35 copies. But, by mid-December, I’d sold nearly 800 copies and had racked

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Kaitlyn Davis2011-12-21T16:48:31+02:00December 21st, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon, Goodreads|