Connecting With Readers On Goodreads

Since I couldn’t find any good advice on connecting with readers on Goodreads, I had to go digging on my own.  Goodreads is often seen as murky territory, after all, it’s a site for readers and many of us don’t want to turn off the very people we need most.  But there’s really no need to fear Goodreads, in fact, GR is actively encouraging authors to join their network.

I’m assuming you already have an author’s account on Goodreads instead of a personal one.  I’m also assuming you’ve claimed your book(s), if not, here’s a guide from Goodreads on how to get started. For those of you with author accounts, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

How to Stop Treading Water: Finding Friends/Fans

Like most social media sites, you can send friend requests to family and friends via Gmail, Hotmail, Twitter, Yahoo and Facebook.  But the most interesting feature I found is the “Friends of friends” feature where you can send a friend request to friends of people who’ve friended you.  Yes, GR encourages you to raid the friends list of other people!  To do this, go to the drop down arrow next to your profile pic in the upper right hand corner and click on friends.

It’ll take you to the friends tab where all of your friends are displayed.

Note: You’re only allowed to send 5 requests per day so make sure these people read, write, or review books in your genre!

The Art of Schmoozing on Goodreads:

The best way to begin on this networking site is to join a group and participate in a discussion that is related to your book’s genre or area of expertise.  Whatever you do, don’t get into spats, or squabbles, it’s important to maintain a professional appearance here.  Unless your book is about political or religious dribble keep that stuff away from your author’s account!

Also, beware of posting negative book reviews on Goodreads, personally, I don’t review books in my genre I consider awful.  Why?  Because I could be accused of professional jealousy or worse yet, sabotage.  Authors have to be careful because Goodreads puts your reviews right under your profile pic on the author dashboard.

Linking Your Blog/Website to Goodreads

Goodreads has several ways to connect your blog or website and vice versa.  The first way, is to link your blog by editing your author info and in the right hand side, click “edit blog” and simply add your blog’s RSS feed.

B1

B2

Another thing to consider is the Goodreads widget, it can be put on most websites and blogs.  I would do this if I were in need of more friends or fans.  You must be logged into your author account and go over to “edit profile” and click on “author widget.”  (Refer to pic b1)  You’ll have several widgets to chose from.  Goodreads has plain widgets with just their logo and others that display reviews for your book.

Be warned, some blogs like WordPress.com don’t accept Javascript coding so you may be limited in the type of widgets you can use.

I think I’ve covered enough, next week, I’ll introduce you to you to quizzes, lists and even the GR newsletter you can use to promote your books.  If you have any questions or tips to share, please do so in the comments section.